A page about the U.S. military and its Western allies,
the defenders of our freedom.
The free world only exists because of the U.S. military and its Western allies
As Western Europeans,
our freedom only exists because America and its Western allies destroyed
Nazi Germany,
and then prevented the Soviet Union
conquering us.
Western Europeans
should be grateful to America for centuries,
and should instinctively take America's side for centuries.
The US military, the UK military, and their allies land in France, 1944,
to liberate Europe from Nazi tyranny and genocide.
From here.
Europeans should never forget this day.
And, if you are a standard global anti-American, ask yourself:
What has your country ever done to match the nobility and greatness of this?
The liberation of Europe, 1944
should frame any discussion of the U.S. military, and the debt we owe them.
Democratic Europe exists because of these people.
This fleet of 7,000 ships
and 3 million men
was (and still remains) the largest sea invasion in the history of the world.
Thanking Our Troops
by Frank Schaeffer
- The dangerous gulf between the working class
who protect us
- and the middle class who whine about it.
The nobility of the young US troops in Iraq after liberation,
undeterred by the hate-America left
and the ignorant whining of the media.
- "They ought to come here and
see what we do,
and what Saddam did to these people."
At the eleventh hour
by David Aaronovitch
- Even in our modern, therapeutic, safe, comfortable world,
"We still depend .. on
men and women who will, if necessary, die on our behalf. And I must
express my astonishment and gratitude that they will."
Hope Rides Alone, Sgt. Eddie Jeffers (US Army Infantryman in Ramadi, Iraq), February 1, 2007.
On the anti-war left:
"even thousands of miles away, in Ramadi, Iraq,
the cries and screams and complaints of the ungrateful reach me.
...
People like Cindy Sheehan are ignorant. Not just to this war, but to the results of their idiotic ramblings, or at least I hope they are. They don't realize its effects on this war.
...
many men and women have died since the start of this war. And the memory of their service to America is tainted by the inconsiderate remarks on our nation's news outlets.
...
in denouncing our actions, denouncing our leaders, denouncing the war we live and fight,
they are isolating the military from society ... and they are becoming our enemy.
...
America has lost its will to fight. It has lost its will to defend what is right and just in the world."
On the simplicity of this fight between good and evil:
"We are the hope of the Iraqi people. They want what everyone else wants in life: safety, security, somewhere to call home. They want a country that is safe to raise their children in. Not a place where their children will be abducted, raped and murdered if they do not comply with the terrorists demands. They want to live on, rebuild and prosper. And America has given them the opportunity, but only if we stay true to the cause and see it to its end."
A Funny Sort of Empire
(or via here)
- Victor Davis Hanson
on the awesome American military:
"Since Vietnam Americans have done pretty much what they wanted to in the Gulf,
Panama, Haiti, Grenada, Serbia, and Afghanistan, with less than an aggregate of 200 lost to enemy fire
- a combat imbalance never seen in the annals of warfare."
Postmodern War
by Victor Davis Hanson
- "To an American television audience, al-Qaida videos of pajama-clad killers in ski masks beheading captives
look scary, of course. But a platoon of Rangers would slaughter hundreds of them in seconds
if they ever approached Americans openly on the field of conventional battle
or even for brief moments of clear firing."
The U.S. military casts a
brutally cold eye
on the tyranny-lovers the
"human shields"
- The Pentagon has made it clear that it would treat
voluntary human shields differently from hostages
forced to stay at military targets. Volunteers,
a senior Pentagon official says, are
"working in the service of the Iraqi government and may, in fact,
have crossed the line between combatant and noncombatant."
That's another way of saying they could be legitimate targets,
he adds.
"Anti-war" protesters actually fighting for Saddam
- engaging in sabotage of military equipment.
The military has every right to engage
such people in combat.
They are enemy soldiers, fighting for a genocidal tyranny.
"We shoot them down like the
morons they are"
- A U.S. Brigadier-General casts a cold eye
on the suicidal Islamofascist
foreign volunteers in Iraq.
What kind of moron
would die for
Saddam Hussein?
Letter from a soldier in Iraq after the liberation
- ".. most of the
Saddam Hussein thugs are being chased
around like scared rabbits by coalition
forces. It is literally open season on them!
