A snapshot of resolve

Certain photographs snapped at exactly the right moment in human events carry so much power, they go down in history for influencing whole nations and capturing their character. That’s the essence of the new movie “Flag of Our Fathers,” and I’m eager to see it. 

Lt. Col. Oliver North is devoting his ‘War Stories’ episode this Sunday evening on Fox News Channel to that event. I got a good idea of what the film evokes from a post my Marine friend Carmen put on his blog today.

I highly recommend that you go see this movie.  It absolutely moved me to tears, and it takes quite the effort to do that…

The movie got me to thinking (and it’s even mentioned in the movie), can a picture turn the tide in a war?  Can a picture change the outlook of the American public in a war?  After seeing this movie, I believe that answer is yes.
In 1944, the American war machine was running out of time and money.  Especially money.  Along with that, the American public’s taste for war with the Japanese had soured.  Even after the events of Pearl Harbor.  Then…it happened.  Thousands of brave Marines and sailors invaded a small pacific island known as Iwo Jima.  At the west end of the Island, was Mt. Suribachi, from which the Japanese would launch a defense of epic proportions.  Five days into that battle, Old Glory was raised on that desolate mountain top, and the now famous picture was taken.

When the photo was published, the American defense department was very low on funding.

The War Department needed 14 million dollars in bonds to be raised in the next month in order to continue to finance the war and defeat the Japanese.  Because of that picture, records show that the War Department raised almost 23 million dollars that month.  A bond drive the likes of which would never be seen again.

But, the amazing thing about this picture is that it gave the American people hope.  It gave the American people a sense of victory.  That we could in fact, defeat the Japanese and win the war.  That picture, in my opinion, and the opinion of many others who are smarter than I, turned the tide of the war in the Pacific.

He goes on to raise some good points about the power of images, the mainstream media tendency now to run only images of death and destruction in the war in the Middle East, and the need for broader coverage from the troops’ perspective, and the good they have done in the countries there.

Where to go from there is the main topic in this political campaign season, which is why the American public does need to have broader reporting on our involvement in the war on terror, the situation among those countries that border each other in the Middle East, and what the realistic prospects are, going forward.

Here’s something I found a few days ago that seemed unusually informative and thorough, and therefore helpful in figuring out geopolitical tension right now. The article is a good snapshot of the present nuclear standoff among several different nations.

These elections hinge largely on what direction America wants to take in the war on terror, and what direction the different politicians would take us in, if they were elected. We should be as unemotional but as reasonable as possible in preparing to vote.

Because after the heated rhetoric fizzles out like all those election party balloons, America will be led one way or the other in national security. They are dramatically different directions. And our enemies are watching.