Thursday, June 22, 2006

My Truth

Two fellow American servicemembers have been kidnapped, horribly tortured and murdered by Islamofascists in Iraq. The reactions in the liberal press, media and blogosphere is at best ambivalent and at worst wallowing in an orgy of moral equivalency and transparent political opportunism glommed on to this intolerable act. These same folks revelled in words such as barbaric, horrific and torture to describe and politically charge events at Abu Ghraib Prison, and practices at the military detention facility at Gitmo. Now something truly in the full spirit of these words has happened to fellow Americans and the Libs, having spent these powerful adjectives like so much spare change on lesser evils supposedly perputrated on greater villians, reveal their moral bankruptcy. Mike Luckovich, political cartoonist, Occams Hatchet a hack over at Daily Kos, and political writer Andrew Sullivan stand out as three particularly deserving of our disgust. Given the choice between Gitmo and a gaggle of Muslim fanatics I wonder who they'd choose to spend a few days in the custody of?

Even while these two soldiers were being hideously tortured and mutilated a clique of Senate and House Democrats were, and still remain fixated on forming and implementing a plan for defeat in Iraq. These hapless politicians want to (cut and) run the war and the President wants his generals on the ground to be the final arbiters of the campaign. WE ARE AT WAR. This supercedes politics. Today the US Senate defeated two Democrat sponsored amendments calling for the withdrawal of US forces by a margin of 86-13. Maybe a certain senator from Massachusetts, having voted for the amendments would now like the opportunity to vote against them.

The unspeakable deaths of these two patriots, fighting the good fight in a noble cause moves me to speak. This is my truth, the ultimate ground of being if you will, upon which my opinions here at Fire and Ice are anchored. We are at war. If you do not believe and accept this then I hold you in abject scorn. You are either stupid by default, or a traitor by design. I will not waste my time trying to convince you otherwise. Our energy is needed else where; the actual War. We are in a death roll with a brutal, barbaric and retrogressive movement called Islamofascism. Our adversary is intent upon our utter defeat. Our adversary is wise and knows that this will not happen as a result of conventional warfare. They have selected a strategy we call Terrorism. Terrorism has one goal; to break our will and to defeat us from within. The Left, the Liberals, the Democratic Party, the Moonbat community, has contributed nothing since 9/11 to the national political will absolutely central to defeating our enemies. They have allowed what little resolve they initially possessed to be wicked away by their lack of character and devotion to prurient self-interest. This amounts, from this warrior's perspective, to aiding and abetting the enemy during a time of war.

This global conflict, in the final analysis, is literally being waged in the very heart, soul, will and governing institutions of our American republic. The Left's gang of useful idiots, Daily Kos, has delusionally framed their capitulation to terrorism as merely an "honest and spirited debate", while the war footing and fighting posture of the Right is described as "lemming-like devotion to a failed strategy". The troops are not fooled one iota as to the nature of our enemy in the field, nor the primary goal of the Left here at home. The collective Left is obsessed with the loss of the Presidency in 2000 to George W. Bush. That is their ground of being. They believe that the world needs to be protected from America and they're just the people to make that happen. No matter how you dress it up, no matter if the US has found effective ways to ferret out terrorists and proactively prevent future acts of true victimization, that's their plan. They want America's head to be stuck firmly in the sand and our playing cards face up on the table. I believe America is protecting the world. They see a world where America victimizes. I, on the other hand, have devoted myself to world where America is victorious. So, as I've said before, LEAD, FOLLOW, or GET OUT OF THE WAY!

As someone who formerly identified himself strongly as a left leaning progressive my heart goes out to folks like Peter Beinhart, Senator Joseph Lieberman and the Euston Manifesto signers. One bright clear morning they'll hopefully wake up, come out of the political closet, look in the mirror and say with epiphanal relief, "Holy crap, I'm a neo-con!" I'm thankful that there are people still courageous enough to identify themselves with the labels of "liberal" and "progressive" and at the same time eloquently speak beyond narrow partisan politics to what is simply right; people like Victor Davis Hanson and Christopher Hitchens are prime examples of measured thought out commentaries; unlike Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, founder of Daily Kos, who hiding behind a legion of authorized minions, spews out numerous commentaries on current events garnished with generous and sophmorically unnecessary dollops of the F-word.