We hunt them down like animals.
...
There are also thugs from other countries
running around, like Iran and Syria. Well,
the Iraqis hate these thugs as much as
we do. So the Iraqi people are hunting
them down too!"
Terrorist Despair
by Ralph Peters,
on the Islamofascist loony foreign volunteers
flocking to Iraq after the liberation to fight America
against the wishes of the Iraqi people.
He denies this is a disaster:
"On the contrary. We've taken the War Against Terror to our enemies.
It's far better to draw the terrorists out of
their holes in the Middle East,
where we don't have to read them their rights, than to wait for them to show up in
Manhattan again.
In Iraq, we can just kill the bastards."
Guantanamo prisoners told of capture of Saddam
- The Islamofascist prisoners at
Guantanamo Bay,
deprived of world news for years,
are suddenly told recent news:
"We told them we had a war with Iraq, we told them the
United States won, and we told them we captured
Saddam Hussein .. There was some shock."
"This is For the Americans of Blackwater"
- The US Marines take a fearsome revenge on the jihadi mutilators of
Fallujah
(and here),
killing over 1,000 of them.
Graffiti by US marines, 3/5 Lima company:
"This is for the Americans of Blackwater that were murdered here in 2004.
Semper Fidelis
3/5. P.S. Fuck you."
I am from Ireland, but I do not identify primarily with Ireland, or with Europe.
I regard myself as a member of The Free World, and the U.S. military is my army.
What Is An American?
by Peter Ferrara
- "Americans are not a particular people from a particular place.
They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom.
Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American."
Steven Den Beste
- "European "nations" are based on ethnicity, language or geography. The American nation is based
on an idea
...
You're French if you're born in France, of French parents.
... But you're American if you think you're American
... And it is that difference that continues to mystify and frustrate Europeans, who incorrectly assume that America is a European country
...
What they miss is that America is not European
... We are Americans. We are not Europeans living in America. If you don't understand the difference, then you do not understand us at all"
A pro-American in Spain replies to him
- "Now the thing is, that all this time I have felt as if I was "in the wrong place".
...
I haven't had the complete answer to this question until today, when I read your article. Now I do know it.
I'm American. In the wrong place, far from home, but American."
My own reaction wouldn't be so bleak about Europe.
Everyone who believes in defending freedom doesn't have to leave Europe
and go to America.
I am happy to live in Europe,
and I want to make Europe more like America.
For me, that's the future.
No.1: The military.
The American public has more confidence in the military than in any other institution.
No.2: The police.
The mainstream media are well down the list.
When the media attack the military,
as they constantly do,
it is worth remembering that they do not do so
from a position of moral superiority.
Most people have
less confidence in the media than in the military,
not more.
Similarly, most people have
less confidence in the media than in the presidency,
not more.
"The best and the brightest are not necessarily on campus
or in the corporate boardroom right now.
The best and the brightest are you
out there on the parade field.
Men, don't ever think for one minute
that the kids running around on some university campus
protesting, breaking things, or whining about this that and the other,
have anything on you.
You are privileged to have the one advantage that they all covet.
You will know.
You'll have facts.
About the goings on in Iraq, Afghanistan, Djibouti, the Philippines,
the Balkans and many other places.
Your head will not be filled with the empty theory of those
who in actuality know very little, because they lack the intestinal fortitude
to commit to anything that requires risk.
I'm speaking of the snide arrogant sort, who spend the day
blaming America for every wrong in the world
before going home to sleep at night under that blanket of freedom provided by better men.
Better men just like you."
"Don't let the pessimistic television talking heads,
the high brow newspaper writers, Hollywood idiots, or any other faction of the
"Blame America First" crowd get you down.
I'm speaking here of the "latte biscotti crowd".
They are simple background chatter men,
and they will always exist on the periphery of any endeavor
that requires selfless service for loyalty.
They are not worthy of your concern, and truth be told - in the pit of their
fickle, cowardly hearts
- they wish they could be just like you.
The intestinal fortitude that is a part of your fabric
is something that they covet, but will never know."
