Today, November 11, we observe Veterans Day as a day to reflect and remember all veterans of our nation’s military. Please take the time to thank a veteran today for his or her service and also remember all those that gave the ultimate sacrifice in defense of their country.
Veterans Day began as Armistice Day to commemorate the cessation of hostilities in World War I. The treaty took effect at the 11th hour, on the 11th day, of the 11th month in 1918. Today, veterans organizations often sell plastic or cloth poppies, which were prevalent in Europe, as a tribute to those who gave their lives in The Great War, as well as a symbol to remember all veterans who have served.
In Flanders Fields By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918) Canadian Army
IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow Between the crosses row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.
Paul Newman has died at the age of 83 after a bout with cancer. Although I disagreed with much of his political stance, he did tremendous work for charity and will always be remembered for starring in one of my favorite movies of all time, Cool Hand Luke.
Well, I don’t care if it rains or freezes, long as I got my plastic Jesus,
sittin’ on the dashboard of my car.
Comes in colors, pink and pleasant, glows in the dark cause it’s irridescent.
Take it with you when you travel far.
Get yourself a sweet Madonna, dressed in rhinestones
sittin’ on a pedestal of abalone shell.
Goin’ ninety, I ain’t scary, ’cause I’ve got the Virgin Mary,
assurin’ me that I won’t go to Hell.
Get yourself a sweet Madonna, dressed in rhinestones
sittin’ on a pedestal of abalone shell.
Goin’ ninety, I ain’t scary, ’cause I’ve got the Virgin Mary,
assurin’ me that I won’t go to Hell.
My sympathies and sincerest condolences to his wife, Joanne Woodward, his family and friends.
During all the hype and reporting of the recent political conventions, this story seems to have been greatly overlooked. While the Democrats continue to wail that Iraq is a failure, our forces have turned the once-deadliest place in Iraq back to the Iraqis, which is a stunning show of success. Surely you don’t expect the mainstream media to report good news though, do ya? Remember, bad news gets the headlines and good news gets buried or ignored.
Two years ago, Anbar Province was the most lethal place for American forces in Iraq. A U.S. marine or soldier died in the province nearly every day, and the provincial capital, Ramadi, was a moonscape of rubble and ruins. Islamic extremists controlled large pieces of territory, with some so ferocious in their views that they did not even allow the baking of bread.
On Monday, U.S. commanders formally returned responsibility for keeping order in Anbar Province, once the heartland of the Sunni insurgency, to the Iraqi Army and police. The ceremony, including a parade on a freshly paved street, capped one of the most significant turnabouts in the country since the war began five and a half years ago.
Over the past two years, the number of insurgent attacks against Iraqis and Americans has dropped by more than 90 percent. Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia has been severely degraded, if not crushed altogether, in large part because many local Sunnis, including former insurgents, have taken up arms against it.
Since February, as the security situation improved, U.S. commanders have cut the number of marines and soldiers operating in the province by 40 percent.
The transfer of authority codified a situation that Iraqi and American officers say has been in effect since April: The Iraqi Army and police operate independently and retain primary responsibility for battling the insurgency and crime in Anbar. The United States, which had long done the bulk of the fighting, has stepped into a backup role, going into the streets only when accompanied by Iraqi forces.
This Olympic medal, Henry Cejudo said, is for every kid whose life seemed hopeless, who went to sleep hungry, whose parents couldn’t always buy food, let alone Christmas presents.
His medal, the one he wasn’t supposed to win so soon, so convincingly, proves to Cejudo that anyone can do what he wants, and at an early age, if only he wants it so badly nothing else matters. Even if the odds are overwhelming.
Cejudo, the 21-year-old mat prodigy who had never won a match in a world-level senior tournament before Beijing, won the gold medal at Olympic freestyle 55-kilogram (121 pound) wrestling Tuesday.
Two years after U.S. coach Kevin Jackson called him the future of wrestling, the future became the present in a dazzling four-match flurry, making Cejudo the youngest American to win an Olympic wrestling gold medal.
