Remember the "Mission Accomplished" speech?

Well, it still stands today. Much maligned by the Bush-detractors, it was a great moment. And after reading Mark's post expressing his weariness of seeing his President endure a relentless onslaught of slander, I thought perhaps an examination of exactly what President Bush actually said, might be nice.

I said in my previous post, that Democrats currently appear to be afflicted with selective hearing. If you look at most of President Bush's speeches, the substance of what he says, is often distorted and misrepresented. Another way the Left likes to entertain themselves is by quoting "Bushisms". I can laugh at some of President Bush's mis-speaks; but I remember receiving an e-mail of supposed quotes attributed to President Bush. Having been brainwashed by the popular media into believing that Bush is dumb, can't read, etc., it would be easy to believe that he must have really said those things. But upon closer examination, I ran those quotes through snopes.com, and every one of those quotes were actually rehashed quotes originally said by Dan Quayle.

Anyway, I highlighted some key points in the following speech, the substance of which, I believe, stands firm today:

Bush makes historic speech aboard warship

Friday, May 2, 2003

ABOARD THE USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CNN) -- The following is an unedited transcript of President Bush's historic speech from the flight deck of the USS Lincoln, during which he declared an end to major combat in Iraq:

Thank you. Thank you all very much.

Admiral Kelly, Captain Card, officers and sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln, my fellow Americans, major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.

And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country.

In this battle, we have fought for the cause of liberty and for the peace of the world. Our nation and our coalition are proud of this accomplishment, yet it is you, the members of the United States military, who achieved it. Your courage, your willingness to face danger for your country and for each other made this day possible.

Because of you our nation is more secure. Because of you the tyrant has fallen and Iraq is free.

Operation Iraqi Freedom was carried out with a combination of precision and speed and boldness the enemy did not expect and the world had not seen before.

From distant bases or ships at sea, we sent planes and missiles that could destroy an enemy division or strike a single bunker. Marines and soldiers charged to Baghdad across 350 miles of hostile ground in one of the swiftest advances of heavy arms in history.

You have shown the world the skill and the might of the American armed forces.

This nation thanks all of the members of our coalition who joined in a noble cause. We thank the armed forces of the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland who shared in the hardships of war. We thank all of the citizens of Iraq who welcomed our troops and joined in the liberation of their own country.

And tonight, I have a special word for Secretary Rumsfeld, for General Franks and for all the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States: America is grateful for a job well done.

The character of our military through history, the daring of Normandy, the fierce courage of Iwo Jima, the decency and idealism that turned enemies into allies is fully present in this generation.
When Iraqi civilians looked into the faces of our service men and women, they saw strength and kindness and good will. When I look at the members of the United States military, I see the best of our country and I am honored to be your commander in chief.

In the images of fallen statues we have witnessed the arrival of a new era. For a hundred of years of war, culminating in the nuclear age, military technology was designed and deployed to inflict casualties on an ever-growing scale.

In defeating Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, Allied forces destroyed entire cities, while enemy leaders who started the conflict were safe until the final days. Military power was used to end a regime by breaking a nation.

Today we have the greater power to free a nation by breaking a dangerous and aggressive regime.

With new tactics and precision weapons, we can achieve military objectives without directing violence against civilians.

No device of man can remove the tragedy from war, yet it is a great advance when the guilty have far more to fear from war than the innocent.

In the images of celebrating Iraqis we have also seen the ageless appeal of human freedom. Decades of lies and intimidation could not make the Iraqi people love their oppressors or desire their own enslavement.

Men and women in every culture need liberty like they need food and water and air. Everywhere that freedom arrives, humanity rejoices and everywhere that freedom stirs, let tyrants fear.

We have difficult work to do in Iraq. We're bringing order to parts of that country that remain dangerous. We're pursuing and finding leaders of the old regime who will be held to account for their crimes. We've begun the search for hidden chemical and biological weapons, and already know of hundreds of sites that will be investigated.

We are helping to rebuild Iraq where the dictator built palaces for himself instead of hospitals and schools.

And we will stand with the new leaders of Iraq as they establish a government of, by and for the Iraqi people.

The transition from dictatorship to democracy will take time, but it is worth every effort. Our coalition will stay until our work is done and then we will leave and we will leave behind a free Iraq.

The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11th, 2001 and still goes on.

That terrible morning, 19 evil men, the shock troops of a hateful ideology, gave America and the civilized world a glimpse of their ambitions. They imagined, in the words of one terrorist, that September the 11th would be the beginning of the end of America.

