Taking It Personally

This is the third and final of my Marine family trilogy today. People tend to think all military families think alike, and I wanted you to see a range of opinions.

By DONNIE MARLER
Marine Dad from Missouri

Reading through a number of recent online posts, I've been struck by how personally a good number of us have taken the results of the election. You know what? That's a good thing. It shows that at least we're involved citizens who both care about our nation and vote on Election Day!

Looking back over the last eight years of President Bush, I'm struck by how much the man has aged in such a relatively short time. It's easy to sit here and critique the decisions made by anyone. It's another thing entirely to be the one making the decisions.

I've tried to think of another recent President who faced so many crises at one time in his Presidency. Mr. Bush did not ask the terrorists to strike the World Trade Center on 9-11.

He did not ask Afghanistan's Taliban government to support that attack with both money and material. I for one believe we had every right and reason to both attack and destroy that same Taliban government. I shed no tears over the fall of the Afghan regime.

I don't believe he sought to take action against Iraq simply to “finish what his father started.” I believe he thought he was acting on the intelligence reports at that time. Perhaps he wanted to find fault with Saddam simply to justify invading Iraq. I don't think that's the case. I don't believe that General Colin Powell would have gone along with intentionally lying before the U.N. Security Council if that were the case.

President Bush has been as much a victim of circumstances as anything else. Sadly, he has become the face of failure in the eyes of many across the land.

Has he truly failed? The Taliban are back hiding in their caves and fearing for their lives. Saddam Hussein is in hell, answering for his crimes against humanity. Each day, the Iraqi people take over more and more of the responsibility for defending and protecting their land against terrorists and insurgents, many of whom are foreign born.

He has been much maligned over the “Mission Accomplished” banner aboard that ship. That ship had indeed accomplished its mission. That's all the banner was meant to say. It was not meant to imply that the war was over by any stretch of the imagination.

I have read and heard reported a hundred times that there were no WMD's in Iraq. Perhaps we did not find them, but I humbly submit that the northern Kurds know he had them, because he used them against their populace. I will never forget the heartbreaking photo of a dead mother and her infant lying on the street following the poison gas attack against their village. The mother's arms were wrapped around the baby, as if to cushion him from the fall when she succumbed to the gas. I can only imagine the horror that poor woman felt at that moment. I doubt she knew what was killing her, but I have no doubt that she knew she, and her child, were dying. I shed no tears over the fate of Saddam Hussein. He deserved a far worse death than he suffered.

I believe the United States of America cannot be defeated militarily by any force on Earth. The North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong did not defeat the forces of the United States. The American people defeated the forces of the United States in Vietnam by failing to support the war on the home front. Vietnam is the most tragic example of what occurs when politicians and President's seek to run a war, rather than entrusting that responsibility to the professional soldiers who have spent a lifetime training to do just that.

Johnson fancied himself a military strategist. Johnson was a fool, and a disgrace to his office. If any President in modern times deserves to be reviled it should be LBJ, not George W. Bush.

I believe that, had John F. Kennedy lived, our involvement in Southeast Asia would have been much different, as would the outcome.

God help us all if Johnson had been POTUS during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Thank God for the courage of JFK and his resolve during those days when the world truly stood on the brink of thermonuclear war. How many times must the destiny of this land be changed by the murderous and cowardly acts of the Lee Harvey Oswalds of the world? How many lives were truly sacrificed on that terrible day in Dallas, Texas? How many promising and patriotic young men would not have died in Vietnam had Kennedy lived? We'll never know because of the actions of one misguided and delusional maniac.

I believe John McCain is an honorable man. I can't imagine the courage a man must possess to endure what he endured during his years as a POW. I can't begin to fathom the measure of honor a man possesses when he refuses to be released by his captors and be used as a propaganda tool, choosing instead to remain with his comrades in the Hanoi Hilton. America is richer for John McCain's service and sacrifice in her name.

I believe President-Elect Barack Obama will soon know the true weight of the office, and will, perhaps, better understand what his predecessor has endured for eight long years.

I trust the ladies and gentlemen of the Fourth Estate to hold him accountable for his actions during his administration. Now that the election is over, the implied “honeymoon” he enjoyed with the media is also ended. I believe that, if the media does their jobs, then we will know all we should, or could, about our new President.

