PrintJune 26, 2008
Our Troops Deserve All We Have to Give
Especially since 9/11, our own generation's Day of Infamy, our American troops have given us all they have to give. They've gone wherever we've sent them and done with honor all that we've asked of them. They've put their lives and limbs on the line every day for our Constitutional liberties and way of life.
Like many in America today, no one in my family is currently in the armed forces. My father was a Marine, but never saw combat. My brother enlisted in the army during the Vietnam era, but was sent to Germany instead of to war. My husband was on college deferment during the Vietnam War, and by the time he graduated, the war was scaling down and his high lottery number took him to the end of conscription without his ever being called to duty. Our one son is profoundly deaf and ineligible for military service.
So the only contact I have with military men and women is stateside and cursory. Perhaps this is one reason why I so highly esteem every Soldier, Marine, Sailor and Airman, as well as every single member of their families. I am daily reminded that without their willingness to serve with self-sacrificial love, I would not continue to enjoy the liberties for which they are willing to give all.
This would be true even in peacetime, but it is all the more so in wartime. We owe every freedom we enjoy, yesterday, today and tomorrow, to the brave men and women, who freely abandon the comforts of home to serve wherever the fight beckons.
That is why I will not permit the words, "war weary," to enter my spoiled, pampered, home-front vocabulary. I refuse to give in to the naysayers who dominate our mainstream press.
I refuse to join in with those who whine in the age-old coward's laments: "Give appeasement a chance!" "We're tired of the fight!" "It's an unwinnable war!" "Liberty is too expensive!"
What a heap of yellow-bellied poppycock!
Somehow it never seems to dawn upon the loony leftists that when evil threatens to have its sway, those who do nothing to stop it are every bit as guilty as the perpetrators. I thank God every day on my knees for those who refuse to give up, stalwartly fight the temptation to go home and cower in their warm, snugly beds -- our fighting forces. They are the Americans most worthy of the name, and it is to them and their families that we owe all that we have to give - and then some.
I thank God, too, that there are so many civilians this Country over who share my spirit of gratitude. The efforts to aid our troops with moral support from home and with various, small material comforts are as myriad as American ingenuity.
A great many, though, are fiddling and nay saying while America is at war for our very survival with IslamoFascist barbarians who intend to end life as we know it. If we aren't vigilant and determined, it will be the naysayers who have the last word.
That's why whenever an opportunity arises to support our troops -- the Americans doing the actual fighting on behalf of the rest of us -- then I take it. And I'm urging every patriotic American to support one such valiant effort by Move America Forward and conservative voices all over the Land.
From the Front Lines will be a webathon event between 4 PM and midnight EDT, co-sponsored by Move America Forward's Melanie Morgan and Blogger extraordinaire, Michelle Malkin. Joining them will be a host of conservative talk radio giants, even the great el Rushbo himself. The date is today, June 26. You can watch the event on ustream.tv (http://www.ustream.tv/channel/from-the-frontlines).
Of course, the end result will be sending our troops in harm's way the biggest shipment of morale-building goodies packages to date. But the extra reward is to each citizen who takes part, in knowing his efforts are part and parcel of winning this war.
As one of my new heroes, Lt. Col. (ret) Steve Russell says, "We cannot afford to allow our home front to become our exposed flank in the War on Terror." Every time we take part in an effort to support our troops, we take up arms on the home front flank and help defeat our enemies wherever they try to stand against us.
Americans are not wimps and sissies. Let's make sure we prove it by supporting our troops and Move America Forward in this brave new effort on the home front.
June 26! I'll be there! Will you?
Kyle-Anne Shiver will appear on the webathon at 9:51 PM EDT. She is a frequent contributor to American Thinker. She welcomes your comments at http://www.kyleanneshiver.com/.