…
The whiz kid won because he was every bit a wizard against wrestlers older and more wizened.
“This proves that whatever you want to do as an American, you can do it,” Cejudo said.
His parents were illegal immigrants from Mexico who met in Los Angeles. His mother had six kids, four with his father, Jorge, who was in and out of prison until dying of heart problems at age 44 last year. Cejudo never saw him after age 4.
The family was miserably poor, sometimes moving from apartment to apartment under the cover of night because they lacked rent money. His mom worked several jobs at a time, stealing home for a few hours to make sure her family wasn’t in trouble.
This kid makes me proud. While I still want our borders secured and sane immigration policies enforced, young Mr. Cejudo exemplifies the American dream. He embraced the opportunities here and overtly professes his love for our nation. Just because his parents broke our laws doesn’t mean any blame should be placed on him. I can appreciate that he’s proud of his heritage but puts his love of country first. Everyone born here has parents or ancestors that came from somewhere else, but we still come together to be Americans first. I’d like to see more people embrace that same idea. A child can’t choose where he or she is born. However, his love of our country, his dedication to achievement, and winning the gold medal representing the USA makes me damn proud of him and proud to be an American.
While liberals and politicians constantly tell us how bad America is and how only a select handpicked few are capable of achieving due to every excuse imaginable. Yet here’s an immigrant kid from Poland who has taken advantage of the endless opportunities available here and is truly thankful for them. This kid makes me proud to be an American.
The Allied invasion of Normandy, to liberate France from Hitler’s tyranny, was 64 years ago today. For all those who sacrificed so much for freedom… thank you.
Things are going remarkably well in Iraq, but you’d never know it from watching the nightly news. Are there still issues? Yes, of course. No one’s denying that. But to ignore the progress would be a gross injustice to the efforts of our military and the Iraqis.
U.S. troop deaths in Iraq fell to their lowest level last month since the 2003 invasion and officials said on Sunday improved security also helped the country boost oil production in May to a post-war high.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Iraq’s oil minister credited better security for the two milestones, which illustrated a dramatic turnabout in the fortunes of a country on the brink of all-out sectarian civil war just 12 months ago.
Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives and third in line of succession to the presidency completely slapped our troops in the face. After first denying that there has been success, she actually credited the reduction in violence to the ‘goodwill’ of the Iranians.
In an interview yesterday with the San Francisco Chronicle, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi claimed the U.S. troop surge failed to accomplish its goal. She then partially credited the success of the troop surge to “the goodwill of the Iranians,” claiming that they were responsible for ending violence in the southern city of Basra.
Asked if she saw any evidence of the surge’s positive impact on her May 17 trip to Iraq she responded:
“Well, the purpose of the surge was to provide a secure space, a time for the political change to occur to accomplish the reconciliation. That didn’t happen. Whatever the military success, and progress that may have been made, the surge didn’t accomplish its goal. And some of the success of the surge is that the goodwill of the Iranians-they decided in Basra when the fighting would end, they negotiated that cessation of hostilities-the Iranians.”
To ignore the efforts and dedication of our military and instead give the credit of the reduction in violence to the very people who have been providing the weaponry to kill our troops, is inexcusable. Nancy Pelosi is an utter disgrace.
Here’s a good story of a French family that has taken it upon themselves to adopt graves of US soldiers who died while liberating France. It’s heartwarming to know there are still people out there who maintain such high regard for those who sacrificed everything for freedom.
Eight years ago, a French couple founded an organization that adopts graves of American servicemen who died during the Normandy invasion of World War II. The volunteer group encourages French families to lay flowers on the graves when the Americans’ own families can’t do it.
High on a bluff above Omaha Beach, the American cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer is a place of stunning beauty and tranquillity. Rising from thick, manicured grass, rows of white crosses and Stars of David face westward, toward America.
It’s hard to imagine that 64 years ago, war raged here. But there are the 10,000 graves to prove it.
A Central Florida war veteran faces a lawsuit for flying the American flag on a pole in his front yard.
