Campaign ad received in an email from a friend. Stick with it till the end.
Comments
Message to Obama from a vet — 32 Comments
No comments yet? Well, maybe that’s because many of your readers don’t check the site on Sundays, when you often take well-deserved day of rest.
My comment: Thank you for that. I wish I knew how to get that one on television! For now, I just make sure to pass it on to all I know. I hope everyone watched carefully after the spoken words as this soldier walked away. Walked away thanks to biomedical engineering. He indeed knows what sacrifice for freedom is!
Powerful ad in it’s serious, sober tone… but hijacked by the music at the end.
As a politically conservative New Englander I love, and am grateful for, your site. I just forwarded this video to everyone I know. Thanks for your presence on the web!
What’s with these carping commenters? A touching tribute.
First they equate the custodians of liberal democracies with fascism, then they betray secular peoples and communities by defending the thugs and murderers that run these states; is it a conscious or a real dissonance? Largely both. One school says theocratic barbarism is a culture that can be bargained with over long periods of time, the other school is so parochial and degenerate that ”the enemy of my enemy is my FRIEND”. Iraq was the crime the West created, and it is the crime we have canceled; this generation of profession volunteer soldiers are the very very very best of us. It was a stroke of sheer genius for America to launch this liberation at the hour of our choosing; to have waited longer for the eventual Rwanda-like implosion would have been unimaginable. And who would have been given the call to lead the humanitarian relief? The multicultural Left and the isolationist Right are auxiliaries of militant Islamic theism — it’s where the circle shakes hand.
kungfu but hijacked by the music at the end.
You said it brother. That “God bless” crap is for the birds; it doesn’t help the argument when the notion that “our god is better than your god” is injected into what secularism has an answers for; universal human rights. The Rights of Man was wrestled from the divine monarchies of the 18th century.
Religion makes the possible, impossible.
The sight of that soldier walking away on his prosthesis supported by I’m proud to be an American brought tears to my eyes. Here’s hoping it’s picked up by a hundred other blogs, including HotAir.
It brought tears to my eyes, too. I’d like to know his name.
I’m not so sure life is better for the hundreds of thousands of people dead as a result of our war in Iraq. I guess that’s a sacrifice our government had to make.
I’m not so sure life is better for the hundreds of thousands of people dead as a result of our war in Iraq.
Too bad there is not a hell for them to burn in!
As for the innocent, most of which have died and continue to die by the hands of the Jihadist, don’t lose sight of the source of their tyranny; Saddam and past American Imperialism; at least today we are reversing that crime, doing our part; of course you wouldn’t think that because we once removed the regime in Panama so therefore that precludes us from liberating the Iraqi people; if not, and if China were not holding back the vote to intervene in Darfur, or the Rwandan Genocide in 1994, then these places were doom from the start; and as long as the world takes it council from the anti-war Left and the isolationist Right, and their hero-states such as China, and ethnic-bating and warmongering Russia, then Bosnia and Kosovo would have been ethnically cleansed; doing nothing doesn’t absolute you. With this sort of a moral stance you should be ashamed, you cretinous little pussy!
Hey Peter, help me out here…
How many people have Saddam Hussein and his kids killed in the last few years?
How many countries between the Med and the Indian Ocean have conducted free and fair elections in the last decade?
And of all the wars currently under way on the Earth… which ones were initiated by a legal majority vote of an elected government, with the public and unambiguous objective victory being defined as the establishment of locally sovereign, freely elected representative governments?
It’s sad that people die, Peter. But some day, the barbarians will have LOST… or we will have surrendered.
Keep your nose to the grindstone, Peter. It could still go your way.
I don’t support surrendering. I definitely don’t support doing nothing. I absolutely support fighting for democracy and fighting against injustice. China and Russia are not my “hero states”. That’s sickening. I think “hero state” must be an oxymoron.
There’s just one thing- I don’t support killing. I’m sorry if you can’t imagine how all this might work, but even the most difficult things can be accomplished without murder. Even dictators can be defeated with love.
“Even dictators can be defeated with love”
What a BS! Try it on Hitler, please. Or on our friend Dinnerjacket.
