For Eddie and his Brothers:
Posted on 03/07/2007 9:12:45 PM PST by Swordmaker
I received the following as an email - Swordmaker
Hello Everyone,
I wanted to share an article my son Eddie sent me from Iraq. I was not going to send it out through the usual means; I'm looking to have this published somehow. I just felt after reading it again this morning that I wanted people to begin reading it and begin/continue to pray for our brave men and women in uniform.
I'm not sure how many letters or articles you've ever read from the genre of "News from the Front," but this is one of the best I've ever read, including all of America's wars. As I was reading this, I forgot that it was my son who had written it. My emotions range from great pride to great sorrow, knowing that my little boy (22 years old) has become this man. He is my hero. Thank all of you for your prayers for him; he needs them now more than ever. God bless.
David Jeffers
Hope Rides Alone
By Eddie JeffersI stare out into the darkness from my post, and I watch the city burn to the ground. I smell the familiar smells, I walk through the familiar rubble, and I look at the frightened faces that watch me pass down the streets of their neighborhoods. My nerves hardly rest; my hands are steady on a device that has been given to me from my government for the purpose of taking the lives of others.
I sweat, and I am tired. My back aches from the loads I carry. Young American boys look to me to direct them in a manner that will someday allow them to see their families again...and yet, I too, am just a boy....my age not but a few years more than that of the ones I lead.
I am stressed, I am scared, and I am paranoid...because death is everywhere. It waits for me, it calls to me from around street corners and windows, and it is always there. There are the demons that follow me, and tempt me into thoughts and actions that are not my own...but that are necessary for survival.
I've made compromises with my humanity. And I am not alone in this. Miles from me are my brethren in this world, who walk in the same streets...who feel the same things, whether they admit to it or not and to think, I volunteered for this...
And I am ignorant to the rest of the world...or so I thought.
But even thousands of miles away, in Ramadi, Iraq, the cries and screams and complaints of the ungrateful reach me. In a year, I will be thrust back into society from a life and mentality that doesn't fit your average man.
And then, I will be alone.
And then, I will walk down the streets of America, and see the yellow ribbon stickers on the cars of the same people who compare our President to Hitler.
I will watch the television and watch the Cindy Sheehans, and the Al Frankens, and the rest of the ignorant sheep of America spout off their mouths about a subject they know nothing about. It is their right, however, and it is a right that is defended by hundreds of thousands of boys and girls scattered across the world, far from home.
I use the word boys and girls, because that's what they are. In the Army, the average age of the infantryman is nineteen years old. The average rank of soldiers killed in action is Private First Class.
People like Cindy Sheehan are ignorant.
Not just to this war, but to the results of their idiotic ramblings, or at least I hope they are. They don't realize its effects on this war.
In this war, there are no Geneva Conventions, no cease fires. Medics and Chaplains are not spared from the enemy's brutality because it's against the rules. I can only imagine the horrors a military Chaplain would experience at the hands of the enemy.
The enemy slinks in the shadows and fights a coward's war against us. It is effective though, as many men and women have died since the start of this war.
And the memory of their service to America is tainted by the inconsiderate remarks on our nation's news outlets.
And every day, the enemy changes...only now, the enemy is becoming something new. The enemy is transitioning from the Muslim extremists to Americans. The enemy is becoming the very people whom we defend with our lives. And they do not realize it. But in denouncing our actions, denouncing our leaders, denouncing the war we live and fight, they are isolating the military from society...and they are becoming our enemy.
Democrats and peace activists like to toss the word "quagmire" around and compare this war to Vietnam. In a way they are right, this war is becoming like Vietnam. Not the actual war, but in the isolation of country and military.
America is not a nation at war; they are a nation with its military at war.
Like it or not, we are here, some of us for our second, or third times; some even for their fourth and so on. Americans are so concerned now with politics, that it is interfering with our war.
Terrorists cut the heads off of American citizens on the internet...and there is no outrage, but an American soldier kills an Iraqi in the midst of battle, and there are investigations, and sometimes soldiers are even jailed...for doing their job. It is absolutely sickening to me to think our country has come to this.
Why are we so obsessed with the bad news? Why will people stop at nothing to be against this war, no matter how much evidence of the good we've done is thrown in their face? When is the last time CNN or MSNBC or CBS reported the opening of schools and hospitals in Iraq? Or the leaders of terror cells being detained or killed? It's all happening, but people will not let up their hatred of President Bush. They will ignore the good news, because it just might show people that he was right.
America has lost its will to fight. It has lost its will to defend what is right and just in the world.