"She Called",
poetry rap
by U.S. Marine Staff Sergeant
Lawrence E. Dean
(and here),
Oct 2006.
Transcript
(and here
and here):
"But still She called.
From the bowels of Ground Zero she sent this 911 distress signal.
Because She was in desperate need of a hero,
and didn't have time to decipher what to call 'em,
so she called 'em all Her children.
The children of the stars and bars who needed to know nothing more than the fact that she called.
The fact that someone attempted to harm us,
this daughter who covered us all with her loving arms.
And now these arms are sprawled across New York City streets.
A smoke filled lung, a silt covered faced,
and a solitary tear poured out of her cheek.
Her singed garments carpets Pennsylvania Avenue and the Pentagon was under her feet.
As she began to talk, she began to cough up small particles of debris,
and said, "I am America, and I'm calling on the land of the free."
So they answered.
...
Stern faces and chiseled chins.
Devoted women and disciplined men,
who rose from the ashes like a Phoenix,
and said "don't worry, we'll stand in your defense."
They tightened up their bootlaces,
and said goodbye to loved ones, family and friends.
...
You see, to this country I pledged my allegiance,
to defend it against all enemies foreign and domestic.
So as long as I'm breathin', I'll run though hell-fire,
meet the enemy on the front lines,
look him directly in his face,
stare directly in his eyes and scream,
"I am America! We will not be terrorized!
We will not be terrorized!
I refuse to be afraid!
I'll fight you any country, any continent, any terrain.
I'll fight to my last breath!""
The song
"Poster Girl (Wrong Side Of The World)",
a tribute by the
Australian singer
Beccy Cole
to the Australian freedom fighters in Iraq.
See lyrics
(scroll down).
Video put on YouTube by
Beccy Cole.
The song is her response to a fan who complained about her support for
the Australian troops.
"Cause I shook hands with a
digger;
on the wrong side of the world;
With a wife at home who holds her breath;
and brand new baby girl;
...
And if unlike me you feel no pride at all;
Then go ahead and take me off your wall;
'cause I prefer to be a poster girl;
on the wrong side of the world"
"War President"
- the photo-mosaic of Bush using images of dead soldiers,
meant by
the left
to be an insult to Bush and to the dead soldiers
(by implying they died for nothing).
Michelle Malkin
makes a great case that
"War President"
should be hi-jacked by the right
and interpreted as a tribute to those who died for freedom
and their commander-in-chief.
The
maker of the image says it
"is meant to be a satirical commentary".
But why should we listen to him?
The "WHY?" insult to the troops:
"WHY?"
uses the names of the dead soldiers to spell out "WHY?",
as an insult to the dead soldiers
(by implying they died for nothing).
The creator, Mike Luckovich, says:
"I was trying to think of a way to make the point that this whole war is such a waste.
But I also wanted to honor the troops".
Sorry, Mr. Luckovich, you can't do both.
If someone made a similar memorial to the allied dead of the Normandy Landings,
with the message "WHY?"
and statements that the whole allied effort in WW2 was stupid and
a waste,
would you regard this as "honouring" the troops?
Another photo-mosaic insult to the troops, Huffington Post, March 24, 2008.
How dare they abuse the photos of the dead to make sneering, cynical political points
that they know the dead don't agree with.
William Arkin
William M. Arkin
(and search)
exemplifies
the sneering contempt the modern American left has for the military,
and any soldier fool enough to die to defend the West.
Arkin's abuse of the troops in Iraq in early 2007 set off a controversy.
See the following columns, and the many interesting, moving
and articulate opposing comments below them
(although it is sad to note he got threats from some people):
He describes the brave American soldiers who protect his freedom as:
"a mercenary - oops sorry, volunteer - force".
He says troops should shut up complaining about ignorant anti-war critics like himself:
"I'm all for everyone expressing their opinion, even those who wear the uniform of the United States Army.
But I also hope that military commanders took the soldiers aside after the story and explained to them why it wasn't for them to disapprove of the American people."
"These soldiers should be grateful that the American public,
which by all polls overwhelmingly disapproves of the Iraq war and the President's handling of it,
do still offer their support to them, and their respect.
