Posted on 09/09/2007 9:17:03 PM PDT by joanie-f
My husband and I discovered this morning that yet another young man whom we know well has volunteered to be deployed to Iraq. He will be leaving in January. Which spurred me to do some serious thinking on the subject of our young men volunteering
My support for the war effort in Iraq has dwindled, for two sad reasons:
(1) Our president told us four years ago that America has to battle the terrorists in the Middle East in order to prevent the need to battle them here on our own soil.
So we are sending our troops six thousand-plus miles from our shores into a region surrounded by a vast sea of enemy sympathizers in order to fight a ruthless adversary, whose supply lines are easily replenished, and who wages war under rules that defy comprehension by the civilized world.
Yet, at the same time, we are leaving our own two-thousand-mile border virtually unsecured, so that those very same barbarians may enter our own country at will, circulating among us, and devising all manner of mass brutality that may eventually make the bloodshed on the battlefield in Iraq seem a comparative walk in the park.
It would appear that our president is intent on facing down the enemy half a world away, while at the same time issuing them an open invitation to walk, unhindered and undocumented, across our unprotected border and
(2) I believe that we are fighting this war with one hand tied behind our backs. Men and materiel are streaming across the borders of Iran and Syria, and our attention is consistently diverted from addressing that critical situation a diversion that costs the lives of both our courageous fighting men, and innocent Iraqis, every day.
With all of that said, I respect beyond words those duty-bound, patriotic Americans who see it as their calling to do their part in creating an island of democracy in a sea of Muslim tyranny, and attempting to keep the terrorists contained and off of American shores. They are truly modern American heroes, standing in the cross hairs so that you and I might go on with life and usual.
Because of the above considerations, I suppose I might be considered a member of the anti-war contingent. But, no matter my thoughts on the prosecution of this war, never would I consider entertaining a negative thought regarding the successes our military has achieved. And never ever would I consider voicing such a thought, in public or in private. To my mind, depending on the tenor of such a voiced opinion, that opinion would be tantamount to undermining our troops, at best, and treason and betrayal of allegiance and duty, at worst.
I ask the readers here to consider the following statement made recently by the infamous senior senator from New York, Chuck Schumer. Then ask yourself whether this man should be allowed to continue to occupy a seat in the American senate. Ill comment no more, and leave the matter for you all to decide:
The violence in Anbar has gone down despite the surge, not because of the surge. The inability of American soldiers to protect these tribes from al-Qaida said to these tribes, We have to fight al-Qaida ourselves. It wasnt that the surge brought peace here. It was that the warlords took peace here, created a temporary peace here ... Senator Chuck al-Schumer, last week in an interview
I ask you, which of the following should be considered an American patriot, and which should be the object of criticism and scorn? Which possesses the moral high ground? Which is the embodiment of the America in which you take pride?
We're living in a Lewis Carroll world, where up is down, black is white, and criminals hold positions of power over heroes ... and have the arrogance and audacity to denigrate their heroism.
~ joanie
Allegiance and Duty Betrayed
Pinged for comment, additions, or further insight.
I’m with you. I listen to the likes of Schumer and I fear for the republic. In the schools where I have taught, most teachers don’t pass on American culture to their students, and actually spend most of their time reviling and insulting American culture.
Two words: Antonio Gramsci.
This says it all for me.
If America is destroyed, it may be by Americans who salute the flag, sing the national anthem, march in patriotic parades, cheer Fourth of July speakers normally good Americans, but Americans who fail to comprehend what is required to keep our country strong and free, Americans who have been lulled away into a false security.
- Ezra Taft Benson, An Enemy Hath Done This
Our son is a (high school) teacher as well. He loves teaching but is disgusted by much of what is taught by his fellow teachers (much of it consisting of uninformed, personal political/social opinion masked as 'education').
Thanks for the excellent insight.
~ joanie
By the time the libs realize that there is a culture war going on, it’ll be too late, they will have all ready destroyed this nation. I fear for my grandkid’s generation.
