Capitulate?

Sixty-nine years ago this week, Allied forces invaded Nazi-occupied France.  Now commonly known as D-Day, the Normandy Invasion involved over 160,000 troops in both an airborne and amphibious assault on the French coast.  General Eisenhower, in his Letter to Allied Forces, outlined the purpose of the invasion.  He said, “…you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.”

By the end of the day, June 6^th, 1944, over 10,000 had been killed or wounded.  That same day, President Roosevelt, in a radio address to the country, asked the nation to join him in prayer.  He said, “Men's souls will be shaken with the violences of war. For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and goodwill among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home. Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.”

As we acknowledge those who fought and honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice to liberate Western Europe of the tyranny of the Nazis, I can’t help but to compare the words of President Roosevelt with those of President Obama.

Obama, in a recent speech, spoke of ending the existing Authorization to Use Military Force “to determine how we can continue to fight terrorism without keeping America on a perpetual wartime footing.”  He further stated, “Our systematic effort to dismantle terrorist organizations must continue.  But this war, like all wars, must end.  That’s what history advises.  That’s what our democracy demands.”

Ending war is a great thing.  I don’t want any more of our servicemen and women wounded or killed.  I want them all to come home safely.  But the thing is, war doesn’t end until one side or the other capitulates.

And it’s pretty evident that the terrorists haven’t surrendered.  The attack on the US Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi, Libya, the bombing attack during the Boston Marathon and the death of a British soldier, hacked to death outside the Royal Artillery Barracks in London are recent examples of terrorist attacks in the nightly news.  However, car bombings, suicide bombings, rocket attacks and other terrorist attacks occur weekly around the world.  A US Embassy guard was killed in Ankara, Turkey, earlier this year by a suicide bomber and the Pakistani Taliban suicide bomber claimed ten lives near the US Consulate in Pakistan, in March.  Several of the terrorist attacks and many that were foiled have links to the Taliban or al-Qaeda.

Make no mistake, there are people and organizations that resent what we have, resent our freedoms, and resent our way of life.  They are willing to wage war against us, to attack and die to make us surrender our freedom and dignity or wipe us off the face of the Earth.  Our president should not give them any indication that we are willing to back down, that our government’s policy is to appease, negotiate, or capitulate.  I think Winston Churchill said it best when he said, “You ask, What is our policy? I will say; ‘It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy.’ You ask, What is our aim? I can answer with one word: Victory—victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.”

Ben Stein, in a recent television commentary said, “Peace, while the other side is still attacking, is not peace. It is surrender.”  Let the President, your Senators, and your Congressmen know that you aren’t willing to surrender.  Surrender is a sign of weakness and even perceived weakness tends to be a magnet for bullies.  Terrorists are bullies.  War needn’t be fought on the battlefield, but we should be willing to take the battle to our enemies, wherever they may be. 

They should fear our potential.  Admiral Isoroku Yamamato, architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor, supposedly said after the attack, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” We, as a country, must be resolved to fight these bullies and our leaders, starting with the President, must project strength and determination to prosecute war against those who would do us harm in spite of the hardships. To do otherwise will only encourage more attacks.  

Regardless of the strategy employed, continue to support those servicemen and women who keep this country safe for democracy.  They are and will always be a critical element to our war on terrorism.