Yesterday was a sad day for Free Republic

Yesterday should have been a glorious day around here. There should have been fireworks and celebration. There should have been somber remembrances. There should have been patriotic tributes. There should have been shared joy at the news that our guys had finally gotten Bin Laden.

Instead, when I visited the site, what I found was a lot of carping. I found people focused more on the political spin than on the great news. I found people transferring their birther mentality onto this event, talking about Obama faking this news, photoshopping information, etc. It wasn't everybody, but it was a LOT of people. It made me sick.

Yesterday Free Republic seemed like DU. It makes me wonder what the hell is going on. Are Freepers getting younger? I always assume that DU is so pathetically immature because they must be younger. Free Republic has always been a place dominated by great class, and wit, and decency. Not this time. What I saw yesterday was a pathetic embarrassment and totally unworthy of this great forum.

As some of you may know, I was in lower Manhattan on 9-11. I was just across the street from the WTC when the first plane hit. I still remember the beautiful clear blue sky that day. I remember walking in between the towers just a minute or so before 8:46am, on my normal route to work. I remember my co-workers screaming in panic when they watched from an office window as the second plane hit the south tower. I remember women crying and screaming hysterically. I remember not being able to contact my wife to tell her I was OK. I remember people jumping to their deaths. I remember seeing the north tower go down with my own eyes, hearing it with my own ears. I remember fleeing Manhattan. I remember it was a Tuesday.

I remember returning to work the following Monday, riding the ferry passed the site, noxious smoke still billowing from the wreckage. I remember armed troops on the sidewalks. I remember wearing a breathing mask inside my building because the foul odor was seeping in through the ventilation system. I remember thinking we'd really gotten kicked in the teeth. They had killed innocent people, they had traumatized our women and children, and I really wanted revenge. I hung a picture on my wall of the American eagle sharpening his talons.

It has been a long time since that day. It's hard to believe how fast time flies. Then again, if you lost your loved one, I imagine time hasn't gone so fast. I love my wife so much, I can empathize with anyone who has lost the one they love. I can't imagine how that would be, and don't want to know, but I can cry for those people because I know what it is like to find your one true love.

I'm not an Obama fan. I hate socialism. But I am so happy that Bin Laden is killed, and that we have exacted some real revenge. It's about time. The politics don't even play into it for me. I still have the little flag, now tattered, that I flew on my car antenna after 9-11. I want to take it out of storage and put it on my car. I want to see American flags on cars like we saw back then. But it's not going to happen, and partially because the normally patriotic conservatives such as the ones here on Free Republic are instead focused on the politics and the fact that a socialist Democrat was president and will get some of the credit.

I guess you all would have been pissed on D-Day too. FDR was as big a socialist as anyone. I guess VE day and VJ day would have chapped your hides, since Truman was a DEM. I don't mean to paint with a broad brush. I know it wasn't every Freeper acting this way. But when I went on the board, that was the general impression, and it was really disappointing. It should have been a great day here. Instead, I saw a lack of patriotism and a lack of class. Free Republic should be better than this. If conservatives lose their patriotism and class, then what will happen to those virtues? I hope we can get them back soon. In the meantime, thanks for reading.

You’re exactly right, Huck. I came here to celebrate, but I closed out of FR after 20 minutes of reading garbage that belongs in the DUmpster.

I was two months from ETSing on 9/11. I was actually on CQ, reading about using the GI Bill for college, when people on their way to PT told me to turn on the TV, because a plane crashed into a skyscraper or something.

I spent most of the next ten years in Afghanistan (OEF-A), Iraq (OIF) or the Philippines (OEF-P). I couldn’t jump anymore after my knee went bad, so they shuffled me off to Ft Meade. I saw the war from a different angle, and by SOF support background lead me to some interesting assignments.

Working in Balad for TF xxx was one of them. I spent months TDY in a world I only vaguely knew even existed, representing my agency as best I could in the most fast paced, results driven operation around. It made everything I’d seen in the Army or the government before or since look like a low grade training event.

When the details of the raid started to emerge, with a 40min dwell time on target, including infil, actions on the objective, SSE, and exfil, I knew it was the real deal. “It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.”, as Mark Twain would say. Raids that go down this fast are planned, researched and rehearsed.

