Rebuttal to a Wash.Post cheapshot article against our troops

[Roger - 50/2050]

Hello knifer friends,

I thought I would post this for all my friends here on the site & if you didn't see the washington post article, this rebuttal is still powerful!!!


"Texas collector", Roger - 50/2050




Brilliant Response to Arkin
WashPost

Posted on 02/01/2007 1:55:16 PM PST by jcb1379

For those of you that haven't seen it, here is the original article, by William Arkin about why the "Troops need to support the American people." Check out the link to read it. I was blown away by this response: (The Troops Also Need to Support the American People
This guy should be given a medal simply for the heroism of his words. What a brilliant reposte.
Mr. Arkin-
I am an officer in the United States Army. I have deployed to Iraq twice, and been wounded once. I have had my soldiers killed and wounded, I have killed and wounded other human beings. I have carried wounded soldiers and civilians in my arms; crying in pain. I myself am permanently physically damaged by my experience.
Through all those events, I never shed a tear. Yet I sit here today crying; reading your original article and your rebuttal to the overwhelming response.
I am proud of what I do, what my soldiers do, the freedoms we defend, and everything we stand for. I proudly defend your right to publish your article, and it actually warms my soul to see free debate and discourse about any topic, because this is the only nation in the world where such completely unbridled discussion and opinion rage on in an organized fashion. That is the United States I am proud of, the one that has given me so much.
I decry and am ashamed of my fellow warriors who have lost their thin veneer of civilization and chosen to engage in the atrocities committed in Iraq. May God have mercy on their souls.
I have chosen to shelve my right to have an opinion on the war in Iraq. I support our effort to help the Iraqi people, depose Saddam, and promote a free(er) Iraq. Are we (or can we) still doing that? I don't know anymore. I have an opinion, but it is too visceral to be truly rational anymore, so I keep it to myself.
Overall, it does not matter. My country, almost unanimously, asked me to refresh the tree with my blood in Iraq/Afghanistan 6 years ago. That was this country, by referendum. As my country comes to terms with what she has done, and possibly chooses a different path, I will soldier on. I will guide and inspire my Soldiers to do the same. But, it saddens me to see so many of my brothers and sisters killed and maimed, only to find out my country either didn't mean it or had no stomach for it.
None of these are the reasons I cry. I cry for the lack of purpose, the apparent lack of caring, the lack of compassion you displayed in your original article and in this subsequent failure to apologize to me, my fellow warriors, and all those who came before me. Here's why.
1. I am not a mercenary. You could make me work two jobs and this would still be one of them, because I am that passionate about defending you and your rights. Many in the National Guard and Reserves do just that. My country needs professional warriors to do her bidding, and he is me, and thousands like me.
2. I have the right to express my opinion within the bounds of the UCMJ, as do my Soldiers. How dare you imply that I do not, or that I should reprimand them? We already accept an abbreviated set of rights willingly. Do not attempt limit my liberties that I have already willingly limited while I defend without complaint the unabridged version you are so rightly entitled to.
3. As an officer, my needs are met. However, in the three months leading up to my first deployment and the entire 13 month adventure, my pay amounted to 173 cents an hour. My friends and I logged our hours as a joke, but $1.73 is the reality. That equates to 19-20 hour days, 7 days a week, for 16 months. That's with the relatively lavish bonuses and benefits we receive while deployed. And I am an officer. Think of our junior enlisted, and find someone else in our great country that is willing to work so hard, day and night, no weekends, under fire, threat of death over their head, for so little? Find me one and I will retract this comment graciously. Of course, even when not deployed, it takes my wife and me quite some time to get through the line at the grocery store. That's because we get in line behind one of my fellow warriors, who with shame in their eyes and faces flush with embarrassment fill out their WIC paperwork because they don't make enough to support their wife and two kids (an average sized family).
4. This response is taking an inordinate amount of time to type, because I have only one functioning hand after being wounded in Iraq. I am trying as quickly as possible to use the medical system your (and my) taxes paid for to recover, so I can go back to Iraq and continue to fight for what you don't believe in, because I believe in you and my Soldiers. Still, I count myself lucky, as I received my Purple Heart next to a 19-year old warrior with both his legs amputated above the knee. No matter how wrong the majority feels the decision was at this juncture, that Soldier gave (I use the word gave deliberately) his legs at his nation's calling. Not for money. Not because he was too stupid to get into college. Not for the great benefits. Just because you asked him to. Please don't imply that this fallen hero is not entitled to the basic medical care he receives.
5. Given the opportunity, I would fight the Germans in 1944. Oh, to have that definition of purpose, that sense of righteousness! But, that is not to be. This is the war that this country has chosen for me, my peers, and my Soldiers. With its vagueness, dirtiness, ambiguity, undefined enemy, amorphous center of gravity, and undefined purpose. The actions of our administration, the decisions higher-echelons of our military, the blunders of the CPA, (I could go on) etc. aside; it comes back to one thing. America chose this fight for me, and I will fight it with all my skill and might until she tells me to stop. The woes and throes of the majority, hawks, doves, liberals, neocons, etc. mean nothing to me or those Soldiers you quoted. What matters to us is that you told us to be there, 3000+ of our brothers and sisters have died there, and we are still there. Change that - in reality, not in the abstract - and we will gladly leave and prepare ourselves for the next challenge and opportunity to defend your freedoms.
I am a Warrior, a Soldier, a Scholar, and a Patriot. This country has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to train and educate me. I am well-versed in our government, our demographics, our history, and our Constitution. Perhaps I am an idealist. To the end of my life or capability I will defend your rights and this country. I am proud that I live in a country where a free-thinker such as you can write an article so critical of current policy. But I am deeply hurt by the insinuations and accusations listed above. I request an apology, on the behalf of all the Armed Forces, for your insensitive and boorish comments. I only wish I could communicate with your entire readership the bitter taste of betrayal that is in my mouth as easily as you communicate your speech and thoughts.
With Respect,
A United States Army Officer "Army Strong"
Posted by: Army Officer | February 1, 2007 04:43 PM

