From the Halls of Montezuma
to
the
Deserts of the Middle East
Memorial
Day....a day when ALL those who gallantly
fought for the freedom that we enjoy...gave their lives in doing
so...
Anthem Opinions humbly and proudly,
salutes them...all of them...
...on this National Day of
remembrance.
To them, we pay this sincere
homage.
The
Revolutionary War...
from Lexington in 1775 to a Treaty
in Paris in 1783....
The Barbary
Coast War...
with Tripoli on The Barbary Coast...from 1801 to
1805...
The War of
1812..
.against the British...from the first Battle of Tippecanoe in
Indiana in 1812 to its conclusion in 1815...
The
Mexican-American War....
from 1846 to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in
1848....
The American
Civil War....
from Ft. Sumter in 1861 to Appomattox Court House in
1865...
The
Spanish-American War...
from "Remembering the Maine" in April, 1898
through "The Rough Riders" and its conclusion in August,
1898...
World War
I...
"The War to End All Wars"...from the "Dough Boys" in 1917 to The
Treaty of Versailles in 1918....
World War
II...
from Pearl Harbor in 1941 to V-E and V-J Days in
1945...
Korean
Conflict...
from the crossing of the "38th Parallel" in June, 1950 to a cease fire armistice in July, 1953...
Bay of
Pigs...
in April, 1961...
Vietnam Conflict...
from the first American troops in 1965 to
American withdrawal in 1975...
Grenada....
from October to December,
1983...
Persian Gulf
War...
from Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait
in August, 1990 through the success of operation "Desert Storm" in
1991...
Iraqi
War....
from 2003 to the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and its official
ending in December, 2011...
War in
Afghanistan...
a continuing conflict from the Twin Towers attack of
September 11, 2001 to the present.
....and so many other tragic lives
lost in the Indian Wars of the mid-19th century, in
the Dominican Republic in 1965, Lebanon (1982-84), Panama in
1989, Bosnia in 1994-1995, and Kosovo in 1999.
All periods of our modest 237
history when Americans unselfishly sacrificed themselves...for so many others...in order to perpetuate a dream
for future generations to enjoy.
To all branches of our armed
services...Thanks !
We owe them so much....and how best
to conclude this dedication than by the immortal words of
yet another who made the supreme sacrifice...Abraham
Lincoln....
"The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
May all Americans NEVER FORGET these words spoken 150
years ago...
...words that
are perhaps even more appropriate today in the dangerous world in which we
exist...
...and
pray...
...that a trust
and belief in God will never leave the conscience of this great
nation.
Dick
Arendt
In writing this Memorial Day article, I came across something VERY interesting.
ReplyDeleteRemember your history?
The first war the US entered was against the pirates of the Barbary Coast in Tripoli in 1801,essentially a muslim nation that was part of the Ottoman Empire.
Here is the Tripoli's ambassador's justification for the taking of American war ships and killing the crews.
His soldiers were called "mussulmen".
Tripoli's envoy was a man named Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman (or Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja).
Upon inquiring "concerning the ground of the pretensions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury", the ambassador replied:
"It was written in the Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every mussulman who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise".
Anyone not believe in the importance of history?
In failing to master it....you are condemned to repeat it.