War in Iraq, Not Sunday School

What a surprise, war in Iraq is nothing like the stories we heard in Sunday school about turning the other cheek and winning our enemies over with love. For those of us who went to Sunday School and then later faced death in the fight for freedom so other children could continue to go to Sunday school the recent photos of Iraqi prisoners being hazed by MP's is not news. Much worse than what the photographs show has been going on for centuries and whatever happens because of the exposure of the photographs will not prevent it from continuing.

Why? Because war is hostility between two groups of people. Hostilities that are vicious, deadly, irreverent, and at the point of conflict resist conformity to rules of ethical conduct. Only those who don't know the reality of war can believe there is a civilized way to win at war.

War is not civilized behavior. It is really based on the survival of the fittest rule. The strongest, most intelligent, and sometimes the shrewdest may win. Contrary to one presidential candidate's opinion respect doesn't win war. If we had waited for the Japanese to respect us during World War II we would all be speaking Japanese today. We didn't win that war by getting their respect we won by the brute force of atomic bombs that destroyed cities and killed hundreds of thousands of people.

Too often our troops are ordered to wait until they receive fire from our enemies before they can defend themselves in war. On the face of it this handicaps our troops from winning at war. Enemies that have gone to war against the United States are enemies. Their deaths and destruction of their cities should be a given. The treatment of their captured is of no consequence as long as we get information that saves American lives and prevents destruction of our cities.

Wake up people. We are at war with an enemy who even now is planning the bombing of major American cities with millions being killed and the killing and mutilation of Americans all over the world. You cannot play Sunday school with these people if you want to survive. Let the military do whatever it needs to do to win this war. Don't punish soldiers for doing what they believe is their job in the part they play to win this war. When we train people to kill our enemies and put their lives at risk in a foreign country to do the job it is too late to ask them to be nice. That is how you lose a war not how you win.

(Gary Revel Editorial Carried by World News)