By seeking to turn our cities into killing fields, terrorists and their allies believed that they could destroy this nation's resolve and force our retreat from the world.

They have failed.

In the battle of Afghanistan, we destroyed the Taliban, many terrorists and the camps where they trained. We continue to help the Afghan people lay roads, restore hospitals and educate all of their children.

Yet we also have dangerous work to complete. As I speak, a special operations task force lead by the 82nd Airborne is on the trail of the terrorists and those who seek to undermine the free government of Afghanistan.

America and our coalition will finish what we have begun.

From Pakistan to the Philippines to the Horn of Africa, we are hunting down Al Qaida killers.

Nineteen months ago I pledged that the terrorists would not escape the patient justice of the United States. And as of tonight nearly one half of Al Qaida's senior operatives have been captured or killed.

The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We have removed an ally of Al Qaida and cut off a source of terrorist funding.

And this much is certain: No terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime, because the regime is no more.

In these 19 months that changed the world, our actions have been focused and deliberate and proportionate to the offense. We have not forgotten the victims of September the 11th, the last phone calls, the cold murder of children, the searches in the rubble. With those attacks, the terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States, and war is what they got.

Our war against terror is proceeding according to the principles that I have made clear to all.

Any person involved in committing or planning terrorist attacks against the American people becomes an enemy of this country and a target of American justice.

Any person, organization or government that supports, protects or harbors terrorists is complicit in the murder of the innocent and equally guilty of terrorist crimes. Any outlaw regime that has ties to terrorist groups and seeks or possesses weapons of mass destruction is a grave danger to the civilized world and will be confronted.

And anyone in the world, including the Arab world, who works and sacrifices for freedom has a loyal friend in the United States of America.

Our commitment to liberty is America's tradition, declared at our founding, affirmed in Franklin Roosevelt's Four Freedoms, asserted in the Truman Doctrine and in Ronald Reagan's challenge to an evil empire.

We are committed to freedom in Afghanistan, Iraq and in a peaceful Palestine.

The advance of freedom is the surest strategy to undermine the appeal of terror in the world. Where freedom takes hold, hatred gives way to hope.

When freedom takes hold, men and women turn to the peaceful pursuit of a better life.

American values and American interests lead in the same direction. We stand for human liberty.
The United States upholds these principles of security and freedom in many ways: with all of the tools of diplomacy, law enforcement, intelligence and finance.

We are working with a broad coalition of nations that understand the threat and our shared responsibility to meet it.

The use of force has been and remains our last resort. Yet all can know, friend and foe alike, that our nation has a mission: We will answer threats to our security, and we will defend the peace.

Our mission continues. Al Qaida is wounded, not destroyed. The scattered cells of the terrorist network still operate in many nations and we know from daily intelligence that they continue to plot against free people. The proliferation of deadly weapons remains a serious danger.

The enemies of freedom are not idle, and neither are we. Our government has taken unprecedented measures to defend the homeland and we will continue to hunt down the enemy before he can strike.

The war on terror is not over, yet it is not endless. We do not know the day of final victory, but we have seen the turning of the tide.

No act of the terrorists will change our purpose, or weaken our resolve, or alter their fate. Their cause is lost; free nations will press on to victory.

Other nations in history have fought in foreign lands and remained to occupy and exploit. Americans, following a battle, want nothing more than to return home. And that is your direction tonight.

After service in the Afghan and Iraqi theaters of war, after 100,000 miles on the longest carrier deployment in recent history, you are homeward bound.

Some of you will see new family members for the first time; 150 babies were born while their fathers were on the Lincoln. Your families are proud of you, and your nation will welcome you.

We are mindful as well that some good men and women are not making the journey home. One of those who fell, Corporal Jason Mileo, spoke to his parents five days before his death. Jason's father said, "He called us from the center of Baghdad, not to brag but to tell us he loved us. Our son was a soldier."

Every name, every life is a loss to our military, to our nation and to the loved ones who grieve. There is no homecoming for these families. Yet we pray in God's time their reunion will come.

Those we lost were last seen on duty.

Their final act on this Earth was to fight a great evil and bring liberty to others.

All of you, all in this generation of our military, have taken up the highest calling of history: You were defending your country and protecting the innocent from harm.

And wherever you go, you carry a message of hope, a message that is ancient and ever new. In the words of the prophet Isaiah, "To the captives, come out; and to those in darkness, be free."

Thank you for serving our country and our cause.

May God bless you all. And may God continue to bless America.

I'm Back from New York!

I was in New York for the past several days and am playing catch up to many news articles.

