By Robin Rowe

Osama bin Laden killed in a firefight with U.S. Special Forces soldiers like these boarding a CH-47 Chinook helicopter.

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Gosh!TV) 5/1/2011 – “The death of bin Laden marks the most significant schievement in our fight against terrorism,” says President Barack Obama in a special television appearance at 8:30 tonight. “America is not at war with Islam and never will be. Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader. He was a mass murderer of Muslims.” The President was referring to the many Muslims killed in Al Queda attacks around the world, including at the New York World Trade Center.

Bin Laden was tracked down not in the mountainous tribal lands on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan, but in a mansion on the outskirts of the capital of Pakistan. Obama said that American intelligence first got a lead in August toward bin Laden’s location. After the attack, Bin Laden’s death was confirmed by DNA.

In his speech to the nation, Obama spoke of the resolve of the United States to protect its citizens and defend it’s allies, starting with removing the Taliban government in Afghanistan that was providing safe haven to bin Laden and Al Queda. Obama said that shortly after taking office he instructed the CIA to make killing or capturing bin Laden the top priority. “Justice has been done,” says Obama. “Tonight we are reminded that America can do whatever we set our minds to do.”

Marines fire a 3-volley salute on Nov. 2, 2009, as the amphibious transport New York (LPD 21) passes Ground Zero. The ship has 7.5 tons of World Trade Center steel in her bow. U.S. Navy photo.

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Gosh!TV) 11/11/2009 – War is one of life’s irrational situations where most people can agree it’s wrong, yet the consequences without it can be much worse. As long as there are tyrants, and as long as there are those willing to use force of arms to oppose them, there will be wars. At least, if there’s to be freedom in this world.

Veterans Day originally had a different name and a somewhat different intention. President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed an Armistice Day for November 11, 1919, as “a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as Armistice Day.” It celebrated peace, the end of WW1 a year earlier. In 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower renamed the holiday as Veterans Day in recognition of the services of all veterans, an idea put forward by a shoe store owner, Al King in Emporia, Kansas.

A peace policy didn’t work when dealing with Hitler and never does with dictators, warlords or pirates. England may have saved money initially with the appeasement of Hitler, but that peace led to war. That England and France didn’t fight to defend Czechoslovakia from Germany’s invasion gave Hitler the raw materials he needed to attack them next.

There was widespread support for a policy of peace at any cost after the horrors of WW1 killed 16 million and the influenza pandemic of 1918 killed 50 million. However, WW2 wasn’t the first time the United States went to war because peace was worse.

In March 1785, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams went to London to negotiate with Tripoli’s ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman. Asked why U.S. merchant ships in the Mediterranean were being attacked by Tripoli’s ships without provocation, the ambassador replied that it was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave. The Muslim ambassador said that every Muslim who was slain in warfare was sure to go to paradise.

By 1800, U.S. payments for passage on the high seas in ransom and tribute (or “protection” as the mafia calls it) amounted to 20% of the U.S. government’s annual income. To put an end to that, the United States launched the First Barbary War from 1801 to 1805. That peace was short lived because the pirates took advantage of the absence of the U.S. navy while fighting the War of 1812 against England. The Second Barbary War was from 1815 to 1816.

The U.S. marines invaded Tripoli in 1805, as the opening of the Marines Hymn notes, “From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli….” General William Eaton and marine first lieutenant Presley O’Bannon made a surprising march across the desert from Alexandria, Egypt, to capture the Tripolitan city of Derna. For the first time in history, the United States flag flew in victory on foreign soil. In 1816, at the end of the Second Barbary War, 1,083 Christian slaves and the British Consul were freed.

The United States army, air force, navy and marines continue to protect U.S. citizens and allies across the world. Veterans Day celebrates and shows the country’s appreciation of their courage and sacrifice for the cause of freedom and liberty.