Editor's note: In the post below, when referencing "army", I mean the combined Armed Forces of the US: Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard, the Reserves, and the National Guard. Just wanted to be clear on that... Longstreet
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Why has America, once again, chosen to betray her Warriors?
The American soldier has been abandoned… again… by the very country they were prepared to give their lives for! Stripped of their honor, told they are wrong, and have been wrong, from day one, and the American people do not support them. They have to be demoralized and depressed and they have certainly been dishonored by their own country this week!
I had thought one generation of young Americans, dishonored by a fickle American public, would somehow stain our history so much we, as a people, would never repeat that awful, awful, betrayal of our warriors. I was wrong. We have done it AGAIN!
Americans no longer love freedom. We have shown, in latter years, that we will quickly sell our freedom for security. We have demonstrated we will sell our freedom for womb to tomb health care and social programs, which our government is happy to exchange for that personal freedom. The blood spilled by Americans on this soil, and on the soil of foreign lands, to secure those freedoms, nowadays, means absolutely nothing. NOTHING!
Our warriors, in the combat zones of Iraq and Afghanistan, must be stunned beyond belief. The realization that they have been lied to, and betrayed, by their very own country must hurt like a blow to the solar plexus. They must be asking themselves how long, now, ‘til they pull us out. How long ‘til the death of my best buddy means nothing? How long ‘til we are forced to turn this troubled land back over to the bad guys and beat a retreat. How long before we are painted with the shame of defeat before an enemy sworn to our destruction? How long before the American people blame US for the attacks on the American homeland which are sure to come? How long will I have to bear the shame of being defeated by an inferior enemy? And the ultimate question, WHY did my country, which I put my life on the line for, decide to DISHONOR me so?
These are all valid questions and I have to tell you that every American who wore the uniform of this country, during the Vietnam War, carries scars from that war that you don’t see. Placing an army in Harm’s Way and abandoning them is the lowest form of betrayal ever devised by the warped mind of man.
…And America has done it again!
Where, exactly, does America expect to get the next crop of fighting men to fight her wars? Certainly she can’t expect good men and women, honorable men and women, to sacrifice their life, their blood, and their honor just to be betrayed? Surely, she cannot expect to maintain a standing Army, worth calling themselves an Army, when she intends to use them as cannon fodder fit only to be used to further diplomatic iniatives and then sacrifice them when those iniatives fail! Because, THAT, dear reader, is exactly what has happened… again!
I continue to mention honor in reference to the Military. There is a good reason for it. Honor is that thing which causes a man, or a woman, to do, what the military does, for the low pay, and the rotten conditions, and the danger, they endure every day. And, I would remind our political leaders; it is HONOR, which causes the Military to refrain from simply removing them and running the country themselves. Honor is the ONLY thing that forbids it. Nothing more. And America has chosen to, once again, DISHONOR our troops.
I am of Dutch-German and Scots-Irish ancestry. They migrated to America in 1789 through the harbor at a little seaside town called Charles Town, South Carolina. My family settled in the old “96 district” of South Carolina. I come from a family of dirt farmers, often sharecroppers, and mill workers, and the only thing we could claim as our own was our honor. When honor is all you have… you tend to be damned protective of it.
The military was seen as an honorable profession for my family and they answered their country’s call many times and many never returned to their families, and loved ones, having given their lives for this country. Some lie in the soil of Europe in their ancestral homeland.
This was not unique for my family. It was an American trait that Americans would fight for their country anywhere, anytime, under any conditions. And Americans understood those who answered her call were heroes and were entitled to be accorded the honor due them.
But no longer.
Something changed in America in the 1960’s. America lost sight of who she is. And she has never recovered. The politicians running America today are almost, exclusively, of that generation. And it shows. All one has to do is look at the election returns from this week. There is no honor in what America did to her Armed Forces this week. None. There is no excuse that will ease the pain and the demoralizing effect, on our troops, that a Vietnam-like self-imposed defeat will cause.
I am ashamed of what my country has done this week. Deeply ashamed. I wish there was something comforting I could say to our toops, but there is not. Their job now is to try to preserve their lives until “retreat” is sounded.
For more on this topic go to: ”Stop the ACLU” at:
http://stoptheaclu.com/archives/2006/11/08/i-was-wrong-iraq-was-the-issue-how-many-days-until-april-30-1975/
May God, in His infinite wisdom and mercy, help us for, surely, we cannot!
Longstreet
7 comments:
The American soldier has been abandoned… again… by the very country they were prepared to give their lives for! Stripped of their honor, told they are wrong, and have been wrong, from day one, and the American people do not support them. They have to be demoralized and depressed and they have certainly been dishonored by their own country this week!
