The following is a letter-to-the-editor that I submitted to The Dixie Sun, the student newspaper of Dixie State College, but then withdrew for personal reasons.
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Dear Editor:
In the mid-90s, I spent a couple years living in England. One night, I was invited to dine with a family, and during the course of our meal, we got into a friendly debate of which is better: America or England.
At one point, a teenaged son said, “Can you name one war America’s won without help from anyone else?”
Foolishly—very foolishly, I blurted out, “The Gulf War.”
Forks dropped and an unnerving silence engulfed those at the table, before the wife spoke and said, “I’ll have you know that not only were Britons there fighting with America, but my husband also won a medal from the queen for inventing a communications device that helped thousands of British troops in that war.”
To drive home her point, she had me watch the video of her husband receiving that medal from Queen Elizabeth II. (Note to editor: He did not throw it back.)
That misspeaking on my part was one of the more humiliating moments in my life, for in an instant I had discounted the sacrifice and serve of the British who had fought alongside our American counterparts in a war.
I was reminded of that moment while listening to Thursday’s debate between Professors Chip McCloud and Joe Green.
While I certainly revere the way Mr. McCloud clearly and intelligently conveyed his points throughout the debate, I took umbrage at one of his statements: that Bush has a go-it-alone stance on Iraq.
Such an unfortunate mischaracterization of the War of Iraq discounts the noble sacrifices of our many allies in Iraq, many of whom have bled out their lives defending not just their country—but also America.
Yes, this coalition isn’t perfect and as inclusive as we would like. But that doesn’t diminish the sacrifice of our Allies’ soldiers. And certainly we should debate the merits of going to this war, but we should do so in a way that does not diminish the devotion our Allies’ sons and daughters in Iraq.
Such sacrifice does not deserve our condemnation; rather, it deserves our commendation.
Quite frankly, as one who has many friends serving in the British Armed Forces, I was acutely offended by Mr. McCloud’s statement aimed to keep the under-informed uninformed of our Allies’ many sacrifices.
I wonder how well Mr. McCloud’s statement would be received at a dinner table in England—particularly at a table where the family has a loved one laboring in the Middle East.
Perhaps Britain, Australia, Poland and others should have made as much noise in joining our cause as France made in announcing to the world that it would not join America in this war. Then we might know that there are soldiers who live beyond our borders who are making sacrifices on our behalf. How myopic it is to think otherwise!
John Kerry spends much of his time daydreaming how he will bring in the estranged France and Germany into our coalition when he’s re-elected. Of course, there’s no way in Cedar that’s going to happen.
Meanwhile Kerry has exhausted his larynx spewing attack after attack on this coalition—in much the same way he trashed his fellow veterans in Vietnam.
Perhaps the question we should be asking is this: How will Kerry keep our allies together after months of Kerry and his surrogates trashing our coalition and its soldiers?
