With a family member soon to be deployed to Iraq, I wanted to dedicate this blog post to the men and women, past and present, that have risked everything in defense of our country.
If one is not directly affected, it is relatively easy to forget that the United States is fighting a war with a faceless enemy that has proven they will stop at nothing to alter, if not destroy, our way of life. The whirlwind that is daily living and our generally safe and secure quality of life causes us to forget that American troops risk everything daily for America. At home, we take the most important things for granted, we complain about the most trivial, and often forget that we owe our possession of every necessity, every luxury, every right, every freedom, to those that have served and presently serve as American soldiers.
They fight so we don't have to. As we sit comfortably in our homes, they willingly face unspeakable dangers, half a world away. We plan vacations, they plan the next enemy assault. The nation is nearly put on hold for Michael Jackson's funeral, media obsesses over celebrity break ups, scandals, and deaths, yet the soldiers that pay the ultimate price are only a statistic on the six o'clock news.
If you enjoy being able to speak your mind, thank a soldier. If you enjoy being able to pray to the God you believe in, thank a soldier. If you enjoy being able to assemble peaceably, thank a soldier. If you appreciate the right to bear arms, thank a soldier.
I found this in the Facebook page "I Will Always Put My Country First. Plain and Simple." ... it is so, so true.
Remember,
It is the soldier, not the reporter,
Who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet,
Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the organizer,
Who has given us freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier, Who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
and whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protester to burn the flag.
I don't care if you're a pacifist. I don't care if you don't support the war. Support our troops. Thank a veteran. Respect the men and women that believed enough in this great nation to lay it all on the line to defend our way of life. As the saying goes... "If you don't stand behind our troops, feel free to stand in front of them!"
God Bless America.
WELL SAID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI support the troops, but not the war. I find it intolerable that they are murdering hundreds of thousands of civilians in the name of protecting my way of life! Sad.
ReplyDeleteWhat 'hundreds of thousands of civilians' do you speak of? If anything our troops have SAVED millions of lives from totalitarian government and given such civilians the opportunity to gain personal freedoms such as the right to vote.
ReplyDeleteOur troops are on a mission to rid the world of individuals who do not believe in such personal freedoms and wish to see them and those that do believe relinquished.
There have been an estimated 600,000 Iraqis killed so far in this war (and that number is out of date by now). Many of them were Christians (I heard 30,000 but that's hard to estimate, I'm sure). It's not for me to say whether they would have preferred to live under an oppressive regime or have their villages blown up by American drones. Maybe someone should have asked them.
ReplyDeleteI always wonder how we would feel if the situation were reversed. What if some crazy American ideologues had decided to run a plane into some other country's buildings? And what if that country had then decided that it was their prerogative to drop bombs all over America, killing randomly, in the hope of hitting members of the group responsible?
I don't mean to sound disrespectful of your ideas, but your "our troops are on a mission" statement sounds dangerously similar to Europe's rationale for colonialism--to save the poor savages from their backward way of life. But of course it's different now because they were spreading belief in a religion, while we are disinterestedly spreading human rights, right? Sounds right to me, but I wonder how history will judge us in another 300 years or so...
Where did you get your information 600,000 Iraqis? saying Iraqis could mean terrorist from Iraq or it could mean citizens from Iraq. When you say "It's not for me to say whether they would have preferred to live under an oppressive regime or have their villages blown up by American drones." are you acutally acussing the American military of blowing up people just for the fun of it. The military would not blow up villages with innocent people inside otherwise we would have just bombed all of Iraq by now. If some one from our country were to crash a plane into a different countrys building im sure America would work togeher with the other country to find them. The reason that is not the reverse is because Iraq has a week goverment with dictators. The terrorists in Iraq are about as stong as the Iraqi goverment.The reverse for America would be if thousands of Americans banded together and took over half of america and then bombed other countrys. What proof do you have that we are droping bombs randomly hoping to hit members of the group responsible? We are not just spreading human rights. If terrorists attacked wherever you are from would you can just sit back while the terrorist kill all the people around you?
