Sir,
This is quite telling. This is as close as we will get to understanding how absolutely stubborn and shallow you have become as our Commander in Chief.
What difference does a name make? This coming from the man who leads the world in calling the enemy ISIL instead of ISIS. So insecure about this, that you force staff officers and cabinet members to also use the name ISIL. Knowing full well that the Levant includes Israel, which is extremely insulting to our allies.
If words mean nothing, why have the FBI and Army manuals take out the term Radical Islamic Terror from guidelines and training regulations?
If it means nothing to define Radical Islamic Terrorism by name, than why not just do it? It just proves that you are more concerned with not appearing to give into your growing opposition domestically, while evading the reality that your foreign policy has given great comfort and aid to our global enemy.
Radical Islamic Terror is killing 28,000 people a year. That number in 2010 was only 3,000. And it was far removed from our borders then.
Is there a gun control problem in Syria? Maybe.
Is now the time to address hate crimes as a reasonable explanation to what is happening in our world? ISIS has a history of being cruel to their many child wives.
Can we find a middle ground with people who see the world in complete contrast to Western idealism? Doubtful.
Or do we just follow Europe and bring in the masses of folks, too self-concerned to fight on their own and too religiously focused to live as peaceful neighbors to apostates? Are these refugees supposed to put on Levis and drink Pepsi, even though they see Western lifestyles as disrespecting their culture and prophet? Do we deserve to die because we wear shorts to the beach or eat a pork based hotdog at a ballgame?
What about “love wins?” Gay marriage. All the feel-good rainbow filters on Facebook? How far are we to stoop to conquer our global enemies? If women wear headscarves in the Middle East, should we not deploy homosexuals or tell transexuals to use the bathroom of our host nation’s choosing?
An army is killing 28,000 people a year and you tell us that we must accept this as a “reality” in the new world.
Let’s talk reality:
Vets of Iraq, groaned and mourned the blood that was lost when you turned your back on our success in Iraq. We quietly gnashed our teeth, when you surged in Afghanistan, but changed the rules that hamstrung our warfighters.
When moderate Syrians cried out for help, you promised aid, drew red lines and left them to die. ISIS filled that gap to counter Assad. 200 Iraqi terror veterans swelled to over 40,000 and then reinvaded Iraq.
While drones fly and take out terror leaders with precision, you let a four-mile convoy slowly drive into Mosul without dropping one ordinance in defense. When most military leaders urged caution in Libya, you pounded them by air, displaced their dictator in Hussein like fashion and refused to follow on forces to keep the peace. ISIS filled the gap. Attacking Americans and killing an Ambassador.
In Iraq, when Christians were crucified, slaughtered; when women were raped, traded like horses and gays stoned to death… we heard you talk about increasing the air campaign and all the while reminding us of how you ordered the Bin Laden raid. We flew fewer sorties in Iraq during this time then we did in Libya, less than Kosovo, less than Panama. Less than in Iraq during Operation Desert Fox under Clinton.
When Yemen asked for help against Iranian led militias, you ignored their plea. Signed an agreement with Iran, negotiated in deception with the Ayatollah and Ahmadinejad. ISIS filled the gap, Saudi Arabia sent troops instead.
Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt? You supported their bloody attacks, mob rapes and Sharia law, before you turned against them.
Algeria? You left it to France to lead the way.
Nigeria? You fought Boko Haram with a hashtag and social media campaign. Where are our girls by the way? Did we ever get a front line trace to where they are?
Look, I understand what it is like to never want to be in another war. I think many of my brothers feel the same way. In fact, most of us would have much rather sat at home being young and innocent than miss our kids growing up and see our friends hurt. Or be forever changed by watching them die under fire.
However, grown men and women in the real world understand that you can be the most anti-war individual on planet earth, you can glue your Bernie poster on a Starbucks window with the passion of an unwashed graduate student with crushing college debt, but not wanting a war means nothing when the war WANTS YOU!
Can you stop fighting because you are tired or because it’s unpopular? Sure. It just makes it more difficult to explain why I am supposed to still hate a President from 2001 to 2008, when you have been behind the wheel for the last seven plus years.
Sometimes it feels good when the battle is over because the enemy stops shooting and goes home. You are alive. You get to go home. But you didn’t win. And tomorrow you and your friends are still in danger. The battle stopped on their terms. And tomorrow, they will try to kill you again.
There has never been a war won in history because one side’s leader said, “the time has come to move on.”
Over 100 families lives are forever changed because of this ignorance. In Orlando, the fact the victims were gay was not nearly as important to the terrorist who slaughtered them as was the fact that they were Americans who happened to be gay.
Mr. President, you don’t want this fight, we get it. You want the world to live with the same professional courtesy and dignity you learned at Harvard. Well, Sir, it sucks to suck.
Blame guns. Blame Bush. Background checks. Hamilton for winning so many Tony awards. Whatever you need to do. But show those of us who understand this fight half as much respect as you do ISIS or ISIL or whatever you wish to call them.
When the embassies were hit in 1998, we left a command and control area in Afghanistan that left nearly 3,000 Americans dead three years later. ISIS has a political border and capital in Syria and Iraq.
We will not be safe until a generation understands the folly of threatening the west’s open society. We will not be safe until America is respected and feared amongst our enemies.
The great irony being, it is the Liberal ideologue that wishes so badly for our culture to be open to all lifestyles, thoughts, feelings, communication and trade no matter how damaging it is to other peoples values, religion or peace.
And yet there you are, playing the fiddle as it burns slowly away.
The ideals of progressive America is all that the Radical Islamist seeks to destroy. They hate. They threaten. They bully. They murder. And it is the Liberal in America today, that is less afraid of wanting to fight back, then they are of appearing to betray the principles of their core statist beliefs.
Let’s do this together. Let’s unite and change the world. We tried loving and praying. Now is the time to test our fortitude and willingness to see a better tomorrow. You have this old soldier’s promise, that I will be the first to sign up for the ground war in Iraq and Syria. And many, many more crusty old vets are ready to answer the call.
They want to die for their beliefs. Stop allowing them to kill us for yours.
Lead us. We will follow.
We will fight. And like all other wars, America and her allies will stand at the end.
Staff Sergeant David Bellavia spent six years in the U.S. Army Infantry, including some of the most intense fighting of the Iraq War. He has been awarded the Silver Star and Bronze Star for his actions in Iraq, and recommended for the Distinguished Service Cross and nominated for The Medal of Honor for his actions in Fallujah. In 2005, he received the Conspicuous Service Cross (New York State’s highest award for military valor) and was the first New York State resident inducted into the New York State Senate Veterans Hall of Fame.
All opinion articles are the opinion of the author and not necessarily of American Military News. If you are interested in submitting an Op-Ed, please email [email protected].
