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Remember the Living Phil BrennanVeterans Day, 2003 Back in the 30s, when I was growing up, Nov. 11 was known as Armistice Day, a day set aside for remembering those Americans who served in what they called "The Big One" – World War I. It marked the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month – the moment when the armistice was announced in 1918 that ended the so-called "war to end all wars." I didn't need Armistice Day to remind me of the sacrifices Americans made in that dreadful, bloody conflict. I had only to look at my father, who left for France with a slight hereditary hearing problem and came home stone deaf, condemned to live in a world of absolute silence for the rest of his life. He had loved music, but now the only music he could hear came out of the memory vault where tunes are stored. Sometimes he'd try to sing them. One was "Mickey," his nickname for my mother. The other, which I am now hearing in my mind as I write this, was "Katy, K-K-K-Katy, you're the only g-g-g-girl that I adore. When the m-moon shines over the cowshed, I'll be waiting at your k-k-k-kitchen door." On this Veterans Day we are asked to remember all those Americans who ever served in our armed forces in all of the nation's wars, but today, I'd rather keep in mind those sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, husbands and wives who are living under the gun in Iraq and Afghanistan, trying their level best to bring peace and tranquility to an area that has seen damned little of it for a long, long time. It is especially important to think about and honor them at a time when their attempts to serve their country are being undermined here at home by politicians who, as I write, have the gall to be out making speeches at Veterans Day memorials at the same time they are doing everything in their power to increase the risks to members of our armed forces by giving aid and comfort to the terrorists trying to murder our men and women in Iraq. Is that harsh? Hell, no. These cretins, most of whom have never worn a uniform or smelled the acrid odor of cordite, are using the situation in Iraq to attack a president they hate because he prevented them from stealing an election in Florida they fervently believe they had every right to steal. Look, many of these same people now making speeches praising our soldiers and Marines, pledging their loyalty to them and expressing their admiration for them, are the very same people who tried to block the absentee ballots cast in the 2000 election by members of the armed forces who they pretend to cherish ... that is, as long as they vote for Democrats - which most service people have the sense to avoid doing. In that case, don't allow their votes to count, even in an election where the Democrat candidate is demanding that every vote should be counted. The last time I wrote this I got hammered by dolts who have no idea of what they're talking about, but the current drumfire of criticism about U.S. actions in postwar Iraq does nothing less than encourage the thugs there who are killing Americans almost daily to continue their murderous terrorism in the hope that if they kill enough Americans we'll get tired and call it quits. There's nothing controversial about that view. It's a fact, pure and simple. It happened before, in Vietnam and Somalia, and if these terrorists have their way, it will happen again in Iraq. And thanks to the Democrats, they have every reason to believe they will succeed. As long as liberals and their socialist allies in the Democrat party continue to pull out all the stops in their drive to defeat President Bush next year, even attempting to use an allegedly nonpartisan Senate Intelligence Committee to peddle their deceptive wares and by so doing to endanger U.S. security and the lives of Americans in our armed forces, the killing will go on. The body bags will keep coming home to bereaved loved ones betrayed by the party that loves to boast that it is the party of the people. I wish I could spend the day thinking about those who wore American uniforms in past wars, but I think it's far more important to focus my attention on the men and women now in harm's way fighting a worldwide war against terrorists whose unwitting allies here at home are increasing the danger they face every day on the streets of Baghdad. God Bless them, keep them from harm, and protect them from those Democrat politicians and leftists who don't shrink from exploiting the perils they face for their own shameful political purposes.
Phil Brennan is a veteran journalist who writes for NewsMax.com. He is editor & publisher of Wednesday on the Web (http://www.pvbr.com) and was Washington columnist for National Review magazine in the 1960s. He also served as a staff aide for the House Republican Policy Committee and helped handle the Washington public relations operation for the Alaska Statehood Committee which won statehood for Alaska. He is also a trustee of the Lincoln Heritage Institute and a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers. He can be reached at phil@newsmax.com.
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