It's been going on for a while now, this whole business with Iraq. Everyone has a view on it I'm sure. We've all heard about the anti-war protests. The naked people spelling "peace", people burning American flags, burning soldiers uniforms, high school anti-war protests that turn into riots and looting, anti-war protesters that destroy 9/11 memorials and people shouting that soldiers are "baby killers".

More than 70% of the American population support the President. I am not American but I enjoy many of the same rights and freedoms they enjoy. It is because of war and the people who fight them that people are able to protest. It is because of people who stood up for what they believed that we can make our own choices about what we believe and how we want to live our lives.

Prime Minister Cretien has announced that Canada will not support the war. I am ashamed to be Canadian today. The US has always protected us from conflict and we always stood quivering behind as they fought. We need to stand up and show our support. If 9/11 had happened in Toronto, Paris, Frankfurt or anywhere else in the world, the first place they would have called would have been Washington.

The question was not about whether or not a war should happen, it was when and how. If the USA didn't take the steps that it had Iraq would have. Saddam has already begun to accumulate American and British soldiers uniforms. They are going to kill more of their own people. There are already Amnesty International reports describing the horrific things that are being done to the Iraqi people.

Nobody likes war. But whether you agree or disagree with this war, you have no right to mock and scoff our service personnel. What do we say to those people in Normandy? What do we say to those people in WWI and WWII?

Its Always Been The Soldier

It's not CBS or NBC, ABC or CNN that's given us the freedom of the press. Not Jerry Faldwell, Larry Flint, Ted Kennedy or Jesse Jackson that have given us the freedom to verbally express. Not the campus organizer or all the demonstrators that have given us the freedom to march, freely march and disagree. Can't you see?

It has always been the soldier who has made the sacrifice. Standing strong and proud in battle, willing to lay down his life.

Somewhere there's a soldier and he's looking at a picture of his little girl and how he wishes he were home. And somewhere theres a soldier who is reading a love letter and she is telling him that she feels so all alone. And somewhere theres a mom and dad who cry late in the night for a son who won't be coming home; a son who gave his life. Freedom isn't free. Oh, can't you see?

It has always been the soldier who has made the sacrifice. Standing strong and proud in battle, willing to lay down his life.

To the angry man who shakes his fist and burns the stars and stripes, the same flag that drapes the coffins of those who gave their lives: there's no other place that you will go or you have ever been, where the blood of soldiers gives the right to burn the flag again.

It has always been the soldier who has made the sacrifice. Standing strong and proud in battle, willing to lay down his life. It has always been the soldiers fighting for our liberty. It has always been the soldiers.

One person can make a difference. Let your voice be heard.