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'No Time to Think': Beirut Vets Remember [25 years]
Military.com ^ | 10-23-08

Posted on 10/23/2008 4:47:59 PM PDT by SJackson

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To: freema
This is going to sound sick, but I think the biggest foreign policy plunder Reagan had was pulling us out. I understand the politics behind it, but we should have bombed the hell out of Syria until Assad begged for mercy. We should have let the Russians, the Iranians, the Libyans and all of their proxies see what happens when you attack us.

The problem with the Arabs is that they have never experienced total war. We should left a few Syrian cities smoldering like Dresden. The reason Arabs keep picking fights with everybody is because nobody punishes them completely.

21 posted on 10/23/2008 8:14:00 PM PDT by fatez ("If you're going through Hell, keep going." Winston Churchill)
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To: theoldmarine
Master Gunnery Sergeant

Sergeant Major


22 posted on 10/23/2008 8:21:26 PM PDT by A.A. Cunningham
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To: SJackson
My 17 year old son is in Jacksonville today for this Anniversary. He sent me an email this morning with this ending paragraph that I think shows his emotions today:

Today, October 23, 1983 was the worst attack on Americans until September the 11th. A harbinger of the terrorist attacks and Jihadist enemies that we face today. We must never forget about the Marines, Sailors and Soldiers who fought and died in Beirut. For they were the first in a long, long fight. Hezbollah, the Iranian and Syrian governments...may they all burn in hell.

23 posted on 10/23/2008 8:56:56 PM PDT by WhyisaTexasgirlinPA (Obama prays to himself: "The prayer that I tell myself every night ...")
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To: SJackson

Pix from yesterday at below URL...

http://fontman.smugmug.com/gallery/6329832_HPWv7#400031655_NNwKD


24 posted on 10/24/2008 6:44:27 PM PDT by fontman
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To: freema

FOR MY BROTHER: REPORTED MISSING IN ACTION, 1943

By Father Thomas Merton

Sweet brother, if I do not sleep
My eyes are flowers for your tomb;
And if I cannot eat my bread,
My fasts shall live like willows where you died.
If in the heat I find no water for my thirst,
My thirst shall turn to springs for you, poor traveller.

Where, in what desolate and smokey country,
Lies your poor body, lost and dead?
And in what landscape of disaster
Has your unhappy spirit lost its road?

Come, in my labor find a resting place
And in my sorrows lay your head,
Or rather take my life and blood
And buy yourself a better bed —
Or take my breath and take my death
And buy yourself a better rest.

When all the men of war are shot
And flags have fallen into dust,
Your cross and mine shall tell men still
Christ died on each, for both of us.

For in the wreckage of your April Christ lies slain,
And Christ weeps in the ruins of my spring;
The money of Whose tears shall fall
Into your weak and friendless hand,
And buy you back to your own land:

The silence of Whose tears shall fall
Like bells upon your alien tomb.
Hear them and come: they call you home.


25 posted on 10/25/2008 2:08:10 AM PDT by Brad from Tennessee ("A politician can't give you anything he hasn't first stolen from you.")
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To: fontman; Jarhead2844; USMCWriter; 1stbn27; 2111USMC; 2nd Bn, 11th Mar; 68 grunt; A.A. Cunningham; ..

Beautiful photography.

http://fontman.smugmug.com/gallery/6329832_HPWv7#400031655_NNwKD


26 posted on 10/25/2008 6:07:43 AM PDT by freema (MarineNiece,Daughter,Wife,Friend,Sister,Friend,Aunt,Friend,Mother,Friend,Cousin, FRiend)
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To: Brad from Tennessee

Beautiful poem. Where was he reported MIA?


27 posted on 10/25/2008 6:08:51 AM PDT by freema (MarineNiece,Daughter,Wife,Friend,Sister,Friend,Aunt,Friend,Mother,Friend,Cousin, FRiend)
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To: freema

Thank you very much!

Semper Fidelis,
fontman


28 posted on 10/27/2008 7:18:05 AM PDT by fontman
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To: freema

[Where was he reported MIA?]

Father Merton’s brother was a pilot or crewman on a Canadian Air Force bomber that was damaged by hostile fire over Europe and crashed into the Channel trying to return to England. Merton’s brother—badly wounded—and some of the crew ended up in a life raft. Merton’s brother died on the raft and his comrades committed his body to the deep. Later the surviving crewmen were rescued.


29 posted on 10/27/2008 4:24:51 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee ("A politician can't give you anything he hasn't first stolen from you.")
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