Idi Amin succumbed to love at the hands of the Saudis. He had a decent house to live in and enough to eat and probably had free medical care and finally died. He didn’t have to stand trial in his homeland and face the gallows or a firing squad. Several witnesses report one time he went into a prison and killed a bunch of prisoners by hitting them on the head with a hammer. From the living plants and animals that die so you may eat and live, your whole life is predicated on killing, Peter. At least wipe the blood from your lips before giving us the prattle about not killing human monsters
Even dictators can be defeated with love. Oh yeah we tried that and people were real upset about it; in an fabricated case of ethnic bullying, the Sudetenland was occupied to protect it from those evil Czechoslovakian. Next, Poland got a whole lot of love. And it happened again last month in Abkhazia and South Ossetia; love exciting and new.
“I’m sorry if you can’t imagine how all this might work, but even the most difficult things can be accomplished without murder. Even dictators can be defeated with love.”
Oh. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.
“Even dictators can be defeated with love”
Statements like that, made in all seriousness, will destroy the market for over-the-top parody in our lifetimes.
“Even dictators can be defeated with love”
Can we have unicorns and wonderful dancing pixies?
Please Peter tell us we can all have unicorns and wonderful dancing pixies.
Thanks Peter, you’re the best.
Scenario: Two years into his term President Obama initiates an ill-planned military action based on faulty intelligence. By the end of the first term, that military action has taken a turn for the worse. Running against the incumbent, how do you declare publically that it was a “mistake” without disrespecting the men and women who sacrificed in that cause?
Can we criticize a war, any war, without appearing to dishonor those who serve? How do we do it?
Even in wars that are absolutely wrong (And I’m not saying the one we have now is), aren’t there limbless veterans that deserve respect? How does one call the war a mistake and still respect them?
“Even in wars that are absolutely wrong (And I’m not saying the one we have now is), aren’t there limbless veterans that deserve respect? How does one call the war a mistake and still respect them?”
It’s not really that hard – lets take Kosovo for example. It was, and is a huge mistake to be there and try and “pacify” the region.
There were two sides each bent on eradicating the other side and had been going at it for centuries. The only time they ceased hostilities towards each other was when they were ruled by an iron fist by the soviets – before they were subjugated they did not have the technology to eradicate each other.
In the 90’s the Soviet Union collapsed and they went back to fighting each other, now with nice new shiny weapons. One side was winning and we had a “Human Rights Disaster” so we stepped in. However there was no way to stop the hostilities, all disarming the aggressor and arming the victim did was reverse the roles and we found ourselves swapping back and forth. There was no side that we could pick to win and not have a disaster. The only consolation prize is that they mostly only kills us when we get between them.
So, we decided to wall off an area (Sprska) and only allow those that could follow the rule of law to live there – however the political machine only requires that they follow the law in that area. So a number of the old guard that is fighting use it as a safe area. Had we decided to truly kick all the aggressive people out and protect only those that want to be left alone then this would have been a road to long term stability. As is there is no path to victory, only endless bloodshed of both the UN/NATO forces and the two warring factions.
Note that no where in there do I remotely blame soldiers – nor do I even remotely blame the Generals (who have one heck of a tough mission). In fact I imply that they are doing as good a job as they can, it is the political end that failed.
I also happen to believe the above – I’ve never been a fan of “helping” in places like Darfur, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Rwanda for the same reasons – which side do you pick? We *could* do the whole safe area for non-violent people but we, politically, can not run it the way it needs to be ran for it to work. We just set up a nice sheltered base for them to operate out of.
I can point you to a large number of veterans and soldiers (some of which were stationed there) that say the same thing I do above. In fact I know I can point you to a few that are complaining that they are going to Kosovo (and what they call a quagmire both from a military and political view) instead of Iraq or Afghanistan where they can do good (at least two are long term career military that have been to both areas). There *are* clearly good and bad in those areas – there are people we can point our military towards and let them do their job (and when the politicians get out of it they do a damn fine job – see the Iraq surge). Heck, I’m willing to bet that we let our military loose (that is, have their own “surge”) in Kosovo things would have been over there by now too.
