Diplomacy is the language of the politician, but without the force of arms to back it, diplomacy often becomes naught but a barely detectable murmur! What was it that Teddy Roosevelt said: ?Speak softly but carry a big stick??
In today?s political arena, as it was in the Roman Senate of yore, the first rumble that one usually hears is not the machinery of war, but rather the hollow reverberations of those in politics who have reversed the ?Old Rough Rider?s? [Roosevelt?s] philosophy. All too many in international politics today [UN definitely included], scream like hell and carry naught but the swagger stick of pomposity! (opinion) And were it not for loud mouths like Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Khrushchev and Hussein, the world would have been a helluva lot safer place in which to hang one?s hopes and futures! The rhetoric of the political drum beater, although benign in itself, has often led to more bloodshed than any other undertaking in the history of mankind. For without a political battle cry [or a cause if you prefer], many wars could not get beyond the ambition stage!
Getting back to diplomacy, just how far would this [alone] take any nation, were it not for the military muscle behind it? Granted, it does takes a genuine fire-brand [right or wrong] to stir up the emotions of their people, either through speech, writing, or by example! And had it not been for the verbal persuasions or people like Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry, Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, and many, many more, the emotions that were collectively felt by many at that time in history, could not have been channeled into action. But after all was said and done, was it not the military man [or woman] of action, that genuinely saved the day! ?A politician, after all, is but an amplifier of majority sentiment, and the servant of the people?s will?? [opinion]
Have you ever noticed how after most conflicts, no matter where they are contested, it is usually the politico who is first in line to garner the laurels or pass the buck should the cause be lost! ?Any leader, after all, can gather in the accolades of success, but it takes one helluva good man to shoulder the blame for failure!? Regardless of all of the back slapping [or stabbing], however, one fact must never be buried under a mound of political excrement. It being that: ?Were it not for the guy [or gal] doing the actual fighting and dying, diplomacy by itself would be no more effective than a blimp without gas - as hot air alone, can never truly insure freedom or democracy!!?
I Personally deplore the fact that some of our veterans who served with honor and dedication, are still being gifted with unnecessary pain and suffering at the hands of a few bureaucracies! The same bureaucracies that they selflessly helped to defend and preserve! Wars are, after all, not fought to impose ideology alone, but also to preserve the rights of all, including those who were willing to give their lives to insure freedom! And with war being an unfortunate fact of life in a world that marches to many different drummers, should not the ?U. S. Veteran? also be given at least as much consideration as the individual(s), usually far removed, who pushed the button to begin with!?
VERITAS
