Barbara Kaye “University of Tennessee” and Tom Johnson, “Texas Tech” are doing a followup survey to an earlier one from 2003 examining blog use during the Iraq War. You can find articles from that study in the books Global Media Goes to War and Cybermedia Goes to War. In particular, they are interested in what motivates people to use blogs for information on the war and how credible they perceive a variety of blogs that discuss the war (e.g. war blogs, political blogs, media blogs milblogs).

For Survey Click Here

The Democrat controlled Congress passed their defeatist war funding bill and the President fulfilled his vow to veto it. Now we are back to square one. The war is still being waged and the money needed to wage the war is still being used as a political weapon by both sides. Democrats have promised to find a way to force an end to the war. The President has vowed to support the war until Iraq is stable. And all the while our troops continue to fight and die.

Our military leaders will tell you that there is only one end to a war. Someone wins and someone loses. There are no half measures. You can’t simply decide one day that you’ve had enough and you don’t ant to fight anymore. Well actually you can but it isn’t called ending the war. It’s called surrender. Simply saying that we are done fighting is not a sign of strength or decisiveness or a change in priorities. It is a surrender. It is pulling out and giving the enemy, the people who have been killing your troops and planning the insurgency, victory.

I have said before that the more the Democrats and anti-war camp try to push timelines and troop withdrawal dates on the war effort, the more they are inspiring the enemy to continue to fight. They are giving the enemy hope. They are giving them a way to victory. There is only one way out of a war. You either win it or you lose it. There is no middle ground. We can talk about a truce or a draw, but there is no such thing. The enemy wants us out of Iraq so they can move in, take power and establish a safe haven for anti-American terrorists. If we pull out of Iraq before the country is able to defend itself form these terrorists then we are giving them their victory. And if they win, we lose.

If the anti-war side would call their plan for “withdrawal” or “moving on” what it really is then perhaps the American people would see the folly and the betrayal in their actions. It is a surrender. Those who are calling for us to leave Iraq, cut and run and bring the troops home are asking our service men to run up a white flag and surrender. They are asking for us to concede. They are asking the American public to admit and accept defeat in a war that can still be won if given the support it needs.

I read an interesting article just yesterday about the times the flag is lowered to half staff. We all know that when we drive by a building and see a flag at half staff it symbolizes mourning. It is a sing that something tragic has occurred and that the nation is grieving a loss. In the wake of the massacre at Virginia Tech, flags across the country were lowered to half staff. Innocent students and professors had been killed in a senseless act of violence and the nation grieved for their loss. And we should grieve. It was a terrible loss and showing our sorrow and our support by lowering the flag was appropriate. But, as this article pointed out, we never lower the flag when one of our troops in Iraq or Afghanistan is killed. When we see a story of another IED or an ambush that has claimed the life of an American hero, do we ever see the flag lowered the next day? No.

It saddens me to think that we have come to a point where we take the loss of our service members for granted. Have we become so immune to the shock and the sorrow of one of our young men or women losing their life defending this country that we no longer need to acknowledge that loss? Have we come to expect those losses? Have we come to expect the men and women who serve this country to give their lives? The price of freedom is sacrifice. The cost of war is the lives of those who are willing to fight. That is no secret and it is not a surprise. But simply because we know war comes with death does not mean that does has lost its sting.

After September 11th, the nation mourned for the innocent lives lost because of a few evil men. Flags were lowered, funds were raised, donations given to the families who had lost their loved ones. None of that has been done for the men and women of our armed services who have given their lives trying to prevent another September 11th. Our troops have volunteered to take up the fight, they have volunteered to put their lives on the line. They know they might never come home again and still they go. But that doesn’t give the rest of us a pass. It doesn’t give us the right to take their sacrifice as for granted. Every death of a service member should be honored and acknowledged.

There is a church in Topeka, Kansas that has made it a mission to picket military funerals. The Westboro Baptist Church has been regularly picketing the White House and streets in their hometown. They hold signs and mill around generally trying to draw attention to themselves and their message. Are they war protestors? Are they anti-Bush activists? Are the using their freedom of speech and protest to speak out against our presences in Iraq? No, they are protesting against homosexuality. And now they are exploiting our fallen soldiers.

This church, though truly I hesitate to use that word to describe such a hate filled group, has decided to use the funerals of our fallen heroes to draw attention to their anti-gay rhetoric. They find scheduled military funerals and publish the dates and locations on their website. Then they organize a group to travel to the funeral and picket. They hold signs that say that God killed those service members because the United States is too tolerant of homosexuals. Examples of their signs (freely offered by their website) read “FAGS DOOM NATIONS, THANK GOD FOR DEAD SOLDIERS, FAG TROOPS, GOD BLEW UP THE TROOPS, GOD HATES AMERICA.” I repeat, they do this at military funerals. They line up as close as they can get to the flag draped casket of a hero who died defending this country and hold up a sign that says “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” in front of his widow, his parents, his children and his friends. If you are not appalled by this desecration of the final honors given to our fallen troops, you need to be.

One family who was subjected to the cruelty of the Westboro Baptist Church has taken the group to court and won. The parents of Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder sued the group for picketing their son’s funeral and posting pictures of their demonstration on their website. The family has been awarded $3,000 by a federal judge. The church is of course outraged. I am outraged too, but only because a monetary award will never make up for the pain and suffering those picketers caused the Snyder family.

It’s one thing to assemble and protest and yell at the wind if you feel the need to. But it is not acceptable to mock and desecrate the honorable sacrifice of a young man or woman who gave their life for this country. The actions of this group are beyond disgusting. They are beyond disrespectful. They are nothing short of cruel.