ReplyDeleteI agree sounds like you pulled a bunch of political propoganda out of you ass
ReplyDeletesorry propaganda
ReplyDeleteIm just reposting I agree sounds like you pulled a bunch of political propaganda out of your ass... not a good day for spelling
ReplyDeleteThanks for all your kindhearted remarks. It is always pleasant to have a civil debate!
ReplyDeleteAs to the source of the numbers, CNN reported in 2006 that the Iraqi death toll was 655,000. That was three and a half years ago. So my numbers may be on the low end.
Due to the obviously difficult nature of researching the topic, estimates vary widely. The lowest estimate I found was 94,000 violent civilian deaths. Those people were not insurgents; they were normal, everyday people, and half of them were women and children. Many of them were killed by insurgents and many of them were killed by the U.S. military.
The information about the drones was from the news a few weeks ago, which was from Afghanistan, not Iraq (pardon me). In good news, "The US and its allies were responsible for 28% fewer civilian deaths in 2009 than in 2008." I wonder whether that is a comfort for those civilians' families.
The main problem with a war on terror, as I see it, is that these victims' families and friends are so likely to see the US as an evil aggressor (and with good reason), and are more likely to feel that terrorism is the only way to strike back. So, in effect, we might be creating more terrorists than we are eliminating. I sincerely hope that's not the case, but it does seem likely. "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter."
Friends...
ReplyDeleteThanks for your faithful reading of Present Day Patriots :)
This is not intended to be a mud-slinging site, so before such begins, I just want to contribute a last word on this matter. Should we not have fought World War II because of the high number of civilian deaths? 55,014,000, including both the Axis and Allied powers (http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/civilian_casualties_of_world_war.htm)
GOVERNMENT does not grant rights and personal freedoms. The basic rights of EVERY individual were granted by their CREATOR. Governments that believe they hold the people's personal freedoms and lives are intolerable. I do not believe that oppressive, murderous, totalitarian governments that persecute citizens for their religious beliefs--as well as house radical terrorist groups within their borders guilty of taking over 3,000 American lives on September 11, 2001 should be coddled and handled with "kid gloves" so to speak. It's rather difficult to negotiate with those would like to see the United States obliterated.
I agree, Sarah. It's only a question of method. It seems that there should be a neater, more precise way of eliminating the terrorists that would not also take so many innocent lives. I would not argue that WWII was not a necessary war-- but I think it may have been the last one that truly met its objective in using the military to protect our freedom. As I said before, a "War on Terror" just doesn't make sense as a concept, since invading another country (which involves killing innocent people) naturally makes many of its citizens desperately angry and creates more potential terrorists. Reminds me of the kids' book where Harry goes after an ant with a hammer and ends up destroying his house. I'm not saying I know the answers; I was just impressed with your blog and thought that you might be the kind of person who could appreciate hearing a different point of view. I apologize if I came across as being offensive.
ReplyDelete"GOVERNMENT does not grant rights and personal freedoms."
ReplyDeleteThen why are we in iraq again?
You mentioned in the original entry that we only pay attention to celebrity gossip and matters at home. Those soldiers are fighting so that we have the ability to do that. we can be tremendously grateful and not have a constant update on the war being played on every television channel.
ReplyDeletewe are at war (a war that we did not start) we need to hear about it everyday. Too many people have forgotten. That is what they want.
ReplyDeleteThanks for supporting the troops, and more importantly asking that we respect them. Respect is the key here. Sarah what you wrote is well said, and it's sad that it became a mud slinging session. Don't let 'em bug you. It happens all the time to me, and without even my words, just a picture of me in my cockpit with my flight helmet and mask. I'm doggone proud to be in that cockpit.
ReplyDeleteThank you very, very much ma'am! :) I appreciate it :)
ReplyDelete