By Chris Johnson
As the thunderclouds of international conflict gather on the
horizon, and as a new class of ostensibly open-minded students
report to campus, it is worth trying to implant an idea in their
collective conscience. The idea I speak of is, “Give War a
Chance.”
As the imminent military action in Afghanistan and Iraq
approaches, we find opponents to such intervention increasingly
apparent. Opponents to the use of military force generally fall
into one of two groups.
The first group is the predominant academic mind-set. This is
the “Blame America first” crowd who view our nation as
the most wicked on the planet, and rush to award victim status to
terrorists. Individuals of this mind-set warn of a moral
equivalence in taking action against Osama bin Laden, because to do
so is twisted into a horror paralleled to that of Sept. 11.
Several academics, journalists and activists have recently made
statements inferring that America got what it had coming to it at
the World Trade Center and Pentagon because of our international
policies.
Subscribers to such views are easily identified by their
snobbish tone and intellectually condescending contempt for our
nation’s unique attributes ““ especially Western ideas,
and in particular, our country’s military.
It would be quite revealing to travel back in time to 1860 with
such opponents of military operations.
If granted access to president Lincoln’s ear, would these
same people boisterously object to a Union Army campaign into the
South? Perhaps, in the name of peace, tolerance and all things
multi-cultural, these ideologies would be extolling the virtues of
Southern slave culture and the diversity of agrarian life.
To be sure, such vacuums of logic do exist, even here on our
campus. How else does one explain the wearing of a red shirt
emblazoned with the slogan “Resist Resegregation,”
while en route to one of our university-sponsored ethnic
commencement ceremonies?
Ironically, there are also those within the Hollywood chattering
class who privately support military intervention in this time of
crisis, but are unwilling to admit this publicly.
With great intellectual fervor and even greater condescension,
these individuals claim the socio-political situation is too
complex to warrant direct military action.
They suggest the majority of Americans are unaware of the plight
of the majority of Afghans. As if Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice
are incapable of grasping the complexities of Osama bin
Laden’s terrorist network, implications for neighboring
Muslim nations and the ruling Taliban’s oppressive regime?
Talk about the soft bigotry of low expectations.
However, in the private recesses of the mind, this chattering
class privately yearns for those brave enough to take action
against terrorists and the nations that sponsor them.
During my eleven years of military service, not once did I
encounter a sailor, soldier or airman who relished war. Quite the
contrary, those who volunteer to go in harm’s way often pray
that war is never realized.
Despite these truths, it must be a matter of conservation of
mental resources that opponents of military action cannot bring
themselves to recognize the importance of peace through
strength.
They want freedom and security, but are hesitant to publicly
support actions aimed at protecting such freedoms for fear of being
simple-minded. This duplicitous thought is brilliantly rebuked in
an excerpt from Aaron Sorkin’s screenplay “A Few Good
Men.”
Col. Jessup: “Son, we live in a world that has walls. And
those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who’s gonna
do it? You? Lt. Weinberg?
You have the luxury of not knowing what I know ““ and my
existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves
lives.”
Thankfully, this nation has people who are willing and capable
of making the difficult decisions that so many others lack the
constitution to make.
Thankfully, we have leaders and a military comprised of
individuals willing to protect us from those who hate us just for
being Americans. These patriots offer the ultimate sacrifice
knowing that those ignorant of the requisite cost of freedom will
not support them.
Thankfully, there are those who recognize that the primary duty
of a nation is to protect its citizens, and that occasionally, in
the most dire of circumstances, its citizens are willing to give
war a chance.