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War Commentary, LaVar Christensen

By LaVar Christensen

Salt Lake City, UT –

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President John Quincy Adams spoke to us over two centuries ago when he said, "Posterity, you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it." America is doing just that. We are fighting to preserve freedom, and it's not just America's fight. It's the world's fight. It is the fight of civilization. We are the leaders in that fight, and we have promised all that we will not tire, we will not falter and we will not fail.

Throughout our history it has always been tempting to be isolationist. We are protected by two oceans and an abundance of resources, resolve and courage that have kept us largely free of any foreign intrusions for over 200 years. With the exception of Pearl Harbor and now 9/11, we have never known the terror of nightly bombing and entire cities heaped in ruins. For Americans, war has always been "over there."

We have also never been content to bask in our liberty and ignore the plight of the oppressed elsewhere in the world. Today we are firmly committed to the just cause of Iraqi freedom. Ours is an enduring legacy of never flinching in the face of conflict and never yielding to a murderous dictator who was a known enemy of freedom.

As President Bush has declared, "The commitment of our fathers is now the calling of our time." Regimes like Iraq are,"he said, "heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th Century. By sacrificing human life to serve their radical visions, by abandoning every value except the will to power, they follow in the path of Fascism, Nazism and totalitarianism, and they will follow that path all the way to where it ends, in history's unmarked grave of discarded lies."

That is the battle between truth and error, good and evil that rages on in our midst today, and I am in awe of the men and women of America's military who have volunteered to shoulder that burden for all of us, and indeed, for freedom-loving people everywhere. We pray for their safety and their success. Thank you, America's soldiers, thank you. We are all so proud of you.

LaVar Christensen is a Republican representing the east bench areas of Draper and Sandy (District 48) in the Utah legislature.

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