Through every Abu Ghraib and Haditha, through every rape and murder,
the American public has indulged those in uniform,"
he says,
as if
Abu Ghraib and Haditha
are of any real importance
in the history of this war.
Nice reply (on the page above):
"Mr. Arkin, I applaud you and your ability to command the English Language.
... I will sleep better tonight knowing that the real defenders of my freedom are not on the battlefields in the Middle East. Rather, they are blogging on the Washington Post Webpage.
...
You and most people in the Mainstream Media believe that it is your "superior intellect" that allows you to not only form the only Valid Opinion, but to also force it down the rest of our throats.
I only wish that people such as yourself had to really fight for something you believe in
using something other than an ACLU attorney."
The point is that, whatever about Iraq,
in a real war of survival like WW2,
the left would obviously be of no help either.
If you trust people like Arkin and
Fintan O'Toole
to protect the West against its enemies,
you are insane.
John Noonan
at OPFOR
replies:
"If there is a war that's unwinnable, it's the war on this type of horrid ignorance. The type of uniformed, intellectually lazy thinking that can only exist in the sheltered bubble of cocktail parties and classrooms. Arkin is a gazer. A man forever condemned to peering out the window into the real world, watching the exertions of men better than himself. And yet he fancies himself the educated one."
Reply (on the page above):
"Their tours are getting extended and they're doing the job undermanned, but you know what,
they're doing it.
The ghosts of Gettysburg,
Bastogne
and Au Shau
would know them as their own.
They wouldn't care to know you."
Sarcastic reply:
"How could Mr. Arkin have foreseen his Constitutionally-protected words would have prompted any anger or outrage? Yes, they were targeted at US military personnel,
but
they were meant only for the private consumption of urbane Washington Post readers.
Mr. Arkin likely had no idea that they would ever be read by combat hoi-polloi, as he clearly believes them to be illiterate hillbilly fundamentalists."
One reply also nails what the Democrats are doing:
"Or about people who vote to send them to war and then
broadcast to our enemies that if only you kill a few more of them we will retreat
and hand them a victory."
The leftist myth that soldiers are poor and stupid
A common myth among leftists
is that U.S. soldiers are poor, black and uneducated,
high-school drop-outs and so on.
Like most things lefties
believe about America, it is inaccurate.
The U.S. military does not need brainless cannon fodder.
It never fights those kind of battles any more.
The U.S. military needs people who can operate
state-of-the-art, high-technology hardware and software
under battle conditions.
Modern western, all-volunteer, high-technology militaries
are the most educated militaries in the history of the world.
"You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework,
and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well.
If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."
- The immensely wealthy 2004 Democrat Presidential candidate
John Kerry
in 2006,
expressing the popular leftist myth about
America's professional soldiers.
The typical 18-to-24-year-old volunteer for the U.S. military
is more educated and wealthier
than the average 18-to-24-year-old citizen.
98% joined with high-school diplomas or better.
By comparison, 75% of the general population meets that standard.
Among every 3-digit ZIP code area in the US in 2003,
not one area had a higher high-school graduation rate among civilians than among its
U.S. military recruits.
The U.S. army is not unusually black either.
Whites make up 77.4% of the nation's population
and 75.8% of its military volunteers.
Only 11 percent of enlisted military recruits in 2007 came from the poorest 20 percent of American neighborhoods.
While 25 percent came from the wealthiest 20 percent of neighborhoods.
In the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program,
40 percent came from the wealthiest 20 percent of neighborhoods.
The "chickenhawk" argument
criticises those (armchair generals)
who are pro-war while others (young men) do the fighting.
It is often argued in respect of Bush and Cheney
(neither of whom saw combat)
that only those who have seen the horror of war
should be sending young men into it.
Neo-conservative pundits and intellectuals promoting change in the Middle East
are also often criticised for never having served or seen combat themselves.
In general, the "chickenhawk" argument
is simply an
argumentum ad hominem
that seeks to discuss the man
instead of the issue.
Even if we grant for the sake of argument
that the man is a coward and a hypocrite,
there is still a separate issue of whether his arguments are true.
But perhaps the best response to this silly argument is:
"I agree! All decisions on foreign policy and war should be made only by soldiers
and veterans. How do you like that?"
