TIME ON OUR SIDE

TIME ON OUR SIDE
by Timothy Rollins, Editor and Publisher

May 10, 2004

With the daily harping by the mainstream media of the body count of American troops being killed over in Iraq, one could easily assume that it is a Vietnam-like quagmire which will not be won. Truth be told, there was a time where it was thought even here such might well be a possibility. However, with the removal from power and subsequent capture of Saddam Hussein, there are some points that need to be brought up for the benefit of one and all.

First and foremost, our troops must have and maintain the support from the home front. If we are to achieve the only acceptable exit strategy that the administration has planned - total victory - then we need as a nation to stand by our military personnel regardless of our politics. The practice of making military personnel the target of our discontent by spitting on and/or shunning them the way as was done during the Vietnam War era is a shameful and totally unacceptable chapter of America's past that cannot and must not be repeated.

Second, we as a nation must keep in mind the good things that are being accomplished by America and her allies in helping the Iraqis rebuild after more than a generation with Saddam at the helm. While weapons of mass destruction have not been found - at least not yet - who's to say that they won't turn up later? Consider also the fact they may have been shuffled off to Syria or another third country with which the United States is less than best friends with.

Third, while America is not the best nation-builder by any stretch, it is certainly much better and far more effective than the United Nations, which has proven itself to be far better and more effective at being thoroughly corrupt America-haters than anything else. They want us to do all the work while they reap the rewards. Columnist Kyle Williams of WorldNetDaily put it best in describing the permanent members of the UN Security Council when he quoted Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who framed his words perfectly in opining on the current state of France: "When you start to compare [permanent security council members], America is the eagle, China is the tiger, Russia is the bear, and in my view France is the vulture," he said in an interview to ABC Radio. "It circles around and does nothing for itself, waiting for the opportunity to go and pick the benefits of other people's hard work."

Fourth, it should be remembered that while active fighting in Iraq is over and we are taking casualties from pockets of resistance in hellholes like Fallujah and the like, this is not at all new to America. Following the end of World War II, there were some difficulties during the postwar occupation period. Even to this day, we maintain a miltary presence in both countries. Both of these countries had fanatical followers of the Fuhrer as well as Emperor Hirohito, who had been forced as a term of the surrender to renounce his claim of divinity. There were difficulties in Germany and Japan as well during the postwar period. The difference in 1945 was the press was not acting in a manner that back then would have been seen as treasonous, whereas now it's seen as fashionable because a Republican president - or rather - a president the press did not select and coronate, managed to get elected into office by the people despite their damndest to poison the vote in the other direction.

Fifth, America needs to remember that it needs to be both more careful and much more responsible as well as selective in who it forms alliances with, for these alliances of conveniences have come back to bite us on the butt far more often than not. If we are going to commit to forming friendships with a country, it needs to be a lasting one such as ones with Canada, Great Britain or Australia, and not ones of convenience such as Iran before the Ayatollah when the Shah had been in fact a thug himself and his record of human rights was indeed abysmal, Iraq with Saddam when they were at war with Iran, Usama bin Laden when the Taliban were going up against the Soviets in Afghanistan, or our 'new best friend' Uzbekistan, who took a few pages from the Turks playbook of human rights abuses and perverted (or improvised) them to new lows. Communist Uzbekistan has about 7000 political prisoners in one of the most oppressive police states in the world; yet the United States plays a blatant double standard of hypocrisy, especially in comparison to Cuba, which will be covered in the next paragraph. Prisoners in Uzbekistan are often subject to electric torture, burning with blowtorches, boiling alive, gang rapes, acid baths, and other atrocities. Why the preferential treatment for Uzbekistan? Because using Uzbekistani airspace allows for faster transportation of American troops and equipment in the war on terror. If past American policy is any indicator, Uzbekistan can expect to get dumped the way the Iraqis, Manuel Noriega and Usama bin Laden were and America can expect to get bit on the butt yet again - and hard.

Communist Cuba has been treated as an outcast by the United States, but just about every other country is willing to doing business with her. Unlike Uzbekistan - which has 7000 political prisoners as mentioned earlier, Cuba only has about 350 political prisoners, a mere 5% by comparison, yet Cuba gets the pariah treatment because the United States cannot find a way to use Cuba to its advantage. One cannot help but think that while the embargo - which had a valid purpose when imposed 40 years ago - is kept in place today for one purpose and one purpose only; and that is in a vain, desperate and pathetic effort to swing the Cuban-American vote in South Florida every four years by either the White House incumbent or those seeking the job.

Lastly, it needs to be kept in mind that the saying that nothing in life worth having is easy has great merit, and as one father said to a reporter after visiting his injured son in the hospital, that 'if there is nothing worth dying for, then what are we living for?', that unless we as a people remember the sacrifices made for us by those who have gone before us and are willing to make those said same sacrifices for those who will follow us, then we as a nation are doomed to make the sad mistake of the past that have doomed other civilizations to obscurity and eventual oblivion.

And that would be a tragedy for us - and for the entire world. ***

Photo of Timothy Rollins courtesy of staff files
With files from WorldNetDaily