November 1, 2004 - One hundred fifty years and one week ago a British brigade of light infantry charged the Russian guns at Balaclava. Alfred Lord Tennyson memorialized that military blunder in the poem that every English speaking student since has been assigned to read. Perhaps we should read it again. It would be well if the former students who occupy the White House and Number Ten Downing Street would recall and apply its lesson. It is, of course, a lesson in the consequence of slavish adherence to a flawed plan in a war fought to no discernable purpose other than the inevitable clash of imperial ambition.

'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
Some one had blundered:
Their's not to make reply,
Their's not to reason why,
Their's but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

The result was a disaster of lives wasted in the inevitable failure of committing a force insufficient to do the job. Tennyson celebrated their bravery dividing his dedication of the troopers to glory while expressing his disdain for the men who sent them into the valley. He glorified the warriors while he vilified the war.

A century and a half later the leaders of the English speaking world are still sending soldiers into what Tennyson called “the mouth of hell”. And tell us that as loyal subjects of the Empire it is not our place to make reply; to reason why; but only to send our children to do and die. They tell us to stay the course that has failed to produce a world any safer from terrorist depredations than it was when we set out on it three years ago.
Like the British commanders at Balaclava the residents at 10 Downing Street and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue insist that their soldiers ride into Valley of Death. Not only that but they insist that they ride into the valley again and again, ill equipped; unarmored and that we make no reply; employ no reason; and pay the price of sustained failure in our children’s’ blood.

America has a choice tomorrow. There is no more important issue in this election than that posed by the Second Iraqi War. Will America ratify the three years of failure by continuing the policy that has so clearly failed or will it make a new beginning, a fresh start? One choice is to retain the leadership that has failed and continue riding into the Valley of Death. The other holds the promise of achieving the objective to which the present administration gives lip service while pursuing its illusions of a New American Empire – a safer world in which Bin Laden and his cohorts face sure and uncompromising justice in a world united against them.