I thought I had shared this before. If I have, my apologies. It's worth another look. Thought about it while reading over at The Clue Batting Cage.
It is a letter to the editor I wrote back in 2005 that actually got published in our hometown paper about the time the Left was ramping up their anti-war rhetoric. Hope you enjoy.
I was driving to work last week and saw a bumper sticker that I have to take issue with. When I first read it I thought it a clever argument against the War on Terror and conservatives in general. It read “War is not Pro-life.” It seemed like a reasoned argument at first glance. “Wow,” I thought, “how do you respond to that?” After some thought, I realized that it had to be responded to.
The person driving that car probably won’t get this, but I think someone has to remind us that nearly every war, that the United States has been in, has been pro-life. Think about it. The Civil War secured the lives of Black Americans to live in freedom. The First World War secured the lives of millions of Europeans to live in freedom. Ask the Jewish survivors of WWII if that war was pro-life. Ask the Polish, who lived with the Nazi boot on their neck for some four years. The occupied of France would surely agree that WWII was pro-life. The people of southwest Russia, the Czech’s and the Dutch would also agree with me. What about the Korean War? Ask the people of South Korea which side of the 38th Parallel they would rather live on. How about Vietnam? Unfortunately, we lost heart in that war and managed it poorly, so we can’t ask anyone in Vietnam whether or not they were fighting for Life. We made a similar mistake in Desert Storm leaving thousands of Kurds and the Shiites to incur the wrath of Saddam for daring to help us. Just the same, I think I know how the Kuwaiti’s would answer the question. What about the war on terror? Now the Afghanis are free to answer, “Was the war to liberate your country pro-life?” Don’t take my word for it, ask them. Iraq has now been liberated. I wonder who they would say is the most pro-life, Saddam or the U.S.
If we can’t agree that Evil in our time, as in every other, has to be overcome by Good in order to enjoy Life as only free people can, then we are in a crisis of existence. When Evil goes to war Good must engage it on every front or risk extinction. We didn’t ask for this war or want it, but we have to win it.
So after some deliberation I realized that the bumper sticker was a petty slight to conservatives, and more importantly to the men and women fighting to keep us safe and win the freedom of oppressed masses. Americans have developed a time honored and sacred tradition of fighting, bleeding and dying for the freedom of others. It chills my blood to know that some in our country think so little of their sacrifice that they would insult it to try to make a political point.
“That’s all I have to say about that.”
It is a letter to the editor I wrote back in 2005 that actually got published in our hometown paper about the time the Left was ramping up their anti-war rhetoric. Hope you enjoy.
I was driving to work last week and saw a bumper sticker that I have to take issue with. When I first read it I thought it a clever argument against the War on Terror and conservatives in general. It read “War is not Pro-life.” It seemed like a reasoned argument at first glance. “Wow,” I thought, “how do you respond to that?” After some thought, I realized that it had to be responded to.
The person driving that car probably won’t get this, but I think someone has to remind us that nearly every war, that the United States has been in, has been pro-life. Think about it. The Civil War secured the lives of Black Americans to live in freedom. The First World War secured the lives of millions of Europeans to live in freedom. Ask the Jewish survivors of WWII if that war was pro-life. Ask the Polish, who lived with the Nazi boot on their neck for some four years. The occupied of France would surely agree that WWII was pro-life. The people of southwest Russia, the Czech’s and the Dutch would also agree with me. What about the Korean War? Ask the people of South Korea which side of the 38th Parallel they would rather live on. How about Vietnam? Unfortunately, we lost heart in that war and managed it poorly, so we can’t ask anyone in Vietnam whether or not they were fighting for Life. We made a similar mistake in Desert Storm leaving thousands of Kurds and the Shiites to incur the wrath of Saddam for daring to help us. Just the same, I think I know how the Kuwaiti’s would answer the question. What about the war on terror? Now the Afghanis are free to answer, “Was the war to liberate your country pro-life?” Don’t take my word for it, ask them. Iraq has now been liberated. I wonder who they would say is the most pro-life, Saddam or the U.S.
If we can’t agree that Evil in our time, as in every other, has to be overcome by Good in order to enjoy Life as only free people can, then we are in a crisis of existence. When Evil goes to war Good must engage it on every front or risk extinction. We didn’t ask for this war or want it, but we have to win it.
So after some deliberation I realized that the bumper sticker was a petty slight to conservatives, and more importantly to the men and women fighting to keep us safe and win the freedom of oppressed masses. Americans have developed a time honored and sacred tradition of fighting, bleeding and dying for the freedom of others. It chills my blood to know that some in our country think so little of their sacrifice that they would insult it to try to make a political point.
“That’s all I have to say about that.”
“how do you respond to that?”
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly WHY they come up with these overly simplistic tidbits of psuedo-wisdom.
Of course the lie is that in the face of evil, you really have a choice. Killing is evil, to be sure. But this is not now nor will it ever be a "perfect" world because human nature is flawed.
The lie is that if you are "for" war, you *want* to kill. You *like* killing. You are *evil*. Of course, nobody but a few very sick people are ever *for* war. Nobody wants it. But if they are not fought by those who don't want it the world will be ruled by people who have no qualms about it.
That's where leftism has us, really. It's hard to fit the tragic view of human nature on bumperstickers, and when you can, it very often isn't much fun. It doesn't deliver on that self-serving, self-gratifying "oh I'm so smart" or "I'm so righteous" feeling.
Mark Steyn once said, in response to a caller into a radio show, Life isn't a bumpersticker
Mentioned in this Mark Steyn column.