I believe William Ayers should be spending life in prison without parole, not teaching young people in a university. He should enjoy the company of every member of Weather Underground during his incarceration.

Bombing Federal Buildings is not a form of protest. It's domestic terrorism, pure and simple. To my mind, William Ayers is no different from Timothy McVeigh or the fanatics who bomb abortion clinics, protesting the slaughter of innocents by slaughtering innocents.

I believe Anthony Rezko is a hood. Perhaps our new President did not know this side of the man. Many mobsters are charming. I know, I've met a few of them during my days as a union officer. I would never have suspected what they were and was shocked when the indictments came down. Perhaps I was naive? I pray to God that Obama is not naive.

I believe Bill Richardson of New Mexico would be a better choice for Secretary of State than Hillary Clinton. I also believe HRC will be SECSTATE if she wants to be.

I believe President-Elect Obama will govern from closer to the center than people think. I don't think the American people want to veer either hard left or hard right. I believe the people want the parties to work together to address some very serious issues. Cooperation is not possible from either political extreme.

I believe the United States of America is the greatest nation ever founded and preserved by mortal man.

I believe apple pie is better than peach cobbler.

I believe zebras are white with black stripes, not black with white stripes.

I believe I can make a decision and stick to it. That's why I eat neopolitan ice cream...

I believe the sun will rise tomorrow and eight years from now over the last bastion of true freedom in the world.

I believe in all the men and women serving our nation in uniform, and hope and pray the new administration treats them with the respect and consideration they deserve.

I believe we can debate the issues at hand civilly, even when we vehemently disagree.

I believe I've said enough.

Read more from Donnie on his blog, Firing from the Lip, http://kilodevildad.blogspot.com/

Listen Up, Complainers!

By LORI HOLMAN

Marine parent/OK native

Do you ever think some people are smellin' what they are shovelin'?

I suppose that John McCain's friendship with G. Gordon Liddy, or being one of the Keating Five doesn't count as "ties to extremists", "untrustworthy" "shady", "unpatriotic," etc., huh? Why is Obama voting against Operation Iraqi Freedom funding because there's no token timeline for withdrawal "UnAmerican, Against Our Sons, and Unpatriotic In A Time Of War!" - but McCain voting against funding because there IS a token request for a timeline, and voting against College funds and Veteran care "True Support Of Our Sons, Patriotism From A Real Hero!"?

BTW, don't EVEN get me started on military funding - I want my sons to have everything they need when they go to war. But that doesn't mean we can't save some money by slashing no-bid contracts to private contractors. Why not shift 90 percent of that taxpayer money to actually readying our boys for combat, making their missions more doable while they're there, then (gasp) taking care of them when they come home. But then, that's too radical, too restrictive, too. . . LOGICAL. My bad.

We won't even touch the whole "Let's actually go after the ones who keep attacking us" concept. I doubt you'd even listen.

And I know, it's just my own clueless, biased, I-don't-deserve -to-be- a-Marine-Mom- I'm-really -a-traitor -who-wouldn't-know-a-real-patriot -if-one-bit-me-on-the-butt because I voted for a "Muslim, terrorist pal, Communist, Socialist, Nazi, foreign-born, birth certificate-forging, immoral, untrustworthy (*whispering* uppity colored) man" opinion (golly, did I forget to mention he's unpatriotic?), but isn't the whole pouty "I'm going to fly my flag upside down or not at all for the next four years, he'll never be MY President, because Obama=Socialism not Patriotism” thing a bit...uh...much?

I am proud to be a newly registered Democrat/Liberal/Left-winger. I campaigned and voted for Barack Obama for President in 2008, and will do so again in 2012 if the situation warrants. I do not hate America. I do not sympathize with terrorists. I dislike extremism no matter from what direction it comes. I am not cultish (except for my support of the Marine Corps, and that's plain common sense). I am neither warmonger nor peacenik.

I do not believe Barack Obama to be either Messianic nor a benevolent father figure. I do not take lightly nor denigrate John McCain's service or POW experience - and I do not think those alone qualify him to be Commander in Chief over a candidate who did not serve.