Of course, since soldiers
and veterans are on average
far more hawkish, patriotic, and intolerant of the enemy
than the rest of the population,
this would suit me fine,
but the "chickenhawk" people may not like it at all.
Stand up and be counted or shut up
- Gene Kerrigan,
Sunday Independent,
Jan 15, 2006,
has a go at this argument.
He seems to be saying
that you have no right to promote a military solution to Saddam
or Al-Qaeda unless you are willing to fight yourself.
The stupidity of this argument can be exposed as follows:
Me: OK. Where is the worst genocide in the world?
Where should we be concerned about?
Leftie: (Say) Darfur.
Me: OK. Do you support UN peacekeepers going into Darfur
to stop the killing by force?
Leftie: Yes.
Me: Are you going to volunteer for the UN peacekeepers yourself?
Leftie: Em ..
Me: You have no right to promote a military solution to Darfur
unless you are going to fight yourself.
This argument also means you have no right to call for more police on the streets
unless you are willing to join the police yourself.
After all, the police risk their lives too.
Why should they risk their lives while you are safe?
I thought of an even better one:
No one should criticise Bush and Blair
unless they themselves have served in office.
Exact same logic.
The fact is that it is fantastic that we have brave men and women
who are willing to join the police and risk their very lives to protect us,
or join the army and risk their lives to fight foreign tyranny.
Someone has to defend us - whether from criminals, terrorists or foreign tyrannies -
and I am only human and am glad it is not me.
The West does not have its back to the wall yet.
We do not need every adult male to fight.
I can stay in my career,
and stay with my family,
while others fight this war.
But I do honour them.
My admiration for these people who do defend us
is immense, and, I am sure, far higher than
the "chickenhawk" lefties, who in fact endlessly complain about,
demoralise and ridicule
the police and military,
and seem to have no real interest in them winning.
As with other situations,
you should only take advice from friends, not from enemies.
The left is no friend of the military,
and so the military should have no interest in the left's opinions on who should join it.
The left does not care about military victory.
It is only looking for a cheap debating point
to use against the military and its supporters.
Argument from personal experience:
A similar argument that is often made is:
"You cannot talk about Israel / Iraq / Africa if you have never been there."
But how is this different from the argument:
"You cannot talk about WW2 unless you lived through it."
People who support the war "have no obligation to join the military
...
We have an all-volunteer force today, and a relatively small one at that.
At present, there are 1.4 million active-duty military personnel
...
We had .. more than 12 million in 1945 during World War II.
Arguably, it might be prudent to add a couple of hundred thousand to today's active-duty force,
but we don't require a million more, much less 10 million. We're not involved in a major mobilization.
We certainly don't need a universal draft."
"The military represents less than 1 percent of the American work force.
Anyone's free and welcome to enlist, but the great majority will contribute more by continuing to do what they do best.
The military is a highly professional and specialized force these days. We need a few good men and women
who have the skills, the aptitude and the desire.
If [people] don't fit that description, they don't belong in the service."
Ironically, pro-war pundits volunteering would
be bad, not good, for the war effort:
Division of labour -
There is certainly a good argument that anyone who writes
in support of the military, and such writing is widely read,
is far better off doing what they are doing,
than joining the military.
They are likely to be a useless
soldier (simply because most people would be useless soldiers).
Whereas it is proven
that they are a good writer (and most people aren't good writers),
and that is helping the war effort.
If the military is being logical,
then to help the war effort
it should ensure that all pro-war bloggers
do not join the military.
RFE/RL was bombed in 1981 by the Soviets, East Germans and Romanians
because they were afraid (correctly) of the threat it posed to their tyrannical rule
in Eastern Europe
[Schweizer, 2002].
Within a decade, all 3 regimes fell.
The CIA get bad press, depicted as sinister assassins
in a thousand movie plots.
But of course the CIA
are the good guys,
and everyone should support them.
Mike Spann,
CIA hero,
died for our freedom,
murdered in 2001 by the comrades of the traitor
John Walker Lindh.
A Matter of Trust
- stop criticising the CIA.