Buried on A19 of yesterday's New York Times was a mention of how Senators from both parties recently took a trip to Guantanamo and all gave it positive approval ratings. This in contrasted imbalance to the many frontpage "news" the NY Times gave the allegations of abuse. When will they report on the real abuses going on there? Will Al Jazeera dig through to A19 and make mention of it to their listeners? Not that they would have paid it any mind, even if the NY Times gave it the front page attention it deserves (only because the leftstream media has made a nonissue into such an overblown issue).

I thought President Bush's speech last night was fine. Hugh Hewitt points out the thrust of the speech:

"Some wonder whether Iraq is a central front in the war on terror. Among the terrorists, there is no debate. Hear the words of Osama Bin Laden: "This Third World War is raging" in Iraq. "The whole world is watching this war." He says it will end in "victory and glory or misery and humiliation." - President Bush, June 28, 2005


That is the key point in the speech, the key point in the debate, and the president's clarity in making it made it a very successful speech. Over and over again he and his Administration, his supporters and the military must make that point again and again: It is all one war.

Democrats are criticizing his references to 9/11, mentioned 5 times in the speech. They say it drums up the "false" connection between 9/11 and Iraq. The Bush Administration never said Saddam's regime had a hand in the orchestration of 9/11 (many Democrats seem to suffer from selective hearing, these days). And if you take the time to actually read the 9/11 Commission's Report, even though its focus wasn't on the Iraq-Al Qaeda connection, it does make peripheral reference to it. For myself, I never felt "misled". In fact, I don't even recall being sold on going to war because there was a direct connection between those responsible for 9/11 and Saddam. What I understood is that we would no longer tolerate terrorism and those states who sponsor and breed terrorism. It couldn't really be stated for political reasons, but really, it's an unsaid focus on militant, Islamic terrorism, of which al qaeda has been responsible for deadly attacks on American soil and interests a number of times throughout the 90's, before September 11, 2001.

With so much negative coverage of Iraq, it's no wonder poll numbers showing support for Bush and for the War in Iraq are dismal. So it's important that President Bush continues to make these kind of speeches (although, I love the fact that President Bush does not make decisions based on the latest gallup poll; he does what is right; not what is popular). As important as domestic issues of social security and tax reform are, we've got a war to win here and President Bush has got to keep his eye on the ball. One of the things that has been most frustrating to me, is in how poor the Bush Administration has been in the PR department. If it weren't for alternative news outlets with political pundits and conservative thinkers stating the case on why this war on terrorism is every bit as significant as WWII, I fear to think where our country would be today.

Put into historical perspective, even with the job unfinished, the Iraq War is a military success of unprecedented proportion. It's beyond me how the slightest setback causes the nay-sayers to scream "quagmire" and insist we pull our troops out, that the insurgency is winning, etc. It's beyond frustrating. It's embarrassing. It's demoralizing, and I blame the media for those poll numbers. Iraq is not another Vietnam; yet the anti-war crowd and the peace-activists threaten to undermine the war effort and I even think, want to turn this into another Vietnam. If we fail in Iraq, they'd probably see it as another victory, just as they see themselves as "heroes" for supposedly bringing our troops home and ending the Vietnam War. So how many millions lost their lives as a direct result of our pulling out of Vietnam? Where is the compassion of those war protestors who ignore the consequences of their inane and irresponsible actions? The Left has learned nothing from the lessons of Vietnam. They hold up protest signs with images of babies being killed from collateral damage, yet it doesn't seem to register in their first-stage-thinking brains that those we are fighting have had years of slaughtering and destroying the lives of countless men, women, children, and babies....and should those regimes go on surviving because we didn't have the courage and fortitude to stand up to them, shall have many more years of killing babies. 80,000 babies are alive today because Saddam was removed from power.

How many Iraqis are being killed every day by terrorists, on average? Let's say a dozen on a bad day. Well that leaves about 24,999,988 Iraqis who are going on with their lives.

Remember: Things always seem to get worse, before they get better. Hardship is a natural part of life and it's time we show the world what Americans are made of by remaining steadfast in our refusal to allow terrorists to overrun Iraq. The 1,700 servicemen who have died thus far will have only died in vain if we allow defeat to be an option. That is intolerable.

If you want to read some of the good progress that is going on over in Iraq, read this. If you want a more insightful perspective on what's happening at Gitmo, go here. This is the second part in what I believe to be a series of articles being written by Lt. Col. Gordon Cucullu.