[MITCH RAPP]

Roger, The Washington Post is nothing but a Commie Rag. I wouldn't

line a bird cage with their paper.

[Roger - 50/2050]

Yes Mitch, I agree with you 100% my friend! ....It is my hope that our younger military might that have served & are still serving our country over there do not end up being treated like a lot of us that served in Vietnam, its been decades since then but some of the painful memories still linger in my mind & heart of how we were treated when a lot of us finally made it out of there alive & got to come home!



"Texas collector", Roger - 50/2050

[Mossdancer]

Roger:
Very good article. Thank You for posting.
wb

[Bomber]

Its a sad commentary on our country but most if not a majority of this great [ once ] country have not read a good bumpersticker !!.The words are "FREEDOM IS NOT FREE" cause then ya gotta ask your self what IS the price of freedom.There are agreat deal of Americans that really believe there is nothing worth dying for,they dont realize they have NOTHING worth living for.Just another flag waver,thanks for the rant .

[calico jack]

Military service is the reason I walk with a limp today. In the years since I left the Navy, I have wished for the physical ability to re-enlist. There are too many negative reports about our position in the world, and C(ommunist)N(ews)N(etwork) is all too eager to report it. If our posterity is now being led to believe Ted Turner(US-hating athiest), Bill and Hillary Clinton(Socialist Commies), Barak Hussein Obama(schooled by fanatical Muslims), and all of the rest of the talking heads jockeying to devour the US tax-payer to pay for governmental control of every aspect of their lives, and to send even more money, jobs, and technology over seas to benefit the enemy, then my time, my energy, my service and most of all, my right leg were all given in vain. My God open their hearts to the TRUTH, and if they won't open their hearts, then may God have mercy on us all. Thanks for letting me rant.

[BrokenCamillus]

The other day I was behind the typical socialist scum that inhabits Vermont and there were two bumber stickers that really made me wonder if these people have a clue. The first was no surprise. IMPEACH BUSH. The second took some understanding of how twisted these morons really are. It was a partial quote from Ben Franklin. "Those who would give up freedom for security deserve neither." A third bumper sticker on the car also mentioned "Domestic wiretapping". In this persons mind the President's enemy surveillance program involving people calling known terrorists is somehow a violation of our Constitutional rights.

They don't get it! They are incapable of thinking locally, and they want you to give up and accept that being an American is BAD.

We used to call these people traitors. Today they are just dissenters. What's so bad about having pride in your nation?

If you haven't read this yet somewhere else on this forum I am a 7 year Air Force Veteran. I served to preserve the American way of life, but I don't agree that there is no such thing as subversion anymore. It is alive and well, and it has become the standard in the "Drive by Media". The old 3 (ABC CBS NBC) and all of the old press have turned their backs on us and we must do what we're doing here on a bigger scale. Write letters to your editors, and let them know we will not stand for this disrespect. if they want to sell papers or programming let them sell it in trash bags. We're not buying it.