Why I'm Thankful for George W. Bush

American Thinker ^ | 7-9-09 | Ken Russell - Commentary

[smoothsailing]

July 09, 2009

Why I'm Thankful for George W. Bush

By Ken Russell

On October 23, 1983 the Marine Corps Battalion Landing Team (BLT) building located at the Beirut International Airport was blown up.  Two hundred twenty Marines, 18 Sailors and 3 Soldiers were killed in a split second by a suicide bomber.  I wasn't there at the time.  I was participating in Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada.  I was a squadron CH-46E helicopter co-pilot in Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 261 (HMM-261) and also the squadron classified materials officer.  Being the one who set up the squadron classified messages, I read about it before most others.  It was an unbelievable gut punch and breathtaking in a bad way.

I did arrive in Lebanon with the rest of HMM-261 about two weeks later to relieve the aviation combat element for the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit, HMM-162.  My first day landing in LZ S-Bird, located directly besides the now destroyed BLT building was quite sobering.  Twisted metal spikes of rebar jutted out of the concrete wreckage in no particular recognizable fashion.  Bits of boot leather, t-shirts and camouflage utility shreds dangled from the several feet long ragged rebar.  Indications of human occupation in the flattened mass demanded no comments about what happened and how.  Silence and reverence was the only response we could muster every time we saw it, every day we landed there for the next few months.

We did all ask each other and comment with each other about this new and wildly evil enemy that knew no boundaries, no uniforms, no flags, no geographical limits and no respect whatsoever for human life.  They were the new head of the food chain; the great white shark killing machine with no intentions of killing for survival.  Theirs was to kill for ideology and for effect, terrifying effect.

How do you fight this enemy?  How do you fight such a stealth and taunting ideology who uses all of your assets and all of your weaknesses against all of your decency and love for freedom?  When was there an enemy in history like this, whose object of passionate faith was in a sick, self destructive ideology?  What the hell is this thing and how do we meet and engage this enemy on the battlefields or locations on which we are trained?

It was all new to all of us and we knew it.  We talked about it and then quickly changed the subject.  Marines aren't used to being in a place where we couldn't seek and destroy the enemy.  It was strange ground.  This new threat was going to require new school books, new manuals, unknown training and above all leaders who could figure it all out.  We kept busy occupying ourselves with the task at hand, international peace keeping -- whatever the hell that meant -- but the eerie new enemy never left our deeper thoughts.

Fast forward years later and that enemy became active again like a gurgling volcano.  The 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Kobar Towers, African embassies, USS Cole all went unanswered like the '83 BLT bombing.  I was off active duty, had inter-service transferred into the Navy Reserves and working a civilian job in the aerospace industry when the first WTC bombing took place.  Obviously no one figured out how or still didn't have the moral courage to close with and engage the enemy even after the USS Cole was bombed several years later.  Terrorism, the exact same kind from the exact group of ideologies in 1983, was slowly defeating us and we acted like a nation locked out of a motel room, standing in the rain, naked.

Then, the worst terror attack in world history took place on our shores.  We all know it.  We all felt that same gut punch, but this time we had a leader who had his clothes on, the room key, an umbrella and a reassuring smile on his face.  Why so many hated him for that can only be explained by unbridled pettiness but there was no time to focus on destroying his life.  This enemy had now engaged us in our house and we had to close with him, borders or no borders, uniforms or no uniforms, battlefields or no battlefields.  George W Bush was that leader -- but how was he going to defeat these guys?

General Tommy Franks told us precisely how on Day One of Operation Iraqi Freedom.  Few caught it.  It was so very simple and so very brilliant and almost everyone thought it only applied to one objective; overthrowing Saddam Hussein.  Remember what he said? 

"We will close with and engage the enemy at a time and place of our choosing." 

It was genius and anyone in the United States who thought it only meant Saddam Hussein were rope-a-doped along with the new enemy.  The American rope-a-dopers whose occupation it was to destroy George W Bush, unknowingly helped severely weaken the most difficult enemy faced by any state or alliance in human history.

