Pulling out will not end the war

There is a war being waged against the U.S. by radical Muslim terrorists. This war started in 1979 with the taking of hostages at the U.S. Embassy in Iran. These attacks increased over the years: Beirut Embassy, 1983; the Pan Am jetliner that crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland, 1988; first World Trade Center bombing,1993; Khobar Towers, Saudi Arabia, 1996; U.S. Embassy, Nairobi, Kenya, 1998; U.S. Embassy, Dares Salaam, Tanzania, 1998; USS Cole, Yemen, 2000; and the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. From 1981 to 2001 there were more than 7,000 terrorist attacks worldwide. Neither President Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush 1, Clinton, nor Bush 2 did anything to provoke these attacks.

Pulling out of Vietnam meant allowing a communist takeover in a small Asian country. Vietnam’s goal was not to fly their flag over the White House. There’s a battle being fought in Iraq. Going into Iraq did not start the war. Pulling out of Iraq will not end the war. Giving up and coming home now means much more:

It’s a sign of weakness to the enemy. It’s a sign they just have to keep pushing. It means increasing attacks on free-world countries. We could lose this war. If we don’t recognize this, our nation, as we know it, will not survive. No other free country will survive if we are defeated. Name one radical Muslim country which allows free speech, free thought, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, equal rights to anyone, let alone everyone, equal status or any status to women. As Al Gore explained, we can deal with it now or allow it to continue to get worse, and simply leave it for our children and grandchildren. Now do you understand the difference?

JERRY MEARTZ

Snohomish