Personally I see it as more denigrating to the ones that have lost their life or body to keep doing what we have in areas like Kosovo. Win it or leave it alone (I would choose win it). Now, if you mean how can we say a war is immoral and/or evil then you have a better point (Kosovo is neither), but it would still fall on the political end instead of the soldiers end. Even then most of the soldiers for both Japan and Germany in WWII (which I can confidently say was an immoral war on their end) were decent folks. There were MANY that deserve respect and honor – and we actually did (and still do) that too.
Even dictators can be defeated with love.
Give us a hug.
/wiping away tear of laughter
Experiment: go into a biker bar and bump into someone. Then put your maxim to the test.
And flying cars. I want flying cars with my unicorns. Where are the flying cars?
I do suspect that we would all like to live in a world where violence was not required, but unfortunately that is not the reality of our existence. One only has to live in any city, town or hamlet in the world to see that we have to hire people full time to protect us from the 10 percent of people who would hurt or kill us. The refusal to do this always leads to the elevation of those who would destroy us and the death of people like Peter.
To think as Peter does only serves to make a deal with evil for security’s sake and a desire to think one is better than those who actually protect the ability to feel this way. I would like to laud Peter, but he makes it possible for evil to succeed and will be the death of us all.
But does Peter get a Coke to drink after bringing peace and harmony to the world?
This vet has shown us the real meaning of “walk the walk.”
strcpy,
Still, how does one running for office express his belief that the military action was a mistake without losing points with the electorate for “not respecting those who’ve sacrificed.” I think, even when you are morally and logically correct in calling that military action a mistake, you still lose. It seems better, from the a politician’s standpoint, to never call any action a mistake, but it can make you a hypocrite.
“Still, how does one running for office express his belief that the military action was a mistake without losing points with the electorate for “not respecting those who’ve sacrificed.””
I really do not think what I wrote would do that – at least for those that it did they were not going to vote for me anyway. No matter what I would say they would try and twist it into disrespect for the military – I note that there are a fairly large number of leftist are still trying to twist what McCain has said and done into that also. Of all the complaints over the years about McCain that has *never* been anything sane people have said about him (and even most nutbars never even went their either).
Basically I put (and still fully do so – while Clinton chose to initially go in there we have had 8 years for Bush to do the right thing) the problem squarely on the elected politicians.
I know quite a number of people who say the same thing about Vietnam – I’ve heard McCain (and other Vietnam vets) say things along the same lines. Of course a veteran can get away with saying more than a civilian can, however I don’t see anything wrong with me (a civilian) saying the above.
There are two main issues you have to be aware of (and, even better, if you truly believe them so that you do not even need to think about it) – do not question their ability and do not question that they died in vain. An ill conceived mismanaged war does not violate either of those things on the soldiers end and may, or may not, include their commanders.
As long as you follow that you should not be able to be accused of disrespecting them as, well, you haven’t. Sure some will still try and say it, but no matter what you do (even nothing) will be spun into meaning that for those people – there is no reason to try and please them.
Folks, please, don’t be so hard on Peter, He’s absolutely correct. The love of men for their country (the United States) and the principles of democracy and freedom it stands for, the love they have for the citizens of Iraq who just want to live a normal life in freedom, and the love they have for their fellow men-at-arms is indeed what will defeat dictators, tyrants and thugs. Perhaps it’s not the love Peter was thinking of, but it is love, to be sure.
Peter, I, too, am troubled by avoidable death, but I invite you to revisit your assertion that there are “hundreds of thousands of people dead as a result of our war in Iraq” or the implicit assumption that we are the cause for all the deaths that have occurred. The Lancet study has been roundly discredited time after time. Even the admitedly partisan iraqbodycount.org sets their upper bar at about 94,000, and remember this includes civilian deaths at the hands of terrorists that happened in AQI controlled territory when coalition troops were nowhere near.
Avoidable death is a tragedy, but it is severely misplaced to assume that we are responsible for the wanton violence AQI and other like minded groups have visited upon Iraqi citizens.