Remember: "Every friend was once a stranger"

I was listening to Dennis Prager on the road this morning, between clients, and 2nd hour he mentioned the following story, which has been in the news:

Missing boy’s parents marvel at happy ending

Family describes the pain of the boy’s four-day disappearance

BOUNTIFUL, Utah - Jody Hawkins buckled and collapsed as she climbed into a sheriff’s truck, convinced that authorities were about to tell her that her 11-year-old son had been found dead four days after getting lost in the Utah wilderness.

Instead came the shocker: Her boy was found alive. And not only that, but he was unscathed.

“I really didn’t think he could survive that long in the wilderness,” Hawkins said, her voice breaking at times. “When they told me Brennan was still alive and in good shape, my brain still cannot comprehend that.”

Jody and Toby Hawkins described their ordeal Wednesday during two news conferences at the family’s suburban Salt Lake City home, where Brennan Hawkins made his first public appearance. He answered only one question, saying he felt “good” — before crouching on the ground by his mother’s knees while his parents and four siblings carried on with the news conference.

Source of inspiration
“His personality hasn’t changed one tiny bit,” Jody Hawkins said earlier, adding that one of the first things Brennan asked about was whether the Pokemon cards he bought on eBay last week had arrived.

“I tell you, that’s what got him off that mountain,” she said.

“They were here.”

As for Brennan’s reaction when he saw his picture on TV: “Sweet.”

The boy disappeared last Friday in the Uinta Mountains, about 100 miles east of Salt Lake City, somewhere along a dirt road at a Boy Scout camp. He was found on an ATV trail Tuesday by a volunteer looking for him outside the search area.

Brennan does not remember much of the four days he was missing, his parents said. They said they do not plan to push him to talk about his time in the woods, but they have learned a few answers.

He told his parents and a friend that he would sleep in a crouch, with his sweatshirt pulled down over knees to keep warm. And the parents said Brennan probably took their advice a little too literally about avoiding strangers.

“When an ATV or horse came by, he got off the trail. When they left, he got back on the trail,” Jody Hawkins said. “His biggest fear, he told me, was that someone would steal him.”

It is unclear if that delayed his rescue.

Uphill path
Brennan defied conventional wisdom during his time in the mountains: He went uphill instead of down, while “typically children walk downhill, along the least path of resistance,” Sheriff Dave Edmunds said. As a result, search crews ended up in the wrong area.

Brennan’s mother said he believes he was gone only one or two nights, and doesn’t remember even going camping or much else, because “most of it was a blur to him.”

“It’s going to take a while to get everything out,” Toby Hawkins said. “This is how he approaches all situations.”

The couple said their son was born prematurely, and they described him as immature and a little slow, but not mentally disabled.

Delirious, but unscathed“Brennan continues to amaze us,” Toby Hawkins said. “I thought that he was the most ill-prepared out of our five children to deal with it, and now I think he was maybe the best prepared.” [Except for teaching him to avoid strangers, a little too well- Wordsmith]

Brennan had hiked more than five miles into the mountains to the spot where searcher Forrest Nunley found him Tuesday.

“I turned a corner and there was a kid standing in the middle of the trail. He was all muddy and wet,” said Nunley, who dialed 911 on his cell phone and said he was lucky to find a signal.
“He was a little delirious. I sat him down and gave him a little food,” Nunley said.


Dennis Prager's point in citing this story is that we have grown into a paranoid society on "stranger danger".

According to his news sources, the 11 year old boy was offered water by his rescuers, and still wasn't sure if it was ok to take the water. And according to the boy's father, he might have been found sooner, but hid from searchers because of the idea of "stranger danger".

How likely is it that strangers ever pose any danger to you at all? Statistically, think about how many people you come across in your daily round-abouts: From pumping gas at the station....riding the bus....going to the mall....to waiting at the checkout....

Out of all those people, how many would harm you as opposed to being helpful or neutral toward you?

I understand that children are vulnerable to adults; clearly, they are at a physical and mental disadvantage should an adult seek to harm a child. But what are the statistical chances? Is it really helpful to make a child terrified of all strangers under all circumstances? Is it possible to better equip them to recognize situational distinctions? At a very young age, perhaps not.

I'm sure we've all seen the 20/20 experiment where they set kids up.

In one scenario, it is stressed, stressed, stressed to the children, under no circumstance should they play with a gun; that they should instead leave it alone and go tell an adult. Yet what happens? The hidden camera catches kids finding the planted gun and playing and aiming it at each other (in the same program, Mr. Prager also mentioned how in Freakonomics, the authors mention kids are statistically in more danger from being drowned in swimming pools in the home, than they are from being killed by a loaded handgun in the home).