In 480 BCE a small group of warriors stood against millions. They knew they faced almost certain death. They knew that they probably would not receive reinforcements. And yet they held their ground, they refused to retreat and their actions did nothing less than save Western civilization. This is the story of 300 Spartans who held off the two million man army of Xerxes of Persia. Xerxes stood on the brink of defeating and enslaving all of Greece and he was held off by the determination and commitment of 300 well trained men.

The story of the Spartans stand in Thermoplyae is one of the most inspiring in all of military history. It has been immortalized in fiction, graphic novels and now the wildly successful movie 300. It is the story of a king who saw the threat posed by Xerxes and his fanaticism. King Leonidas knew the destruction and devastation that would befall Greece if Xerxes was not stopped. The Greek politicians were afraid and reluctant to confront the Persian threat. They stalled and debated and bickered while Xerxes built his army and moved closer to Greece. Leonidas took action. He chose a small squad of Spartan soliders and marched off to fight the largest army the world has ever known. He chose a narrow mountain pass to make his stand. Every Spartan save the one left to tell the story died on the battlefield. But their sacrifice and their incredible bravery rallied the rest of Greece and a year later the Greek army defeated Xerxes. Democracy was saved in its infancy by the selfless actions of a few.

This story is an endless source of inspiration. It teaches us about courage, esprit de corps and sacrifice. Today as war rages on in Iraq it teaches us about the spirit of those who serve this country. While our politicians and public debate the war, threaten to cut funding and use it as a political platform, our soldiers fight. While people back home debate and criticize and second guess the war, our Marines engage the enemy. While the media dwells on casualties and tragedies, our sailors, airmen and national guardsmen are holding the line. Leonidas and the Spartans who fought beside him saw the threat facing their nation. They looked out across the mountains and saw the army waiting to destroy their homes, murder their families and enslave their children. Our troops today have looked the enemy in the eye. They have seen the brutality and the fanaticism the terrorists have in mind for our country. Our troops are making a stand against an enemy that wants to destroy our culture. They are an inspiration as well. And in the years to come, perhaps their sacrifices will get the honor they deserve and serve to unite freemen and women against those who would enslave us.

I have been asked recently by a reader if I am for real. Can I be serious in my views? How can I truly believe that victory in Iraq is possible? Am I just blowing smoke and talking about the impossible for money, fame or attention? That’s a fair question and here is the answer…yes I am for real. Yes, I am serious. Yes, I believe victory in Iraq is possible. And no I am not in it for money or fame (though I wouldn’t say not to either one).

I absolutely believe that we can win in Iraq. It is not a secret that we have one of the strongest and best equipped militaries in the world. We have the man-power, we have the technology and we have the weaponry to devastate any country in the world. That is not something we need to be ashamed of. That is the simple truth. Is there anyone who believes that we lack the practical means to wipe Iraq off the face of the earth? No.

We have not won in Iraq yet because we have been fighting a civilized war. That is far more than we can say for our enemies. We are fighting fanatics who leave IED’s and don’t care if they kill military of civilian targets. We are fighting terrorists who willfully and with premeditation target innocent men, women and children to press their own extremist agenda. We are not the bad guys. The bad guys attacked us. The bad guys killed 2,973 people on September 11th and were disappointed that they hadn’t killed more. The simple reason that we have not won in Iraq is because we are the good guys and we are fighting fair.

Our troops are putting themselves at greater risk out of their concern for the Iraqi people. They are circumspect in their actions, they are carefully in who the arrest. They are working not only to preserve the infrastructure of Iraq as much as possible; they are also working to rebuild that which has been destroyed. They are not only rebuilding the damage caused by the Iraq War, but damage caused by the oppressive rule of Saddam Hussein.

Is victory in Iraq possible? Absolutely. But we want a just victory; a victory that honors those who have fallen, that benefits the Iraqi people and that makes our country safer. So victory will take longer than we want because we are fighting the good fight. Which is far more than we can about our enemies.

There are many good people in America who want to support our troops. They send cards, letters, care packages and their prayers to the men and women who are serving this country. They donate to organizations that help our wounded service members, they volunteer in the USO, they give blood and reach out to the families left behind. Each and every one of these actions helps our troops. Even the smallest gesture – a child’s drawing sent to a deployed Marine, a $2 donation to The Fisher House – each of these acts of support and appreciation lets our soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen know that they are not forgotten.

But for those of us who want to do more, who want to not only support our troops but actively help in the fight against terrorism, is there anything we can do? The answer is yes. We don’t have to enlist in the military, we don’t have to join the reserves, we can join the fight from our living rooms. There are ways that we, as civilians can take up metaphorical arms against the enemies our troops are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and the terrorists who seek to threaten and destroy our way of life. Does that sound far fetched? It is possible.

There are ways, some big and some small, that we can actively join the fight against terrorism. There are organizations that are working to provide our troops with the items they need to build trust and relationships with the Iraqi people. You can donate to these organization and help our troops win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people and encourage them to take a stand against the insurgents who will, when it comes down to it, attack the Iraqi people just as they have attacked our troops.

The current fight on Capital Hill over the war is another front you can join. Write your Congressmen or women and demand that they stop retreating. Demand that they commit themselves to victory. If you are a gifted public speaker, you can reach out to your community and work to bridge cultural and religious gaps within your own neighborhood. The more we promote understanding and tolerance between different groups, the more we will promote peace and the terrorist will lose their influence. Encourage alternate sources of energy. Oil gives money to the terrorists. If we can reduce our dependence on foreign oil, we will take money out of the hands of the fanatics who will use that money to attack us.

There are ways we can fight against terrorists and fanatics as living room soldiers. We don’t all have the ability or availability to join the military, but we can all use our intelligence, our resources, even the internet to fight against the enemies who, I promise you, are already fighting against us.