thedrifter
05-02-06, 08:01 AM
Sometimes war is last best answer
Your voice: Dr. William Aronstein
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Timothy Leonard's "Your coice" column, "Don't let leaders make another war" (April 17) uses the highly impressionistic selection of a few mischaracterized historical episodes to disparage the notion that American military victories have more often than not made the world a better place.
However, it was only our military victory in the War for Independence that made it possible for this Nation under God, and our brilliant Constitution, to exist.
It was only military victory in the Civil War that freed more than 3 million slaves.
It was only military victory in Europe in 1945 that removed the Nazi and fascist regimes from history, and only military victory in Asia that freed hundreds of millions from the cruelties of Japanese imperial militarism.
And despite Leonard's faulty characterization of the "Cold War" as a period which "brought the world some measure of peace," it was military victory in Greece that stopped the spread of communist tyranny in the eastern Mediterranean, it was military victory in Malaysia that slowed the spread of communist tyranny in Southeast Asia, and most important of all, it was America's military victory in Korea that enabled South Korea to rise from destitution to the 10th or 11th largest economy in the world.
The absence of American victory has also had significant consequences. North Korea, which remained under Communist tyranny, is a famine-stricken nightmare. And although President Nixon had successfully transferred the American front-line combat role to South Vietnmaese troops by 1973, the U.S. Senate's craven decision to cut off funding to the Republic of South Vietnam in 1975 enabled the Communist regime to take power - launching more than 2 million refugees in their makeshift flotilla of little boats, and condemning the South Vietnamese to decades of poverty, oppression, and more war.
We Americans owe an incalculable debt to the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who have defended our freedoms and our nation since its very inception. Mr. Leonard is correct that now is indeed a time to pray. It is a time to pray for the safety and success of those who are defending those freedoms today, to pray that they too achieve an honorable and decisive victory, and that our leaders and our neighbors here at home do not lose the resolve and determination to prevail.
Dr. William Aronstein is a physician and the clerk-treasurer of the village of Glendale.
Ellie
Your voice: Dr. William Aronstein
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Timothy Leonard's "Your coice" column, "Don't let leaders make another war" (April 17) uses the highly impressionistic selection of a few mischaracterized historical episodes to disparage the notion that American military victories have more often than not made the world a better place.
However, it was only our military victory in the War for Independence that made it possible for this Nation under God, and our brilliant Constitution, to exist.
It was only military victory in the Civil War that freed more than 3 million slaves.
It was only military victory in Europe in 1945 that removed the Nazi and fascist regimes from history, and only military victory in Asia that freed hundreds of millions from the cruelties of Japanese imperial militarism.
And despite Leonard's faulty characterization of the "Cold War" as a period which "brought the world some measure of peace," it was military victory in Greece that stopped the spread of communist tyranny in the eastern Mediterranean, it was military victory in Malaysia that slowed the spread of communist tyranny in Southeast Asia, and most important of all, it was America's military victory in Korea that enabled South Korea to rise from destitution to the 10th or 11th largest economy in the world.
The absence of American victory has also had significant consequences. North Korea, which remained under Communist tyranny, is a famine-stricken nightmare. And although President Nixon had successfully transferred the American front-line combat role to South Vietnmaese troops by 1973, the U.S. Senate's craven decision to cut off funding to the Republic of South Vietnam in 1975 enabled the Communist regime to take power - launching more than 2 million refugees in their makeshift flotilla of little boats, and condemning the South Vietnamese to decades of poverty, oppression, and more war.
We Americans owe an incalculable debt to the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who have defended our freedoms and our nation since its very inception. Mr. Leonard is correct that now is indeed a time to pray. It is a time to pray for the safety and success of those who are defending those freedoms today, to pray that they too achieve an honorable and decisive victory, and that our leaders and our neighbors here at home do not lose the resolve and determination to prevail.
Dr. William Aronstein is a physician and the clerk-treasurer of the village of Glendale.
Ellie