Loose Lips Sinks Ships

Lots of grumbling lately about deleted posts. Well, my friends, the simple truth is the game has changed. We are now at war. We have been attacked by a vicious cold-blooded force of international terrorists who want to destroy our nation, our freedom and our way of life. There is no doubt about this. Knowing this, I am alarmed to read some of the stuff that has been posted to FR in the last few days. This is not the time to raise doubts about our leaders. This is not the time to raise conspiracy theories. This is not the time to second guess our intelligence agencies. This is war. This is survival of our way of life. We must unite behind our Commander-in-chief and do all we possibly can to support him and our war efforts. We do not have a choice in this matter. The terrorists who attack us do so without warning and without mercy. They do not want peace. They do not want to co-exist. They do not want appeasement or negotiation. They want to destroy us. They want to destroy our way of life. They want to destroy our freedom. They want to destroy our nation. They have no conscience, no respect for life, no compassion and will give no quarter. Death of the USA is what they seek.

Many of us on Free Republic are veterans or have family members who are veterans or who are currently serving in the military. We have each sworn a solemn oath to defend our Constitution and our nation. We will not waver in the face of adversity and we will not shirk our responsibility or fail to do our duty. Regardless of our political differences, we will join together to support our nation and to crush our common enemy.

All of us can help out. There will be opportunities coming for volunteers for all sorts of wartime activities. There will be opportunities to help our men and women in uniform, our civil defense efforts, our war production efforts, giving blood, buying war bonds, cooperating if there are shortages, supporting our leaders and generally supporting the war effort.

There will also be precautionary measures. First and foremost on this forum and elsewhere is to respect the fact that we deal in political information. Many of us may personally gain access to sensitive information that could harm our military or our war efforts if it falls into the wrong hands. If you live or work in an area where you may learn of troop movements or war plans or if you have family members or friends who may have access to this information, please do not spread it around. We will be on the lookout for any "Loose Lips" info and will delete it when spotted on this forum. Now, information that is already printed in the newspapers may or may not fall into this category. Usually, published information is fair game to post. But, please be careful in what discussions may follow.

Also, as I said above, it is essential for all of us to unite behind our President. Now is not the time to seek political advantage. Now is not the time to raise doubts about our government or our military, and now is not the time to post conspiracy theory or to engage in smear attacks. And, no, my finely feathered, tinfoil-hatted friends, we did not do this to ourselves. The U.S. government did not start this war. We were victims of an unprecedented, pre-meditated surprise attack, perpetrated by hostile, cowardly foreign parties. This attack may not have been in the military scale and scope of a Pearl Harbor, but in terms of lives lost and impact on the nation and the world it is every bit as severe.

Even so, we have confidence. We know that our nation is the strongest in the world and that our people are resolved to do whatever it takes to win. We've done it before and we will do it again. This is our heritage. Securing the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity in the tradition of our forefathers is our duty and obligation. And I have faith that with God's blessings, we will rid the world of this evil threat.

Oh no, don't even get me started on gay and lesbian couples training up children in the way they should go. Maybe in a perfect world the children would just learn right and wrong by osmosis with no help from outside forces. But these children are having to deal with parents that are struggling with depression and all manner of psychological issues due to their own choices. But I digress.

I am thankful for this site and I would hate to see it used to hinder any and all advantages we have gained in the days to come.

At the risk of getting this post pulled, my concerns on whether a post got pulled or not is not my focus any longer. We need to stay focused on what's really important. We really don't know how much has been done to this point by those who have been patient and plotting on how to destroy America. We, as citizens need to be ever vigilent and watchful-my biggest concern til now is that if these were "sleepers" that caused this destruction that lived, trained and worked among us for so long, were they content in just causing destruction on 9/11? or are we at risk even now while we go off to fight a war on foriegn soil to have mayhem still at home?

Now that I'm grown and have the responsibility for others it's a whole new world in discerning what the next move should be. Maybe I've allowed myself to be another casualty by imagining the worst. Does this cause me to stop living and doing those things that I need to do-no, but it should cause me to be aware of my surroundings a little more and the things I thought important have to be reprioritized.

For though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for Thou art with me.

I think the trouble is less with the fact that some posters criticize President Bush or other conservative leaders or each other than with the tone and manner in which some of those criticisms are made. I registered with FR last fall, but have only really been active since the summer started when I and a good number of others came over from Lucianne.com. We noticed (I certainly did) that manners and opinions were much more free-wheeling over here, including the fact that some of our fellow guests here, conservative ones, didn't care much for how Dub and his administration were doing their jobs and weren't at all shy about saying so. I didn't always like the way they said it. I thought they were rather harsher than I would be to people with whom I was ostensibly on the same side. But I didn't and don't care to return fire in kind because first, it's not my style, and second, as vehement as some of my conservative colleagues here are in their opposition, and as much as I might disagree with their arguments and methods, they are my fellow conservatives, and I'd prefer not to waste my time and mental ammunition firing on my own. I'd rather spend it on the left. I think that as well-meaning as they may be, they're a far greater hazard to a free republic than anybody on this side. This is a big tent. You will hit the sides of the tent or run out the flap if you go far enough, but there's plenty of common ground inside. In any case, it's Mr. Robinson's neighborhood. The rest of us are just guests here. If he can put up with the chaos that occasionally goes on here, and (I'm not saying this to butter up the host) my impression is that he does so with extremely good grace, so can I.

Something changed Tuesday. Somebody came into my country, our country, and launched a diabolically bold and brutal attack on it. And you know what? I can pretty much assure you they didn't ask what political party, or political school of thought the crew or passengers on those planes belonged to. Nor would they have asked the people in the WTC towers or the Pentagon if they could. They didn't care. The people on the planes...the people in the buildings...the people who came to help after the attacks? The enemy. The Great Satan, if you will. All of them. And all of us. Bushie, Buchananite, Keyester, McCainiac, paleocon, neocon, just plain con, globalist, isolationist, Constitutionalist, libertarian, or for that matter, New Dem, Old Dem or leftist...we're all just meat to those guys. Pigmeat, if the bad guys are who we suspect. Something to think about. I know it's on my mind.

So if you have a beef with how Bush or the government does its job, fair enough. If you have a disagreement with some of the others here, have at it. But think of what I said and try to be kind. Try not to say anything you might regret if something happened to the official you're talking about, or the other poster. Because the sad truth you have to keep in mind after last Tuesday is that something could.

Thanks Jim. I pray God will help us in this war to be brave, smart, wise, discreet, and united with each other and our leaders.

I really hope everyone will blast any news organization that releases info or guesses about actions of the military that we think should not be told worldwide. I know several people on Fox News have given news and then said they were authorized by the administration or law enforcement to release it and they would not give out information that might be harmful to law enforcement in their investigations. I believe they will be careful, but some of the others scare me as I remember some of the news reported during the Gulf war.

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