Now how did we win and cripple for life this new enemy?  Using their ideology against them, we lured them into a location in which we could engage them using our superior capabilities on a battlefield with which we were quite familiar.  This enemy is a worldwide cancer and occupies not merely Afghanistan (an extremely difficult theater to say the least) but also the entire globe.  It would have been impossible to go to several nations, cross their sovereign borders, find the terrorist hideouts then close with and engage them.

Imagine the worldwide hair lighting on fire had that happened.  It was bad enough when yellow cake was hidden by glasses of mint tea in Niger from one of the Bush hating torches.  Barney Frank would have gone straight, found his false teeth, worn them and lit his hair on fire if we invaded several nations.  We didn't.  We drew them into Iraq and we killed them there.  Simple and genius.

Even Barack Obama admitted it -- and as usual, was clueless when he did so.  Remember his pre-election interview on Fox News with Bill O'Reilly?  Bill asked him if George W Bush was right about the surge and defeating al Qaeda in Iraq.  Remember what Obama said? 

"Before Bush invaded, there was no al Qaeda in Iraq." 

You got it Sun Tzu, er, I mean Mr. President.  The strategery worked as planned, just like Tommy Franks said it would "at a time and place of OUR choosing."

The enemy's ideology drew him to attack American forces in Iraq with the intention to force an American loss.  The more the mainstream media and Democrats celebrated each thousand American deaths, the more terrorists from all over the globe flocked to Iraq.  Each worked with the other to further their own set of agendas and ideologies; one for political power and the other for twisted religious ideology.  While doing so, we destroyed the enemy and their leaders, most going completely unreported.  It was brilliant.  So much so that they still haven't figured it out because they simply do not have the ability to do so.  The domestic opposition did however have the ability to take credit for W's win last week, celebrating Iraqi victory over terrorism.

That is why I want to thank George W Bush and the military leaders who finally, finally after all the lost friends, lost Marines, lost three thousand plus Americans, had the courage and temerity to close with and engage this new enemy and defeat them in so many ways, crippling them to the point of near extinction.  You also taught our new president how to authorize a surge like the one now taking place in Afghanistan.  Leftist pettiness would never allow them to call it that, but that is exactly what it is patterned after, General Petraeus. 

Thank you President Bush.  I know it doesn't mean much coming from some former Marine in Missouri but I appreciate what you did and I'll never forget it.

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[SuziQ]

“Whether we bring our enemies to justice or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done.” — George W. Bush, 9/20/01

This is my favorite.

[SuziQ]

It wasn't his politics that brought such ire upon George W. Bush, it was the economic situation that the country fell into. Most people I know who voted for Obama, sadly, some fellow Catholics, did so because of the ECONOMY. They mistakenly thought that the Republicans had caused it, and that the Democrats couldn't do any worse, so why not try them?

Well, 6 months later, many are regretting that mistake in judgment. If they'd had the facts about just who brought on the mortgage crisis, they might have thought twice, but the MSM never revealed that; still hasn't, to this day.

[LucyJo]

"Thank you President Bush. I know it doesn't mean much coming from some former Marine in Missouri but I appreciate what you did and I'll never forget it."

I've got a feeling that it means a lot more coming from guys like Ken Russell than he will ever know considering the love and respect President Bush has demonstrated for them through the years.

Adding my love and appreciation for President Bush and all that he did to keep us safe. God bless him and his family. God bless our military people and their families. May God continue to bless America

[ohioWfan]

Exactly, SuziQ! The Dems caused the crash (and I still think there was Soros sabotage in the Money Markets), and the voting public stupidly blamed the Republicans and Bush (most of them didn't even know that the Dems were in control of Congress).

President Bush didn't cause the economy to tank, and that's a big part of why Obama won. McCain was ahead in September.

Blaming President Bush for the election outcome is baseless.

[smoothsailing]

Leadership. Contrast that with the today’s White House. We were blessed.

Indeed. His words were powerful and displayed leadership and a determined perseverence that the country needed then and still does today.

I'll never understand those who branded him a bumbler who couldn't put two words together in a sentence.