Another insightful Benson favorite of mine (although slightly less 'favorite' than the one your referenced):
Since man created government to help secure and safeguard [inalienable] rights [from God], it follows that man is superior to government and should remain master over it, not the other way around.
thanks for your post. right on the mark.
i had a discussion with one of my union tv-moron neighbors the other day and was dismayed.
she challenged me to prove that the words and actions of the democrap left contribute as i told her
to the difficulty of fighting the war for our military,
to the loss of some of our troops,
and to the worldwide leftist propaganda war against the u.s., president bush, and the war.
my neighbor got angrier.
i cited as examples: the anti-war movement of the 1960’s, jane fonda, tom hayden, john kerry et al;
and several years ago teddy kennedy’s attacks on president bush which were aped the next day by al sadr and broadcast on al jazz,
not to mention the anti-war movement, charles schumer, john murtha, et al.
and there’s the daily negative reporting of the media during both vietnam and the wot.
Dick Durbin, despite seeing progress for himself last month, joined the traitors attacking Petraeus today.
I sent him the following:
So what is it in General Petraeus’ report, that you have not yet seen, that you don’t like?
Do you think it is plagiarized from a Brit perhaps? Or do you think that it doesn’t say what you want to hear?
How sad that you would impune the reputation of, by all accounts, an honorable, valiant, professional soldier that has delivered above and beyond that which was asked of him just because his, very significant, accomplishments don’t meet your despicable and traitorous agenda of defeat for America.
You are not fooling anyone with your pre-emptive rhetoric, We already know from your past that you can’t think for yourself.
You are beneath contempt, you are not fit to wipe Genaral Petraeus’ ass and you are certainly unfit to serve this great country.
Resign now before you make a bigger fool of yourself.
I believe they already know, Jewels. In fact it is they who are waging it -- attempting, at every turn, to create class envy, reveling in Balkanization of the population, determined to forever pit one segment of society against another so as to foster dependence on government, and, worst of all, successfully burying the grand heritage that made America the most moral, prosperous country in the history of mankind.
I share your fear for the future of our grandchildren.
~ joanie
Before this nation is in any real danger of falling apart, there will be a civil war... meaning the end of one extremist ideology or the other.
S. Korea, U.S. verifying reports on test of new N.K. missile in Iran: source
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1834307/posts
(4,000 kilometer rangewill reach London and the VaticanMay 16th, 2007)
I think most of us run across a host of 'union tv-moron neighbors' in our daily walk. I've just recently begun to be able to discern which of them are worth attempting to educate, and which it is wiser to simply ignore. The breath of a conservative like yourself is sometimes much too valuable to waste on those who will not hear. :)
~ joanie
Thank you for sending it to Durbin (*spit!*) and for sharing it with us.
~ joanie
>I’ve just recently begun to be able to discern which of them are worth attempting to educate,<
Please share with us.
I actually pray every day that you're right, but I don't share your optimism (if you can call the vision of an approaching civil war 'optimistic').
I believe that ignorance and apathy is so entrenched in the psyche of probably more than ninety percent of the populace that civil war is much too 'activist' an option for them to consider, no matter the future extent of government corruption and tyranny.
As Lincoln lamented, 'At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.'
~ joanie
I am against President Bush’s policies for not being strong enough on the Border but very much with him on Iraq. He does leave us more vulnerable to terrorism by not securing the border but that is not just a Republican problem. Fighting terrorism must not be discounted and I shouldn't be passive aggressive as a result.
There seems to be a have it both ways or nothing attitude lately. We should be angry but not to the point of folding the Tent and becoming isolationists hiding in our castle surrounded by a moat dealing with Al Qaeda.
Thanks for the reminder of the 'escapist' nature of our national 'leadership', who continually refuse to face such potentially deadly crises head-on, but prefer to negotiate and legislate in trivialities.
~ joanie
Have you ever noticed that some subjects are just too ‘heavy’ for the general audience?
My son has done two deployments in Iraq. Both were in Anabar province and the battle of Fallaluja.
It takes all that I am made of to keep me from physically assaulting these liberal cowards when I see them on the street spewing out their filth.
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