Salute to Veterans

Honor our veterans.  Twenty three million living today and many millions more which have passed on before.

Quote:  The greatest force for peace in the last century has been the U.S. military, not the peace activist.  If all the peace activists retired tomorrow, nothing would change.  If all the military retired tomorrow the amount of slavery, genocides, despots, dictators, and all manner of evil would increase exponentially.

Dennis Prager.

The most popular bumper stickers and slogans from the left is either 'Make Love not War' or 'War is not the Answer.' These make common sense take a back seat to ideological passivism.  If war is not the answer then please tell me what is the answer.  Did anything stop the military build up of Nazi Germany before they invaded neighboring countries?  Believe me, their neighbors tried everything except war.  What did stop the genocide of the Jews in the Nazi concentration camps?  Did dialogue with the Nazis stop the genocide?  Did appeasement of the Nazis stop the genocide?  Did unilateral talks, negotiations, secretaries of state, or even threats stop the genocide of the Jews?  The only answer left to try was war against the strongest military known in the world at that time.

Similarly, we have been facing the militant threat of Islamism across the world since this country's inception.  This is another force that does not respect appeasement, dialogue, negotiations, or threats to stop militant attacks, and it is incumbent upon ourselves to protect this culture of freedom from that theological and political ideology of enforced puritanism.  Sharia law has no place in our system of governance which is designed to create an environment of the most free society possible.  It is our greatest responsibility to retain that most valuable ideology of personal liberty which has enabled the greatest possibility of peace both within our borders and around the world.

America never enters into military action flippantly.  No president has made such a decision lightly.  They may have done so with less than the best wisdom (though I doubt that) but we as a country have always gone to war with great reluctance.  Calling the military members and leaders blood thirsty and glory hounds is a slander and should be considered immoral.  Nobody understands the cost of military action better than those who will have to pay the highest personal cost in any American military action.

We owe a tremendous debt of respect and gratitude to the members of our military forces.  You have my deepest respect and gratitude.  Thank you for your service, your honor, your discipline, and your sacrifices on my behalf.