Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Ma Deuce Gunner Sounds Off Against the Anti-War Crowd

I became a fan of MDG late during his posting to Iraq. To me he typifies all that is right about the modern American Soldier. He's back home with his family now and what follows is something he had to get of his chest. If you haven't been reading MDG but you do support the troops, you should get aquainted with him. Here's his post:

Monday, November 14, 2005

An Open Letter to the Anti-War Crowd
To my loyal and supportive readers...this is not directed towards you. I know that you all support, encourage, and agree with me, the leadership of this country, and this war.

To all you anti-war folks, I have to get something off my chest.

You all are a disgrace to the country you call home. You abuse the freedoms that I, and many others, have sweated and bled to protect with your vitriolic rants and seditious acts and statements.

You hide behind the First Amendment, claiming the bile you spew forth is protected under the right to free speech. Some of you claim that you "Support the Troops, but not the war". I submit to you that this is a preposterous assertation. In order to truly and honestly support the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen who have sworn to "Uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America", you must also support the endeavor that they are currently undertaking. Our job is to safeguard you, to kill, disable, or catch the human scum who have made it their mission in life to blow you into chunks of human gore, sever your head from your torso, incinerate you, collapse your office building, gas you on the subway, or murder your children with television cameras rolling live.

Their aim is to scare you into submission. Scare you so much, inject so much fear into your mind that you willfully throw your freedoms out of the window in the name of 'security'. If we can kill them, disable them, or catch them before they are able to inflict the horrors of their idiom on you, then you should be grateful.

I am not attempting to heap praise upon myself. The words you are reading are not for my glory, nor are they intended to glorify anyone, but to show the fallacy of your words and actions. True, you are free to believe what you wish and to voice your opinion as such, but I am also free to do the same.

The words on your screen that you are reading now are intended to cause you to think about the ideology to which you cling. To make you see that folks like 'Code Pink', Fred Phelps, Cindy Sheehan and their ilk are morally bereft individuals. Dark, vile people who do not want others to have their freedoms, but abuse the same to do the shouting.

Your inability to understand the gravity of the situation in which we, as a nation, are embroiled is appalling. In my eyes, you do not understand what dangers this country faces from these terrorists, nor do you understand what it takes to protect you from this peril.

I think back to the Jews who were led out of Egypt whined that they were tired of eating manna, trekking through the desert, facing the danger of wild animals, desert heat, and uncertainty as to what the next mile in the sand might bring. They longed to be back in bondage, slaves to the Egyptians, with full stomachs, roofs over their heads, and a place to call home. They would have rather been forced to perform manual labor by Draconian task-masters rather have their freedom. They knew that they would be fed, have a permanent house, regardless of the way they were treated, as slaves doing forced HARD labor.They were not willing to travel the hard road, to fight for their freedoms. It was easier to go back and be oppressed by the Egyptians rather than press forward and fight for their own nation, for their own freedom. I use the word fight. I mean the term both militarily and in simple reference to the struggle to maintain resilience of spirit.

Some of you will immediately discount the previous reference for the simple fact it is Biblical. Regardless of what you believe spiritually, the parallel draws the conclusion. People who are willing to trade freedom for security are sorry individuals. Freedom is costly to maintain, financially, but also costly of life, resolve and dedication.

Some of you will argue that Iraq has nothing to do with 9-11. It has everything to do with that terrible fall day. The terrorist action on that day was not simply an attack against four airliners, two high profile structures and the people in the planes and buildings, but on the sovriegnty and safety of the USA. In the Declaration of Independence, we all know the clause, "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness". The terrorists want nothing more than to take those rights from you, and they did, from almost 3000 people on that day. A great majority of the terrorists were from Saudi Arabia. That is one of the anti-war crowd's talking points. The concept which I believe you fail to grasp is that they were part of a larger network, a community of evil people who despiseus. Let us use illegal drugs as an example.