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No comments yet? Well, maybe that’s because many of your readers don’t check the site on Sundays, when you often take well-deserved day of rest.
My comment: Thank you for that. I wish I knew how to get that one on television! For now, I just make sure to pass it on to all I know. I hope everyone watched carefully after the spoken words as this soldier walked away. Walked away thanks to biomedical engineering. He indeed knows what sacrifice for freedom is!
Powerful ad in it’s serious, sober tone… but hijacked by the music at the end.
As a politically conservative New Englander I love, and am grateful for, your site. I just forwarded this video to everyone I know. Thanks for your presence on the web!
What’s with these carping commenters? A touching tribute.
I love this ad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yiurw9T5p_s
Uncagetorized? I’d file it under Damn Important!
First they equate the custodians of liberal democracies with fascism, then they betray secular peoples and communities by defending the thugs and murderers that run these states; is it a conscious or a real dissonance? Largely both. One school says theocratic barbarism is a culture that can be bargained with over long periods of time, the other school is so parochial and degenerate that ”the enemy of my enemy is my FRIEND”. Iraq was the crime the West created, and it is the crime we have canceled; this generation of profession volunteer soldiers are the very very very best of us. It was a stroke of sheer genius for America to launch this liberation at the hour of our choosing; to have waited longer for the eventual Rwanda-like implosion would have been unimaginable. And who would have been given the call to lead the humanitarian relief? The multicultural Left and the isolationist Right are auxiliaries of militant Islamic theism — it’s where the circle shakes hand.
kungfu but hijacked by the music at the end.
You said it brother. That “God bless” crap is for the birds; it doesn’t help the argument when the notion that “our god is better than your god” is injected into what secularism has an answers for; universal human rights. The Rights of Man was wrestled from the divine monarchies of the 18th century.
Religion makes the possible, impossible.
The sight of that soldier walking away on his prosthesis supported by I’m proud to be an American brought tears to my eyes. Here’s hoping it’s picked up by a hundred other blogs, including HotAir.
It brought tears to my eyes, too. I’d like to know his name.
I’m not so sure life is better for the hundreds of thousands of people dead as a result of our war in Iraq. I guess that’s a sacrifice our government had to make.
I’m not so sure life is better for the hundreds of thousands of people dead as a result of our war in Iraq.
Too bad there is not a hell for them to burn in!
As for the innocent, most of which have died and continue to die by the hands of the Jihadist, don’t lose sight of the source of their tyranny; Saddam and past American Imperialism; at least today we are reversing that crime, doing our part; of course you wouldn’t think that because we once removed the regime in Panama so therefore that precludes us from liberating the Iraqi people; if not, and if China were not holding back the vote to intervene in Darfur, or the Rwandan Genocide in 1994, then these places were doom from the start; and as long as the world takes it council from the anti-war Left and the isolationist Right, and their hero-states such as China, and ethnic-bating and warmongering Russia, then Bosnia and Kosovo would have been ethnically cleansed; doing nothing doesn’t absolute you. With this sort of a moral stance you should be ashamed, you cretinous little pussy!
Hey Peter, help me out here…
How many people have Saddam Hussein and his kids killed in the last few years?
How many countries between the Med and the Indian Ocean have conducted free and fair elections in the last decade?
And of all the wars currently under way on the Earth… which ones were initiated by a legal majority vote of an elected government, with the public and unambiguous objective victory being defined as the establishment of locally sovereign, freely elected representative governments?
It’s sad that people die, Peter. But some day, the barbarians will have LOST… or we will have surrendered.
Keep your nose to the grindstone, Peter. It could still go your way.
I don’t support surrendering. I definitely don’t support doing nothing. I absolutely support fighting for democracy and fighting against injustice. China and Russia are not my “hero states”. That’s sickening. I think “hero state” must be an oxymoron.
There’s just one thing- I don’t support killing. I’m sorry if you can’t imagine how all this might work, but even the most difficult things can be accomplished without murder. Even dictators can be defeated with love.
“Even dictators can be defeated with love”
What a BS! Try it on Hitler, please. Or on our friend Dinnerjacket.
