Progressive, thy name is defeatist
A young Marine officer wrote a letter to The American Thinker which revealed his consternation over recent disparaging comments and accusations leveled at his troops, his Commander In Chief, and the United States of America by members of our own Congress and the head of a major political party. And of course this anti-American rhetoric doesn't bother our troops, now does it? I will not reprint all of the letter because I don't have his permission; I hope I have his forgiveness, because his frustration is palpable.
It is important to note that the Marine's comments are his alone and do not reflect the views of the Department of Defense or any of its arms:
...My name is Peter Ahern and I am an active duty Marine officer currently stationed in Florida. My Marines and I have supported operations in Iraq for the last two years and we are very proud of our and the Nation's accomplishments in Iraq and in many other locations. What I and many others fear most is not an Iraqi insurgency but a National sense of despondency and as the British in WWII called it -- defeatism.
While rereading Winston Churchill's War Leadership by Martin Gilbert I found an interesting passage on combating defeatism during the dark days of the summer of 1940. After a German raid on Newcastle in which 11 civilians were killed, Churchill was urged to send a message to his government officials in order to caution against a mood of defeatism.
The message, which was printed over a facsimile of Churchill's signature, began: "On what may be the eve of an attempted invasion or battle for our native land, the prime minister desires to impress upon all persons holding responsible positions in the Government, in the fighting services or in the civil departments, their duty to maintain a spirit of alert and confident energy. The Prime Minister expects all His Majesty's Servants in high places to set an example of steadiness and resolution. They should check and rebuke expressions of loose and ill-digested opinion in their circles, or by their subordinates. They should not hesitate to report, or if necessary remove, any officers or officials who are found to be consciously exercising a disturbing or depressing influence, and whose talk is calculated alarm or despondency. Thus alone will they be worthy of the fighting men, who in the air, on the sea, and on the land have already met the enemy without sense of being outmatched in martial qualities."
I have often found Churchill not only fascinating but also comforting in times of trouble or crisis. As always, Winston never fails to inform! A reading of Churchill's actions during WWII might assist some of our contemporary leaders -- on both sides of the aisle.
That young Marine gets it...which begs the question, why don't our "progressive" members of Congress get it? I think you know that they really do get it but that other, more disingenuous motives are at play.
The usual suspects
Members of this same elitist club and their Old Media servants were and still are smirking over what they did to 58,631 of us during the ten years of the Vietnam War. They back-stabbed our military on the fields of combat and ridiculed the sacrifices of millions of veterans on the streets of America for many long years afterward. They cut and ran from Southeast Asia, going back on their word and treaties to support South Vietnam after our pullout, thereby assuring that the Communists would overrun that nation before the Vietnamese had time to strengthen their own security forces.
They did nothing as the Communists butchered more than four million people who admired the West or were once allied with America in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. They looked the other way as the sparks of freedom in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and the Baltic States were brutally repressed (but never extinguished, no thanks to them).
They wanted to cut and run when President Reagan stood up to the Soviet Union, and were actually crestfallen when the Evil Empire and its stooge regimes crumbled. They stood idle as rogue nations or their puppet thugs seized our embassies, planes, and ships, held our citizens captive, and murdered our men, women, and children -- simply because the were American. They have always sided with the autocratic Arab rulers and myriad terrorist butchers of the Middle East, whose greatest collective wish is the extermination of Israel and the extermination of its people, all the while avidly promoting the labeling of Israel as a 'grave threat to peace.'
They wanted to aid in the delivery of Central America to communism and Daniel Ortega. They looked away as Cuban puppet troops invaded Angola. They wanted to cede the Caribbean to communism and Castro. They did nothing to retaliate for the terrorist bombings of the World Trade Center, the USS Cole, and so many other heinous acts directed against the West. They felt no shame when by his own words, Bin Laden stated that their inaction, especially after they opted to run away from the Somalia fiasco, convinced him of America's weakness and degeneracy, and emboldened him to plan and execute the Pentagon and second World Trade Center attacks.
And still they did nothing. They even went so far as to write off the butchering of 3,000 of our fellow citizens at the hands of the Islamo-facists, with more than a few actually in the Congressional Record stating that the United States deserved to be attacked.
Reality purposely hidden
Tonight as I write this, nearly 70 percent of the Iraqi people are voting for permanent members of their Parliament. This is a greater percentage of voter turnout than what we experience in our own elections. And oh by the way, they must vote while being shot at, bombed, kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by those very same Islamic terrorists. And still they vote. They must walk to polling places because the terrorists vowed car bombings, thus forcing a vehicle ban on election day. And still they vote. Don't tell me that the Iraqi people don't want a representative government, or that they are not happier and freer today -- the proof is in the numbers: 27 million Iraqis who want freedom versus 10,000 terrorists who don't want them to have it.
What an historic moment. How much have you heard about it from Old Media? That's what I thought. Instead, you hear from certain Senators and Representatives that our military is broken, our own soldiers are terrorists, we lost the war, there is no hope, our president is a criminal, the Iraqi people don't want freedom. You hear that we should pull out now and leave 27 million people to fear death, or a fate worse than death. No, Old Media is in bed with the Cut and Run Party, the white flag-wavers, the virulent anti-American socialists who call themselves congressional members, so you won't hear anything hopeful, anything positive. You won't hear the truth.
The saddest part of this disgraceful political thuggery is that a few of these lying hacks are military veterans. Old Media gleefully points this out daily while abetting the terrorists' cause, as though the fact somehow justifies publicly trashing our leadership, impugning our troops, and ridiculing our values during a time of war.
Border-line treason
I and millions of my brothers and sisters who also happen to be military veterans do not agree and believe that what is transpiring, if not treasonous, is nearly so. Free speech comes with a price and it is called responsibility. There are times when pursuing a selfish agenda, a self-serving agenda, may be forgiven -- but there comes a time to just shut up. We veterans know from bitter experience that this is true; we remember what these same people did before, even if a few of those so-called "war heros" have expediently forgotten. I am certain that Al-Jazeera and Al-Qaida are giddy with delight and most appreciative for the assistance to their twin causes of butchery and destruction of the West.
Reread what this young Marine wrote and take the time to contact your Senators and Representatives. If they are taking part in this shame, demand that they stop serving as propaganda toadies for those who wish to destroy America and murder Americans...and then next election vote them out of office.