Two American sloldiers were killed in Afghanistan yesterday. Remember Afghanistan? That's where that guy ... ummm, Osama bin Laden ... was hiding out. That's who we were after. He's still out there.
851 Americans have been killed in Iraq. 117 other "coalition" soldiers have died. Countless others have been buried.
Bush was interviewed by an Irish TV newscaster and made some comments that sounded like the following:
We fight because we must fight if we are to live in a world where every country can shape its own destiny, and only in such a world will our own freedom be finally secure.We want nothing for ourselves-only that the people ... be allowed to guide their own country in their own way.
We will do everything necessary to reach that objective. And we will do only what is absolutely necessary.
We hope that peace will come swiftly. But that is in the hands of others besides ourselves. And we must be prepared for a long continued conflict. It will require patience as well as bravery, the will to endure as well as the will to resist.
I wish it were possible to convince others with words of what we now find it necessary to say with guns and planes: Armed hostility is futile. Our resources are equal to the challenge. Because we fight for values and we fight for principles, rather than territory or colonies, our patience and our determination are unending.
History is on the side of freedom and is on the side of societies shaped from the genius of each people. History does not favor a single system or belief--unless force is used to make it so.
And let me be absolutely clear: The days may become months, and the months may become years, but we will stay as long as aggression commands us to battle.
These words were those of President Lyndon Johnson from two speeches in 1965-66, attempting to justify the 400 American deaths in Viet Nam and the U.S. presence there.
Why do people study "History?"
Posted by Bill at June 26, 2004 06:12 AM