Some things are so self-evident that it seems bizarre that anyone would oppose them. When you've put your life on the line for these, and the right of others to argue against them, it can be a great annoyance that they ignore the evidence in doing so. Worse than being ignorant of the facts, which I am willing to excuse by reason of a news media that purposely distorts, is being willfully ignorant, and worse yet is when one is not ignorant of the facts but continues to argue with lines that sound convincing but the partisan knows to be false before stating them.
On 9/11/2001, I was training, training to defend this Nation against any enemy, even the unknown enemy that chose that day to attack. It was an enemy I had not studied in depth, because I did not believe we'd ever do anything to stop it. Until that day, Americans, and their politicians, were willing to accept that the relatively small number of the flock killed by terrorists was acceptable to avoid the costly wars that confronting the enemy would take to end it. "Experts" told potential victims of terrorists that if they avoided travel to hotspots they could reduce the risk and that if they still found themselves in a bad situation, complying with the dictates of terrorists would be their best chance of survival.
Though the MSM still rarely acknowledges that 9/11 was preceded by other attacks by the same enemy or that the enemy has roots running back to the 70's, the facts demonstrate that we've had many years to come to grips with it. On 9/11, America was caught off guard, because we were willfully ignorant of the enemy and what it would take to defeat an enemy that thought so differently than do we. As we approach the 9th anniversary, we've had many more years to figure out why these things occurred, as well as how to defeat that enemy. Our Troops are willing and able to do so.
But there is one thing that is in short supply: acknowledgment of the patience required. Our enemy counted on American impatience and short attention span when it attacked. This enemy evolved over many decades, unanswered by many administrations, studying the ways of both us and the enemies we've faced. They know that the only force that can defeat Our Troops is our own body politic. And their actions are designed to elicit responses by our government, our media, and our citizens.
The enemy knows that Our Troops won in Viet Nam and in Mogadishu, but take lessons to how we pulled out of both, after Our Victories, as if we had lost, and took lessons from how the enemy was able to claim Victory by rushing in to beat civilians into submission. It is perhaps very telling that so many seem oblivious to the difference between 1973 and 1975, the difference between when we pulled Our Troops out of Viet Nam and when we rescued thousands from the US Embassy as our ally, having expended its last rounds of ammunition, and politically handicapped by Our Congress, fell to the enemy.
But like I said, my focus was not on the current enemy on 9/10/2001. It became a focus since, though I expected our resolve would be nearly as short as it had been in the 90's. On 9/11/2002, I saluted the same US Flag that had flown over the destroyed WTC as it was raised over Afghanistan. The enemy was elusive, cowardly, and hard to find, but we were still very much in the hunt, trying to catch as many as we could while American Resolve remained willing to do so. The MSM was already undermining the effort, playing to the enemy propaganda, without checking the facts. So when they diverted their attention to Iraq, my mixed feelings were mostly relief that we'd finally be able to do what was necessary, without worry that they'd misportray it.
I don't think any of those that went with me to Afghanistan that time had enlisted after 9/11, but a few of us had re-enlisted. In fact, we had lost Troops prior to deployment. Some had found other units that were going before we got the alert that we would. I'd venture to say most of us have been back. We ALL volunteered in one way or ten. We didn't have a single person who was conscripted and few if any that were stoplossed.
And I volunteered more than once since then. And when I stepped on that plane to go to distant lands, I was forced to trust in the citizens I was defending to defend Our Warriors, Our Government, and Our Constitution from partisan politics and fringe extremes back home. I had to hope that resolve would not run out while we were deployed establishing security for civilians going about their daily lives as close to normal as we could provide.
A colleague of mine had been on business in NYC on 9/11. He was doing whatever it was he was employed to do not far from the WTC. And when New Yorkers ran from Ground Zero, he was running towards it. He knew his skills were needed. And he provided immediate, free, medical care to an unknown number of people that day. To my knowledge, he received no reward, award, or business cards for what he did. He received no pay for doing so, nor did he seek it.
Why do I bring these things up? Because we trusted Our Citizens to protect our backs, to protect Our Families, to protect Our Honor, to keep the politicians of government in line. And many did exactly that. Our Viet Nam era Brothers were the first to stand up in defense of Our Honor and tell the anti-war crowd to stop attacking it. They were joined by Americans that had not been to a war or a protest before.
And there was righteous outrage when a highly partisan "non-profit" attacked Our General, but the politicians that profited from the group were not held accountable, neither did they hold accountable their rich benefactor. Instead, they continued to campaign on slogans they knew were patently false, at the expense of the Honor of Our Troops. They won, in ways too numerous to count, because it was not about the truth, nor about facts, nor even about National Interests. It was about the rise to power. A Congressman looked me right in the eyes and told me the goal: a poltical party saw they'd rise to power in the same defeatism that had come after Viet Nam.
