Steve Farrell
Saturday, Oct. 9, 2004

What’s hard work?

“It’s hard work to go from a tyranny to a democracy. It’s hard work to go from a place where people get their hands cut off, or executed, to a place where people are free.”

And a few more: “It’s hard work” to fight an enemy driven by “an ideology of hatred,” “it’s hard work” to view “casualty reports every day,” “it’s hard work” to “provide comfort for the loved ones who lost a son or a daughter or a husband or wife,” “it’s hard work” to understand that “the decision I made caused [their loved] one to be in harm’s way.”

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A lot of liberals have made light of these comments. He said the “hard” word too many times, according to them.

Knowing their character, had they lived in the 1770s, they would have made light of Thomas Paine’s more eloquent “These are the times that try men’s souls. … Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”

They’re the same words, the same message: War isn’t easy. War isn’t for cowards. War requires that we step up to the plate as men, and as one united people.

You don’t win wars by telling your soldiers, your allies and your enemies, “wrong war, wrong time, wrong place.”

“The Sunshine Patriot will, in the crisis, shrink from the service of his country,” said Paine.

President Bush and Vice President Cheney both have alluded to their opponents’ politically expedient take on the war. Whatever wins the crowd at the moment is their policy. They were for the war when they knew it would be disastrous not to be and against it once it got tough, once they saw an angle to get themselves elected.

Our men and women in harm’s way are their pawns to empowerment. Some of them go to church with me. One of them, my son, is thinking about enlisting. Do you think I, or the parents of these boys, want a sunshine patriot as commander in chief?

The president did the right thing to remind us, to remind his opponents and their party, that this is hard work.

After all, and sad to say, this is the party that gets elected by promoting free rides, free sex, free abortions, free drugs and free, well, free just about everything and anything, including freedom to ignore one’s responsibilities – to work, to provide, to protect, to defend – you know, things that require hard work, things that require sacrifice, things that aren’t easy, things that were never meant to be easy.

Maybe the president was telling the party that appeals to the weaker, darker side of human nature in order to get elected, in order to sweep into power, that they are hurting us, hurting our boys and inviting further attacks by dividing and disarming us.

America’s history is one of bravery, one of sticking to difficult tasks, one of hard work.

Paine put it this way: “What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed that so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.”

We voted to send our troops to Iraq. They are there. They are attempting to liberate the Iraqis from a long history of tyranny. It’s hard work. But freedom for the millions of Iraq and victory for America over international terrorism is worth it, no matter how long and how hard.

I happen to agree with the president. Maybe you should too.

NewsMax pundit Steve Farrell is an associate professor of political economy, press agent for Defend Marriage, and the author of the highly praised inspirational novel “Dark Rose” (available at amazon.com).

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