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

Strongly stated. Thanks

Anonymous said...

HooRah!

Anonymous said...

Another AMEN from this corner! I'm so absolutely furious at the lack of noise from the Left and from the Democrats, who seem to just be continuing to play their games. It's as if nothing truly atrocious has just happened. Total hypocrits!!!

Buck said...

Well said, Mr. Fay, very well said.

Anonymous said...

Coming thru loud, proud, and clear, WO1 Fay!

ROGER THAT!

Unknown said...

I realize that crititicism, of almost any form, is uncomfortable. It is natural for anyone to believe they almost never make BIG mistakes.

However why don't you check out Air Force Boyles current testimony before the US Armed Services Comm. One of "your own" testifying before a group of "your own" about what was until recently, (thanks to one of your own newsapers writing "Pipeline to Peril", a traditional practice of "human trafficking" of labor onto US military bases) kept rather unknown from the minutes of Fox News (probably?).

The point I want to make here, is that war brings out the animal in all of us. This may seem to contradict what I posted earlier about the invasion of Iraq being an act of God's will (because it affects so many lives and societies) . Wars ARE (not "should be") preventable. Therefore this Iraq Invasion isn't God's will. It is our collective will, our collective responsibility, despite the fact that some of "us" opposed it. Enough of "us" thought the advantages of Invading Iraq outweighed the liabilities. We all, for the sake of community, stand together in a democracy. Those opposed are actually part of the solution to the problem, but we are as helpless as if it were a spiritual typhoon that came and blasted our communities. We are all victims, just as much as wounded soldiers. The ones who supported invading Iraq are victims of another form of indulging appetites, the ones who opposed are victims for the toll of suffering that we are inflicting on innocent people in a country US culture was largely ignorant of, the soldiers who come home crippled, are physical and psychological victims of both of us. Hey, is this the ultimate "blame game"? ;-)

In a democracy we share the burden of the majority decision. We who opposed this invasion of Iraq cannot have the arrogance to say, "Forgive them Father for they know not what they do", because we have all sinned and fallen short.

I don't simply oppose all war or oppose all police actions.

To the best of knowledge I reluctantly agreed with the force used against Afganistan. I was opposed to the 1991 Gulf War, but I was really very satisfied with NPR's coverage of the Senate debate on the war. In the future "we" will have points when military action is needed. However in the case of Iraq I think any observing soul could see the pressures mounting, the gradual buildup in the Gulf, the war preparations were going at a pace dictated by what had essentially already been decided, and the time table was set primarily, I believe because of a) the cost of maintaining the force there, b) the weather in Iraq. The decision to go in without any substantial cultural knowledge of the area to do "NATION RE-BUILDING".

Our, President said it wasn't the role of the military to do "NATION BUILDING". He said because it's simply not our job. Yet, this is what we ARE doing now.

And this unwanted child of our unjustified military action, "nation building", is what may be part of God's will.

I studied International Politics in university, and although our department was small and emphasised Africa (can you imagine a small Southern US school with a International Relations dept. with specialists in African politics??) I learned alot about the ways the British and other colonial powers failed at NATION BUILDING. It's a tough job. Iraq isn't Uganda, for example, and the US isn't England, yet there are a few interesting similarities, I can imagine in tribal political conditions that were simply allowed to explode as soon as the British were forced to withdraw and the factions of Shia, Sunni, Kurd, and the criminal elements evolving under the "US occupation". I know you'll say we are staying and the British just left. How long do you think nation building takes??

The Middle East is known as the Holy Land, because this is where your/our holy oil is according to Fox News. So I don't believe God would leave the Middle East's future in the hands of mortals in the Pentagon.

