Issue Position: National Security

Issue Position

Since our nation earliest days, the primary obligation of the United States government has been to protect the security of the American people. Everything else that the government in Washington does is secondary to safeguarding the nation from all enemies, foreign and domestic.

On September 11, 2001, we had a rude awakening to the fact that our country is not safe from attack. We learned that even with the Cold War over and many former enemies now our allies there are people and organizations that will do whatever they can to harm the United States and its citizens.

In reality, these new enemies of America had been at war with us long before 9/11. We had just failed to recognize that a state of war existed. As far back as 1983 when Islamic extremists bombed the Beirut Embassy, killing 241 U.S. Marines, these new enemies-- radical Islamic jihadists--had been engaged in a war to purify their lands by doing whatever it takes to get westerners, and particularly Americans, out of the Middle East. Unless we are willing to give-in to their demands--get out of the Middle East, convert to Islam and abandon our godless and immoral culture--this is a war that we have no choice but to fight--and to win.

Certainly, no rational person enjoys war, but history teaches us that there are times when war is thrust on countries by extreme nationalists or other zealots who are anything but rational and believe they are on a divinely-ordained mission to conquer or destroy other people and nations. In the last generation, madmen such as Hitler and Stalin brought death to millions in their deranged efforts to expand their own personal power and that of their countries. In this generation, the new madmen are the Islamic zealots who believe they are on a divine mission to destroy the infidels and eventually create a world run strictly according to their version of Islamic law. After 9/11, it became clear that the only way to deal with these aggressors was to respond forcefully to their attacks and eventually to give people in their part of the world, the Middle East, hope for a better and more peaceful future for themselves and their children.

I certainly understand that people are extremely frustrated by the loss of American and coalition lives in Afghanistan and Iraq. They wonder how in the world a loosely organized group of terrorists have been able to fend off the nation s only remaining superpower.

The primary reason that the terrorists have been able to provide such a strong challenge to our military is that they do not have to win even a single battle. They only have to wear down the will of the American people and the politicians so that we will bring our troops home and abandon the people we have pledged to defend.

Adding to our difficulties--particularly in Iraq--is the fact that our political and military leaders made some serious miscalculations in the first three years the war. I believe this was primarily due to the fact that we had never been in this type of conflict before, trying to prevent terrorists from overthrowing democratically elected governments. And, I might add that there has probably never been a war in our country s history when mistakes were not made.

Admitting that mistakes were made, the Bush Administration changed course this past summer and enacted the so-called surge strategy that appears to be working extremely well, although the fighting in both Afghanistan and Iraq is far from over. I supported this surge and believe that we must continue our mission until the terrorists understand that they cannot defeat us or force us to leave.

While the Democratic presidential candidates are falling all over each other to assure their supporters that they will pull the troops out of Iraq within months, weeks or days after they take office, I believe that such an action would be a much worse mistake than any the Bush Administration and the military have made. Regardless of one's views about whether going into Iraq was the right thing to do, pulling U.S. troops out before Iraq's army is capable of defending their country would bolster al Qaeda and every other terrorist organization in world and reduce the chances of stability in the Middle East.

In this election, the Democrats clearly plan to make Iraq the central issue of the campaign, and there is no doubt that there are vast differences between the two parties on this issue. But, the American people need to recognize that the differences go well beyond Iraq.

What the Democrats and other opponents of our actions in Iraq need to explain is what they plan to do after they remove our troops from Iraq. Will they simply watch from the sidelines as Iraq's government is overthrown by the terrorists or splinters into civil war? Will they also abandon Afghanistan to the Taliban, or will they dig-in and make this the line of defense? Is there any time or place when they would use military force to stop the fanatic jihadists, or will they simply pull all American troops out of the Middle East? Will they help defend Israel, or will they give in to the terrorists on this issue, too?

Al-Qaeda's ultimate goal is to overthrow the individual nation-states in the Middle East, most of them colonial creations, and unite them into a single, pan-Islamic state. Are the Democrats willing to stand by and watch this happen? If not, what is their plan for stopping it?

While our efforts in Iraq should have been more robust and flexible earlier, I believe we now have the team in charge, the boots on the ground and the strategy in place to secure our goals in that part of the world. Unlike the Pelosi liberals who seem eager to score a loss for America and close the books, I want to make certain that our troops come home with victory and honor for them and peace and greater security for our nation. The one thing I have learned from my four trips to Iraq is that our troops are extremely optimistic about their efforts and consistently ask for one thing from us at home -- support.

In his book, Mien Kampf, Adolph Hitler told the world what his plans were, and the world pretty much ignored him until it was too late. Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda and the Taliban have all told us their objectives of purifying the Middle East and setting up Islamic states throughout the region. Are we going to ignore them, too?

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