Versus Nurture
Available February 2012

The Best Sniper Ever
Available February 2012

WEEKLY COLUMN:
JDM vs the WORLD

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FINE PRINT

United as Americans have been as of late, they’ve been somewhat divided along the fragile line of peace and war. There were those in the wake of the Twin Towers attack who feared that the United States government would fight the war on terrorism with a whimper not a bang. Still, there were others who protested the very notion that America would fight back at all.

After four weeks of mostly patient waiting, this debate, in its should-we or shouldn’t-we form, rages no longer. America has finally made a tangible effort for justice.  Strikes on Afghanistan have begun.  Full-scale war is on.

Yours truly supports this. Let there be no misconception: War, in and of itself, is flatly repulsive and wrong. American and British military actions against Afghanistan are nevertheless indubitably right.

Peace would be wonderful if only it were possible. During his admittedly modest presidential campaign last year, public advocate Ralph Nader noted his desire to see the strength of the American military lessened. He believed our very martial prowess inflamed tensions the world over. Sure seems intelligible right about now, huh?

Even with our possession of the world’s strongest army, the terrorists have proven us vulnerable. And if we’re something like susceptible now, it’s frightening to think how easily a loose cannon such as Osama Bin Laden would have run roughshod through our defenseless mountains and prairies, had a man like Mr. Nader had it his way.

America regards itself the land of the free, but many of her people sometimes forget how awesome freedom is.

Thousands of years ago, mankind knew nothing of civility. Common household items such as light bulbs, laundry machines, microwave ovens and Nintendo were entirely unknown to us. We dwelled in caves and frolicked through forests. It was animalistic. We lived without freedom from fear.

That’s where society came in. We traded our natural right dominate those weaker than us for protection from those who were stronger. Society created a balance. In its own way, its rendered Darwinism null and void. Aside from some bumps along the way, by and large, it’s worked.

The terrorists denounce civility. They have broken history’s unspoken social contract. For trying to ruin freedom for the rest of us, for espousing the extermination of a people who’ve done nothing wrong, our enemies have earned their own deaths.

An acquaintance of mine recently had the gall to say I should maybe rethink what freedom was, or reconsider how well America upheld it. Someone who looks at America in this way should reevaluate their own ideals; they obviously wouldn’t know a good thing if it smacked them across their blabbering mouth. To people of this ilk, I say: Try a week of living under the stipulations of our enemies, where men are derailed for the length of their beards and women are executed on the grounds that they’re rape victims, and then tell me to reevaluate my vision of freedom.

America is a free country because our ancestors shed blood to ensure it. If we don’t uphold the work of our founding fathers, then a whole lot of people died for naught.

People need to understand that there is a whole segment of the world’s population that despises our very being. For some asinine and illogical reason, our very existence insults them.

The peaceniks demonstrating on college campuses across the country right now will make Afghanistan into a debacle not unlike Vietnam, unless they stop soon. Their protests are born of want for peace, but they ignorantly believe that peace can be attained by simply sitting back and hoping a tragedy the likes of the Twin Towers doesn’t happen again. They’ll tear our national unity apart and break down our support for a noble war.

If anything, the landlocked nation of Afghanistan is a scrappy little country. Embattled by civil unrest for decades now, it’s a land ravaged by its own people, a land perhaps destroyed from within. Despite the chinks in its decidedly thin armor, conquering its ruling Taliban government will not be easy.

However, it must be done.

It’s been suggested that Afghanistan was to the USSR what Vietnam was to the USA. Russia spent many years tangled in Afghanistan’s rugged and mountainous terrain, its armies devastated by the severity of this tiny country’s significant winters. Russia’s occupation of Afghanistan wasn’t nearly as fruitful as it was long, and the former Soviet Empire was largely embarrassed by the entire affair.

Purportedly futile as it might have been for Russia, Afghanistan can sustain only so much. And it’s highly unlikely that any country could possibly withstand the might of a coalition that’s forty nations strong.

That’s partly where President Bush’s surge of confidence comes from. He’s promised that we’ll win the war, but not simply because we’re militarily bigger and better. It’s also got much to do with the simple fact that we’re right and they’re wrong.

Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban has outlawed freedoms in the name of Islam, a move often made by theocratic governments. In theory, such rule of law is permissible, but only in cases where its implication is rational. Reasonability is one thing that the Taliban has not shown. Terror has been their throne, propaganda and oppression their only causes.  They deserve every last morsel of the Hell that’s about to be unleashed where they live.

The United States has proven itself on the side of good, not evil. Claims to the contrary are outright absurd.

The terrorists are not good and righteous people, no matter what they might say in their disgusting, distorted diatribes. Osama Bin Laden is not on the side of God. The side of God--indeed, the side of good--does not attack civilian workplaces. The side of good does not make concerted efforts to pointlessly strike fear and callously destabilize economies.

Likewise, the side of evil does not drop tons of food rations on the countries it attacks. America has done this and is therefore not evil. I repeat: Bad guys do not make humanitarian gestures towards the innocent citizens of the countries with which they are at war.

Rather than dropping food rations, our enemies look to poison our food supplies. They’d happily spread poison and lace our air with fatal diseases. With two random cases of Anthrax already diagnosed in the same building in Florida, it’s possible their biological havoc has already begun. This is a testament to the pointless pain and suffering that is their only desire.

From a Biblical perspective, all three major monotheistic religions believe in the same God, albeit through different perspectives. I shudder to think that the God these warmongers believe they’re appeasing is, in fact, the same God who I pray to for world peace. The God I pray to is a God who condemns death, not condones it.

Though I believe God is on our side, this is not a Holy War. Not for America, it isn’t, and not for Britain or any of the other countries in our stable. Our enemies have tried to make this a Holy War because that’s what demagogues do. They rally folks to their vicious causes by appealing to whatever the masses believe in.

America’s attack on Afghanistan is not a war on Islam. Anyone who heeds the call to this false jihad is an appalling example of what a Muslim should be.

I’ve got the utmost respect for those who’ve taken the torch and decided to join us in war. There’s a number of sick people in this world, and, right now, we’re up against a whole bunch of them. We need every last measure of support we can find.

To those who demand that we not go war, I beg of you: Stop. Anyone who thinks our enemies will have mercy on our children are dangerous mistaken. Such utopian tomfoolery puts the rest of us at risk. And if the peaceniks succeed in breaking the zeal of the American spirit, rest assured, the terrorists will break everything else.

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