If I Were Running for President, Part 2 of 5

In this second installment of what I would run on in the 2008 election, let me address the War on Terror.

Many people, even the staunchest supporters of the effort, are starting to emotionally and intellectually fatigue on the war. It is a sad, but true, statement on the attention span of our nation.

In the early to mid 1900's, we fought in two World Wars, two wars-to-end-all-wars. There were days, even moments, where more lives were lost in these wars than the current total casualties in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts combined. I have blogged previously about how there are many similarities in the enemy we are fighting now and the enemies of the two World Wars. Yet, the support and patriotism from the homefront is waining, and its not because of the lack of success of the effort.

The reason we are mentally fatigued on this two-pronged war is the news coverage. I am not talking liberal bias, although that is a factor, but I am referring to the fact that we are in a constant barrage of war coverage. We are a society that lacks true commitment, dedication, and sticktoitiveness. We have a national ADD. We need 500 channels to flip through and can't sit through 2 minutes of commercials. We get tired of a show after a few seasons and stop watching it.

The thing is, we were attacked in 1993 on the World Trade Center, in the mid-1990's on two American Embassies in Africa, and in 2000 on the USS Cole. We were then suckerpunched on 9/11/01. We have been at war for 15 years with Al Queada and Usama Bin Laden...we just didn't start fighting back until 2001.

We gave Al Queada an 8+ year running start to build their network of violence and tyrrany. We are catching up and making progress, but we have to stay on the offensive. We have to stay in Iraq to continue to draw the efforts of Iran, Syria, and Al Queada there as opposed to here. We have to stay in Afghanistan to keep Usama Bin Laden on the run. No longer can we worry about the length of the job, we must worry about getting the job done.

As a candidate, I would plesge my undying support to the men and women of the United States' armed forces, as well as the men and women who make up our allied forces. I would see to it they had the tools necessary to fight the good fight. I would make sure the leaders of the armed forces took the utmost care in preventing civilian casualties. I would also make sure that the successes of our military would be trumpeted as loudly as the casualties.

It sickens me to watch how there is a countdown on some media outlets everytime the death toll reaches some milestone. It made my soul cringe watching Matt Lauer and Katie Couric and Keith Olberman and Chris Matthews gleefully count the death toll to the 1,000 milestone several years ago. There is an umistakeable, twisted joy with anti-war TV personalities whenever the casualties reach the next 1000 or 500 mark.

Yet, they will not tell the good news. You have to talk to the troops coming home or via email to get the good news. That is sad.

As President, I would constantly trumpet the successes of our troops. I would not fail them and would not allow Congress to play with their funding as they did in 2007. I would not allow a deadline to be instituted. I would not allow a US departure from either front until the job was done.