Washingto needs a wake up call.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is making calls for the United States to “Go for Broke”, in an “All the way or Nothing” war against terrorism.

The only way to prevail in the war against violent extremists is "if we are in it all the way," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Pentagon reporters Friday."We can, we must, and we will see it through to completion," he said. Rumsfeld borrowed a quote from Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who, two days after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, acknowledged that all Americans were in World War II together. "We are in it all the way," Roosevelt said. "We must share together the bad news and the good news, the defeats and the victories, the changing fortunes of war."

In my opinion the Bush administration made a large error not calling for a declaration of war against terrorism following the 9/11 attacks on American soil. I’m sure everyone recalls the songs of patriotism and the handholding by Senators the days after the attack. Party affiliations were tossed out the window that morning as Washington declared its unity with all Americans during our time of grief. I remember some being interviewed stating they would support a declaration of war against terrorism if the President calls for it and the media spin when he did not.

That specific action by the President would have placed the war on terrorism into perspective and the responsibility of any subsequent “boots on the ground” reaction or first strike shared by Congress as well as the President. Once again we send our military into action without specific support by Congress to back them up. One would think that Washington would have learned from its mistakes of the past with the police action of Korea and the undeclared war in Viet Nam. The use of military force through strategic air strikes or ground troops requires the full support of Washington for it to succeed. The size and scope of the response does not matter.

American’s traditionally have a limited memory of aggressive acts against us as well as the feeling of wanting to strike back once the military begins taking casualties. They begin to forget why we committed our military and begin wanting it to immediately come home. We would find ourselves living under a different flag and rule if we would have had this knee-jerk response in WWII. The military battles we honor today such as the Battle of the Bulge, Guadelcanel, Iwo Jima, would have never transpired if America had operated in that manner then. If that were today, the military casualties we incurred in those three engagements would have lead American’s to the streets and Congress screaming for Roosevelt to step down from his throne.

As in two past wars we find ourselves fighting at home as well as abroad. Once again the actions of Washington and protesting by the people are wearing down the moral of our troops just as much, if not more than the enemy. Washington needs a wake up call. We would think the debacle of the last two would have been it.