My uncle wrote this. He was a green beret in Vietnam. It puts things in perspective.
Terrorism has been happening for years, and bad things do happen to good people everyday. There is a child dieing from AIDS in Africa, the little girl sold into slavery and prostitution by her family in Thailand, or the person who steps on a land mine in Afghanistan, left from a forgotten war. Bad things happen and most of us cannot even start to comprehend why. All I know for sure is we all have a responsibility to be better people because " freedom is not free." All of us need to do all we can to rid ourselves and those we come in contact with of the hatred, prejudice and injustice that has caused so much pain and problems in the world. We need to step up to the plate each and every time our turn comes to bat and do our best. Though we may strike out over and over again we need to swing and always remember it only takes that one hit to change things, perhaps forever.
What troubles me is that not everyone feels the same as you and I. There are people in this world and even in this Free Country of ours that hate us and would do us evil if we allowed them. This was proven to us on 9-11, when thousands of innocent and guiltless people died for the unforgivable sin of showing up to work, on a day much like any other. Loving all races and people is a wonderful dream and I believe it is a goal worthy of Sainthood. A goal I feel as a nation we have fought for it many times over the course of our history. But loving and wanting to be loved is not something that will guaranty us anything. Giving Osama bin Laden a hug or wishing Saddam " peace and the best that life offers" or any unanswered show of trying to get along would not have changed a thing that has happened to us or to the innocent people around the world that have died because of action those men took or encouraged others to take.
The point of the original e-mail as I understood it, was to look at Bill Clinton, his life choices and his time as President. Now God knows I see things through a set of colored glasses (much like everyone else) and don' t always look at all sides of a question. But I do try and will continue to try hard to comprehend why something happens or someone feels a certain way. You see I observe things through glasses colored with the blood of many friends I lost in Viet Nam and around the world. I look through the pain that comes from being a young Green Beret waging war against other, and through the anguish of my memories of my time in that war. I look through the visions of 9-11 and the horror that day visited on the world. You are right, person such as you or I for the most part cannot make a difference that can be measured, except by historians who are from generations not yet born. We try our best and hope to influence others by our actions. But our President can and has made a difference with his actions or lack of, in countless lives and in immeasurable ways throughout the history of our nation.
I am sure you would agree that not all those differences have been positive, nor would all people be in agreement that any one thing was right for all. The course of history has it' s rough spots, mistakes, and wrong turns, much like everyone' s life. But the choices that Bill Clinton made during his time in office were to many wrong and to some simply criminal. History will judge him for the actions he took, for the mistakes he made and for the consequences of his leadership. I imagine he will not be our greatest President nor I suspect the worst. But I for one will never look at the Oval Office in quite the same way, due to his action there (with an intern). Nor can I bring myself to believe that he could be so inept and blundering as to use our Armed Forces in the manner in which he did. Bill Clinton and his wife have changed things for all of us, from the surprising facts we learned like " oral sex isn' t really sex at all" , to the lies and disinformation that swept over the White House for those 8 years.
You must forgive me for expressing my frustrations and misgivings at what I see as considerable problems. I know that some of this happens with every President, from the infamous acts of President Kennedy and his girlfriends to President Nixon and his lies to us all. My hope is that we can look at these actions and judge them from the consequences that occur. Kennedy didn' t have a chance to admit his mistakes but Nixon did and paid the price he should have. But Clinton has denied everything (or can' t remember) and as the e-mail shows has not faced up to his mistakes or lived by the rule of law as is expected. History will judge him and his actions but it is up to us live with the results.
Take a moment and look at all the Terrorism and deaths caused by those acts. Time and time again America was attacked and we did very little. President George Bush when faced with yet another act of Terrorism on 9-11 and took action, which did make a difference. He was one person who stood up and said enough; he was one person who made a difference in a way only our President could. That action has changed things and will go on changing things to a degree that no one at this time can honestly measure. He has taken the lead and in many cases the blame for those actions. As you said, " we can' t blame one person for everything" , but we can blame our President for lack of action, for indecisiveness that allowed people like Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hassain to destroy civilization and slaughter people as a result of their warped ideas and desires.