For instance, if a person is arrested for selling drugs, do the law enforcement agencies stop there?? Do the stop with the person who carries out the crime at the lowest level?? No, they attempt to take down the whole network, and go as high as they can to try and eradicate the problem at the top. They go to the mid-level suppliers, then the clearinghouses of the nation, the couriers, the financiers, and the kingpins and cartel bosses. An investigation that starts somewhere say, Cleveland, could lead to Chicago, thenMiami, then Cuba, and then to Bogota. The trail could branch anywhere in the chain, and in our instance, the trail led to Iraq.

Another parallel can be drawn from the example of narcotics. A proactive stance is essential in taking care of the problem. We can sit back inside our borders, hoping to catch the drug runners at the borders, or we can go on the offensive, find the problem at its source and deal with it at its origination. Similarly, do we set up treatment centers and simply hope that addicts will happen to decide to come in for help with their problems, or do we seek them out, advertise, reach into the community and try to bring aid to them??

Our expedition into Iraq and Afghanistan is the exact same concept. We are attempting to stop the terrorists where they breed, where they are steeped in their radicalism, where they do not harm OUR citizens, my family and yours. It may seem callous, but I mean no insult towards anyone of different nationality. Another hypothetical example...a ship is sinking. A seaplane lands to rescue the people on board.The seaplane is owned by a ficticious nation...let's use Atlantis. The seaplane is capable of carrying 30 people other than the aircraft crew. There are 34 people in need of rescue. Thirty of the passengers on the ship are Atlantean. Who are the crew of the plane going to take with them?? The Atlantean's, of course. They will rescue their countrymen first, and if possible, they will come back for the others, if possible. You take care of your own. You protect your countrymen, protect your homeland and its people. Not to say that others are worth any less as human beings, but you take care of your own.

We are taking care of our national interests. Making sure that OUR borders are safe, fighting the enemy in their homeland, not ours. I would rather fight the enemy where they do not put American civilians at risk. It is my job to fight the enemy and remove his ability to attack Americans. Would you rather wait and have us fight in the streets of St. Louis or New York or L.A. or Smalltown, USA, or would you rather we kill them before they can even pose any danger to you in your hometown??

We removed a regime that supported terrorism. He supported an ENEMY of the United States of America, and was an evil person. Saddam Hussein was a terrorist in his own right, against his own people. A friend of my enemy is my enemy.

So, enough with your venomous, acrimonious rantings. If you don't like the fact that your government is making aCONCERTIED EFFORT to preserve your freedoms, go somewhere else. You are parasitic dregs, stealing from the people who secure yourfreedoms, abusing the freedoms to malign them, all the while being behind the shield of protection they so willingly provide.Let me define parasite for you :

"something that resembles a biological parasite in dependence on something else for existence or support without making a useful or adequate return"Now, ask yourself...does this in any way apply to you??

You are stealing my blood, and you should be ashamed of yourself. Go back to your dark holes and brood, for you and your logic isnot welcome, and many more people than you think feel the same way I do. You are evil, as evil as our enemies.

This is something I have wanted to get off my chest for a long time, but I did not think that while I was in Iraq I should post this. Now that I am home, and see and hear the anti-war crowd and their message through a different set of eyes, I believe my words are appropriate. Jen over at Jennifer's Musings emailed me a month ago and asked me for my opinionand what I would say to the Anti-War protestors. She posted it here. You will find many sentiments in this article were echoed in that one, as that post kind of became a rough draft for this one.

Thanks.
SCOUTS OUT!!!

MDG...OUT.

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8234857

Friday, November 04, 2005

The Fallen

The price of freedom is a heavy one. I believe that what is happening today in Iraq will ultimately determine whether or not the Western World remains free. People are dying on a regular basis to preserve these freedoms. Every now and then we are given a gut wrenching glimpse of who the fallen are, up close and personal, and what they mean to there comrads in arms and to the cause of freedom. They must never be forgotten.

Here are but a few names, followed by links to their eulogies.

COL William W. Wood

CPT Michael MacKinnon

CPT Raymond Hill

SPC Shakere Guy

http://thunder6.typepad.com/365_arabian_nights/2005/11/all_souls_day.html#comment-10883281

http://currierd.typepad.com/centurion/2005/11/soldiers_have_f.html#comments

"High Flight"

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

Pilot Officer, John Gillespie Magee, Jr.