If Good For Us, Why Not Afghanistan and Iraq

Have Americans forgotten their roots? Our forefathers thought liberty was worth declaring their independence from a regime oppressive to their rights. See a quote from the Declaration of Independence below. Do Americans really think that others who were not born in the country, founded on this particular declaration, are somehow less worthy of liberty? In this modern day, do they feel that the oppressed people can somehow overthrow an unjust regime without outside help from a country blessed with a strong economy and the best military in the world? Have we become so selfish and so self indulgent that we really believe we should not be involved in liberating others? Where are the rejoicing women's libbers? Why are they not publicly celebrating the liberation of Afghanistan's women and girls for their new found rights to vote and to be educated? Are American women the only women in the world who deserve these liberties?

I hate war and the suffering that comes with it. I hate the cruelly oppressive regimes that have now been overthrown even more. Every generation of America has lost good men an women in order to protect our homeland and that of others from tyranny. Why then should we expect this generation to escape this ongoing fight against injustice and terror? Why do we have the military we have? Why do people join the military and reserve if they do not expect that when the need arises they will be called to serve? By and large, I believe our current military believe just that. The minority would be those who joined merely for the benefits of additional income and education benefits. Tours of duty have been extended, some tours repeated, some kept past their expected separation dates. I really do not care considering the length of tours of duty in other wars, most notably WWII. American patriots have always done what was necessary and I honor them for that. Many of our military who have completed their tour of duty or have been wounded are eager to go back and finish the job they started. What gives these men such willingness to risk all for their country? I think it is because having been there, they see the need to establish liberty for those so long oppressed. How do they differ from those on the home front who continue to protest by waving signs and threatening those who would support the military efforts? Do these protestors ever stop to think that it is through the willingness to fight injustice that we at home can live in peace? Do they remember that it is because of our military and their willingness to serve that they now have the right to protest and wave their signs?

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."