In the 60' s the call was for " Just give peace a chance" and millions dropped out, and were sure everything would work out. Due to the peace movement and our peace treaty with the North Vietnamese we left millions of that nation to die in camps and another country to live under Communism. In Iran we stopped supporting the Shah of Ivan because President Carter didn' t like how he ran his country and wanted him to adopt a more civilized approach. The religious leaders that took over Iran now run the country and they took and held our embassy personnel captive. Our captives stayed that way until President Reagan made a difference. Not only were our people released but also in time another evil in the form of the USSR fell apart. This all came about due to the actions and determination of One Man.
President Carter made one big mistake, he thought just because he felt that something was right everyone could and should do it his way. He demanded that our allies hold themselves to our standards and once again one man changed history. We have proven repeatedly that the peoples of the world must develop to a degree that they can live up to our standards and freedom. We cannot impose our principles on someone and expect there to be an automatic transformation to our level or that everyone will be as successful as America has been. We need to understand how others think and what our actions will do to them.
I am confident these facts are true, as I have recalled them but I anticipate a number of people could look at those times and see something entirely different. I simply am making a statement and drawing conclusions as I see them. I recognize we have to labor to improve our nation and mankind as a whole. I yearn for for all people to love each other and for each and every one to be responsible for their actions. I yearn for mankind to evolve into caring and reasonable individuals. But until that happens I will continue to look for those elected officials that don' t make a difference and vote for someone who does. I resolve to continually be aware that others from every far corner of the globe as well as here at home, hate us and mean to do us harm. I will do my best, and expect others to do their best also. Not everything President Bush has done while in office has felt right to me, nor am I under the misguided expectation that he will in the future. But in my measurement he has made a difference, that should have been made years ago.
History has taught me one valuable lesson, " we are not all alike nor are we all in the same space" . I continue to wish the best for others but demand safely and security for those I love as well as myself. Loving all races is an honorable pursuit, but in the stark reality of these trying times it obtains us nothing without that love being returned. I fear that making a difference and limiting the amount of terrorism in the world will only happen when others understand that the United States will not allow it' s citizens to be killed at home or around the world. I believe that as a country we are making a difference in the world. America is furthering freedom in the world today and our President has set a course that will change things forever more. Will that be enough; will others through down their arms and embrace us as brothers? No, but one step is a start.
In a recent interview General Norman Schwartzkof was asked if he thought there was room for forgiveness toward the people who have harbored and abetted the terrorists who perpetrated the 9-11 attacks on America. His answer: " I believe that forgiving them is God' s function. Our job is simply to arrange the meeting" . No one person can change a terrorist' s agenda, but we can and must stop it from happening to the best of our ability. Much like the Nazis in World War II, the only thing that will improve the situation is to eliminate the infection and bring to trial those the broke not only mans law but Gods law as well.
As for Hillary, I' m not a supporter ether, I' m just making a statement, looking at the consequences of the actions of her and her husband and saying a pray for our future which I hope has little to do with ether one.
AMEN, we are STILL fighting wars for reasons that idiots like Kennedy and Clinton didnt have the balls too!!! [:@]
As a AK-47 totin arab is rapin your wife, shooting your children and driving YOUR truck through your living room walls just remember what John Lennon would have us all do, " Give peace a chance" ...
Hippies had their chance in the 60s and again in the 90s and BOTH times we were left having had to fight wars in distant lands as a result of their complete lack of brains, initiative and understanding for FOREIGN POLICY!!!
i wasnt around for nam' but most of the things you said i deeply agree with strongly and anyone else that disagrees with me is gonna have to look at this.
Very worthy read about terrorism.
Good word' s brother, they have more meaning when it' s from someone that' s walked the walk, GOD Bless