Idi Amin succumbed to love at the hands of the Saudis. He had a decent house to live in and enough to eat and probably had free medical care and finally died. He didn’t have to stand trial in his homeland and face the gallows or a firing squad. Several witnesses report one time he went into a prison and killed a bunch of prisoners by hitting them on the head with a hammer. From the living plants and animals that die so you may eat and live, your whole life is predicated on killing, Peter. At least wipe the blood from your lips before giving us the prattle about not killing human monsters
Even dictators can be defeated with love. Oh yeah we tried that and people were real upset about it; in an fabricated case of ethnic bullying, the Sudetenland was occupied to protect it from those evil Czechoslovakian. Next, Poland got a whole lot of love. And it happened again last month in Abkhazia and South Ossetia; love exciting and new.
“I’m sorry if you can’t imagine how all this might work, but even the most difficult things can be accomplished without murder. Even dictators can be defeated with love.”
Oh. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.
“Even dictators can be defeated with love”
Statements like that, made in all seriousness, will destroy the market for over-the-top parody in our lifetimes.
“Even dictators can be defeated with love”
Can we have unicorns and wonderful dancing pixies?
Please Peter tell us we can all have unicorns and wonderful dancing pixies.
Thanks Peter, you’re the best.
Scenario: Two years into his term President Obama initiates an ill-planned military action based on faulty intelligence. By the end of the first term, that military action has taken a turn for the worse. Running against the incumbent, how do you declare publically that it was a “mistake” without disrespecting the men and women who sacrificed in that cause?
Can we criticize a war, any war, without appearing to dishonor those who serve? How do we do it?
Even in wars that are absolutely wrong (And I’m not saying the one we have now is), aren’t there limbless veterans that deserve respect? How does one call the war a mistake and still respect them?
“Even in wars that are absolutely wrong (And I’m not saying the one we have now is), aren’t there limbless veterans that deserve respect? How does one call the war a mistake and still respect them?”
It’s not really that hard – lets take Kosovo for example. It was, and is a huge mistake to be there and try and “pacify” the region.
There were two sides each bent on eradicating the other side and had been going at it for centuries. The only time they ceased hostilities towards each other was when they were ruled by an iron fist by the soviets – before they were subjugated they did not have the technology to eradicate each other.
In the 90’s the Soviet Union collapsed and they went back to fighting each other, now with nice new shiny weapons. One side was winning and we had a “Human Rights Disaster” so we stepped in. However there was no way to stop the hostilities, all disarming the aggressor and arming the victim did was reverse the roles and we found ourselves swapping back and forth. There was no side that we could pick to win and not have a disaster. The only consolation prize is that they mostly only kills us when we get between them.
So, we decided to wall off an area (Sprska) and only allow those that could follow the rule of law to live there – however the political machine only requires that they follow the law in that area. So a number of the old guard that is fighting use it as a safe area. Had we decided to truly kick all the aggressive people out and protect only those that want to be left alone then this would have been a road to long term stability. As is there is no path to victory, only endless bloodshed of both the UN/NATO forces and the two warring factions.
Note that no where in there do I remotely blame soldiers – nor do I even remotely blame the Generals (who have one heck of a tough mission). In fact I imply that they are doing as good a job as they can, it is the political end that failed.
I also happen to believe the above – I’ve never been a fan of “helping” in places like Darfur, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Rwanda for the same reasons – which side do you pick? We *could* do the whole safe area for non-violent people but we, politically, can not run it the way it needs to be ran for it to work. We just set up a nice sheltered base for them to operate out of.
I can point you to a large number of veterans and soldiers (some of which were stationed there) that say the same thing I do above. In fact I know I can point you to a few that are complaining that they are going to Kosovo (and what they call a quagmire both from a military and political view) instead of Iraq or Afghanistan where they can do good (at least two are long term career military that have been to both areas). There *are* clearly good and bad in those areas – there are people we can point our military towards and let them do their job (and when the politicians get out of it they do a damn fine job – see the Iraq surge). Heck, I’m willing to bet that we let our military loose (that is, have their own “surge”) in Kosovo things would have been over there by now too.
