Politics & Power Quote by John Doolittle

“No amount of time” is doing the heavy lifting here: it preemptively shuts down the idea that grief fades into policy restraint. Doolittle is writing a blank check in the language of mourning, welding emotion to state action so tightly that questioning the action can be framed as disrespecting the dead. The phrase “avenging those lost” is especially revealing. “Justice” would imply courts, evidence, and proportionality; “avenge” implies a moral debt that can only be paid through punishment. It’s older, hotter language - closer to blood-feud than jurisprudence - and it invites the public to experience retaliation as loyalty.

“America has a sharp memory” personifies the nation as a single body capable of feeling, remembering, and striking back. That rhetorical move matters because it compresses disagreement: if the country is one creature with “firm resolve,” dissent becomes not a competing strategy but a kind of forgetfulness, even softness. The triad (“sharp memory, firm resolve, and a commitment…”) is classic political cadence, designed for soundbites and applause, turning complicated geopolitical choices into a moral posture.

Contextually, this sits squarely in the post-attack atmosphere where leaders needed to project certainty, not process. The subtext is reassurance through escalation: you are not helpless; your government can act; time will not domesticate the wound. The clipped final clause - “a commitment to her own” - leaves the object unstated, but the implication is protection of citizens by whatever means. That vagueness is a feature: it keeps options open while keeping the public emotionally enlisted.