In another scenario after having been warned not to go anywhere with a stranger, parents confident that they have sufficiently drilled into their child the idea that under no circumstance are they to go anywhere with a stranger, become deflated and horrified as they witness, via hidden camera, their child being lured away by the ABC "stranger" who asks the kids to help him find his dog, and shows them a picture.

This shows how vulnerable little kids are and how many just haven't developed the ability to discern yet, who's likely to be friend and who might be foe. Still, statistically, how likely is it that a child will be harmed by a stranger, when you think of all the strangers (practically the whole world!) out there and all the numbers of children. Out of all those numbers, how many kids a year actually fall victim to predatory strangers?

It's funny sometimes.....You see a cute kid, and all you want to do is smile and say hi or give him something harmless (like an origami model you just folded) and he freaks out and runs screaming to his mom. Sometimes, the kid's just shy and a natural scaredy-cat; but other times, you know it's behavior that's been drilled into him. I guess I should just consider myself fortunate the kid hasn't been trained to pepper spray strangers who try talking to him.

"You want abuses? You want abuses?! You Can't handle the abuses!"

Senator Dick Durbin wants to bitch about abuses on the magnitude of a Soviet Gulag? The Killing Fields of the Khmer Rouge? Nazi death camps? The mass graves of a Saddam regime? Perhaps he'll find more luck here, than he will find at Gitmo:


Are You Angry About Cruelty to Vegetables?

The Vegetable Rights Militant Movement (VRMM) is a nationally active, grassroots, vegetable liberation and defense organization. The VRMM differs from other vegetable activist organizations in that it really does all that it can to stop people from torturing, killing, humiliating, and ultimately eating vegetables and fruits.

The VRMM has grown from a small group to a large, multi-national militia that fights unceasingly for the liberties of each and every fruit and vegetable. There are plenty of people to look out for animals already, but fruits and vegetables have only recently had humans on their side, thanks to the VRMM.

VRMM members have chained themselves to hay bailers, corn huskers, and tree shakers to voice their opposition of the legality of these torture devices. Other members have staged sit-ins at local produce sections of supermarkets, chanting "veggie-killer" at anyone who picked up vegetables for purchase.

Fruits and vegetables have been victims of cruelty throughout all recorded history. Humankind's so-called advancement into agriculture was also it's moral demise. Once people began farming crops they sold their souls to the god of violence.


Corn husker torture device


The good news is that you can join the fight to stop vegetable cruelty by sharing this information with friends and family, as well as making a sizeable donation to the cause (see button on the left).

The Vegetable Rights Militant Movement (VRMM) began in 1977 when a young lad refused to eat pureed carrots, mushed bananas, what was reported-to-be apples of some sort, and other sundry produce items stuffed into jars.


Brutalized fruits and veggies

Vegetable abusers all over the world have been paying attention to the protestors affiliated with the VRMM. We know how to get our point across and will stop at nothing to see even one more fruit or vegetable live a happy, normal life.

This carrot is seen skinned alive, bleeding over a kitchen sink. This type of action MUST STOP!! How can the world say it is civilized when such brutality still exists everywhere?




This poor apple is left alone, rotting, on a dirty grocery store floor. Would we leave our mom or dad rotting on the floor?? NO! VEGGIES HAVE RIGHTS TOO!!!




Poor, poor watermelon... it's literally seperated from it's skin in this damning image of violence towards fruit.




The world was shocked when it found mass graves in Iraq. How do you feel about finding mass graves in your local supermarket each and every day of the year??




You can't even tell that this green mess was once cilantro. We have torture devices that are not only legal in the United States, but publicly marketed as a "good product"! This has got to stop. This killing machine has brutalized this poor cilantro.




Caged in and ready to be sent off for torturous cooking. These innocent strawberries don't deserve to die like this! Nobody does.




These were once oranges. Now they lie in mass graves in the local grocery store.




Yes, this once was a potato. Potatoes get smashed by hammers in our culture waaaaaaaaaaaay too often. The smashing must stop!!!




This potato died of neglect and exposure. It's whithered frame once shelled a healthy and vibrant life form. Now it's brittle carcass reeks of death. Shame on us, cruel world!!

This is an example of the barbaric CHINESE BROCCOLI TORTURE. This image of brutality speaks volumes against the mistreatment of vegetables everywhere. Veggies suffer at human hands each and every day, all over the world! Please let the cruelty end!!




This was once pineapple. It was kidnapped from it's life-giving tree, then skinned, sliced, and canned. After all of these horrific events it was left outside for a month to rot in the wind and rain. Look at the poor thing. If this image does not stir your heart to act against vegetable cruelty then you must not have a heart!




