Politics & Power Quote by Dan Lipinski

Patriotism is doing two jobs at once here: blessing the dead and insulating the policy. Lipinski’s line arrives from the post-9/11 political register where “war on terror” functions less as a describable conflict than as an ongoing condition of national life. By naming it as something that “continues,” he normalizes its open-endedness, smoothing over the uncomfortable fact that a war without a clear geography or finish line can become a permanent justification machine.

The most deliberate move is the pivot from strategy to sacrifice. “Honor the brave men and women” is morally unassailable, which is the point: it shifts the audience from evaluating outcomes to performing reverence. The phrase “gave their lives” frames death as voluntary gift rather than consequence, nudging grief into gratitude and reducing space for dissent. Anyone skeptical of the war’s aims risks sounding like they’re disrespecting troops, a familiar bind in American political speech after Iraq and Afghanistan.

Then there’s the soft-focus pairing of “protection of this nation” with “the hope of peace.” Protection is concrete; peace is aspirational. Placing them side by side creates a moral bridge between violence now and harmony later, implying that continued force is the price of a future calm. It’s a tidy narrative that sidesteps messy questions about civilian casualties, intelligence failures, or whether “terror” is a solvable enemy.

The intent isn’t subtle: rally unity, reaffirm legitimacy, and pre-empt critique by wrapping policy in mourning. In that sense, the line is less a tribute than a political technology - one that turns remembrance into consent.