A message worth remembering this Memorial Day...

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

-John Stuart Mill

As I sit here with my parents watching Patton this Memorial Day weekend, I am driven to argue with my mother over the merits of war and the necessity of believing that war is necessary and that though I could never claim to understand what it takes to make it through war being my self just a civilian, I could certainly understand what is worth fighting for and what is not. This is something that not just my mother has lost sight of recently, as the entire country has gradually abandoned the military as they bear the brunt of the enemies brutality based on the sensationalized images and political pandering of Democrats and those sympathetic to their message in the mainstream media.

I have no problem with people that hate war, and in fact I wish everyone shared that opinion, for the world would certainly be a different and better place. However, this is not the world we live in, and I doubt very much that anyone alive today will live to see a world that without violent conflict. Therefore, I am of the opinion that we either need to wage war to win, or decide that we wish to negotiate with our enemies and take the war option off of the table. I am one to believe that if we want to win, we cannot lose.

What are you willing to fight for?

Tags: John Stuart Mill, Wise Words, Republicans, Democrats, War, Memorial Day