The problem was that the American People were ignorant of the rest of the story. They had no honest media source to tell them what was really going on in Iraq or in Afghanistan, let alone the lesser known battlefields. Caring American Citizens honestly asked me questions based on the misportrayals of the press. The press knew their argument was false. They knew that Our Troops were doing great things, valorous things, and winning. They weren't reporting it. Instead they reported Haditha, Abu Ghraib, and waterboarding, as if the entire military were engaging in war crimes, as if the entire military were guilty. Our Marines were exonerated at Haditha, but the press still portrays otherwise. Our General was Victorious with the Surge, but neither politician nor press state it.
Still, there was a backlash against those that attacked the Troops. It was significant enough to create a whole new genre of "Anti-War Troop Supporters." This new slogan found itself at odds with both reality and reason, but it's false logic found adherents, but more importantly sloganeers. And they found a way to portend that they do. And there is plenty of profit to go around when you victimize a whole new group of people.
The VA can seek new funding based on the findings that "up to 20%" of all Veterans have PTSD. Non-Profits can solicit donations and grants to overcome this malady which is difficult to define, diagnosis, or deny. Troops are enticed with a paycheck for life to admit they have a "problem." Politicians can demonstrate their "Pro-Veteran" platform by voting for such things, even as they vote to cut Troop levels, DoD Budgets, and the equipment to win. Few are willing to call them out for the misportrayal.
And what about the fact that no where near 1 in 5 Veterans is admitting to the ailment? They're all in denial. They're refusing to admit it because of the stigma attached. And denial is a symptom of it as protesting one's innocence is a sign of guilt. The second sign is admitting it.
The Veteran unemployment rate is pointed to as a sign that these arguments are correct, even as the same miscreants put fear of the PTSD inflicted veteran in the minds of citizens and employers. "They're trained to kill" and "mentally unstable" propaganda printed in publications like the NYTimes has a tendency to scare people who are distant from those that have protected them.
Meanwhile, in Iraq, the Troops who still wear 30lbs of body armor, 30lbs of ammunition, and a Kevlar in 130 degree heat are now labeled "non-combat" even as they get shot at, because the politician in chief campaigned on "ending" the war there, whether victory or loss, whether or not the enemy persisted, whether or not democracy ensued. And he's still "on target" to enact the plan of his predecessor to do so, even as he ignores the current situation, the lack of changing anything there other than words, or that things have improved over his statements that no number of Troops could turn it around.
The first ones out of Iraq were the Victors. The press abandoned Iraq in droves to return to their next battlefield: Afghanistan. In the interests of fairness, they refuse to report Our Victories or of the good things Our Troops are doing. Some claim that their reports are based in financial reward, that "if it bleeds, it leads," but it is rare they report anything but American blood, with a few Afghan civilians thrown in. They ignore when the enemy stones an Afghan couple or murders an Afghan child but jump up and down when an air strike kills a building full of 17-34 year old Afghan males who kept a few women and children in the target.
Instead they report the latest body count of Americans, and/or Coalition Troops, for days on end if they can't add to the count. If it were only death they were interested in, they'd also report the Taliban Motorcycle Gang deaths. If body counts weren't important, they wouldn't keep reporting it and if they were they'd keep one running on the enemy killed. But instead they claim they report Our deaths because they love us so much.
In 2008, when we were winning in Iraq, one of the candidates stated we could still be there for 50 or 100 years, just as we are in Germany and Japan. The other ridiculed him and promised to be out in 16 months. We know who won and it wasn't the one willing to tell the truth, even if unsavory.
In 2001 and several times after, a leader told us this war would not be over in days, but in decades. He tempered the prognosis of a long war with the request for Americans to live boldly, without fear of an enemy Our Troops were fighting in distant lands on budgets smaller than those that won the Cold War. When the iron was hot, he did not press for a great increase in Troop Strength, and rightly refused to request conscription. Our Volunteers can do much more than 10x their number of those that neither understand the reason, nor are willing to risk the battlefield.
But Our Volunteers have their limits and there are only so many times they're willing to risk all for a citizenry that seems ungrateful and fails to educate themselves enough to defend Our Constitution from predatory politicians in their absence. Our Troops fighting in distant lands, sacrificing time with families and luxuries of decent lodging, deserve at least the same rights as they're protecting. And when politicians decide to make it difficult for Our Troops to vote against them, something is seriously amiss. When Our Troops cannot trust that the enemy will be denied a Victory Tower at the very site that awoke Our Citizens to the need to fight back, one must ask if the sacrifice and risk is worth it.
Many of Our Citizens understand the need to defend Our Troops and Our Constitution from these predatory politicians. Many have stood up and been counted, even as the votes of Our Troops are denied and their sanity questioned. To those, I am grateful, and most likely those are the ones reading. But to those that embrace us in "support" while holding the knife of PTSD at our back, wake up. Yes, PTSD is real and some of my Brothers need help to deal with it, but quit pretending that they're crazy or that we're victims. And quit pretending you support us while you try to cut Our Troops ability to fight the enemy that wants to kill you as much as me.
Stumble It!