Beans on the BBQ? You've got to be kidding me.




Look if you dare, how this poor orange has been mercilessly cut in half, then smashed in this tortuous device until it's juice (much akin to our blood) is squeezed out of it for our consumption! Gross! This has got to stop!


What a terrible sight. This poor fruit is being ripped in half by an evil primate. Very disturbing...




Even though these mushrooms aren't technically in the plant kingdom they still qualify for protection from heinous crims such as being committed in this photo. This picture reminds me of something out of Silence of the Lambs only it could be retitled Screaming of the Shrooms.




This is the saddest form of apple cruelty that my friend and I have encountered. It was so bad that the juices were everywhere!




"This is a pic of serious vegetable cruelty to be posted on the site. It's actually a young coconut which was massacred!"

-More like "was" a young coconut. Very disturbing image.



Next time Senator Durbin makes outrageous claims about abuses and torture, perhaps he should first take a look at these photos of real atrocities, rather than imagined....of course, I wouldn't be at all surprised if he is, in fact, a Vegan/Vegetarian/fruitarian.

The Politicization of 9/11

A couple of weeks ago, in the Wall Street Journal opinion-editorial, Debra Burlingame, who is the sister of Flight 77 (the flight that crashed into the Pentagon) pilot, Charles Burlingame, wrote an article describing how the International Freedom Center isn't just planning a 9/11 Memorial on Ground Zero that honor American citizens who lost their lives on that Tuesday morning. No....they are planning on building a memorial that will include history and propaganda that have nothing to do with 9/11! Apparently it is backed by a "who's who" of the navel-gazing, hand-wringing, self-loathing, self-hating, "blame America first" crowd. The Memorial will lecture us on American genocide, slavery, and civil rights "abuses" post-9/11, including Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and the Patriot Act. Read Michelle Malkin's piece, and this one from The New York Post.

They want to use 9/11 as a platform to talk about human rights abuses?! I say, the IFC backers should be taken out to the woodshed, drawn and quartererd.....then lynch 'em! (in case this last paragraph should be "abused" as an example of the "vitriol" coming from the right-wing noise machine, please note that I kid.....mostly).

The Polio Fallacy (written by Thomas Sowell)

June 17, 2005

The disappearance of an American teenager in Aruba has been more than a tragedy for her and for her family. It is the latest of many tragedies to strike trusting people who have long been sheltered from dangers and who have acted as if there were no dangers.

Not only individuals but whole nations have lost their sense of danger after having been protected from those dangers.

After the devastating disease of polio was finally conquered by vaccines, back in the 1960s, the number of people afflicted declined almost to the vanishing point. Some people then began to see no need to take the vaccine, since apparently no one was getting polio any more, so who was there to catch it from?

The result was a needless resurgence of crippling and death from this terrible disease.

The kind of thinking involved in the polio fallacy has appeared in many other contexts. When some public disorder gets underway and a massive arrival of police on the scene brings everything under control immediately, many in the media and in politics deplore such "over-reaction" on the part of the police to a minor disturbance.

It never occurs to such people that it was precisely the arrival of huge numbers of cops on the scene that brought the disturbance to a screeching halt without having to use force.

During the Cold War, Communist expansionism around the world somehow never struck Western Europe, which was protected by the American nuclear umbrella — and which often accused the United States of unnecessary militarism. American military power was like the polio vaccine that was considered unnecessary.

The latest version of the polio fallacy is the demonizing of the Patriot Act. Some people are yelling louder than ever that they have been silenced, that we have had our freedom destroyed, all as a result of the Patriot Act.

Let us go back to square one, to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, which were the reason for passage of the Patriot Act.

Do you remember how long every major public event — the World Series, Christmas celebrations, the Super Bowl — was a time of fear of a new terrorist attack? Do you remember all the advice to stock up on medicines or food, so that we could ride out any new terrorist onslaught?

Do you remember all the places that terrorists were expected to strike? The different colors of national alerts being announced regularly?

Now, after years have passed without any of these feared disasters actually happening, the eroding of a sense of danger has led many to repeat the polio fallacy and act as if the dangers from which we have been protected did not exist — and that the enhanced protection is therefore unnecessary.

The many crackdowns on domestic terrorists under the Patriot Act, as well as the ability to intercept and disrupt their communications under the powers of that Act, receive little or no credit for the fact that there has been no repetition of anything like 9/11.

