Sovereign Lands

At this moment, I'm about as proud to be an American as I know how to be.

Truly, this is the kind of thing that Ronald Reagan spoke about when he described this great nation as "That Shining City on the Hill". And he knew what he was talking about. He was right then.

He is still right, today.

Earlier today, in a ceremony made possible by the readiness of a free and willing Iraqi government, L. Paul Bremmer, representing the United States of America, handed a blue folder to his honor, Midhat al-Mahmood, the Cheif Justice of the new Iraqi Supreme Court.

At the precise moment that folder left Mr. Bremer's hands, a Nation was reborn.

"Before us is a challenge and a burden and we ask God almighty to give us the patience and guide us to take this country whose people deserves all goodness," said President Ghazi al-Yawer after taking his oath. "May God protect Iraq and its citizens."

Name for me another nation in recorded history which does what the United States does. With the most overwhelming military capability that the world has ever known, we enforce the heretofore toothless mandates of the accursed U.N.

We remove from power one of the greater tyrants of the present day, along with his brutal and merciless regieme.

An unstoppable force, yet we do not pillage this land of it's oil or riches.

All we ask is for a small bit of land.

I think that the words of Gen. Colin Powell serve well here. You've heard them spoken, and you've read them before.

You need to read them again.

From the Secretary of State's address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 26, 2003

There is nothing in American experience or in American political life or in our culture that suggests we want to use hard power. But what we have found over the decades is that unless you do have hard power — and here I think you're referring to military power — then sometimes you are faced with situations that you can't deal with. I mean, it was not soft power that freed Europe. It was hard power. And what followed immediately after hard power? Did the United States ask for dominion over a single nation in Europe? No. Soft power came in the Marshall Plan. Soft power came with American GIs who put their weapons down once the war was over and helped all those nations rebuild. We did the same thing in Japan.

So our record of living our values and letting our values be an inspiration to others I think is clear. And I don't think I have anything to be ashamed of or apologize for with respect to what America has done for the world.

We have gone forth from our shores repeatedly over the last hundred years and we’ve done this as recently as the last year in Afghanistan and put wonderful young men and women at risk, many of whom have lost their lives, and we have asked for nothing except enough ground to bury them in, and otherwise we have returned home to seek our own, you know, to seek our own lives in peace, to live our own lives in peace. But there comes a time when soft power or talking with evil will not work where, unfortunately, hard power is the only thing that works.

Iraq is now a Sovereign Nation, with a freedom bought with the blood of Americans and allies from dozens of freedom loving nations.

And wherever the blood of our soldiers has soaked into the sands of Babylon, let that land be considered forevermore as hallowed ground. Sovereign Lands, forevermore titled to those whose lives put paid to the deeds of freedom.

For when it's all said and done, when the rifles are stacked and the cassions have rolled their last, all we ask is for a bit of land.

American Battle Momuments Cemetaries

Aisne-Marne, France
Ardennes, Belgium
Brittany, France
Brookwood, England
Cambridge, England
Corozal, Panama
Epinal, France
Flanders Field, Belgium
Florence, Italy
Henri-Chapelle, Belgium
Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Lorraine, France
Manila, Philippines
Meuse-Argonne, France
Mexico City, Mexico
Netherlands, Netherlands
Normandy, France
North Africa, Tunisia
Oise-Aisne, France
Rhone, France
Sicily-Rome, Italy
Somme, France
St. Mihiel, France
Suresnes, France

Comments

[big al]

Another thing that doesn't get mentioned much, is how much most of America's Founding Fathers ended up losing. These men went up against the worlds mightiest empire of the time and founded a nation. I'm not an expert on this(being canadian) but I do know that these men knew that Liberty and Freedom were worth any price. ..........So the Iraquis shouldn't be discouraged at a few setbacks. What they will get in the end, perhaps not until thier childrens time is worth it.