Article
by Ion Mihai Pacepa,
former acting chief of communist Romania's espionage service,
who defected in 1978 -
the highest-ranking intelligence officer ever to have defected
from the Soviet bloc.
- "The CIA is by far the world's best intelligence organization.
It contributed decisively to America's victory in the Cold War against not only great odds, but also in the face of domestic political pressure."
He shows the continuity between the Cold War
and the modern war:
"I have a message to those like my former self still living in China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, and Syria:
Do what I did!"
R. James Woolsey, former Director of the CIA,
is Chairman of
Freedom House.
Lyrics:
"Then I hid behind the TV;
And I locked and loaded my M-16;
And I blew those little fuckers to eternity.
And I said:" [slow]
"Durka Durka Mohammed Jihad;
Sherpa Sherpa Bak Allah;
They should have known they were fucking with a Marine."
Bush on Bush, Take 2
- David Brooks puts words in the mouth of the war President:
"I said I have found my mission and my moment, and it has cost me.
It has cost me some of the bonds I had with average Americans.
The secret of my political success was that
voters sensed I was basically like them. But this mission, while elevating, is also a cocoon.
I see Americans going about their business, watching the Super Bowl and reacting to
it all. But I couldn't watch most of the Super Bowl and I didn't have a reaction to the whole halftime
fiasco because I had to go to bed and be ready for the continuing war the
next day. They say there is a cultural divide between the military and society.
There is, and suddenly I am on the other side.
I look around and observe that many of my fellow Americans don't seem to be living on Sept. 12,
the way I am. And if they don't feel in their bones the presence of war, I don't
know what argument I can use to persuade them."
The capture of Saddam
by the U.S. military, Dec 2003.
- The greatest moment of the century so far.
There is no God to bring justice on this earth. But there is America, and the U.S. military.
See hi-res version.
"I don't regret going, everybody dies but few get to do it for something as important as freedom.
It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, it's not to me. I'm here helping these people,
so that they can live the way we live. Not have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators.
To do what they want with their lives. To me that is why I died.
Others have died for my freedom, now this is my mark."
- Cpl Jeffrey B. Starr, USMC,
who died fighting for freedom in Iraq.
The New York Times
deliberately chose to exclude his words
when they featured him
(because they would not have fitted in with its negative, demoralising tone).
"I see that you have captured a U. S. Marine, and that you plan to cut off his head if your demands are not met.
Big mistake. Before you carry out your threat I suggest you read up on Marine Corps history.
The Japanese
tried the same thing on Makin Island and in a few other places during World War Two, and came to regret it. Go ahead and read about what then happened to the mighty Imperial Army on Tarawa, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. They paid full price for what they did, and you will too."
"You look at America and you see a soft target, and to a large extent you are right. Our country is filled with a lot of spoiled people who drive BMWs, sip decaf lattes and watch ridiculous reality TV shows.
They are for the most part decent, hard working citizens, but they are soft. When you cut off
Nick Berg's
head those people gasped, and you got the media coverage you sought, and then those people went back to their lives."
"This time it is different.
We also have a warrior culture in this country, and they are called Marines. It is a brotherhood forged in the fire of many wars, and the bond between us is stronger than blood.
While it is true that this country has produced nitwits like
Michael Moore,
Howard Dean
and Jane Fonda
who can be easily manipulated by your gruesome tactics, we have also produced men like Jason Dunham, Brian Chontosh and Joseph Perez.
If you don't recognize those names you should. They are all Marines who distinguished themselves fighting to liberate Iraq, and there will be many more just like them
coming for you."
"When you raise that sword over your head I want you to remember one thing. Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun is not alone as he kneels before you. Every Marine who has ever worn the uniform is there with him
...
If you want to know what it feels like to have the Wrath of God called down upon you then go ahead and do it.
We are not Turkish truck drivers, or Pakistani laborers, or independent contractors hoping to find work in your country."
"We are the United States Marines,
and we will be coming for you."
[It now appears that Corporal
Wassef Ali Hassoun
may have been
unworthy
of this tribute.
But that is not important.]
I thought of an even better one:
No one should criticise Bush and Blair
unless they themselves have served in office.
Exact same logic.
