Judson Cox
It's morning in America
By Judson Cox
As Ronald Reagan used to say, "It's morning in America." The people of Iraq have been freed and liberty has been vindicated. In a reminiscence of the toppling of the Berlin Wall, and in a sight more beautiful than spring flowers following a long and barren winter, the people of Iraq were dancing in the streets. Through all the scenes of joyous celebration, one sequence of pictures will remain forever stamped in my mind as being the most vivid metaphor I have ever witnessed. It is the scene the world will remember: Iraqi citizens realizing their first breaths of freedom after living in terror, starvation, and oppression under Saddam’s regime, trying in vain to bring down the giant bronze idol of evil in the image of the dictator. At first with trepidation, taking actions that would have amounted to executionable offenses only a day earlier, they began climbing the statue. They tied ropes to it and pulled. They threw rocks at it. One massive fellow beat its base repeatedly with a sledge hammer, all to no avail. These longsuffering and strong individuals longing to be free could not bring down the statue of Saddam by themselves, any more than they could the regime of the madman.
Then came the American soldiers, American tanks, and vehicles. The cheers of the Iraqis grew louder as the Americans drove up to the statue and made ready to topple it. The Iraqis cheered when the American flag was briefly draped over the head of the tyrant and cheered even louder when American soldiers replaced it with the Iraqi flag. There was no doubt that the American soldiers were there to return Iraq to its people. With the same careful regard that the American soldiers showed to Iraqi civilians during battle, the troops attached a cable to the statue and slowly brought it down in a space cleared of jubilants. The statue clung to its base almost as tenaciously as the dictator clung to power, but it finally fell in a crash, breaking off at the knees. The crowd was ecstatic. The people rushed to dance atop the statue. They broke off the head and dragged it through the street. Grown men and children alike beat it, and every other image of Saddam, with their shoes. They kissed pictures of President Bush, they waved homemade American flags, they yelled, "I love you Bush! I love you America!"
The words of a speech by Ronald Reagan echoed in my mind. In that speech, he told of a refugee in a boat, calling out to the Coast Guard, "Hello America. Hello freedom man!" Here, in the most vivid images of modern television technology, for the entire world to see, was a nation crying out in joy, "Hello America. Hello freedom man!" The argument was over. The lesson of history in dramatic detail before our eyes, America the liberator. America the bastion of freedom, the giver of freedom, the fighter for freedom, the nation founded on freedom. America that never fought a war for conquest, but only to bring mankind to its natural God given state, freedom.
The long winter of cold and dark nights, when America’s critics could impugn her motives, twist her history, and denigrate both her legacy and mission, had ended in a celebration of her virtues. Answered were the arguments of those who, for reasons of ideology or opportunism, were against this war. The shrill cries of the protesters who claimed this was a war for conquest, a war for oil were silenced. Those who said the Iraqi people didn’t want us to free them were proven wrong. Those who called America the villain, the fighter of an illegal war, were disgraced. Those who were "saddened" and who called for more diplomacy were shown that in less than a month, with fewer causalities and destruction than ever before in the history of warfare, a people could be set free, a madman disarmed, and a threat to our safety transformed into a grateful nation. All of those who opposed the war now have to realize that if their policies and ideals had prevailed, those images would not be happening. Those people would not be free; many of them would not be alive. As the history of the gruesome atrocities of Saddam’s regime are told by those who lived through them, those who opposed this war will have to face the fact that if their arguments had carried the day, they would have been complicit in every torture, every murder, every rape, and every starvation that occurred while they prevented America from freeing the Iraqi people. The Iraqis who marched through the streets carrying a banner that read, "GO HOME, HUMAN SHIELDS: YOU U.S. WANKERS!" would be glad to tell them.
It is a time for patriotism in America. It is a time to be proud of our nation, for what it stands for, what it is and what it has done. It is a time to say to America’s critics, "Shut up you Wankers!" America is the greatest nation on earth. No other nation has a record as glorious as America’s in regard to bringing freedom to oppressed people. No other nation has or would aspire to such. As this generation of soldiers returns to a proud and grateful nation, I believe a new era may be ushered in to our shores, an era in which love of country, duty, and honor are held in higher regard than criticism and doing one’s own thing. We may aspire to be as virtuous as the ideals of our nation, the ideals America was founded on, the ideals that we have just seen so vividly in Iraq. May God bless America and may we live up to the gifts and the responsibilities we have been given.