I’ve been out of the game for a while, but I imagined, wearing my old analyst hat, the intense meetings, the constant liaison between three letter agencies and the conventional military, the elaborate rehearsals, the feeling in your stomach when you look up and see the words, ‘OBJ Irhabi’ on the OPS screen, and the dull sense of wonder that it’s actually happening. Watching the UAV feeds when a HAF hits the ground, you’ll miss hundreds of people forgetting to breathe for a few seconds. The disappointment of hitting a dry hole, the electric joy that hits the room when the right bad guy is bagged. The relief that none of the operators got hurt. We rode that roller coaster of emotions night after night.

It’s not the same as being on the ground yourself (another distinct set of memories), but it’s exhilarating nonetheless.

This leads me back to your point. I remember the days of Michael Rivero, black helicopters (ironically), and “Clinton ain’t leaving” after his second term. There’s always been a vein of conspiracy theory lore in the FR community.

I never took it personally until yesterday. Catching Usama bin Laden was a major achievement in the long war, and for those of us who fought in it. Possibly the biggest yet, from a psychological standpoint. That SSE takes time to process. It has to be exploited from whatever media its on, logged into the right database, analyzed and evaluated. New targets need to be generated. The cycle feeds on itself. When one bad guy falls, we pull the string and move to the next.

That’s what’s going on right now. They’re not going to stop and give a press conference because they’re busy, and even if they weren’t busy, they wouldn’t be talking.

On the other hand, the idea that the raid was staged or didn’t happen strains all credulity. You’d need to get several hundred people who largely detest the current POTUS to agree to lie to the American people on his behalf. On the contrary, JSOC has the means and the motive to prove any false statements. The information they’re currently analyzing is being concurrently disseminated to the IC as a whole, who will be able to tell if it’s not the real deal. You can’t fake accurate intelligence, any more than you could accurately guess tomorrows stock prices as part of a scam.

I understand greatly the mistrust of the President, and the desire to hold him accountable. But don’t believe his hype. It wasn’t his operation. He didn’t plan it, he wasn’t there. He just sniffed a PowerPoint presentation, and said, ‘okay, do it’. It was JSOCs mission. American military, American intelligence agencies, a win for America.

Folks may think they’re being ‘tough on Obama’ by being skeptical, but it’s not. It’s an insult to the special operations and intelligence communities who spend many years and many lives fighting your war in the shadows. It’s an insult to their integrity, that a large minority of FReepers think that so many would go along so easily with a flimsy, easily disprovable scam on the American people. It’s basically warmed over Trutherism, if you think about it.

It made yesterday a depressing, kooky day for the normally wise and patriotic Free Republic. Frustration at Obama has caused people to trade common sense and their faith in the U.S. military for a twitchy, knee-jerk paranoia, which is a pretty sad thing. Thanks for the post, Huck. Hopefully it gets some folks to take a breath and think.

Here are my thoughts:

I'm not sure I believe they got Usama and if they did, it's not that big of deal except for revenge.... a revenge killing. I really haven't thought about him in many years. He stopped doing his live videos, probably because he's been dead for many years. But even if he was still alive or is still alive, he's like a gelding put out to pasture. He was neutered by President Bush when he busted up his training facilities in Afghanistan.

It's hard for him have much of a following when he is hiding all the time and doesn't see anyone except a handful of confidants and his 500 wives and kids.

I will never forget 9-11 or the people that were killed and the families that suffered. HOWEVER, he didn't fly the planes into the buildings. He's was just their little guru, spiritual leader and not even that for many years. The attacks world wide have slowed down because of Bush's war on terror and new policies that he implemented along with other countries.

I believe the real master mind and planner is al-Zawahiri. If we got him would that end it? HELL NOT! Al Quaeda is a large network. Taking out Usama or al-Zawahiri is pretty much a drop in the bucket.

I find the burial at sea within hours after his 'death" very odd and I put nothing past this Halfrican, Marxist, Muslim, Bisexual usurper in the White House. NOTHING!!! Valerie and Wookie run the show there and don't ever think otherwise.

Wookie and Obongo want 4 more years where there is no pressure on them to worry about being re-elected. Think of the trips they can go on then, since ridicule will mean nothing to them. Think of what Odumbo can do in 4 years. You think the first half was bad, you ain't seen nothing yet pal. Wait until he is a lame duck president.

So IF getting Usama or lying about getting him, gets him re-elected I would choose Usama stays alive and well any ole day. He's neutered, not much of a threat, the POS in the White House is a bigger threat to this country than Usama will ever be.

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