WHOA!!! FIVE YEARS ALREADY?!?!??

Sigh. You know when you are getting old when Roy Scheider dies at 75 and you have to celebrate a lustrum for defending western civilization. Well, no lustrum for me personally, actually. While DowneastBlog indeed celebrates its fifth birthday this month, I only came on board ten months later, in November 2003. One of the co-founders of this blog, Kerry, had the swell idea was so foolish to bombard me European guestwriter. But by then DB, a project of Kerry, her husband Tom, and Scott, had been online since 9 February 2003, that's right, the month before OIF started. I think it's appropriate, at the occasion of our fifth birthday, to reprint that very first post. It's a time document, a sketch from the past, a snapshot of the mood. Here goes! The actual posting was done by Tom, but actually it's a rant from Kerry:

Kerry's vent:
If I see one more thing about "Iraq making concessions for U2 planes" I am going to lose it! How can they concede something that they already "conceded" in 1991.

As far as all of the people that don't want war, not many people actually "like" going to war, or actively want it to happen, however, history has shown us that in times it is a justified and necessary fight. I love all of these people in Hollywood that think that they know better than those actually having to do the job. No matter what they say about Bush, they can hardly say that he is a "war monger" if they are as "open minded" as they claim to be, he hardly hides his Christianity as his guiding influence. Thankfully after his State of the Union address some people are getting that, with his proposals on funding for the AIDS crisis in Africa, etc. To anyone reading that thinks it is easy to say that if you aren't on the receiving end of the destruction of war, I have more to lose than a lot of these people, my husband is still IRR in the Navy, and could get called up and we have close friends that will have to fly missions if it goes more than a couple of months. My husband's two brothers are in the Army, and his father died serving the Navy for this country. I'd like to see Sean Penn giving equal time to the families living on military bases without their husbands and wives, moms and dads so that he has the freedom to take trips to Baghdad. I'd like to see him talking to those that have nightmares, depression, and all of the other horrific fallout from living through 9-11-01.

Do people actually believe these people that "report" from the streets of Baghdad about the "anti-Americanism" that is there? As if anyone that values their own or their families lives are going to say anything against the regime! I can much more appreciate the Pope's sending a "peace envoy" to try admittedly "as a very long shot" to get the Iraqi regime to cooperate. That is the moral high road, to strive for peace until every possiblity is exhausted, but we differ on where that line is drawn. They've had 12 years to co operate. Anyone in basic management or parenting should get this. It is like saying to your child, "if you keep treating your toys poorly then we will take them away." "Now we really mean it this time, you'd better stop." Imagine a parent doing that for 12 years with a kid. Guess what you'd have? An out of control kid that then believes that nobody is going to follow through because that is the experience. Guess what we have? A dicator that is out of control for the same reasons, thanks to the fabulous leadership of the UN. The lack of commonsense just baffles me.

OK, another Iraq related thing. Tom is going nuts over the word "unilateral". "We are making unilateral moves, rushing to war", you can read in various periodicals on a daily basis. Guess what folks? There are somewhere about 16 nations with us, that isn't "unilateral". And as far as a rush to war, we've been in a "war" with Iraq still since 1991. There was a cease fire agreement, which they have violated at every turn for 12 years. Yes, we have to take some responsiblity for not pushing the UN to do something before this. We have hardly been a rush to war, when it has been 12 years that we have tried the waiting game, which has only fostered growth of defiance and production of weapons of mass destruction. September 11 has changed everything, that is a reality. Boy, it is a good thing that we "waited" to deal with Al Queda and Bin Laden, huh? What does it take for people to get it?

God Bless our troops, our President, our people, every last one, and especially those that misguidedly don't understand that much as you wish for peace, you can not negotiate it with a fanatic.

Five years on, I still find myself in agreement with the basic tenets of this vent, or rant, or whatever you want to call it. Of course, it's easier for me to say so than those who face(d) the enemy on the battlefield. Many brought sacrifices - and too many, by now, the ultimate sacrifice. But I believe that if fate had placed me in their shoes, my reactions and opinions on this conflict still wouldn't have changed. These days I get the impression that far too many people desperately want to get back to the time when all we had to care about was a grounded spy plane in China and how to set your first steps on the Internet, and the most exciting news was that Saparmurat Niyazov was proclaimed President for Life in Turkmenistan. Sorry, but it ain't gonna happen. These days don't come back, and besides, Saparmurat Niyazov is a goner anyway. There is but one sole option: carry on this WOT till we have won.

Over here at DowneastBlog, we are willing to continue, and do what little we can to support those who do the real fighting. As far as I am concerned, if that takes staying around long enough for celebrating the next five years, I'm ready for it. Are you?


MFBB.