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Again with your B.S. I support the troops obviously more than you by demanding they are brought home, you'd rather keep them in harms way. Haven't enough died because of the lies by the evil doers at the whitehouse? Has not enough blood been shed for the profits of oil companies and Haliburton? Have we not created enough financial debt? We need to stop spending money like water and that would be the best place to start, and invest in a future for all Americans. All that money is borrowed from Red China, or are you overlooking that?
Frank, ole friend, I love ya, but I gotta tell ya... you have zero understanding of the military.
Lemme see if I can explain, for those of you who have never been in the military what it’s like when you are committed to armed conflict and then ordered to retreat.
I’d really like it better if an active duty soldier, sailor, marine, or airman, would do this, ‘cause it’s been a long time since I served. But here goes.
Now, I’m gonna have to pre-suppose that you have played organized sports. I’m gonna use football as an example:
Suppose you are on your college football team. The coach puts the team on the field with orders to crush the opposing team. You play the first quarter, or the first half, and you have run rough shod over your opponent. Now, at half time, the coach has one of your arms taped behind you and instructs the entire team to play nice and not be too rough on the opponent. He instructs you to try to make friends with them and runs you back on the field. Obviously the opposing team is gonna beat the living daylights out of you , because you are only playing with one arm and trying to be nice. Then, at the end of the third quarter, the coach orders the entire team off the field and the game is forfeit.
You former athletes… what would that do to you, morally, spiritually, and even physically? Would you wonder what the hell just happened??? And finally, would you sign up to play next year with the same coach?
Now this doesn’t come near to explaining the problem, but I have broken it down to the lowest common denominator in the interest of communicating to you and helping you understand.
Remember, in battle you are being shot at. It is a life and death game not a game in which you score points and the one with the most points, at the end of the game, wins.
Just as the football players couldn’t care a whit who made their uniforms, nor who built the stadium, or made their pads or helmets, and sowed the grass on the field, the military doesn’t give a whit about Halliburton, oil, or anything short of their job. Their job is to fight and win America’s wars. They know that. That is what they do. When they are used as political pawns it is sinful, and shameful, and completely unforgivable.
I know this is an inadequate explanation and I ask your indulgence.
Best regards,
Longstreet
Just as the football players couldn’t care a whit who made their uniforms, nor who built the stadium, or made their pads or helmets, and sowed the grass on the field, the military doesn’t give a whit about Halliburton, oil, or anything short of their job. Their job is to fight and win America’s wars. They know that. That is what they do. When they are used as political pawns it is sinful, and shameful, and completely unforgivable.
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Maybe I'm wrong. I've seen interviews with soldiers who are so confused on why they are there, they don't know the mission, through no fault of their own, commanders on the ground have no idea, again not their own fault, the of leadership who has spent as much time at war as I have, draft dodging, National guard runaways, flag waving hypocrits that have never dressed for combat, not our troops sir, their leaders in Washington. A woman, soldier, shot and killed herself because she disagreed with interrogation (torture) tactics in Iraq. Can't we follow our codes of war? Can't our leaders? I understand war is about killing for, and occupying land that is how you win, or bomb them into submission (Kosovo), I don't understand truthfully why we are there. The Sheits were kept in check by Sadam, now they are stronger than ever, Sadam was at odds with Iran, now Iran and Iraq will become allies. We gave all the different sects a common enemy, our men and women in Iraq. Our policy made Iraq a recruiting tool for terrorists and we can't get anyone to join our troops because we see how the armed forces and the rest of society have been mislead...... I'm asking you, turn off FOX, Rush, CNN all that corporate crap and take a good objectionable look at the policies of this administration. If you get Democracy Now, NOW, or any other independent news show I suggest you watch it. The News Hour is good too.
And yet they say liberals hate America.
I was a Soldier. Every one of my brothers was in the military, and my husband was a Marine. In fact, I grew up in the military, living my entire childhood on military posts...so trust me, I was socialized/indoctrinated into the military culture.
Our troops do NOT feel abandoned by America. They were betrayed by Bush, Cheney/Halliburton, Rummy, and the rest of the neocons who thought it'd be just fine to take a detour from the war on terror, and kill a bunch of Iraqis instead.
Many have stayed/re-upped because their friends are dying, or worse yet, suffering life-ruinging injuries. When the neocons at foxnews keep harping on the relatively low loss of life, they're very careful not to remind you that THOUSANDS of men have survived ONLY because of the medical advances. Those men would rather be dead. They have no legs, they have no arms. Thousands have irreparable brain damage.
Those men have been betrayed. They joined up to protect America. They didn't join up to murder innocent women and children in Iraq, so that Halliburtion could make trillions.
To Indict......
Amen! And thank you.....
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