Our enemies win through fear

There are many factors that can be considered when trying to determine if your enemy is winning the war against you. Below is one that I believe most people in America haven't considered.

US officers oppose releasing names of dead troops

The chief of the secretive US special operations command has lobbied against the release of names of American commandos killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan, officials said Tuesday.

Thirty US troops were killed on Friday when their Chinook helicopter was shot out of the sky in a remote Afghan valley, but in a break with Pentagon practice, the identities of the dead service members have not been released.

The dead included 22 members of the elite Navy SEAL commandos and three Air Force special operators, and senior officers overseeing the special forces are reluctant to publicly identify the slain troops, officials said.

"There were concerns expressed by the SOCOM (US Special Operations Command) commander about the safety of the members of the unit and their families and the families of the fallen," a senior military officer told AFP.

Since America was attacked on September 11, 2001 many things about our lives have changed. Not the least of which being the impact on air travel and the daily conversations concerning terrorism and what to do next. We have totally altered our way of life and allowed the enemy to dictate how we live ever since that day.

The first example of that impact was when then President Bush shut down all domestic air travel in this country in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. The economic and monetary costs were devastating and in my opinion, they ultimately contributed to our present economic dilemma.

Since the 9/11 attacks, we have waged two wars in the middle east and spent untold billions on both the wars and the housing of hostiles in Cuba and the wrangling over how we should proceed in defense against further attacks concerning domestic security.

But there are also untold and unobserved consequences that have been ongoing and are now unfolding as a result of those attacks. Last Friday, America lost thirty heroes in one single blow in Afghanistan. Twenty five special forces SEALS and Air Force special forces troops died and five air support crew of the chopper. And since then the military has refused to identify those killed, citing secrecy as it concerns our special operations units and concern for the safety of their families.

When interviewed, those in the military and at the Defense Department have indicated that they do not want to compromise the safety of the families of these honored dead by identifying them publicly. So in essence, these brave souls died in service to this nation and now, at a time when they should be publicly honored during their burials, they are relegated to the shadows of secrecy and fear of retribution by our enemies.

I said from the moment that I first heard the news of their deaths, that this was a retaliatory attack against this nation, for our having killed Osama Bin Ladin. I said from the beginning that these men were set up by our supposed allies and led into an ambush where they were killed. By Monday of this week, that assessment was becoming all to clear, as Afghan officials began to confirm those realities off the record and the Defense Department remained mum on the issue.

Now as the remains of these brave souls are returned to their homes and families and as their burials are carried out over the next week, another tragic reality of our enemies effect on our lives becomes apparent. We cannot even publicly honor our deserving dead. For fear that the safety of their families may be compromised. For fear that our enemies will strike out against them.

I can appreciate those concerns, but I can also appreciate the psychological victory being handed to our enemies. They have already achieved a glorious morale boost by killing twenty two of our SEAL Team Six members. The same unit responsible for killing their beloved mentor Bin Ladin. But now they achieve an equal victory in my opinion, when they force us through fear, to bury our honored dead in the absence of any public recognition for their sacrifices. And refusing the nation the ability to honor their lives during the celebration of those lives during their burials is a victory for the Taliban.

These men are American heroes and they should be treated as such. There should be full military honors and the acknowledgments of  a grateful nation. These brave souls will get their military honors, but they will be carried out under the cloak of secrecy. For fear that our enemies might strike at their survivors.

Franklin Roosevelt once famously said: "The only thing we have to fear....is fear itself."

Personally, I can't help but believe that this nation has been living in fear for almost ten years now and I can't help but believe that it is time for it to stop. I also believe that the time has long since past when we should have been instilling greater fear in our enemies, than they will ever be capable of instilling in us.

Maybe one day that will once again be the reality in this nation. But not now. Not under the present circumstances and definitely not while we continue to live in fear.