“I don’t understand why it would bring down the values of our homes by flying the American flag from a pole in my front yard,” homeowner Jimmie Watkins said.
Watkins and his wife, Ria, received a final notice from the Sussex homeowners’ association in Clermont that they must remove the flag or face legal action.
The former retired U.S. Navy communications officer said he refuses to back down for the American flag.
“Our people are serving today to give us freedom to do as we like here within the law of America,” Watkins said. “It is my right to fly my flag from my pole and until a court of law tells me to haul that down, I will not haul it down. I think about all of the people who have served our nation and all of the lives that it’s cost and all of the friends that I’ve lost.”
What began as Decoration Day to remember and honor the fallen soldiers of our nation’s Civil War has evolved into what we now know as Memorial Day. Please take the time today to remember all those veterans who gave the last full measure of devotion and made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of liberty and freedom. May they truly rest in peace.
I think the Republican party could have picked someone a helluva lot better than John McCain for their nomination. That being said, Senator McCain is an American hero for his service and surviving his torturous captivity during the Vietnam War. For any member of the US Senate, let alone any American with more than two functioning brain cells, to refer to John McCain as being ‘too military’ is just idiotic. Senator Tom Harkin (Democrat, of course) stated that McCain’s service experience, along with growing up in a military family, ‘can be pretty dangerous.’ Way to slap veterans in the face there, Senator Harkin. But it’s nice to see how you really feel about those who put their life on the line in defense of our nation.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s family background as the son and grandson of admirals has given him a worldview shaped by the military, “and he has a hard time thinking beyond that,” Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Ia., said Friday.
“I think he’s trapped in that,” Harkin said in a conference call with Iowa reporters. “Everything is looked at from his life experiences, from always having been in the military, and I think that can be pretty dangerous.”
Harkin said that “it’s one thing to have been drafted and served, but another thing when you come from generations of military people and that’s just how you’re steeped, how you’ve learned, how you’ve grown up.”
A McCain spokesman said Harkin’s remarks were offensive and showed that Democrats are out of touch with Americans’ values.
“Senator Harkin’s comments are an affront to the many thousands of Iowans who have served our country so valiantly for generations,” said spokesman Jeff Sadosky. “This sort of attack shows just how out of touch Democratic leadership has become with the values that have made our country so great.“
Here’s a feel-good story that I can practically guarantee the mainstream media hasn’t covered. Sure, they’ll do stories about anti-war groups’ lunacy rallies, but when was the last time you saw a story about the good things our soldiers do?
Staff Sgt. Luis Falcon, 38, was patrolling the streets of Baqouba, north of Baghdad, when he saw Shahad Abbas. The 11-year-old girl was in a large decrepit wheelchair, and the stumps of her legs where her calves should have been were crusted with dried blood.
Falcon couldn’t just walk on, so he stopped to talk. He came back the next day and the day after that, then every day for six months, bringing her toys, gauze for her legs, a new wheelchair. Anything she asked for, he would bring.
In a war that Falcon no longer really understood, Shahad became his mission. So when she asked for legs, that became his mission, too.
On Friday his dream and hers came true, just three weeks before he’s scheduled to leave Iraq. Shahad was fitted with prosthetic limbs in a U.S. military-funded clinic in Baghdad that normally provides artificial limbs for wounded members of the Iraqi security forces.
Has anyone seen this mentioned in the mainstream media? Nope, of course not. It doesn’t fit the leftist template that the war is a failure, troops are dying for no reason, Bush’s fault, blah blah. As a veteran and proud American myself, any military death is saddening. However, it’s also important to keep things in perspective.
Despite suffering 4,000 deaths in Iraq, annual U.S. military casualties overall during the first six years of the Bush administration are well below the average for the 26-year period beginning in 1980, a WND investigation has revealed.
Even in 2005, the deadliest year of the Iraq campaign, U.S. troop fatalities around the world, including Afghanistan, were lower than the first nine years of the study – when the Cold War was still raging in a time of relative peace.
