Wednesday, December 3, 2003

Sallie’s ‘prayer’ ruined reader’s Thanksgiving

The title of Sally Satterthwaite’s last article was indeed true: She ruined my Thanksgiving day! To imply that the Iraq war is an “invented war” was probably the most offensive statement yet.

I have been a naturalized American citizen now for over 33 years. I was born in Cuba and grew up in Venezuela. My last trip to Cuba was in April of 1958 while I was attending Georgia Tech. Unable to leave I was in there from then until September of 1959. It was quite an experience to spend the last nine months of the Batista government and the first nine months of the Castro regime. Not many native Americans have experienced the cruelty of the butcher of Havana as I did when he started publicly executing Cubans left and right including countless priests and nuns, dissenters, and just about any citizens the regime did not like.

There was one fact that became very clear to me as I grew up experiencing revolutions in Venezuela, and the Castro takeover. That fact is that in any country where only the government has the arms, the people are doomed to the will of the tyrants! Such was the case in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I have witnessed atrocities and tortures that have fortified my belief that as Christians we should practice our faith, but not become lambs to the slaughter but rather to develop enough backbone to fight against the factions that threaten to wipe out us “infidels.”

I am talking only about the radicals that are hijacking the Islamic faith throughout the world. As a Christian I dismiss the idea that we should not defend ourselves and I don’t think our God wants us to let him do it by himself. The Bible and history are full of battles we have fought as his servants to preserve the freedom to practice our faith.

Mrs. Satterthwaite, these over 400 brightest and best Americans lie dead because they chose willingly to take the oath of protecting our country from the same elements that took some the life of thousands of our brightest citizens and foreigners on 9/11!

If you want elaborate display in the news about funerals of the valiant dead you are not going to get it. In every war this country has participated, it has been a policy not to have such displays.

The ties to Iraq and Osama Bin Laden are well known to those that read something else besides the Atlanta paper, the New York Times, and watch TV sitcoms instead of getting the truth from other sources. That is one reason why we don’t have these propaganda outlets from showing body bags everyday a la Vietnam era, because a lot of our citizens are vastly uninformed or choose to be ignorant about what we are really fighting against.

Do the cruel executions of over 400,000 Iraqis at the hand of Saddam Hussein bother you, Mrs. Satterthwaite? How about the bombing of countless American and non-American citizens throughout the world? Would you have felt the same about the commander in chief of the great number of gallant Americans that gave their life to liberate some of today’s ungrateful European countries from the Nazi tyranny during World War II?

If as you say that we should not believe that “our God is on our side,” who should be on the side of the citizens of all faiths in the most generous nation in the history of civilization?

As far as sharing our plenty by sharing “our comforts and full bellies,” thousands upon thousands of our church missionaries worldwide are doing that! Many religious and nonreligious American organizations are feeding, clothing and providing for the needs of needy people throughout the world while in danger of being massacred by Islamic radicals.

The relative safety of our streets is protected by American underpaid law enforcement and armed forces members that put their life on the line everyday so that we can enjoy the freedoms of this wonderful adopted country of mine! They definitely are not doing it for the money, but for a sense of duty that many of our citizens take for granted!

Instead of lobbing a few missiles at Iraq, and fed up with the useless debating team of countries called the U.N., our commander in chief took the fight to Afghanistan and Iraq to try to eliminate the radical people that one day may explode a dirty bomb in one of our large cities and kill hundred of thousands of our citizens.

Americans are settling into the comfort of complacency yet again. It’s been over two years since those 3,000 people died in New York. The average American is more concerned about who’s going to get kicked off the island next, or the record of his favorite football team, than he is about a continued threat of terrorist activity against his country.

Bush has gathered many of the world’s terrorists in the Middle East for a battle. Perhaps Americans aren’t able to put their hearts into this fight unless it takes place on our soil. Their complacency could lead to just such a result.

One quote from Thomas Jefferson that I believe rings true today proclaims, ”The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Amen!

Gerard Jansen

Peachtree City, Ga.