How much more time, one Marine asked, should the Iraqi government be given to achieve the political unity necessary to stabilize the country?
(File)
AP
Posted on 08/13/2006 10:40:35 AM PDT by Dubya
How much more time, one Marine asked, should the Iraqi government be given to achieve the political unity necessary to stabilize the country?
(File)
AP
Marines' Hymn
From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli,
We fight our country's battles in the air, on land and sea.
First to fight for right and freedom, and to keep our honor clean;
We are proud to claim the title of United States Marine.
Our flag's unfurled to every breeze from dawn to setting sun.
We have fought in every clime and place, where we could take a gun.
In the snow of far off northern lands and in sunny tropic scenes,
You will find us always on the job,The United States Marines.
Here's health to you and to our Corps which we are proud to serve.
In many a strife we've fought for life and never lost our nerve.
If the Army and the Navy ever look on heaven's scenes,
they will find the streets are guarded by United States Marines.
But are our Marines going to be continually restrained into fighting a PC war?
It looks like they are.
I hope everyoe will pray for them.
And I pray that they will make it back alive.
Dub Sgt USMC
What is a Veteran
Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye.
Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg - or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul's ally forged in the refinery of adversity.
Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem.
You can't tell a vet just by looking.
He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn't run out of fuel.
He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.
She - or he - is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.
He is the POW who went away one person and came back another - or didn't come back AT ALL.
He is the Quantico drill instructor who has never seen combat - but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other's backs.
He is the parade - riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.
He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.
He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies
unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep.
He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket - palsied now and aggravatingly slow - who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.
He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being - a person who offered some of his life's most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.
He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.
So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say Thank You. That's all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.
Two little words that mean a lot, "THANK YOU".
"It is the soldier, not the reporter, Who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, Who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, Who has given us the
freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier, Who salutes the flag, Who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protestor to burn the flag."
Father Denis Edward O'Brien/USMC
The reason the Marine Corps has survived 230 years is the willingness of its members, from the commandant down to the youngest mess cook, to do exactly what the President asks unto death. From time to time there may be debate and even bitching. But ultimately they will lock and load and march into hell.
Very well said. When I was a Marine I would have.
Semper Fi
50-56 Korea
Treasonous b*st*rds in the MSM put this crap out there (that we're losing ground in Iraq) day after day, then they do their little polls and... LO AND BEHOLD!... people think we're losing ground in Iraq!!! Amazing, isn't it?
NO FREE PRESS IN WARTIME!!!
I only hope the administration knows something we don't, but the recent 'cease fire' agreement in Lebanon seems to indicate that we are in full retreat back to Clintonesque claims of diplomatic success that mask underlying strategic failures.
I guess all the 'axis of evil' rhetoric was just that, rhetoric. How many more times will we complain about Syria's and Iran's actions and do nothing? It's pathetic.
A bit of editorializing from the Ass. Press writer. I've come to expect the same.
Those mean ole news people.
The one thing you have to remember is: Bush is President and not king or dictator or emperor. He walks a tightrope between doing what is right and doing what they allow him to do or get away with. He may be the leader but he is like the train engineer who gets to oil the gears and blame if the train doesn't run but he never gets to toot the whistle.
He does what he politically can. I can not remember any one person in recent years who has done some much and taken so much crap doing it. I admire his courage to press on day after day getting blamed for everything that goes wrong and credit for very little that goes right.
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Aug. 13, 2006 - Five soldiers were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan in recent days, another two were wounded, and the Defense Department has identified four earlier casualties who died supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Two Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers were killed yesterday when a roadside bomb struck their dismounted patrol south of Baghdad.
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