The celebratory parade ends The Memorial Day parades, tributes and celebrations are done and we awake to a Tuesday faced with a return to the routine of day-to-day life. And for those who departed from us by fighting to the death for our freedom, what should we carry forward with us from this experience to make our life worthwhile for the gift that they gave us?
If we sit down and think for a minute, it shouldn't be too difficult. Over the generations, young Americans, many under the age of twenty and right out of high school, put their fear of danger on hold and stood together in many difficult places and locales and gave their all for their country. Now there are those who would say that without the Selective Service System that would have never been the case but, in reality that organization came about to deal with our lack of readiness in peacetime. Think about it, we build up quickly for war, then quickly disband to a degree higher than we should, and then have to do it all again quickly when another crisis of both national and international concern arises. So will we ever learn from our past?
When I hear the cries of "give peace a chance", my immediate response is the question "but what if the other guy isn't willing to work with us for peace?" A large number of nations in this world are run by brutal dictators who do not answer to their people. Tyranny rapidly grabs a foothold frequently in such a situation and the leader begins to think of him or herself as a god. Illusions of power, wealth and grandeur fill their heads and they then become threats to world order demonstrating itself by aggression and war. When this happens, it takes good people from other nations to keep a balance on the international stage from becoming a scourge of advancing tyranny. And if you believe in God as I do and recognize that evil in the personage of the fallen one (I never dignify satan with capitalization) has free run on this world, then it becomes imperative that the good counterbalance the evil by maintaining a state of military preparedness to keep dictatorial leaders from trying to expand their grasp on land, wealth and humanity. When the threat of punishing pain and suffering is the only deterrent that they understand, then sufficient capacity must be maintained to the degree that a response can be mounted quickly when necessary.
So, in honor of those who honorably served and paid the ultimate price, it is imperative that we work to maintain the readiness posture to keep the peace. Now that doesn't mean that the United States must personally handle every outburst of tyranny individually, but it does mean that we have to set the example to good people in all nations to maintain strength at all times. For where strength falters, evil steps in and we have seen many examples where weakness has been exposed and taken advantage of by the ruthless.
And sometimes we are even faced with a situation where we must work with people with whom we disagree, but in those cases we must maintain the strength and willpower to temper them to the sufficient degree to gain their support for important causes. And no better case is exemplified than the current effort in developing a working relationship between Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the Arab Emirates and others to stem the influence of Iran and her tyrannical Mullahs in their efforts to create a nuclear threat to the world. This is similar to what we successfully did in World War II with the Soviets and it served our purposes, and theirs, at the time to end the scourge of Hitler.
We must remember, however, that in such relationships as those just discussed we must always keep our eyes open for possible adverse consequences and handle those appropriately according to the best interests of the American way of life. Sometimes it is brutal, sometimes it is very cold, but if you believe that the United States remains as the beacon of light to a yearning world, then you know it's the right thing to do. We've tried other approaches in recent years and they've literally stabbed us in the back and, sadly, there are some who support that view. But if you appreciate the sacrifice of those who we honored yesterday and you have God in your heart and allow Him to guide your soul, you'll easily know that standing tall for our way of life and the constitutional principles followed to found our nation, then you will know it's the right thing to do.
If we sit down and think for a minute, it shouldn't be too difficult. Over the generations, young Americans, many under the age of twenty and right out of high school, put their fear of danger on hold and stood together in many difficult places and locales and gave their all for their country. Now there are those who would say that without the Selective Service System that would have never been the case but, in reality that organization came about to deal with our lack of readiness in peacetime. Think about it, we build up quickly for war, then quickly disband to a degree higher than we should, and then have to do it all again quickly when another crisis of both national and international concern arises. So will we ever learn from our past?
When I hear the cries of "give peace a chance", my immediate response is the question "but what if the other guy isn't willing to work with us for peace?" A large number of nations in this world are run by brutal dictators who do not answer to their people. Tyranny rapidly grabs a foothold frequently in such a situation and the leader begins to think of him or herself as a god. Illusions of power, wealth and grandeur fill their heads and they then become threats to world order demonstrating itself by aggression and war. When this happens, it takes good people from other nations to keep a balance on the international stage from becoming a scourge of advancing tyranny. And if you believe in God as I do and recognize that evil in the personage of the fallen one (I never dignify satan with capitalization) has free run on this world, then it becomes imperative that the good counterbalance the evil by maintaining a state of military preparedness to keep dictatorial leaders from trying to expand their grasp on land, wealth and humanity. When the threat of punishing pain and suffering is the only deterrent that they understand, then sufficient capacity must be maintained to the degree that a response can be mounted quickly when necessary.
So, in honor of those who honorably served and paid the ultimate price, it is imperative that we work to maintain the readiness posture to keep the peace. Now that doesn't mean that the United States must personally handle every outburst of tyranny individually, but it does mean that we have to set the example to good people in all nations to maintain strength at all times. For where strength falters, evil steps in and we have seen many examples where weakness has been exposed and taken advantage of by the ruthless.
And sometimes we are even faced with a situation where we must work with people with whom we disagree, but in those cases we must maintain the strength and willpower to temper them to the sufficient degree to gain their support for important causes. And no better case is exemplified than the current effort in developing a working relationship between Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the Arab Emirates and others to stem the influence of Iran and her tyrannical Mullahs in their efforts to create a nuclear threat to the world. This is similar to what we successfully did in World War II with the Soviets and it served our purposes, and theirs, at the time to end the scourge of Hitler.
We must remember, however, that in such relationships as those just discussed we must always keep our eyes open for possible adverse consequences and handle those appropriately according to the best interests of the American way of life. Sometimes it is brutal, sometimes it is very cold, but if you believe that the United States remains as the beacon of light to a yearning world, then you know it's the right thing to do. We've tried other approaches in recent years and they've literally stabbed us in the back and, sadly, there are some who support that view. But if you appreciate the sacrifice of those who we honored yesterday and you have God in your heart and allow Him to guide your soul, you'll easily know that standing tall for our way of life and the constitutional principles followed to found our nation, then you will know it's the right thing to do.
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