All I can figure is those folks prefer the oratorical skills of such greats as Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barney Frank, or the canned gibberish of pompous performers such as Barack Obama, John Kerry, and Al Gore.

[smoothsailing]

In your world, he sure was a busy little beaver, wasn't he?

What is the source for your fantastic assertions, the DNC?

[smoothsailing]

Correct, although General Franks adapted the words to a military context. STARWISE has posted the actual quote along with many others in post #36.

"“War has been waged against us by stealth and deceit and murder. This nation is peaceful, but fierce when stirred to anger. This conflict was begun on the timing and terms of others. It will end in a way, and at an hour, of our choosing.” — George W. Bush, 9/20/01

[scottywr]

I always thought the overall strategy on the war on terror was not Iraq directly but the overall goal was to totally isolate Iran, and it was accomplished in the beginning with our initial success in Iraq, and Afghanistan and the partnerships that the bush administration established in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Iran was for a short time isolated. Only when the frickin Dems showed weakness did Iran start a full court press. I think the Bush administration saw an opportunity for unrest in Iran. Maybe I’m wrong but I think that what recently happened in Iran is what the Bush administration saw as an opportunity 3-4 years ago and we would have been in a strong position to rally the opposition in Iran.

[smoothsailing]

...President Bush might just give him a call to let him know!

It wouldn't surprise me at all. It's obvious to me that his respect for those who serve in uniform is real and heartfelt. It's in his nature to continue to thank as many as he can.

[ohioWfan]

I remember that stirring speech SO well (just forgot the date!).

Thanks for reposting the complete quote from STARWISE' post.

[ohioWfan]

I'll never understand those who branded him a bumbler who couldn't put two words together in a sentence.

It was all a media game from the campaign of 2000. They kept track of every verbal fluff out of millions of words and kept replaying them over and over again.

They didn't note that algor had far more verbal gaffes than Bush because they were presenting him as the "intelligent" one. (Is that a joke, or what?)

I've heard President Bush speak in four different venues and every time he was articulate and impassioned, and even eloquent.

(Can you imagine if all the enormous goofs of Obama's plus all the ahhhh's and ummmmmm's were published together? He'd come across as a moron).

Oh wait..............he IS a moron!

[smoothsailing]

Bush or Obama, gee, what to do, what to do....

[Jacksonian Grouch]

& the worst is still to come; check BC threads here on freep and you’ll note that there’s initial evidence pointing to chosen1 having paid almost a million to various law firms. Plus there’s the money push that key dhimmicrat races during this last election got from chosen1 floating them bucks from his huge stash - some of these pushed dhimmis over the hump as it were, contributing to their majorities. Think Pennsylvania & Ohio, for starters.

The one that concerns me the most: chosen1 setting up the stimulus to kick in right around successive election cycles in 2010 & 2012. Reminds me of how the local govs would get the streets paved during the months before a general election; always had a beneficial effect for the party in power.

GOP has an uphill battle, imo...

JG

[LuvyaDubya]

September 14, 2001, at the National Cathedral, is the correct date.

President's Remarks at National Day of Prayer and Remembrance

[ohioWfan]

Well, I'll be! My old memory isn't failing me!

I thought that speech was the Friday after 9/11, but when I saw the 20th, I doubted my memory.

Did he address Congress the 20th?

(I suppose I could look these things up myself, but you're so good at it! :)

[ohioWfan]

GOP has an uphill battle, imo...

No kidding. It's never been rougher, IMO. Our best hope is that Obama continues to reveal his complete incompetence to deal with issues foreign and domestic. His poll numbers are sinking, leading me to believe that chinks in his armor are forming.

What we need now is some strong leadership in the GOP. I hope it's there...........somewhere!

[smoothsailing]

Thanks! Much appreciated.

[LuvyaDubya]

Yes, the address to Congress was on the 20th.

[ohioWfan]

THANKS, LuvyaDubya!

Good to know my mind still works...........some of the time! :)

[jersey117]

WOW! Thanks for the pictures.... especially that first one. I hadn’t seen that one before. How I miss President Bush. I don’t even use the word “President” any more. I feel as though I don’t have one. It’s all so depressing.