SwiftVets.com

[jarhead_vet]

Some compelling thoughts to spread to those leaning toward JF'nK...

Election Determines Fate of Nation

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KVI As Heard On Air

MATTHEW MANWELLER'S COMMENTARY ON THIS ELECTION

Kirby read this op-ed Friday morning 10/15/04 on the program. The commentary is from Matthew Manweller, a political science professor at Central Washington University. Here's the text of that commentary:

"In that this will be my last comlumn before the presidential election, there will be no sarcasm, no attempts at witty repartee. The topic is too serious, and the stakes are too high.

This November we will vote in the only election during our lifetime that will truly matter. Because America is at a once-in-a-generation crossroads, more than an election hangs in the balance. Down one path lies retreat, abdication and a reign of ambivalence. Down the other lies a nation that is aware of its past and accepts the daunting obligation its future demands. If we choose poorly, the consequences will echo through the next 50 years of history. If we, in a spasm of frustration, turn out the current occupant of the White House, the message to the world and ourselves will be two-fold.

First, we will reject the notion that America can do big things. Once a nation that tamed a frontier, stood down the Nazis and stood upon the moon, we will announce to the world that bringing democracy to the Middle East is too big a task for us. But more significantly, we will signal to future presidents that as voters, we are unwilling to tackle difficult challenges, preferring caution to boldness, embracing the mediocrity that has characterized other civilizations. The defeat of President Bush will send a chilling message to future presidents who may need to make difficult, yet unpopular decisions. America has always been a nation that rises to the demands of history regardless of the decisions. America has always been a nation that rises to the demands of history regardless of the costs or appeal. If we turn away from that legacy, we turn away from who we are.

Second, we inform every terrorist organization on the globe that the lesson of Somalia was well learned. In Somalia we showed terrorists that you don't need to defeat America on the battlefield when you can defeat them in the newsroom. They learned that a wounded America can become a defeated America. Twenty-four hour news stations and daily tracing polls will do the heavy lifting, turning a cut into a fatal blow. Except that Iraq is Somalia times 10. The election of John Kerry will serve notice to every terrorist in every cave that the soft underbelly of American power is the timidity of American voters. Terrorists will know that a steady stream of grizzly photos for CNN is all you need to break the will of the American people. Our own self-doubt will take it from there. Bin Laden will recognize that he can topple any American administration without setting foot on the homeland.

It is said that America's WWII generation is its "greatest generation." But my greatest fear is that it will become known as America's "last generation." Born in the bleakness of the Great Depression and hardened in the fire of WWII, they may be the last American generation that understands the meaning of duty, honor, and sacrifice. It is difficult to admit, but I know these terms are spoken with only hollow detachment by many (but not all) in my generation. Too many citizens today mistake "living in America" as "being an American." But America has always been more of an idea than a place. When you sign on, you do more than buy real estate. You accept a set of values and responsibilities. This November, my generation, which has been absent too long, must grasp that 100 years from now historians will look back at the election of 2004 and see it as the decisive election of our century. Depending on the outcome, they will describe it as the moment America joined the ranks of ordinary nations; or they will describe it as the moment the prodigal sons and daughters of the greatest generation accepted their burden as caretakers of the City on the Hill."
_________________
USMC 1966-1975
Vietnam Vet Apr68-May69, Chu Lai

[Tacan70UDN]

jarhead-vet - - Thanks very much for posting it. I'm sending it to all my e-mail correspondents. Already printed it out. Wow! Thanks again.

[God and Country]

Matthew Manweller's commentary on this election is powerful medicine.

A must for any TRUE AMERICAN.

God bless America, past, present and always.


_________________
Conservative and proud

[Hammer2]

As a nation, we are at a point like in the old John Wayne movies where John, after being polite as he could, for as long as he could hauls off and decks the villain - followed by general mayhem in the classic bar-room brawl scene. The scene ends with the bad guys in a heap on the floor, with the bloodied but still standing good guys hauling them off to the hoosegow.

I say 30 years of these America haters is enough - time to clean house on Nov 2nd!
Enough of these nuanced metrosexuals, give me men like the Duke!
_________________
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilence" - Thomas Jefferson
"An armed society is a polite society" - Thomas Jefferson
"The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it won't be needed until someone tries to take it away." -- Thomas Jefferson

[Truegrit]

Excellent essay by V. D. Hanson in National Review Online on why Kerry will probably lose the election, and should lose the election.

The Therapeutic Choice: A War for Our Lives, or a Nuisance to our Life Style?

http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson200410150823.asp
_________________
Ted Harwood, Ph.D.
Enlisted, U.S. Army ('57-'60)

[larrygj]

"Duty, honor, sacrifice" -- why do those words seem almost quaint and old-fashioned in today's culture of whining "victims" and special interest politics? That there is even 40% of the electorate in favor of the John-John appeasers and panderers is deeply disturbing. The depth of moral rot in the once-great Democratic Party is beyond measure. Kirby is right: this election defines us fundamentally and perhaps forever.

[Barbie2004]

Excellent article, it captures the essence of what is really going on here.

Quote from article:

[ScottyDog]

Barbie2004:

I could not agree with you more.

Jimmy Carter is indeed responsible for what we are goiing through today in the Middle East.

Just wait until the Chinese decide to go to war with us, something they have always said they will do. Thanks to JT, the Panama Canal will be our undoing.

Jimmy Carter is a traitor and so is John Kerry.

For the life of me, I cannot understand why the American Public cannot see this clear as day.