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Sixty years ago this month, the United States military sent in their best men onto the small Japanese island of Iwo Jima; my great-grandfather was a SeBee attached to the Marines. This became one of the most bloodiest battles in the Pacific Theatre.
The island was fortified by multiple maching gun bunkers, motar positions, and underground tunnels, with walls as thick as 5 feet. 21,000 Japanese soldiers defended the island; few, if any of the defenders, survived. A part of the Japanese strategy is to "kill 10 Americans before they themselves are killed" http://www.iwojima.com/battle/battlea.htm" title="http://www.iwojima.com/battle/battlea.htm" target="_blank"http://www.iwojima.com/battle...
Mount Suribachi, a volcanic mountain, gave the defenders an advantage by being able to overlook every part of the island, enabling them to call in artillery strikes onto the invasion force.
It was there where the Americans experienced how fanatical the enemy was in defending their Emporer and the island. The Japanese preferred death rather than being captured and experience disgrace from their people.
After 36 days of difficult fighting, costing 6,825 young Marines, Mount Suribachi finall was secured. The soldiers then raised a small American flag over the mountain top, causing great joy over their mission. Eventually, that flag had to be taken down to raise a bigger flag, which then led to the most famous image of all the war:
Today, we are faced with the same type of fanaticalism that these young men experienced at Iwo Jima: the murderous terrorists that are holding Iraq hostage, killing not only American soldiers, but also ordinary Iraqis. These terrorists are the same type of people who flew the planes into the World Trade Center; the same ones that killed 17 American saliors on the USS Cole in Yemen; the same ones who killed 6 people in the first WTC bombing in 1993. What the terrorists are trying to do in Iraq is to remove the resolve of the American people to fight this War on Terror. We cannot allo that. What is happening in Iraq is just like the battle for Iwo Jima: die-hard fanatics against the might of the United States military of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and the Marines.
The terrorists in Iraq will be defeated, just like the imperialistic Japanese that were defeated on Iwo Jima, sixty years ago.
God bless America, our President, and our brave men and women of the United States Armed Forces everywhere they are.
(Most of the info for this I found here: http://www.iwojima.com/" title="http://www.iwojima.com/" target="_blank"http://www.iwojima.com/)
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