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for the Medals |
 September 8, 2004
- I am overwhelmed by sadness as I watch
footage of the teachers and half naked children being carried away from the
Russian school building where they were held hostage by terrorists the last
3 days. Many children had not been allowed to even drink water in the near
100 degree heat of the gym, where they were locked up as hostages. Although
Vladimir Putin refused negotiations with the terrorists, it is unclear
whether the Russian forces attempted to storm the gym or if the hostages
decided to try an escape.
In the early hours of the morning, the terrorists set off bombs and shot
hostages attempting to flee, then used hostages as human shields as they ran
out of the school yard. There were dozens of deaths, this in the wake of a
previous disaster; two planes which were exploded mid air by bombs
apparently planted in the toilets. This, too, the work of terrorists who
left behind a little under one hundred scattered remains of dead bodies.
This is the enemy that President Bush is trying to flush out by saying that
he will continue America’s fight against terror in any country that harbors
these forces of evil; who make no distinctions between child or adult,
civilian or soldier, right or wrong. President Bush doesn’t want to see
these horrific acts happening on U.S. soil, or anywhere else in the world.
Those who protest the war against terror and claim that the deaths of our
soldiers are in vain should reevaluate the premise on which they make these
assertions. Our military forces do not fight against Islamic militants for
oil or for money to line the pockets of the Bush administration. Our
President has committed our forces to do battle against those
whose goal is
to terrorize the innocent and make unsafe our world so that we don’t have to
again experience these types of atrocities on U.S. soil.
President Bush made it clear that this type of evil can only grow in
countries where people aren’t free to develop a sense of purpose, or hope or
allowed dignity. These forces of evil have been bred to hate. There is no
negotiating with a person void of conscience. There is no way to fight a
more sensitive war against this type of personality. We need to weed out
this evil at the source. Otherwise, we will be afraid to send our own
children to school. We will be afraid to go to New York. We will hole up in
our homes and forget how to live.
Of all the issues that President Bush wants to address: school reform, the
tax code, tort reform, Medicare, social security; they are all trumped by
one important concern and that is the security of our country. Our President
has the foresight to build a safer world so that all of these issues have
meaning and relevance. If we cannot step outside our homes for fear of
terrorist attack, then none of it matters anyway. We will have lost our own
sense of purpose and hope and dignity.
I don’t want to turn on the news and find out the terrorists have succeeded
in putting the countries of this world on the run. I have faith that the
United States, under President Bush’s leadership, will put the terrorists on
the run and that every last spider hole harboring every last terrorist will
be uncovered and that once again we will be able to take for granted that
our streets are safe from the evil that had been allowed to grow for too
long before we were under Bush’s watch.
I wonder how many of the children who were able to walk out of that Russian
school building alive will ever be able to see school as a place to learn
and grow and make friends. The acts of a dozen terrorists may have
completely shattered their childhood. They may always be plagued by haunting
images of their classmates and teachers being shot or blown up; shell
shocked and suffering from post traumatic stress disorder for the rest of
their days. Children are supposed to be our hope and our future. We should
be willing and committed to fight for their future.
Too many of us take for granted that we, too, are the beneficiaries of those
who put their lives on the line for our childhoods and our futures.
Fortunately, we are a country that breeds heroes who found their strength
and calling in the wake of 9/11. We are the strongest nation in the world
–the last superpower, and have been compelled to take the frontlines in this
historic battle of freedom against evil. And we "shall prevail”. Heroes will
step forward…for the sake of our children, not for the medals.
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