The man principally responsible for law enforcement crackdowns on terrorists in the United States during this dangerous period — Attorney General John Ashcroft — not only received no gratitude for our safety, the complacency to which that safety led allowed many to indulge themselves in the luxury of vilifying Ashcroft at every turn.

Like the police who arrive in large numbers to quell disturbances and are then accused of "over-reacting," the Patriot Act has been depicted as an over-reaction to terrorist activity. Indeed, the very word "terrorist" has been banned in much of the politically correct media.

The Patriot Act is no closer to perfection than anything else human. It has costs, as every benefit has had costs, hard as it is for many among the intelligentsia to accept anything less than "win-win" situations.

"I have a real problem with fascism," as one lady in a trendy California bookstore said fiercely, when discussing the Patriot Act.

She was aghast when I replied, "I hadn't noticed any fascism."

Have you?

Happy Father's Day!

Well, Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there! And on this special day, I'd like to take the time and opportunity to tell my dad that I love him and appreciate everything that he and Mom have done for me, and continue to do for me.

I've been a pretty rotten son for a number of years now. It takes a lot of work to get me to write snail mail. Christmas cards, birthdays....all missed opportunities, by me, to show my love on those special days when they are most expected and needed.

My parents have been living in Japan ever since I left home to go to college. It doesn't seem that long ago, and yet over 15 years have passed since. Within that space of time, you could say that I've grown further apart from my parents. Not because of anything bad passing between us; but because of the absence, due to us being on the other side of the planet from one another. I've grown and matured in some ways that make me a stranger to them; they, in turn, have lost some hair, gained a few wrinkles, and are beginning to look and act like "old folk".

Eventually, they will return to the States and retire somewhere. In the meantime, I was hoping that the magic of e-mail would keep us in better touch; but it hasn't. Dad only has access to e-mail from work, and he seems to be as bad at using it as I am at using snail mail. Then there's the problem of my mail being bounced back to me. For some reason, his service provider seems to reject my e-mails.

I never call them, because I've cut the landline for the past 6 years, and international calls are still expensive by way of cellular phones.

So my hope is that starting a blog might be one way in which I can share a part of myself with my parents and let them peer into the "grown up" mind of the son they raised. I'm naturally taciturn and reserved; so communicating in this manner will also allow them access to my inner self, which I tend to keep hidden.

9/11 affected me deeply, as it has affected many of us, in profound ways. For me, it invoked and defined my political identity. If I was politically conservative all along, I never knew it until after the events of 9/11. Growing up, my dad never talked politics with me. I had plenty of freedom (maybe in part, due, to the fact that I was a kid that never got into any trouble) and was given lots of rope that I could have easily hung myself with; but I never did. Mostly what I had was a stable home and plenty of love.

Dad never tried to force me into any particular set of beliefs. My Dad's atheist (although he grew up Catholic) and my mom's Buddhist. She used to try to bring me to her NSA meetings, which I found to be boring, and my Dad would gently tell her to leave me alone. Eventually, I think my mom drifted away from chanting and praying; I seem to remember her going in phases, though.

Although we weren't a Christian family, we always celebrated Christmas with cards, presents, a tree, and all the trimmings and trappings of the commercial aspects of Christmas, which made it so beautiful and accessible to even the non-Christian families to enjoy and celebrate. It's really my favorite time of the year. Whether you believe in Jesus or not, the underlying theme of peace and love and good cheer to all, was really felt around this magical holiday. I was exposed to a lot of Christian religious imagery and themes, and because of it, I don't feel threatened by Christianity, the way intolerant groups like the ACLU want to dismantle and uproot our Judeo-Christian heritage and traditions. They are eradicating the very fabric and fiber of who we are as a nation in the name of diversity and multiculturalism, and separation of Church and State. It is religious bigotry and what they are taking away is a part of the best of who we are as a country; this nation and its moral values are rooted in Christianity.

I always knew my dad voted Republican; but I never fully understood what that meant. Democrats...Republicans.....empty labels. Although I was young, I remember going to school, and being among many military families, my peers were all gung-ho for President Ford; so feeling sorry for Jimmy Carter, I secretly and meekly was pulling for Carter to win. *sigh* Kind of reminds me of this article, and how the young students' reason for voting the way they did is because they are merely parroting what they've been told: that Jefferson owned slaves. And that's it. No other context for critical thinking and analysis. Our Founding Father deserves better.

