Ever since the War on Terror began, with our military forces being deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, there have been many anti-war protestors claiming that war is not the answer, and that we could win this battle through diplomacy. It all sounds great actually. I mean our soldiers would have been kept out of harm’s way, and we could have gotten that nice warm and fuzzy feeling telling us that everything is going to be ok, because we talked things out with the bad guys.But I look at it differently. I see it as if it were a sporting event – hockey, for example. In hockey, you have two teams each with two types of players – defense and offense – both being equally important to the team’s success. Now everyone who has ever played, or even watched hockey (or any sport for that matter) knows the importance of the team’s offensive and defensive characteristics. Without a defense, you couldn’t expect to stop the opposing team’s offense from scoring, and without an offense, well the best you could hope for is a 0-0 tie.
So how does this relate to our national security? The way I see it, is if you take our military forces and use them strictly for defensive purposes, the best we can hope for is the ability to defend the country against every single terrorist attack. Going back to the hockey example, in this situation, all we would have done is tied if we successfully defended against all attacks. And each successful terrorist attack would be the equivalent of a goal scored.
On the other hand, if we were to split up our forces, into both a defensive force, and an offensive force, we could use the offensive force to eliminate a lot of the threats that our defensive forces would otherwise have to defend against. Thinking about the hockey example again, in this situation it would be like having the ability to keep the puck on the opponent’s end of the ice for the majority of the game, allowing the defense to worry only about the few loose pucks that manage to make their way to the other end of the ice.
In terms of national security, I would much rather eliminate known potential threats on our terms, rather than have to deal with them at a moment’s notice when they decide they want to strike. And the fewer potential threats there are, the safer we will be.
So the next time you hear someone moaning about how Bush needlessly rushed off to war, ask them if they’d like to play some 1-on-1 hockey. They’ll be the defense, and you can play offense. And please, if anyone actually does this, post your scores here.
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