At age 49, I am not youthful, nor am I disadvantaged; although I am ardently a believer in health care for all (a healthy society is a more productive and long-lasting society). I in no way view hard work as impractical or distasteful, nor do I prefer a hand out to a hand up to those who need it. I am highly concerned with practicalities.

I am well-read, well-traveled, and I painstakingly educate myself about events, people, politics and history. I take very seriously both my rights and the responsibilities that go with having them. I know how to use search engines, books, snopes.com, common sense and the brain that God gave me. And I'm sorry to disappoint, but I refuse to fit into the mold to which some seem so desperate to put "my kind." Those who do may kindly take comfort from someone else's failings, not mine.

Barack Obama IS our next President. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go back to being the same proud American I was before this whole election campaign started. It's just a suggestion, but you might try to do the same. It's less likely to cause a stroke for you down the line.

We'll take it up again in four years. Until then, TRY to have a beautiful day, y'all.

And God bless.

A Young Vet on Veteran's Day

The author sent this as part of an e-mail on Veterans' Day. It's a little late to be using it today, but I wanted to get his permission before sharing his history of the day and what it means to him.

By DAN BLACK

Please forgive the reversal of tradition; I thought that I [a veteran of the Iraq war] would reach out to you for Veterans’ Day instead of the other way around.

"Veterans Day" was once termed "Armistice Day" because Germany agreed to armistice (truce) in Rethondes, France. The first steps, the final armistice necessary, toward the Central Powers' surrender to the Triple Entente were officially taken. It was ninety years ago today, in the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month (actually signed six hours earlier that morning) that the "Great War", the "war to end all wars", the "war to make the world safe for democracy", and so on and so forth, saw its curtains close.

The world thought it had seen the last of war -- that was what World War I was all about. I suppose the logic must have run something like this: the world's largest, wealthiest nation states, having savagely butchered 20 million of one another's teenage conscripts over convoluted political/economic disputes, and the private interests that conceived and sustained the affair <http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm >,
having grown weary of making money, had tired themselves of the fight.

Looking back, we know better. We remember that seven and a half months later, when the peace was settled and signed at Versailles, the seeds of World War II had been sown (Hitler forced France's surrender in the same train car). And we've lived seamless war ever since.

That is the history of this day that I'm reminded of every time I hear some ignorant media pundit preach to me about veterans, showing our support, pride, patriotism, and so on ad nauseam. I am amazed, and I wish to share this with you all, that although I believe the adage "the more things change, the more they stay the same," and surely have sufficient evidence, I dare allow myself to dream, nonetheless.

And of course, it continues. National Football League star, Pat Tillman, enlisted and went Special Ops, after 9/11. Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, and other PR minded NeoCons wanted to use Pat Tillman's All American narrative to "sell" the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT)

After deploying to Afghanistan, Tillman became an outspoken opponent of the entire U.S. policy in the GWOT. The importance of silencing an American Hero, ready to expose the game is what Mary Tillman, Pat Tillman's Mom, writes about in her book, Boots on the Ground by Dusk, the story of the final hours of Pat Tillman's life. The book shows the unanswered contradictions of DoD coverups, and what REALLY happened on the Ground.

Iraq Veteran Against the War (IVAW) Geoff Millard was the MC of Mary Tillman's book reading and Q & A, on the Congressional Hearings, the Desert Camo Wall of Silence and LIES that enshrouded the Capital Hill hearings on Pat Tillman's assassination.

Read Mary’s book. I recommend it.

Dan Black, who served in Iraq with the Marine Corps, is completing his last semester for a bachelor’s degree from Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY. He attended high school with our son, Augie Schroeder in Maplewood, NJ.

Steal this, will ya?

A lucky Bay Village resident chosen to sit on stage for Obama's Cleveland visit reports that, while Springsteen was playing his set, she could see Barack and Michelle dancing in the Green Room. For those of us who missed that, a Traverse City, MI, company projected this clip from the Ellen Show on the side of a building earlier this week. Apparently someone had stolen Obama signs the company had posted earlier, so management put up one that couldn't be removed.

http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-134736

A Vote for Change

By LORIN WALKER
Gold Star Families for Obama

As military family members, we were supportive, proud to serve, and prepared to sacrifice for our country and our values. We were not, however, prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for artifice.