The crazy thing of it all is that the American people have not even been asked to sacrifice a single thing. It's not like World War Two, where people rationed food, and turned in cars to be made into metal for tanks.
The American people have not been asked to sacrifice anything. Unless you are in the military or the family member of a servicemember, its life as usual...the war doesn't affect you.
But it affects us.
And when it is over, and the troops come home, and they try to piece together what's left of them after their service...where will the detractors be then? Where will the Cindy Sheehans be to comfort and talk to soldiers and help them sort out the last couple years of their lives, most of which have been spent dodging death and wading through the deaths of their friends?
They will be where they always are, somewhere far away, where the horrors of the world can't touch them. Somewhere where they can complain about things they will never experience in their lifetime; things that the young men and women of America have willingly taken upon their shoulders.
We are the hope of the Iraqi people. They want what everyone else wants in life: safety, security, somewhere to call home. They want a country that is safe to raise their children in. Not a place where their children will be abducted, raped, and murdered if they do not comply with the terrorists demands. They want to live on, rebuild and prosper. And America has given them the opportunity, but only if we stay true to the cause, and see it to its end.
But the country must unite in this endeavor...we cannot place the burden on our military alone. We must all stand up and fight, whether in uniform or not. And supporting us is more than sticking yellow ribbon stickers on your cars. It's supporting our President, our troops and our cause.
Right now, the burden is all on the American soldiers.
Right now, hope rides alone.
But it can change, it must change. Because there is only failure and darkness ahead for us as a country, as a people, if it doesn't.
Let's stop all the political nonsense, let's stop all the bickering, let's stop all the bad news, and let's stand and fight!
Isn't that what America is about anyway?
Amazing letter.
It will be forwarded.
Sorry to anyone that I am double pinging.
Thank you so much for sharing this...
It is a powerful message...and I think even the most patriotic of us, and the ones the DO back the war and the President, lose sight of the sacrifice and the loneliness of the troops as they as so far away....
God Bless you, Eddie...and your fellow comrades, be safe.
Makes me wanna go out and punch a lib-tard in the head though...
BUMP AND DOUBLE BUMP!!!
For Eddie and his Brothers:
Beautiful tribute, LaEnchiladita. BUMP for our Military men and women!
Thank you for sharing this with us... May God protect him and all our troops!
Amen, Uncle.
Many, many of these young men and women will be the leaders of this new century, and good ones.
Contact info at bottom of Article:
http://www.therant.us/guest/e_jeffers/02012007.htm
Thanks.
Received a nice email back from Eddie's father along with some links that might interest some of you.
http://davidjeffers.thevanguard.org
http://www.understandingevangelicals.com
The story goes that there was a particular mission that needed to be done and the sergeant asked for volunteers and nobody answered. After a couple of minutes one young Marine said that he would go, but he needed a couple of minutes before he would go.
After a few minutes the young Marine got up, got his orders and proceeded to carry out the mission with success.
Afte he returned the sergeant pulled him aside and asked why he had to wait those few minutes. The young man replied that his Mother told him she would pray for him every day at a certain time and he simply wanted to wait until she was through praying.
I go to bed about 16:00 CT, after I say my prayers. God Bless Our Troops.
I have an adopted soldier (through Adopt A Platoon) who is in Iraq. In one letter he mentioned the media and the way they represent things. In every letter I write him I tell him that they are loved and supported by many, many here and not to ever forget it. I just hope I can make a little dent in whatever harm has been done.
You absolutely NEED to get this to the White House; if anybody outside the Oval Office has an IQ bigger than their shoe size, GW will get up and read this aloud on prime-time television.
After he reads the last line, "Isn't that what America is about anyway?" he leans forward and looks hard-eyed and dead serious straight into the camera and says, "I believe it is. That's why I and millions of other Americans are standing behind our troops, their families, and their mission."
Then he straightens up and with unchanging expression asks, "So, what about the rest of you?"
Here, he pauses a moment before driving the blade home, "Are you with us, or are you against us?"
Without another syllable, he turns on his heel, and exits.
This broadcast from the White House ends with no further comment from anyone. No follow-up press conference with Tony Snow; no pro/con from blabbermouths in Congress; no network newsroom anal-ysis; no nothing. Nothing but the kind of stone-cold silence that forces men to peer into their own souls and assess who, and what, they are.
This NEEDS to happen.
Well, I just sent a note of support via the link. Anyone else?
These young troops are a daily inspiration to me, my son was there as well. Prayers for your son and thanks, I pray for our troops always, may God watch over them all and their families.
"Let's stand and fight" - he is so right and he is not alone! May God bless him and keep him safe!
Thank you for your prayers for my son. And thank your son for his service and sacrifice!
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