Posted on 05/03/2011 4:46:53 AM PDT by Huck
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.
Respectfully,
Huck
The most ridiculous speculation and repetition of falsehoods has been permitted, perhaps even encouraged, as long as they reflect poorly on Obama.
Yesterday was only a logical result of that.
On the one hand, I agree with you. But I always have skepticism unless I have personal knowledge that allays my skepticism. I will probably continue to have slight suspicion of the truth of what happened, but my husband has told me, “OBL is dead. End of story. Move on.” Further questioning will jeopardize men who lay it all on the line in the most extreme danger with no fanfare/reward possible. They do not deserve to be exposed just so I can feel better. Sometimes you have to have faith in what you can’t see or verify. Godspeed to our heroes.
Two more for your ‘FR sounds like DU’ file/meme:
Cheney congratulated Obama on the Osama mission.
DU, that FR sounds so much like, had this and worse to say:
TroglodyteScholar Mon May-02-11 09:23 PM
15. Go [pi$$] up a rope, Dick. n/t
The abyss Mon May-02-11 09:55 PM
16. Why is Dick Cheney still walking & talking?
The American people should have hung him from a lamp post long ago.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4835628
“if that UBL conspiracy theory hinges on the participation of the Navy SEALs and the intelligence community, when any of them could go public and prove him wrong, utterly destroying his presidency, then you’re basically accusing all of them of the same crime you accuse Obama of. “
This is why I said,
“I don’t agree that by criticizing Obama that freepers are attacking the military at the very same time.”
First, when you are in the military you do not question orders and ask WHY you are doing an operation? That does not happen in the ranks where an operation is executed. You learn that back at boot camp on the first day.
Second, when a unit goes out on an operation. They do not tell their unit WHY they are doing this in order to.... They give them primary and secondary targets and tell them how they will execute the operation. They don’t say why.
Finally, one of the main reasons that does not happen for security reasons. For instance, if someone is caught, then they do not want to tell the enemy what we know or are doing something.
So to suggest that Seal Team 6 would know WHY they are executing an operation is a stretch. The only person that may know would be the Commanding Officer. Like I said they just follow orders.
“The fact that everybody in Germany could have smelled the burning flesh is proof that Auschwitz never happened. / That’s your logic, in a nutshell.”
No, that is your brand of insanity. Auschwitz had proof. Buildings. Graves. Dead people.
You have no proof, but you assume your fantasies are as real as Auschwitz. Then, if Obama produces a birth certificate, you assume it is a forgery - and such a bad one that you can prove it by downloading a digital image.
Then your birther buddies call me a traitor, and say my kids should spit on me, and that I’m paid by US Army Psyops to post on FreeRepublic - ignoring that I’ve been posting since 1998.
Nuts.
Well said, I agree completely with your comments and thank your son for serving his Country.
You guys knock it off. Both of you.
:)
Think about it....He used the Tuscon shooting as an example of America coming together...I guess that is his recollection, not mine BUT............He spoke at the Memorial Service, a Memorial Service in an auditorium not filled with mourners from the community but with college kids. Was it a COINCIDENCE that they gave out FREE T-SHIRTS, to the mourners with his 2012 Campaign slogan on the back???
BTW, I had NEVER heard of getting a commemorative T-Shirt at a Memorial Service.
In a real operation, how it went down and in what sequence and who-shot-who and when and where, those things cannot be scripted. Bad guys rarely follow your plan. That makes accurately reporting moments after a very difficult and downright intense engagement impossible.
You hate me? Oh boo effing hoo. It just breaks my heart that some yankee troll hates me. LMAO! That just made my day.
I think everybody believes that the SEALs went and either grabbed or offed someone. It's the rest of the details that are sketchy. What lacks is concrete evidence that Osama Bin Laden specifically was acutally killed.
Other options include: They got the wrong guy because Panetta/Obama fed them wrong info. They got the wrong guy because it was a look alike. They captured OBL to question him elsewhere and not tell anyone.
None of these options insult the military or their actions. They do not constitute "conspiracy theories" out of line with anything that is unusual during wartime.
Throwing this "conspiracy nut" aspersion around so easily is just as insulting as any other personal attack. It ought to stop because it is untrue in many, many cases.
You just don't engage your brain long enough to think about the possibilities. You leap instantly to a conclusion so that you can post a snarky comment. That is poor form indeed.
I have never seen him personally attack anyone on freerepublic.
__________________
Guess you don’t hang around her much. Don’t make me prove you wrong. I can do it.
Well said. When something good happens for America, conservatives should cheer, including for Obama. But Conservatism, for some, means good for my agenda.
The CIA identified the target and Obama choose the method. Not bombs, or drones but the Navy seals. He risked his Presidency in not being another Carter with aircraft unable to fly. If things went bad, he would have gotten the blame so he should get the credit. Americans should be happy. Freepers should be happy.
;^)
The BC is simple: Either Hawaii stands behind it (both the short and long form) or they don't. Document forensics is pointless. It's quite clear Obama was born in Hawaii. We have the contemporaneous birth announcements. We have the failure of Hawaii to alert the Bush DoJ in 2008 to Obama's fraud. We have statements by Hawaiian officials that label the notion he wasn't born there silly.
Now in the case of OBL's rubbing out, we don't have the State of Hawaii. But we do have Obama's account of what went down. If it's false in any significant way, there are plenty of military and CIA officers who would know and who would have the strong inclination, indeed the duty, to blow the whistle and blow up the Administration. So my guess is it's true.
What I'm wondering about is the fact the CIA had zeroed in on OBL's fancy hideout (built in 2005), almost nine months ago. You know the ISI had to be aware of the hideout and had to have noticed the CIA's interest in it. Yet, despite having tolerated his presence without ratting him out to the CIA (who supposedly found the compound by watching a courier they had learned of via waterboarding in rendition prisons in 2007) the Pakis failed to warn him in time to escape to his cave in Waziristan. There's a lot yet to be told.
You said it was crazy to think that they would have posted a forgery that any fool could prove was a forgery. They would never do that, so that can’t be what they posted, you said.
Makes no difference that it’s exactly what they posted.
If you’re going to use evidence to decide whether Auschwitz happened, then please use evidence to decide whether a BC forgery happened.
Specifically you might explain how the kerning happened, if it was typed in 1961 with a manual typewriter.
Or where the “white copy” came from, which has no sign of a seal anywhere.
Or why the photo taken of the “green copy” that Obama let the media see has no signs of a seal anywhere. Or even better - why nobody in the media even noticed that fact or cared. Nice watchdogs they are, huh?
Or why they would have scanned the thing in such a way to allow manipulation of the record rather than in a form that would prove it was unmanipulated. Like they scanned the “white copy” - though it doesn’t have a seal on it anywhere. It is such a sensitive scan that it has print showing from something that was BEHIND the sheet being scanned, but didn’t manage to pick up any sign of a seal. How did that happen?
This stuff is evidence. This is what the debate should focus on. The evidence.
:)
That's what the helmet cameras are for. All that's left is for the players to justify their actions. Why they shot when they did, etc...
I said OBL alive and neutered, as he has been for many years, is less of a danger to this country.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.