by Joseph Branch

Created on: September 18, 2008

It is an irrefutable fact, we are a world at war. I find it strange to know this while going through my day to day life as I watch it go on as if we were in a nation at peace. Having grown up in an era when going to war was not only unpopular but treated with disdain was a difficult time. Especially while my father, voluntarily served in Viet Nam. I remember the protests, the riots and the turmoil as people of passion spoke their peace whether for or against the efforts. At least there was passion, however, unlike today where disinterest seems more the issue.

As an adult, I just missed going to the original Gulf War myself by only a few years. I am a non-wartime veteran, a status that sometimes leaves me with a sense of guilt as I read about and watch my brother and sister soldiers making the sacrifices I never had the chance to, though would have without a second thought. What hurts even worse is watching the bizarre sense of detachment our folks at home have toward the war effort. It truly scares me that much of the American public, either uninformed due to lack of interest, mis-informed by a biased media, or mis-led by self-serving political rhetoric, choose to bow down to our enemies rather than stand up for the things that used to define what it meant to be an American.

Should Bush relent on Iraq and announce a plan for troop withdrawals? It is very hard for me to grasp that I even have to answer such a question. Of course not. Why should we quit and run when we are making such progress? Why should we send the world the message that when we get bored with a crisis we walk away. How can such an unpatriotic attitude like surrender even be an option for the most powerful nation in the world? How is it that in an age of vast resources for information unlike there has ever existed in the history of mankind, our people can make decisions based on bias, greed and a complete lack of effort to find the truth for themselves?

We know the news media is sensationalized and biased. Yet many continue to use it as their sole source of information. We know our politicians, other than a few that remain for the right reasons, are only out for our votes, and use our fears and desires against us to achieve their own twisted agendas. Yet rather than seek to find out the truth for ourselves, most Americans seem to choose the path of the sheep and allow themselves to be told what is what rather than use the resources God and science have given us to make informed decisions for ourselves.

Should

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