GIVE NO QUARTER: ASK NO QUARTER

by Don Bendell

           Our forefathers gave us a rich heritage of courage and potency borne from escaping the bonds of religious persecution, snapping the chains of slavery, or carving out a wilderness and taming wild lands. We are a nation of varying hues, but at our greatest we only see things in black and white, right or wrong. Some of our mightiest battles have been fought with each other in the arena of political difference. Our weapons have been American wit, sharp-tongued rhetoric, healthy skepticism, and sadly, sometimes even hate. Americans are a fiercely passionate people. We are a nation of laws, charity, and neighborly love, but our true heritage has always been one of courage, extreme passion, action, and an unsated thirst to drink from the sweet waters of freedom     

            In years gone by, there have been those who would have brought tyranny to our shores, but we have emphatically, with word or deed, said “No!” America  does not build giant walls or fences to keep our citizenry within our borders, nor do we have secret police to gather and incarcerate those who are angry or disenchanted, justified or not.  

            Ellis Island and the majestic beauty who never tires of extending her torch to illuminate a bright future for those who have been oppressed, has greeted those to our land as a beacon of hope and affirmation of God’s precious gift of freedom for decades. Our citizenship is indeed a gift reserved for those who would patiently wait their turn to enter the turnstile of opportunity, learn of our storied history, our precious Constitution, and the true meaning of our Pledge of Allegiance, especially that we are “One Nation, Under God, Indivisible.” 

For we are the United States, and when attacked our arguments, normally an excuse to make our adrenalin pump, become less important, because we all treasure our freedoms, and we unite one and all, young and old, black, white, red, yellow, brown, male, female,  democrat, republican, independent, and the apolitical. America is indeed the land of the free, but the enemy, the al-Qaida and its theocratic dictates forget we are also the home of the brave.

            America’s heritage is not to be the land of the politically-correct, the indecisive, or the cowardly lion of make-believe and wish-it-was.   Some Americans will fight with words, some with votes, and many with weapons.  And yes, there are always those who, enslaved to fear and insecurity, will cower under the plastic bushes of pacifism and hope that somehow they will not be viewed as prey by the always-circling raptors of oppression.  

             We Americans, who understand our history, our freedom, our principles, and the sacrifices of our men and women, will fight for those folks, too. And we shall fight for those naïve Americans who fear the commitment of involvement and simply follow the daily distractions rather than the body-politic. We shall even fight to preserve the precious freedoms of those who jeer and mock us.       

And that is where those who struck us on September 11, 2001 made a terrible mistake. As our hands were outstretched in friendship, bearing no weapons, but rather the innocence of love for fellow man, they mistook our kindness for weakness, our compassion for fragility. Yes, we have fought heated battles with each other, oft-times with the unbridled passion of our forefathers. Yes, we even fought a bloody and divisive civil war. However, those who felt we would become one nation “divisible” if they could just strike terror in our hearts with the cowardice of their attacks will rue the very day they made such a suicidal assumption.  

             For on that day in New York City, Washington, DC, and the skies above Pennsylvania, they opened our eyes and steeled our resolve. Americans are now shielded by our armament of enlightenment, as we have seen the gauntlet of greed, jealousy, and avarice tossed on the ground before us. On September 11,  2001, we felt the hot steel of the assassin’s blade pass through our collective unguarded flesh. Since then, we have seen the unyielding belief of jihadists in a God who would want those in his service to die for him, rather than the one true God who loved us so that He, in fact, did die for us. 

            We see those who seek fatah, world conquest, and have chosen to pervert the teachings of true Islam to that of the seventh century and to the attainment of Dar el Islam, but have distorted it even more, to the flawed goals of genocide of all Jews and Christians. We understand that those few thousands worldwide will not entreat us, compromise, or sup at the table of brotherhood and are even a threat to those who practice the true teachings of Mohammad. They also want us to rid the world of this menace, for it threatens their true religion, too.

            To those jihadists, there must be no quarter given and no quarter asked. The swift sword of American might and justice cannot be sheathed to yield to jurisprudence, in our constant quest for fairness, for in this war we must take no prisoners, we must show no mercy. This is a fight to the death and there can be no naïve, doe-eyed compromise, for our enemy wants us dead and will be satisfied with nothing less, now or a decade from now. We are a nation of laws, but first and foremost, America is a nation of freedom, but not for our enemies. America is the land of freedom, FOR US, and for those who will honor and respect our ways,  abide by our laws, learn our traditional language without losing their individual ancestral heritage, and who are willing to fight and die for those very freedoms. For without liberty, we become the enemy. And the jihadists we fight now are more fanatical, more determined, and less merciful than any we have faced in the annals of America at war. With our swords wielded high overhead, ready to smite the first sign of aggression, only then may we coexist with those kneeling in submission in the shadow of our blade.  

            We are free to choose to fight this mighty battle to conquest, or we can fly the lily white flag of indecisiveness. It is incumbent upon us, as Americans, to make our voices heard in this twilight hour before the guns really commence, to tell; no insist, that our leaders lead, with no thought of political gain or correctness, no thought of compromise, and only one goal: We must win, and we must fight the great battles in foreign lands on the soil of others, for the soil of America has been stained too much already with the blood of innocents.

We must shout at our news media that they will have no freedom of the press but will only face the prospect of amputation of the hands that write their liberal missives, if they continue to embolden our corrupt enemy.  By editorializing the news they report, providing free video bomb damage assessment to the enemy every hour on the hour, all for the sake of a story, they hand our enemies, present and future, a scalpel-sharp blade of betrayal that cares not if their intentions were pure when the dagger is plunged into America’s back.

             America is the lighthouse of liberty and has been the strong arm of justice in the world --  It is time for America to grit its teeth and see the mighty battle through. It is now time to shut up and fight, or sacrifice what we must for victory. It is time for us all. It is time for the United States of America. It can be our brightest hour or the beginning of our fall.

I will fight and die to protect it and all that we truly stand for. I will sacrifice and will never give up. I will support our military, our true allies, and our leaders in a united front against those bent on killing liberty.  

 Will you?