If we demonstrate we’re weak, the terrorists win. If they win, there will never be peace.
Editor’s note: The following commentary was posted on Angela Marston’s MySpace.com site and is published here with her permission.

Last week we had a major victory in the Global War on Terror, or, as we affectionately call it in the Armed Services, GWOT (pronounced g-wot). Even with this major blow there are still so many doubters as to whether or not we are accomplishing anything, and many more that are flat out opposed to it completely.

I understand the sentiment. Believe me, I do. Every day, I walk around this ship, half the time not really even acknowledging the fact that we are in the middle of operations because it is so much a part of everyday life. There are times though, like today during lunch, that something strikes you and you look around at your shipmates and wonder, “If something were to happen out here, who would we lose? Who would get injured? And who would sacrifice themselves to save someone else?”

It’s hard to imagine, but it’s reality here.

I know people are opposed to sending our nation’s sons and daughters into danger, but put yourself in the shoes of the person who will have to lead them into it. You look these people in the eye every day, you train with them, and inevitably, you end up caring about them. We are fairly safe out here, so I don’t believe that I will ever have to do it, but think about how hard it must be for us to face that possible decision? Yet we don’t oppose it.

We see and hear things every day that most people will never know about and yet we still support it. Not only that, but we volunteered to be here, to be a part of it. No one likes being away from our families and friends. No one came out here thinking they weren’t going to make it back, just like all those who go into the heart of the combat zone, but not one of us is foolish enough to not think that it is a possibility.

Our president recently put himself in similar danger, because he felt it was important for him to go over there for several reasons, not the least of which was so that he could look the soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen who are over there in the eye and tell them that he believes in what they are doing. That he appreciates their efforts, as he has done many times. If you think that you can look anyone in the Armed Services in the eye, when you are responsible for their well-being and not care about them, you are wrong.

We hear about deaths over there every day and every day we grieve a little that one of our comrades has lost their life, whether we have ever met them or not. It could have been any one of us or anyone that we know who serves. It would be very easy for us to come to the conclusion that this is bad, but we do what we do so someone else doesn’t have to. We stand late night watches and we spend months away from our families, and we put ourselves in danger so that our families can sleep at night, safely and soundly.

No one wants war. It’s much easier to serve in a time of peace, but there are some things that you cannot back down from. If we back down from terrorists, we show them that we are too weak as a country to fight them. They win and, in a world where terrorists win, there will never be peace.

Angela Marston of Turner is a graduate of the University of Maine at Farmington and is now serving as a lieutenant junior grade in the U.S. Navy aboard the U.S.S. Trenton based out of Norfolk, Va.