After listening to much of the testimony from the 9/11 commission and then hearing the President's press conference last night I am moved to bring up certain points.
First and foremost, thank God we have a president that has some balls. We don't need a politician, right now we need a fighter.
I applaud President Bush for voluntarily stepping up to the podium, well knowing the type and nature of the questions that were going to be fired at him. “Well here I am. Give me your best shot.”
This president has made decisions that he knows are not popular with the general public. He also knows that the liberal press and the left will pot shot, disagree, and second guess him every time he has a tough decision to make.
Now, I guess you can say that this is “The nature of the Beast” and if you hold the position of the most powerful office on earth, then you better expect the heat. So be it.
However, I must say that it takes a ton of brass to stick to your guns when under the scrutiny and pressure that this president is forced to bear. And, on top of that, knowing that this is the final lap of a race for the office that he now holds.
This President is faced with the most difficult decisions that any man on the face of this earth could face.
A. Sending young men and women into battle knowing that some of them will never return.
B. Making strategic decisions about the defense of this country against an enemy who has declared war upon us, and hoping that these decisions are correct and effective.
C. Standing firm behind those decisions in the face of the liberal media and political opponents who will try to use these decisions to their own means and personal political gains.
We all know this. Nobody wants war. The Democrats don't, the Republicans don't and the American people don't. The President doesn't want war either.
But sometimes, you have to fight. Hell, President Bush didn't incite, create or exacerbate the fundamentalist Islamic war against the U.S. and the West. He inherited it. This situation has been brewing for 40 plus years in its present form, and they finally got the means and opportunity to reach right into our back yard. And they took it.
It would be easy for George Bush to take the easy way out and pull out or leave it to the Arabs to sort out. In fact, this would probably ensure a victory for him in November.
It seems though, Thank God, that this President is more concerned with the defense of America and Americans, than winning the election. The previous administration wouldn't even go on vacation without an opinion poll telling them how it would effect their ratings.
I'm telling your right now that it is time that we take a stand. This president has drawn a line in the sand and we can cross it and stay with him or retreat and suffer the consequences of living in fear of where and when the next attack will come.
I am damn proud of the United States, prouder than I ever remember being in my life. I am proud that we didn't bow and kneel before the United Nations to get permission to take action protecting the security of our nation. The U.N. can take weeks of debate just deciding the seating arrangement at a U.N. conference. George Bush doesn't answer to them and America doesn't answer to them.
Nobody wants Americans to die. Nobody wants war – except the Enemy. However, we are at War. Lack of action, waffling, half hearted efforts or God forbid, appeasement, are the absolute worst choices we could make. This would only assure that many, many more Americans would die in the long run.
The die is cast and I am behind the President's commitment to the global war on terror – wherever that may be.
I do not envy this President and I thank God I am not in his shoes for I do not know if I would have the same strength.
Ernest R. Emerson
April 14, 2004