Islam has a beautiful tradition about the 99 names of God. One of them is "Prayer -Hearing-Prayer Answering". The innocents' prayers have risen up and , for reasons that don't have anything to do with your/our silly politics in the US, God will answer. The greater picture might be that the ripple effect in Iraq brings about "regime change across the Middle East, destroys the world market for Middle East oil, and unites the world at a higher level of regional blocks, and one of the common shared interests in those still disunited blocks is a determination to oppose US nation meddling, and a stronger UN. I can see this as a positive outcome for all the suffering we have given to the innocents. I could vote for that ;-)
What do you think?

Bag Blog said...

Right on and well said, M.Fay.

Samantha West said...

Mike,

Perfectly said and quite correct!

Sam
.
.

goesh said...

Right on, Man! ooops, wrong time frame here, sorry 'bout that...

Anonymous said...

I really like you, Mr. Fay, but I have to take exception to one thing you said. Whether the "bad guys" do a horrendous thing, or we do (Abu Ghraib), bad is bad. I have not heard that we mutilate our enemies, thank God, but humiliating and torturing prisoners is still ugliness of the spirit, and is NOT a "lesser evil". Other than that, I agree with you. We need to stand together as a nation and put 100% of our energy and know-how behind our agreement to this war. Now is not the time to back away. If we leave Iraq in a political vacuum (that we created), the entire world will have a VERY legitimate reason to hate us.
I never went to college, yet I know this to be true.

David M said...

Excellent!

I sure do hope they wake up soon otherwise their liberal sensibilities are going to get us all killed.

goesh said...

Collette, you can sleep safely at night knowing jihadists fear American jurisprudence. Who wouldn't be scared out of their boots at the thought of being confined in a climate controled environment with 3 square meals a day and probably halal food at that, a comfortable bed, television, CDs, a well stocked library, free legal representation, a mosque,a quran in the cell, conjugal visits, near state of the art exercise equipment, free education, medical and dental care and low income housing, food stamps and free medial care for the family if they happen to be in the US at the time of your arrest and incarceration. Gee whiz! It makes you wonder why there are even any terrorists still around knowing the first thing they are going to hear if arrested is " you don't have to talk to us if you don't want to, you have the right to an attorney". That'll make 'em think twice about gaining paradise by blowing themselves up in a mall near you! We don't get to hold the moral high ground against people who will gladly die for the chance to kill some filthy infidels like you, me and our children.

Anonymous said...

You have said it well, as did Michael Yon. Our soldiers have met demons. There is little humanity left in most terrorists, and certainly not in the ones who tortured and killed these soldiers. Not in the ones who pull children off the street to use as human shields, not in the ones who strap on bombs to blow up markets and schools. I don't care what race, or religion, they profess to be. I love dogs, but I would shoot a rabid one.

Take care Marine. You are doing a fine job, and have truly made a difference.God bless you.

Semper gratus,
Donna

Anonymous said...

Bro, Where do you get these moonbats?

Yo, Edoriver, Did they teach logic at that "small southern US school"?
Your discursive rant is a series of random unsupported assertions, unconnected propositions and non-sequiturs. That's logic-speak for gibberish. A textbook example of the POMO based emotion-driven mush which has replaced thought these days.

Collette, "If we do bad things that makes us just like them." Ahhh... that old chestnut...Making a guy wear underpants on his head is just like sawing somebody's head off and mutilating the body. Honey, why don't you get into your clown car and drive off a cliff, you lemming.

Gunny H

Kristopher Battles said...

Goesh and Gunny H: Thank you for your posts.

Edoriver: Gunny H is right -- your comments didn't contain much logic. Being a patriot doesn't mean we don't admit mistakes -- didn't our own president admit mistakes along the way?

We (patriots) believe that aiding and abeding the enemy is TREASON. And it IS aiding and abding the enemy to continually speak AGAINST our own country in time of war. Explain to me how it is not. . . . (your past explanations on this topic are weak).

