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Mel Gibson's latest flick "We Were Soldiers," an adaptation of Maj. Gen. Harold G. Moore and Joseph Galloway's best seller We Were Soldiers Once...and Young, is a potent reminder of why the Founding Fathers required that Congress, not the President declare war. There are things worth fighting and dying for. For Americans, these things are our home, our families, but most importantly, the Biblical ideas of right and wrong that create our freedom and prosperity. But if the President alone has the power to hazard American lives and treasure, he will, too often, and perhaps for the wrong reasons. America has never won a war that was not declared by Congress. Our enemy in Korea is one of our greatest threats today. In Vietnam we won the battles and lost the war. In Kosovo, we fought for the very people - Muslim terrorists - who are our enemies in the current war. In the Gulf War, although we pushed Iraq out of Kuwait, we are in the same situation with respect to Iraq today as we are with North Korea. President Bush's "war on terrorism" is in the same status as the Gulf War. It was approved by an almost unanimous vote in the House and Senate that constitutes "specific statutory approval" under the War Powers Act. (You can find a report on that vote at MSNBC, and you can find the resolutions by searching on the phrase "authorization for use of military force" at THOMAS. Despite this authorization, the War on Terror is sliding into a protracted campaign against determined guerillas, too much like Vietnam. The fact that this war is in response to the most devastating attack on America in her history is not enough to ensure our victory. In fact, it is looking more like we are going to lose the real war everyday. The reason is that we have failed to identify who the real enemy is. The real enemy are not the band of guerillas we're now fighting in Afghanistan. The real enemy are the ideas of Islam that motivate these guerillas. Islam claims to be the fastest growing religion in America. It's true ideas are being sold in America in a suger-coated form, but they are still present in Koran. Remember, it was reading Koran after converting to Islam that motivated John Walker to take up arms against his fellow Americans. Since the 1960s, there has been a sickness in America that says "nothing is worth fighting and dying for." This is our real weakness. While the events of 9/11 turned America back, a little, towards an awareness of our founding ideology, the election of 2000 showed that probably half of Americans no longer give a hoot about our founding principles, and 9/11 did not erase that condition, despite the high approval rating for the war and President Bush. Muslims are not dumb, and they are as determined as the Viet Cong. Look for them to exploit our real weakness by adopting a tactic of peaceful takeover through politics. Don't believe it? Here's the evidence. If we want to win the real war on terror, we must defeat the ideas of Islam. The only way to do that is pray and witness. Only if a majority of Americans are Christians can we hope to keep the ideas on which our nation is founded the basis of our law, government, and economic system. |
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