War of Wits

The Americans who fought and won World War II undoubtedly were the Greatest Generation. I am still awed by their heroism and perpetually in debt from the blood they shed. Many of these men suffered through the horrors of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression as children and then had to confront the evils of Nazism as young men. They rose enthusiastically to meet the challenge. This generation gave rise to such legendary figures as General George S. Patton, General Douglas MacArthur and the most decorated American combat hero ever, Audie Murphy.

It also gave rise to bloody, decisive battles such as Normandy, Iwo Jima, Midway and the Battle of the Bulge. These men were made of steel. They were as tough as nails.

Fast-forward 6 decades later. The sons and grandsons of the Greatest Generation who came of age in the heady days between wars are now leading us in the fight against global terrorism.

President Bush clearly articulated that we face Islamic Fascists. He consistently compares the war against terror to World War II and himself to then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, which begs the question: Why aren’t we fighting this war like all of the others? And with the question, lies the answer: He’s clearly no FDR.

No, Roosevelt led with conviction, urgency and a clear sense of purpose. Bush’s tepid response to a 3 year pattern of escalation leaves me with the impression that he is fighting because he dug himself into a big hole and that’s the only way out.

In World War II, it wasn’t just young men who gave their all. It was women and children. It was W.A.C.s, W.A.S.P.s and Rosie the Riveter. Kids collected scrap rubber and aluminum for recycling into aircraft parts. There were War Bonds and Civil Air Patrols. The whole nation joined the fight, convinced they’d be speaking German or Japanese if we didn’t defeat Nazi tyranny or Japanese Imperialism.

Now we have The Cindy Sheehan Traveling Circus and Dick Durbin equating the interrogation techniques of US troops to those of Nazi Germany and the Khmer Rouge. We have John Murtha calling Marines “cold-blooded” murderers and the President of the United States calling citizens who patrol the border during wartime “vigilantes.”

Timothy Leary, LSD and Give Peace a Chance have done more damage to this country than anything in it’s entire existence. When the Baby Boomers who answered their country’s call in the jungles of Southeast Asia finally did come home, they were spat upon and called all sorts of vile things by their peers. Ironically, there are now yearly reunions in Canada for those who were “brave” enough to refuse orders and flee north.

We now have a Supreme Court and US Senate that believe we should give terrorists the same legal rights that you and I enjoy, yet remaining silent while the Marine Corps denies the most basic legal rights of discovery to seven Marines and a Navy Corpsman accused of murder based on hearsay.

A cult of destruction has publicly vowed to attack us until we drop to our knees, at which point they further vow to convert us, or it’s off with our heads. But our leadership is so paralyzed by political correctness, they can’t even agree on how to treat the enemy when we do catch them on the battlefield.

Rather than confronting this threat with the bold, decisive actions that won the wars of the past, we invite our enemy to New York City and allow him to deliver an anti-American screed to the UN General Assembly.

The end result of this collective “bum trip” is that our enemy is emboldened, the list of our enemies grows, our response to global terrorism is more muted than ever and the international criticism of our response is harsher than ever.  While the current generation is whistling past the graveyard, the Greatest Generation is turning over in their graves and my generation is left wondering how we’re going to pick up the shattered pieces of this nation and reassemble it once the Baby Boomers are gone.