© Judson Cox
As Ronald Reagan used to say, "It's morning in America." The people of Iraq have been freed and liberty has been vindicated. In a reminiscence of the toppling of the Berlin Wall, and in a sight more beautiful than spring flowers following a long and barren winter, the people of Iraq were dancing in the streets. Through all the scenes of joyous celebration, one sequence of pictures will remain forever stamped in my mind as being the most vivid metaphor I have ever witnessed. It is the scene the world will remember: Iraqi citizens realizing their first breaths of freedom after living in terror, starvation, and oppression under Saddam’s regime, trying in vain to bring down the giant bronze idol of evil in the image of the dictator. At first with trepidation, taking actions that would have amounted to executionable offenses only a day earlier, they began climbing the statue. They tied ropes to it and pulled. They threw rocks at it. One massive fellow beat its base repeatedly with a sledge hammer, all to no avail. These longsuffering and strong individuals longing to be free could not bring down the statue of Saddam by themselves, any more than they could the regime of the madman.
Then came the American soldiers, American tanks, and vehicles. The cheers of the Iraqis grew louder as the Americans drove up to the statue and made ready to topple it. The Iraqis cheered when the American flag was briefly draped over the head of the tyrant and cheered even louder when American soldiers replaced it with the Iraqi flag. There was no doubt that the American soldiers were there to return Iraq to its people. With the same careful regard that the American soldiers showed to Iraqi civilians during battle, the troops attached a cable to the statue and slowly brought it down in a space cleared of jubilants. The statue clung to its base almost as tenaciously as the dictator clung to power, but it finally fell in a crash, breaking off at the knees. The crowd was ecstatic. The people rushed to dance atop the statue. They broke off the head and dragged it through the street. Grown men and children alike beat it, and every other image of Saddam, with their shoes. They kissed pictures of President Bush, they waved homemade American flags, they yelled, "I love you Bush! I love you America!"
The words of a speech by Ronald Reagan echoed in my mind. In that speech, he told of a refugee in a boat, calling out to the Coast Guard, "Hello America. Hello freedom man!" Here, in the most vivid images of modern television technology, for the entire world to see, was a nation crying out in joy, "Hello America. Hello freedom man!" The argument was over. The lesson of history in dramatic detail before our eyes, America the liberator. America the bastion of freedom, the giver of freedom, the fighter for freedom, the nation founded on freedom. America that never fought a war for conquest, but only to bring mankind to its natural God given state, freedom.
The long winter of cold and dark nights, when America’s critics could impugn her motives, twist her history, and denigrate both her legacy and mission, had ended in a celebration of her virtues. Answered were the arguments of those who, for reasons of ideology or opportunism, were against this war. The shrill cries of the protesters who claimed this was a war for conquest, a war for oil were silenced. Those who said the Iraqi people didn’t want us to free them were proven wrong. Those who called America the villain, the fighter of an illegal war, were disgraced. Those who were "saddened" and who called for more diplomacy were shown that in less than a month, with fewer causalities and destruction than ever before in the history of warfare, a people could be set free, a madman disarmed, and a threat to our safety transformed into a grateful nation. All of those who opposed the war now have to realize that if their policies and ideals had prevailed, those images would not be happening. Those people would not be free; many of them would not be alive. As the history of the gruesome atrocities of Saddam’s regime are told by those who lived through them, those who opposed this war will have to face the fact that if their arguments had carried the day, they would have been complicit in every torture, every murder, every rape, and every starvation that occurred while they prevented America from freeing the Iraqi people. The Iraqis who marched through the streets carrying a banner that read, "GO HOME, HUMAN SHIELDS: YOU U.S. WANKERS!" would be glad to tell them.
It is a time for patriotism in America. It is a time to be proud of our nation, for what it stands for, what it is and what it has done. It is a time to say to America’s critics, "Shut up you Wankers!" America is the greatest nation on earth. No other nation has a record as glorious as America’s in regard to bringing freedom to oppressed people. No other nation has or would aspire to such. As this generation of soldiers returns to a proud and grateful nation, I believe a new era may be ushered in to our shores, an era in which love of country, duty, and honor are held in higher regard than criticism and doing one’s own thing. We may aspire to be as virtuous as the ideals of our nation, the ideals America was founded on, the ideals that we have just seen so vividly in Iraq. May God bless America and may we live up to the gifts and the responsibilities we have been given.
© Judson Cox
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