I AM THE FORCE

Recent polls suggest that the American people are tired of the loss of life resulting from the liberation of Iraq. Over 2,000 American soldiers have been killed during our tenure there, and many Americans seems to have had enough. Of course, we should all keep in mind that 2,000 soldiers died in less than a minute on the beaches of Normandy and Japan during World War II. Policymakers should have been concerned about the growing unwillingness of many to support anything but the most minimal loss of military lives. The advent of guided weapons technology and recent decades of virtually bloodless military endeavors -- from Grenada to Panama to Desert Storm -- have led Americans to believe that war is no longer hell. Unfortunately, as we should be learning, war remains hell and the new world order sometimes requires the good guys to sacrifice their lives fighting the bad guys. And, it seems, the American people no longer have the stomach for it. How pathetic. America was attacked on September 11, 2001, the whole world changed and the War on Terror began. While not everyone agrees with the President's decisions as commander in chief, we should all agree that we are in a global war with everyone of our lives at stake. If the weak-knee'd American public eventually forces the politicians and soldiers to cut and run from Iraq, every single one of us will be less secure. What Cindy Sheehan and apparently many others fail to understand is that we are engaged in a cause that is worthy of tremendous sacrifice by the men and women in our all-volunteer armed forces. We are at war, and the American people are going to have to relearn the meaning of war and and the tremendous sacrifice required.