War Weary

 

  Pundits and politicians alike have been saying for years now that Americans are tired of war, and according to all the best polls we are. After being in a state of war on several fronts since the fall of 2001 we all have a reason for weariness. The scenes of flag draped caskets, constant TV commercials attempting to raise funds for our wounded and news coverage of raging  battles is enough to make even the most battle hardened warriors weary let alone the average American.

 There has never been a time when America has been in a state of war for so many years and on so many fronts simultaneously and hopefully there will never be another period of extended conflict in our future. But the truth is weariness is not a reason to stop fighting a war. In fact by continually saying we are weary and taking polls that reflect our weariness and then publishing those results we embolden and encourage our enemies and add to our weariness.

  There was a time in our history when we fought wars to win them by utterly destroying our enemies. We showed resolve and used the full force of our domestic resources and our military assets to crush our foes, never in an act of aggression but in defending the homeland or helping our allies. We were united behind the cause and unyielding in our determination to win.

  For some reason and somehow all that has changed, instead of fighting aggressively to destroy our enemies we now go to  extremes in order to win the hearts and minds of locals in hopes that they will turn in those we are hunting. We use our technology to avoid collateral damage, and to a point that is ok, but when avoiding collateral damage interferes with killing the enemy who is being hidden by the locals we are trying to capture the hearts and minds of, we do nothing but prolong the war.

 Political correctness and revisionist historians have erased the reality war reducing it to a poll driven exercise in political campaigning and futility that men die for. The world has forgotten what Germany looked like after allied forces destroyed entire towns and cities in a relentless bombing campaign to destroy the Nazi army and liberate Europe.

  Photographs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki being nothing but ash with tens of thousands of burned bodies and thousands of survivors burned from radiation have been hidden from us in their rightful context. Photos of Nazi concentration camps and piles of dead Jews are too gruesome for many so we are sheltered from the discomforts associated with those images. The brutality of the Japanese army and the death marches they forced thousands of soldiers to walk are also too much for society so once again we are over sensitized to the horrors of war. I contend that those images need to be kept in front of all of us so that we will remember that evil exists in the world and as a reminder of why we go to war.

  If we allow media pundits and politicians to continue on the path we are on we will never see an end to the war we are in. And if we continue to have a government that, because of political correctness, refuses to acknowledge that the world is at war with Islam we will not win this war and images of beheadings, stories of mass graves, women raped, children cut in half and hundreds buried alive will be seen on media outlets and the internet for decades.

 “War is hell” and innocent people die and the longer this war wages on the more innocent dead there will be. There can be no sympathy for any aggressor and brute force delivered with overwhelming power is the only deterrent Jihadists understand and that force must be directed wherever Jihadist raises their evil heads.

  So if we are so weary of war why do we continue to allow those who command or troops and who conduct warfare to wear silk gloves when dealing with an enemy aggressor? We must return to fighting to win no matter the cost or the cost will be the free world.