Elizabeth Bradley’s late husband John was a Navy Corpsman — one of the servicemen who helped hoist the American flag at Iwo Jima and portrayed in the new Clint Eastwood movie, Flags of our Fathers.

After viewing the drama, the 82 year-old widow, pleased that the movie did not glamorize war, hoped that young men and women would see the WWII story before signing up for military service.

"But they don’t really know what’s ahead of them. But if they see movies like this, it might help them make a better decision. And maybe if nobody would go, we wouldn’t have wars. That would be nice," Mrs. Bradley told an AP reporter.

Eastwood’s movie has one simple theme: War is hell. It is neither glamorous nor glorious.

Of course, war is hell. Body parts, accelerating away from a just-moments-ago healthy young soldier are neither glamorous nor glorious. If you want to see the hell part of war — go see Eastwood’s movie. Or Saving Private Ryan or Full Metal Jacket or Platoon or Black Hawk Down. Or talk to any veteran back from Iraq or Afghanistan. Americans know the ugliness of war well.

Just what would Eastwood and Elizabeth Bradley have us do with that information? War is ugly - war is hell. Now what? Have we fought wars, including WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam and now Iraq because we didn’t know war was hell? Or because we had determined that it was worth the price?

Focusing continuously on the price rather than the value of our efforts is a mistake, unless you believe as Eastwood and Bradley apparently must — that there is never a time when the awful price of war is worth being able to maintain our security and way of life.

Consider the world our children will live in should we decide that war is so awful that we are simply going to skip it in the future — regardless of the consequences. Do I need to spell it out? War is the only thing that keeps our fanatical enemies from taking our country, our free-market economy, our culture, our spiritual beliefs, our way of life, our freedom and our very lives.

Wake up America! The time for action is now. 30 million people died the last time the world preferred to sleep while a fascist group grew in strength, territory and ideology.

Someone should remind Mr. Eastwood that peace, under an enemy occupation, can be a worse hell than even war itself. The Jews of Nazi Germany were a peace loving and civilized lot. Most of them believed, as they made their tortured train trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor, or Treblinka, that if they just cooperated and worked hard, the Nazi’s would be reasonable and just. How many of them wished, as the cyanide gas began hissing out of the shower heads, that they had chosen to fight instead of peaceful cooperation with their executioners?

America’s choice is not between war or no war. Our choice is between war or turning over America to the Islamic fanatics.

Americans and most Europeans are a comfortable people. We really don’t want to be bothered by distant bogeymen. We want to enjoy our lives and build our wealth and watch our children grow. And so we sleep. Wake up America!

The time for action is now. 30 million people died the last time the world preferred to sleep while a fascist group grew in strength, territory and ideology. There are approximately 1.3 billion Muslims living on this planet. By some expert estimates supported by recent polls, as many as 30% of them agree with the concept of Jihad against America. That’s 300+ million Islamo-fascists who want us dead and gone and are willing to sacrifice their lives in pursuit of that quest. Death to America.

America’s choice is not between war or no war. Our choice is between war and turning over America to the Islamic fanatics. Don’t want to believe it? Make certain and catch the movie, Wayne Kopping’s Obsession, The Threat of Radical Islam, due to hit theaters soon.