It's a good thing we don't resolve treasonous situations the way we used to . . . . maybe America is more civilized today than she gets credit for!

And one last thing -- calling yourself a "victim" and comparing yourself to a wounded soldier is pretty pathetic. Have you visited any REAL wounded soldiers? Why don't you ask a soldier who's lost a limb if he can identify with you and/or your strong opinions against this war. . .

Anonymous said...

Excellantly stated....

Unknown said...

"We (patriots) believe that aiding and abeding the enemy is TREASON. And it IS aiding and abding the enemy to continually speak AGAINST our own country in time of war. Explain to me how it is not. . ."

Our govenment has already shown its concept of justice, I've been down their road before, and been shown with their own results. The temptation is just too great as you say, "in times of war" to twist the truth. I remember following the stories of the federal charges against John Lindh with conspiracy to commit murder — even though he was sitting trapped in a filthy prison in Mazar-i-Sharif the middle of a war between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance when CIA agent Johnny Michael Spann was murdered by thugs.

I heard that news through a colleague of the Fox News sales job on the notion that Moussaoui was the 20th hijacker long after the feds knew he wasn't. I have again heard through the memorized messages of Fox News from the same colleagues when the government told us that Yaser Esam Hamdi was so valuable as an intelligence asset and so dangerous as a terrorist that he had to be held incommunicado and without charges as an "enemy combatant" until the feds lost a round in court and promptly SET HIM FREE!!!!!!!!!!! I had to find out this latter point myself. I never heard mention of it, naturally.

My point is in war, we/you everyone acts like an animal. In a time of war we justify anything, any thing, because war is about survival. And in order to survive, all other beliefs go out the window, with the baby. The more I think about this topic , the more respect I have for the Jews that submitted to "the law of the land at the time and in that place" ..They were gathered (like sheep some Americans have said) for the concentration camps. I like to think that at the end they knew that God is a God of Justice beyod this world. It does take courage for a thinking rational, free person to believe in an after life of Justice. Not all of the Jews were sheep gathered together by fear. There were those who willingly chose to die with their loved ones rather than save their own skins.

The repeated message of the constant drum beat of "This is a time of war" and sacrifices have to be made works to the advantage of our animal nature. I will not choose that road. You can choose it. It's a "free country", isn't it?

Anonymous said...

Edoriver-Someone made a comment on another post for this blog that describes you very well. They said something like you couldn't wait to get the stench of being American off of you.

You ARE a traitor and when the terrorists do come knocking at your door I am sure you will expect my son to come save your ass. If he's nearby he will, because that's what Marines do.

Kristopher Battles said...

Edoriver,

According to Wikipedia, here's the definition of "treason":

In law, treason is the crime of disloyalty to one's nation or state. A person who betrays the nation of their citizenship and/or reneges on an oath of loyalty and in some way willfully cooperates with an enemy, is considered to be a traitor.

Again, can you explain to me/us how you are not a traitor?

PS Have you read the Old Testament where the Jews were called to war by God? (For starters, see Deut. 20, basically the whole life of Joshua, and -- a little more harsh -- 1 Sam. 15, especially verse 23.)

mdfay said...

I think edo-river is confusing a "licensious country" with a "free country". In a licensious country citizens are primarily focused on enjoying their entitlements. Example: France-remember the riots over guarranteed jobs recently. In a free country citizens are devoted to their responsiblities. In the former they hope to be served, in the latter they serve. Here-in lies a fundamental difference between folks these days, heck perhaps in all days, should the Bible be believed. The Old Testament is basically the story of God providing, asking Israel to be responsible and good stewards of His gifts to them, followed by an enjoyment of good fortune and a sense of entitlement, a failure to be responsible, and an attendent catastrophy and necessary humbling experience. Probably not going to end in our lifetimes.