Personally I see it as more denigrating to the ones that have lost their life or body to keep doing what we have in areas like Kosovo. Win it or leave it alone (I would choose win it). Now, if you mean how can we say a war is immoral and/or evil then you have a better point (Kosovo is neither), but it would still fall on the political end instead of the soldiers end. Even then most of the soldiers for both Japan and Germany in WWII (which I can confidently say was an immoral war on their end) were decent folks. There were MANY that deserve respect and honor – and we actually did (and still do) that too.
Give us a hug.
/wiping away tear of laughter
Experiment: go into a biker bar and bump into someone. Then put your maxim to the test.
And flying cars. I want flying cars with my unicorns. Where are the flying cars?
I do suspect that we would all like to live in a world where violence was not required, but unfortunately that is not the reality of our existence. One only has to live in any city, town or hamlet in the world to see that we have to hire people full time to protect us from the 10 percent of people who would hurt or kill us. The refusal to do this always leads to the elevation of those who would destroy us and the death of people like Peter.
To think as Peter does only serves to make a deal with evil for security’s sake and a desire to think one is better than those who actually protect the ability to feel this way. I would like to laud Peter, but he makes it possible for evil to succeed and will be the death of us all.
But does Peter get a Coke to drink after bringing peace and harmony to the world?
This vet has shown us the real meaning of “walk the walk.”
strcpy,
Still, how does one running for office express his belief that the military action was a mistake without losing points with the electorate for “not respecting those who’ve sacrificed.” I think, even when you are morally and logically correct in calling that military action a mistake, you still lose. It seems better, from the a politician’s standpoint, to never call any action a mistake, but it can make you a hypocrite.
“Still, how does one running for office express his belief that the military action was a mistake without losing points with the electorate for “not respecting those who’ve sacrificed.””
I really do not think what I wrote would do that – at least for those that it did they were not going to vote for me anyway. No matter what I would say they would try and twist it into disrespect for the military – I note that there are a fairly large number of leftist are still trying to twist what McCain has said and done into that also. Of all the complaints over the years about McCain that has *never* been anything sane people have said about him (and even most nutbars never even went their either).
Basically I put (and still fully do so – while Clinton chose to initially go in there we have had 8 years for Bush to do the right thing) the problem squarely on the elected politicians.
I know quite a number of people who say the same thing about Vietnam – I’ve heard McCain (and other Vietnam vets) say things along the same lines. Of course a veteran can get away with saying more than a civilian can, however I don’t see anything wrong with me (a civilian) saying the above.
There are two main issues you have to be aware of (and, even better, if you truly believe them so that you do not even need to think about it) – do not question their ability and do not question that they died in vain. An ill conceived mismanaged war does not violate either of those things on the soldiers end and may, or may not, include their commanders.
As long as you follow that you should not be able to be accused of disrespecting them as, well, you haven’t. Sure some will still try and say it, but no matter what you do (even nothing) will be spun into meaning that for those people – there is no reason to try and please them.
Folks, please, don’t be so hard on Peter, He’s absolutely correct. The love of men for their country (the United States) and the principles of democracy and freedom it stands for, the love they have for the citizens of Iraq who just want to live a normal life in freedom, and the love they have for their fellow men-at-arms is indeed what will defeat dictators, tyrants and thugs. Perhaps it’s not the love Peter was thinking of, but it is love, to be sure.
Peter might also want to read Gandhi’s Doctine of the Sword”
Link to “Doctrine of the Sword”
Peter, I, too, am troubled by avoidable death, but I invite you to revisit your assertion that there are “hundreds of thousands of people dead as a result of our war in Iraq” or the implicit assumption that we are the cause for all the deaths that have occurred. The Lancet study has been roundly discredited time after time. Even the admitedly partisan iraqbodycount.org sets their upper bar at about 94,000, and remember this includes civilian deaths at the hands of terrorists that happened in AQI controlled territory when coalition troops were nowhere near.
Avoidable death is a tragedy, but it is severely misplaced to assume that we are responsible for the wanton violence AQI and other like minded groups have visited upon Iraqi citizens.