In 2005, a total of 1,942 U.S. military personnel were killed in all causes, including accidents, hostile action, homicides, illnesses, suicides, etc. That compares to 2,392 in 1980, the last year of President Jimmy Carter’s administration. In fact, twice as many U.S. military personnel were killed in accidents in that one year than were killed in hostile actions in any year of the Bush administration.
Well a reporter is now questioning John McCain’s disability pension, seemingly underhandedly implying that he may not be fit to serve as president. Figures. Senator McCain served our country in the Navy, was shot down, broke both his arms (which anyone whoever ever watches him, knows he can’t raise very high), and was tortured for 5 1/2 years as a POW in Vietnam. If that doesn’t qualify as a disability, then I don’t know what does. Disabilities don’t mean that people can’t work or serve in a different capacity. Apparently the reporter forgot about FDR, who was crippled by polio and served just fine.
Sen. John McCain has long said he is in robust health and is strong enough to hike the Grand Canyon, but he also is receiving what his staff Monday termed a “disability pension” from the Navy.
When McCain released his tax return for 2007 on Friday, he separately disclosed that he received a pension of $58,358 that was not listed as income on his return.
On Monday, McCain’s staff identified the retirement benefit as a “disability pension” and said that McCain “was retired as disabled because of his limited body movements due to injuries as a POW.”
McCain campaign strategist Mark Salter said Monday night that McCain was technically disabled. “Tortured for his country — that is how he acquired his disability,” Salter said.
Certain types of military and veterans pensions are either partially or completely tax-exempt, depending on the seriousness of the disability. In McCain’s case, the exemption is 100%.
While the Democrat presidential candidates are busy trying to see who would be able to cut and run from Iraq first, President Bush posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor to Navy SEAL Michael Monsoor yesterday. Sadly, the event of awarding our nation’s highest military award to a man who sacrificed his life to save his buddies received very little attention from the mainstream media.
President Bush on Tuesday awarded the nation’s highest military tribute to a Navy SEAL who was killed when he threw himself on a grenade in Iraq to save his comrades.
The president, blinking back tears, recognized the bravery of Michael A. Monsoor, who was part of a sniper team in Ramadi when he died on Sept. 29, 2006. Bush presented the medal to Monsoor’s parents, Sally and George Monsoor, before about 250 guests, including some of his fellow soldiers, in an East Room ceremony.
The emotional ceremony came as the top U.S. general and diplomat in Iraq opened two days of congressional testimony on the status of the war, now in its sixth year. Monsoor was the third Medal of Honor winner from the Iraq war.
The award citation reads:
The President of the United States, in the name of the Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor, posthumously, to Master At Arms Second Class, Sea, Air and Land, Michael A. Monsoor, United States Navy. For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as Automatic Weapons Gunner for Naval Special Warfare Task Group Arabian Peninsula, in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM on 29 September 2006.
As a member of a combined SEAL and Iraqi Army sniper overwatch element, tasked with providing early warning and stand-off protection from a rooftop in an insurgent-held sector of Ar Ramadi, Iraq, Petty Officer Monsoor distinguished himself by his exceptional bravery in the face of grave danger. In the early morning, insurgents prepared to execute a coordinated attack by reconnoitering the area around the element’s position. Element snipers thwarted the enemy’s initial attempt by eliminating two insurgents. The enemy continued to assault the element, engaging them with a rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire. As enemy activity increased, Petty Officer Monsoor took position with his machine gun between two teammates on an outcropping of the roof. While the SEALs vigilantly watched for enemy activity, an insurgent threw a hand grenade from an unseen location, which bounced off Petty Officer Monsoor’s chest and landed in front of him. Although only he could have escaped the blast, Petty Officer Monsoor chose instead to protect his teammates. Instantly and without regard for his own safety, he threw himself onto the grenade to absorb the force of the explosion with his body, saving the lives of his two teammates. By his undaunted courage, fighting spirit, and unwavering devotion to duty in the face of certain death, Petty Officer Monsoor gallantly gave his life for his country, thereby reflecting great credit upon himself and upholding the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.
God bless Michael Monsoor. May he truly rest in peace.
Entries (RSS)