Letter: Flexing muscle won’t cure Middle East

Sunday, Dec. 3, 2006 | 7:43 a.m.

Thanks to Stuart L. Posselt, in his Nov. 29 letter, for being one of those who continually remind us what happened on Dec. 7, 1941, and Sept. 11, 2001. Though I do agree with his conclusion that we should stand together, I take issue with his assessment of the meaning of those events and his idea about whom we should stand behind.

Japan was a world power that had brutally conquered China, most of Southeast Asia and a good chunk of the Pacific when it tried to eliminate our fleet in Pearl Harbor. It was allied with Germany, which was in the process of attempting to destroy our parent country, Great Britain, after having invaded most of continental Europe. Those enemies were defeated by us and our allies not because of our showy use of atomic weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki - the fire bombs on other cities such as Tokyo and Dresden killed far more people - but because they lacked the military and industrial wherewithal to continue.

If anyone thinks that destroying a few Middle Eastern or Asian cities will show "America's resolve" and then all the religious extremists scattered across the Muslim world will throw down their arms and stand in line to sign surrender papers, he is seeing a different universe than most of the rest of us. Most of the rest of us finally got some clarity about the true threat we face and the duplicity and incompetence of the Bush administration in handling it, and we expressed our "resolve" in the last election. The American desire for freedom is just as strong as ever, and we will fight anyone who tries to take it away from us, whether it is foreign powers, foreign ideologies or even domestic ones.

I am certain that this country has those within it who have the intelligence, nerve and principles to meet any challenge. The people's job is to see to it that self-serving politics and greed do not remain in the way. The "sleeping giant" has indeed been awakened!

Bob Hannah, Henderson