One of the things I was particulary upset about with regards to Representative Murtha's original "cut and run" comments had to do with his answer to the question about whether he would join the military now...to which he answered "No". I think many in the military were more taken aback by that than his immediate pull-out (since spun into "re-deployment")proposal. Here's why: The subtext of his "no" is that citizens are entitled only to good wars in which to serve. No good war, no service required. This entitlement precedes conditions for service. In other words, an additional service rendered by the government should be the providing of a good optimal circumstance under which to sign the enlistment contract. But this means that serving in the military isn't really "service" in the classic self-less sense, but conditional and an enjoyment of an entitlement. He cheapened us with his "no". Not appreciated.

Let me say that edo-river strikes me as someone very intent and earnest in the pursuit of truth. Please be kind to him...he's obviously, like all of us, a work in progress and I don't detect mean-spiritedness at all in his postings.

Recommended reading:Hard America, Soft America by Michael Barone

Kristopher Battles said...

I do publicly apologize to Edoriver if I have offended you with my posts.

Most likely, we will not agree on anything having to do with this war. But that's what America is made of . . . many people with different beliefs and backgrounds.

Anonymous said...

Edoriver said: "My point is in war, we/you everyone acts like an animal." and "....works to the advantage of our animal nature."

Interesting way to put it.... What do animals do, in general they seek to eat, survive, mate, protect their offspring. Humans are pretty much the same, I don't see how war makes us any more animal-like than we already are. Most animals will kill to eat, in self defense, or to defend their offspring. Other animal behavior might include hiding, changing the times they go out, or camoflage to avoid and evade predators. So those who avoid conflict could also be said to be "animal like".

Any war is terrible, some think any war is unnecessary, but throughout all history there have always been wars. It is unrealistic to think there will be a time when there will never be another war, simply based on history. It is in our human nature to war. It's nice to think we can all come together some day and hold hands and be friends, but I'm not holding my breath, and in the meantime I'm glad the US has the biggest claws and teeth. By this point in time, we'll never be like the Swiss, so everybody in this country better hope we continue to be the biggest and baddest on the block.

Anonymous said...

PLEASE do not stick me in the same catagory as edoriver!

No, Gunny H, we did not cut off anyone's head, that I have heard about anyway, but that doesn't make what happened at Abu Ghraib (you know, the whole "scandal" thing) just a prank because it wasn't as bad as what they did to our guys.

Goesh, I was not talking about the prison systems, or the fact that they are woefully "Club-Med-like". I was talking about specific actions by specific people!

Anonymous said...

By the way, Gunny H, if you are going to quote someone, please be accurate. I never said that a few actions by a few people made ALL of us "as bad as they are".

Anonymous said...

Gunny H, lemmings are creatures that will follow their leader anywhere, even off of a cliff. Since I disagreed with at least one thing Mr. Fay said, that alone leaves me out of the lemming race. I actually hold with most of what Mr. Fay thinks, which is why I read his work. But if I have a different opinion on something, I will state it. And I would appreciate a bit less name-calling and a little more logical discussion. If you could manage it.

Anonymous said...

"The more I think about this topic , the more respect I have for the Jews that submitted to "the law of the land at the time and in that place" ..They were gathered (like sheep some Americans have said) for the concentration camps. I like to think that at the end they knew that God is a God of Justice beyod this world. It does take courage for a thinking rational, free person to believe in an after life of Justice. Not all of the Jews were sheep gathered together by fear. There were those who willingly chose to die with their loved ones rather than save their own skins."
Am I reading this wrong? Is that why I'm quaking in my boots, so-to-speak, at the implications here? Are we not supposed to fight back? I've been giving edoriver his due; he's obviously put a lot of thought and study into things, but sometimes I just can't make sense of what he says. This time I'm truly scared-to-death that I'm reading him right. If I just believe that "God is a God of justice beyond this world" and don't believe that that same God authorized humans with the right to fight for life and liberty, I might as well go drink the kool-aid now. I believe is going to be a wonderful place, but I don't want to hasten my entrance there; am I wrong here?
countrygirl

Anonymous said...

Oops, I left a word out last time:
heaven
...I believe heaven is going to be a wonderful place but ...