Why Do We Fight?

Why Do We Fight?

by Danny Clay Lee


         During World War Two, Hollywood produced a series of films titled Why We Fight produced by Frank Capra. Shown in theaters across the nation and to every soldier, sailor, airman and marine, few if any questioned why we fought. In this second round of the Gulf War, Hollywood has produced mainly protests.

         During the Second World War, many Hollywood stars enlisted in the armed services to fight for their country. Jimmy Stewart, Clark Gable, Tryone Power and David Niven, to name just a few, not only enlisted, but went into combat. Today's Hollywood stars, for the most part, don't have the time nor the inclination to do anything for their country. Their biggest apparent fears are the war disrupting the Oscars, their latest filming schedule or their court-side seats at the Final Four.

         Most have forgotten the words of one of their revered heroes, John F. Kennedy who intoned, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask why you can do for your country."

         So much for the Hollywood Left's memory.

         The Hollywood Left claims their protests are patriotic and their right. Yet when hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Country Music fans protests the anti-war words of Dixie Chicks Natalie Maines, the Hollywood Left houts, "Foul!" Not buying the Dixie Chicks' CDs or asking C&W radio to suspend Dixie Chick songs from stations' playlist is not a right according to the Hollywood Left. That is persecution, they claim, an illegal boycott fostered by yet another vast Right-Wing Conspiracy.

         When Martin Luther King called for boycotts in the 1960s, the Hollywood Left and many Americans of good conscience marched arm-in-arm with him. It was their right to do this. Now The Hollywood Left denies those rights to anyone opposed to their thoughts. Selective memory strikes again.

         So, with the majority of Hollywood movers and shaker against serving in any capacity other than to protest, one may ask: why do our troop fight? With the majority of the Democratic Party leadership against the war, one may ask again: why do our armed services fight?

         The young men and women who are now engaged in combat in Iraq, why do they fight? It is not plunder or booty. They seek no territorial gain nor gold or silver. It is not blood lust as their Rules of Engagement are the strictest in all human history ever placed on any fighting force going into battle. They will not rape and maim, nor loot and torture. No civilians will be taken as hostages nor will any be summarily executed by American or British troops.

         These troops carry no chemical or biological agents to loose upon the Iraqis, civilian or military. The offer humane care to any POW and all refugees. None will be turned away or beaten up. None will be raped.

         Now, consider the track record of the Iraqi troops we face commanded by Saddam Hussein. In the past twenty odd years he and his military and secret police have plundered for booty. They have invaded for territorial gain. They have looted both gold and silver. They have gassed their military foes and civilians who opposed them. They have raped and maimed. They have raped female POWs.

         Their Rules of Engagement is carte blanc for the Iraq military, the ends justify the means. Nor is any act too despicable nor beyond the pale for success in battle or in control of their objectives. Hostages are taken and either killed out right or just simply disappear off the face of the earth. They care not for the ecology of the planet as they set Kuwait's oil fields ablaze in 1991 and are even now torching their own.

         If these actions by the Iraqi Military and Leadership is not enough reason to fight, then one British Commander told his troops the Iraqi have a stain on their souls. His point is well founded in recent history.

         So, why do our troops fight? If you are not convinced by what I have written above, then you tell me?