We are Gold Star family members, a mother, a sister-in-law, and an adult child of service members who lost their lives in honorable service of our nation. We feel strongly about the reprehensible way in which the war in Iraq was conceived. The moment that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz sat down to plan how to sell the invasion to the public under false pretenses, we lost. We all lost. The damage done to us and to our reputation as a nation has still not been fixed.

How then, could Senator McCain begin to fix what he doesn't even seem to acknowledge has happened? We remember all too well that the war did not begin with the surge. Senator McCain's rhetoric demonstrates a complete denial about all of the "loss" that occurred before that -- the loss to our nation's integrity and honor.

"Still further, what are we as a country losing when we continue to lay to eternal rest the funny kid on the baseball team and the girl who always knew how to get her little siblings to finish their chores? These aren't Rambos we're sending to do our dirty work, they are our military," said Gold Star mother Rosemary Palmer. "We will forever wonder what each might have contributed to our world."

We appreciated Senator McCain when he spoke up about Bush policies that were damaging. Yet, he still does not seem to have acknowledged (even to himself) the ongoing extent of that damage or the resulting loss of public trust -- which is the lifeblood of our entire system. The Iraqi budget is running a surplus while ours is in a downward spiral. When tens of thousands of Iraqis peacefully protest in the streets against long-term U.S. presence, it is time to change course. It is time to refocus and redouble our efforts on Afghanistan, not stubbornly stay in Iraq while being asked to leave.

Gold Star sister-in-law, Janine Gastineau said, "The war in Afghanistan has long been overshadowed by the distraction that is the war in Iraq. Every new disaster there rubs more salt in the wounds of our grief."

When combined with McCain's insulting record on veterans' issues and his tendency to be out of touch with the plight of average working Americans, it is not surprising that he is also far out of touch with the long-term loss of credibility that Iraq has caused us around the world. Only with a truly myopic definition of victory is it possible to keep talking about winning.

As the daughter of a pilot who has been missing for 37 years, I can tell you that the cost of war is decades, generational in scope. To say that we will stay until we have won, in a war that has no clear lines, an ever-shifting definition of the word win is offensive, damaging, unethical, and wrong. It is playing with words to fuel a political campaign. What must we have won to say that we have won, and what more will we have to lose?

By stark comparison to Senator McCain, Senator Obama will take the long view. He will look before he leaps. He will not sacrifice American lives lightly or use force to prove a point. He will restore an honor to the American Presidency that is based on mutual trust. He will respect our service members, their families, and the rest of the world. He will engender respect from around the globe and from the troops that will call him Commander in Chief.

And finally, there is the question of patriotism. When the political chips are down or policies are failing, those who raise questions or who point out failures are accused of being unpatriotic. We are not unpatriotic people. As one widow said to me, "I was a proud military wife for ten years. I resent anyone who questions my patriotism, or anyone else's, simply because we question a flawed doctrine that endangers precious lives. I would never back down from defense of my country in the presence of a genuine threat. However, I cannot condone the duplicitous politics of McCain and Palin. As a survivor, I am a witness to the pain that plagues the families left behind."

We are Gold Star Family Members, true patriots. We are standing up for all that is great about this nation that we love. We are standing with a leader who has inspired the nation and the world, a patriot who will command with authority and lead with intelligence and foresight. We will proudly cast our votes for Barack Obama on Tuesday, November 4th.

Janine Gastineau's brother-in-law and her husband's only sibling, Helge Philipp Boes, lost his
life in Afghanistan in early 2003 during his second tour of duty as an Intelligence officer with
the CIA's Counterterrorism Center

Rosemary Palmer of Bay Village, Ohio, is the mother of Lance Corporal Edward "Augie" Schroeder II, who was killed in action near Haditha, Iraq, on August 3, 2005

Lorin Walker, Vice President of CLW-VETPAC, is the daughter of Capt. Bruce C. Walker, whose OV-10A Bronco was shot down in Quang Bihn Province, Vietnam, on April 7, 1972. He has been Missing in Action since 11 days later (two days before Ms. Walker's 1st birthday), when a rescue attempt was aborted as Capt. Walker was surrounded by the North Vietnamese Army.