Do Your Bit

This next week will reveal much about whether the United States will remain a vital, important nation.

Vital nations defend their citizens. Vital nations defend their borders. Vital nations crush their self-declared enemies.

Important nations act with or without help from their friends. Important nations maintain a global reach. Important nations are feared, respected, and rarely trifled with.

We can’t go on letting barbarians kill our people. We can either wage and win this war in our enemies’ lands and (eventually) hearts and minds, or we can simply defend ourselves at home.

If we fight and win, we carry American values past our shores, and liberate trampled lands. If we retreat behind our borders and play defense, then we’ll lose our American values — freedom, privacy, trade — in the attempt to make ourselves safe.

As a nation, we could probably become safe and neutral as Switzerland — just with a bigger, fascist Army, and strip searches to get into the Post Office. But as a people, we could never accept the retreat and humiliation.

We can fight them there, or fight ourselves here. The choice is that stark. The outcomes are that drastic. It comes down to oppressive homeland security, or bashing the bad guys until they cry uncle.

Will George W. Bush have what it takes to sell this war to Congress?

Will Congress cut off the Executive — and our futures — at the knees?

Will we kowtow to the sickly, hypocritical creatures who make up the United Nations Security Council?

I don’t know. Neither do you.

You do know where I stand. I think you know the stakes. Over the next two days, you’ll be tempted by the media to first wallow in national pity, then to “get closure” with the events of 9/11/2001.

Don’t wallow — wallowing is the first step to surrender. Don’t ask for closure with the attacks — demand victory over our attackers.

Spend the next two days writing your Congressman and your Senators. Send a letter of support to the White House and the State Department.

Act. Speak. Lend some backbone to those who might need it in the coming days and weeks.

It’s that important.