| Not so fast, John Edwards... |
|
|
|
| Opinion - Columnists | |
| Written by Michael Reagan, Special to RussellRegister.com | |
| Friday, 10 June 2005 | |
 Last Thursday, John Edwards, John Kerry's running mate, told a
gathering of Marxists at their annual "Take Back America" shindig that
despite President Bush's frequent speeches about fighting for freedom
they should remember that "freedom does not belong to one political
party."That's right, Mr. Edwards, freedom used to be a pervasive platform -- something about which your Democratic predecessors once understood the importance. Tragically, preservation of freedom has now disappeared from the Democrats' agenda. A few facts about preserving freedom are in order here for the edification of Mr. Edwards and his fellow Democrats. For example, most of Edwards' party, including him and Sen. Kerry, voted for the war in Iraq and had the identical information regarding the dangers posed by Iraq, yet now decries the Iraq war as a nightmare quagmire of apocalyptic proportions. There were 39 combat-related killings in Iraq during January. In the fair city of Detroit, there were 35 murders in the month of January. That's just one American city almost as deadly as the entire war-torn country of Iraq. Liberal senators, legislators or activists such as Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean now claim President Bush should not have led us into war. Yet Edwards hypocritically insists that Democrats still understand the importance of freedom and its cost. The large anti-war segment of his party tries to tell us that since Iraq never attacked the U.S. we had no reason to attack Iraq. A little history here is in order. FDR, the presidential icon of the Democratic Party, led us wholeheartedly into World War II. BUT...  Germany NEVER attacked us; Japan DID. We went to war
against Germany because we knew that you have to fight what amounts to
terrorism wherever it threatens you. And Germany, Japan's ally,
represented a threat to the United States as great as the threat from
Japan.In comparison to the current number of U.S. casualties in Iraq, from 1941 to 1945, 450,000 lives were lost in World War II -- averaging 112,500 deaths per year. Harry Truman, another democratic president, finished that war and got us into another one in Korea. North Korea NEVER attacked us. From 1950 to 1953, 55,000 lives were lost in Korea -- an average of 18,334 per year. John F. Kennedy, another democratic president, started the Vietnam conflict in 1962. Vietnam NEVER attacked us. The cost in lives of fighting to preserve freedom there was 47,378 combat deaths of members of the U.S. armed services. Lyndon Baines Johnson, yet another democratic president, turned Vietnam into a no-win "quagmire" of a war. Bill Clinton, the 90s presidential darling of the Democratic Party, went to war in Bosnia without the consent of either the U.N. or the French. Bosnia NEVER attacked us. In the years since terrorists attacked us, President Bush has: liberated TWO countries, crushed the Taliban, crippled al-Qaida, put nuclear inspectors in Libya, Iran, and North Korea without firing a shot, AND captured a terrorist -- Saddam Hussein -- who slaughtered at least 300,000 of his own people. The Democrats are complaining about how long the war is taking -- Arianna Huffington is asking for an exit date, which is exactly what al-Qaida wants. How about a logical answer with some perspective -- a concept most Democrats lack these days. It took less time to take Iraq than it took Janet Reno to take the Branch Davidian compound. That was a 51-day operation. We have been looking for evidence of chemical weapons in Iraq for less time than it took Hillary Clinton to find the Rose Law Firm billing records. It took less time for the 3rd Infantry Division and the Marines to destroy the Medina Republican Guard than it took Ted Kennedy to call the police after his Oldsmobile sank at Chappaquiddick. It took less time to take Iraq than it took to count the votes in Florida. What it boils down to: our commander in chief is doing a fine job! The military's morale is high. Democrats and the biased media hope we are too ignorant to realize these facts. I have news for them: thanks to talk radio, and Rush and Laura and me and all the other conservative talk show hosts, we aren't. © 2005 Michael Reagan, all rights reserved. Mike Reagan, the eldest son of the late President Ronald Reagan, is heard on more than 200 talk radio stations nationally as part of the Radio America Network. Look for Mike's new book "Twice Adopted" and order autographed books on-line at http://www.reagan.com. Comments to Mike may be sent to mereagan@russellregister.com. |
|
| < Previous | Next > |
|---|
