Private Ken Webster in the 101st Airborne wrote to his mother after a break in the fighting in WWII. His mother naturally, was very concerned for her son. The son, however, expressed an opinion unknown among the liberals in today?s generation. ?Would you prefer somebody else?s son die in the mud,? he said: ?somebody has to get in and kill the enemy. Somebody has to be the infantry and the paratroopers. If all the country had your attitude, nobody would fight, and everybody would be the Quartermaster. And what kind of country would that be??
The voices of the greatest generation, the generation that met and defeated some of the greatest forces that ever threatened this country, seem a world away from today?s ?We? generation. The good of the society has been replaced by what is good for the self. Today?s liberal left could not give a damn about the abuses of women and repression of freedom in many Muslim countries. Days after 9-11 many on the left wringed their hands wondering what we did to cause this on ourselves and called for negotiations. Such appeasement and defeatism was notable absent after Pearl Harbor. Now the left is more concerned over the minor abuses at Abu Ghraib then the real genocide of Saddam Hussein.
In June 1945 Eisenhower told his staff, ?The success of this occupation can only be judged fifty years from now. If the Germans at this time have a stable, prosperous democracy, then we shall have succeeded.? That mission was accomplished. One must remember the centuries of war that scarred the European landscape before the age of Democracy. Such a vision seemed unthinkable to a diplomat in Europe in the 30?s save for a few brave men. What Bush and others know and the left is either unable or unwilling to understand is this one fact: Democracy breeds peace. A similar vision for the Middle East seems unlikely, but no more unlikely then it did to Edward Grey in 1914 as the lights went out all over Europe. It is possible. Every age has it?s particular folly. And the folly of liberals should take some lessons from WWII, i.e. Chamberlain, to the dangers of appeasement and the strength of Democracy. The voices of the Me Generation should take some lessons from the Greatest Generation.
(quotes from Citizen Soldier: S. Ambrose.)
