Finish what you start

Both President Bush and John Kerry have made statements echoing the sentiment that we must finish what we started in Iraq (Kerry wants the U.N. to come in and finish the job, which is like bringing in a gas can to put out a fire, but we'll put that point aside for now). What is to be made of a situation in which both parties are calling for the job in Iraq to be finished?

What we can undoubtedly infer is that whatever was started was a good thing; after all, why would you want to finish something bad?

With that point in mind, what can we make of some people's beliefs that the American public will react in much the same way as the Spanish or Italians, calling for immediate and unconditional withdrawal from Iraq?

There are several reasons I don't believe that will happen; no matter how hard the left and their helpers in the media try to paint Iraq as another Vietnam, the American public is just not buying it. The left seems to forget that most people from the Vietnam decade are still around and can debunk most or all of the hysterical calls for labelling this "Another Vietnam."

But the main reason I don't believe the American public will call for us to abandon our cause in Iraq is because, put simply, we are not Spain or Italy. Italy and Spain were run by tyrannical dictators and outright fascists until the last half of the 20th century; America has had a functioning democracy for over 200 years. Because of our long, fruitful history under democracy, the American people have an almost genetic disposition to opposing tyranny...liberty good, fascism bad, freedom the ideal worth fighting for, tyranny a scourge which must be opposed and crushed.

Some will point out, correctly, that both Spain and Italy were finally able to push out the dictators and establish democracies of their own. That is, to simplify things, the equivalent of fighting for one's life. Well, anyone can fight their own life; it is a distinctly American trait to fight for someone else's liberty. From WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Persian Gulf I, etc. we have shown a willingness to stand up for the liberties of those that could not otherwise stand up for it themselves. With the exception of Pearl Harbor, none of those conflicts were the result of America's homeland being in immediate danger; yet we went, willingly, to fight against the enemies of our allies; to fight for our allies; to fight for freedom.

It is this belief in American's hatred of tyrannies that makes me believe we will not leave Iraq in turmoil, but will hunt down those that are opposed to peace and destroy them.

After all, we have to finish what we've started, right?