When I remember our past Presidential leaders since WWII, it is sad to think about our present leadership and some of the candidates who are running to be our next President.
Presidents Roosevelt and Truman presided over WWII and Truman lived to see the war end on his watch. It was a brutal war against two major powers, Germany and Japan. Neither presidents were in the news media every day trying to talk tough nor did they talk and brag about killing our enemies. They went about their job as the leader of the free world who respected life and did not take war lightly. There was enough killing without them talking about it. Our nation won the war at great cost without stooping to the low of our adversaries.
Presidents Truman and Eisenhower presided over the Korean war and Eisenhower saw the war end on his watch. The Korean war has been referred to by many as the forgotten war. But it was not forgotten by our men and women in uniform who served during that war or their families waiting back home. President Eisenhower said he would do what he could to end the war and he did. Neither presidents were in the news media every day trying to talk tough or talking about killing people. The United States under their leadership rolled back the invasion of South Korea by the North Koreans and our men and women in uniform answered the call in Korea only five years after the end of WWII.
Presidents Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower did not go looking for war because they understood war and the consequences. Instead, they answered the call with our ideals intact and prosecuted both wars with the character that makes us the great moral nation we are.
President Kennedy presided over the 1962 Cuban missile crisis when Russia installed long and short range missiles in Cuba with their stock pile of nuclear war heads. These WMD were just 90 miles from our shore and if launched could have struck a large section of the U.S. and inflicted casualties never before seen in our country. Those who would have survived and absorbed the nuclear fall out would live a nightmare the rest of their life. President Kennedy was ready to invade Cuba if necessary and had our armed forces in place if it came to that, but having experienced war himself sought out advise from many inside and outside his administration and came up with a plan and Russia removed their missiles and their threat. President Kennedy also showed the UN and the world photographic evidence of those WMD and their launch pads. There were no doubts. The President faced a most severe challenge and was not in the news media trying to talk and act tough, nor was he talking about killing people casually. The Russian action in Cuba was 1000 times more dangerous to our national security than the trumped up charges against Iraq of WMD that did not exist. Like Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower, President Kennedy took the moral high ground in asserting our nations character.
President George H.W. Bush summoned the U.N. to join the U.S. in a coalition to eject Iraq from Kuwait after they invaded that country. The President being a veteran who experienced war rejected those neocons who wanted the war to extend to Baghdad and instead ended the war after Iraq was ejected. Iraq was then subjected to several U.N. resolutions, and requirements, including the restriction of a no fly zone and Iraq has not been a serious threat since to our national security. Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and the former President Bush showed what real american leadership is all about when it comes to war and committing our nation and men and women in uniform to war. They would not sacrifice our proud tradition of moral leadership for tough talk and bluster. All five Presidents worked to end the wars or the threat of war and accomplished their mission.
The reckless behavior of the current President, who took our country to a war and occupation in Iraq over WMD that did not exist, was a betrayal of our American ideals and what America really stands for. He acted like a child in the war against Al Qaeda when he told them "to bring it on" and when he said to our long standing allies "your either with us or against us." Unlike our past presidents Mr. Bush likes to try and talk tough and likes to talk about killing over and over again. Well into the fourth year of the war in Iraq, the President still does not have a plan to end it nor does he have a plan to engage Al Qaeda. And now we know he intends to hand over the war to the next President.
With the exception of Ron Paul, most of the other Republican candidates running for President have rubber stamped Mr. Bush's so called tough talk and his intentions to keep the war going on long in the future. Some of them have already said we need to keep our troops in Iraq for years to come so they can come home with honor. Well I have news for them. If our men and women in uniform serving in Iraq would come home tomorrow, they would come home with honor. The republicans who said that are the ones without honor.
In 2008 the american people will have the opportunity to vote for a new President. This time around we, the people, need a leader with character who can tell the people the truth and have the wisdom to understand and follow the principals that made our country great.
No comments :
Post a Comment