My Dad has probably long since forgotten this, but I remember when I was very young...perhaps not that young, but around 6 years of age (just guessing)....I came to his room and he was in bed reading and I stood in the doorway and asked him if he dropped bombs on people (during Vietnam). If I remember it correctly, the question caught him off-guard and I don't remember him giving me a ready-made, good response. How do you rationalize the "good" in dropping bombs on people you've never met, to a 6 year old? Kids are taught that it's not nice to hurt people, that we should hold hands and sing "It's a Small World After All" (actually, that Coca-Cola comercial comes to mind about "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing") that violence is wrong; we never really teach our young about the sophistications of "moral violence". I think my words to my Dad that night, a child's verbal lashing, made him almost tear up. I remember his voice was soft as he tried his best, unsuccessfully, to rationalize his actions and duty in that War, to a little kid wiping snot from his nose.

Now I understand. Now I am deeply proud of his military service. It's been a bit odd, growing up a military brat, in that I've never known any better. Moving every 2-4 years was normal. It wasn't until high school, when I began to attach more meaningfulness to friendships (especially with the opposite sex) that I resented that aspect of military life.

I look back upon my experiences around military bases and around military men and families with new eyes; with post-9/11 colored lenses. And I've discovered a very deep love and appreciation of our military men and women. A teacher of mine, Mark Mikita, (who is also like a father figure to me, insofar as teachers are like fathers), has a deeply profound love and respect for those who serve this country in the role of soldier and warrior; before 9/11, I was already gaining new perspective and insights into what it means to honor our military, thanks to him.

If you've read this far, I am grateful for your time in doing so, and will spare you from further musings. It's just past midnight now, on Father's Day, and the sand begins to weigh in on my eyes; I will close this by posting the following e-mail response I received from my Dad, on Sunday, March 16, 2003 8:05 PM. I had asked a week earlier for a briefing on his military career, as I really was quite ignorant of the depth of his accomplishments. I was always proud of him in a vague sort of way, as sons are apt to admire their fathers, unconditionally; but this gave me a much more grounded, detailed sense of pride in a man I only knew as my father; not as soldier and patriot.....




Hi Michael.

How have you been? Mom and I are ok. Today is the first day of our two-week break between terms. I just turned in my grades. It is raining,and I canceled my plans to play golf. Mom went to visit Aki, and to play pachinko.

My military history is quite long. I will give you a year-by-year synopsis.

Apr 1960 -- Basic training at Lackland AFB, TX, in San Antonio

Jul 1960-Jul 1961 -- Chinese language study at Yale University, New HavenCN.

Jul 1961-Jan 1962 -- Technical training at Goodfellow AFB, TX, in SanAngelo

Feb 1962 -- Survival training at Stead AFB, NV near Reno

Mar 1962-Feb 1963 -- Stationed at Kadena AB, Okinawa. Flew as an Intelligence crew member in the back end of a C-130. Promoted to E-4.

Feb 1963 -- My squadron moved to Yokota AB, Japan. Met Mom in March.

Mar 1964 -- Married Mom then we transfered to Castle AFB, CA, near Merced. At Castle I was a clerk working for the Operations Officer in an F-106 squadron. It was there that I really decided to become a pilot. Promoted to E-5

Apr 1965 -- Transfered to Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ to study Astronautical Engineering. Graduated Summa Cum Laude in May 1967. GPA was 3.89.

Jun-Aug 1967 -- Officer Training School. Distinguised graduate. 15th in aclass of about 800. Promoted to 2nd Lt.

Oct 1967-Oct 1968 Pilot training at Williams AFB, AZ. We lived in Mesa. I flew T-37s and T-38s. More importantly, you came into our lives.

Dec 1968 -- Water survival training at Homestead AFB FL, near Miami

Jan-Jul 1969 -- F-105 Thunderchief training at McConnell AFB, Kansas. Promoted to 1st Lt.

Aug 1969 -- Jungle survival training at Clark AB, Phillipines.

Aug 1969-Aug 1970 -- Vietnam War, Stationed at Takhli AB Thailand. Flew 132 missions in the F-105.

Aug 1970-Dec 1970 -- Stationed at Kadena AB, Okinawa flying F-105s. Promoted to Captain. The squadron had too many pilots, so I was transfered to Myrtle Beach.

Jan-Mar 1971 -- A-7D training at Luke AFB, AZ, west of Phoenix.


Apr 1971 - Jun 1975 -- Flew A-7D Corsairs at Myrtle Beach SC. In Sep 1972 deployed to Korat AB, Thailand, for another go in the war. Flew 80 missions in the A-7D. During the two tours in the war I received two Distinguished Flying Crosses, and numerous Air Medals, plus several other lesser decorations.

Jun 1975-Dec 1976 -- Studied for a Masters Degree in Astronautical Engineering at the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH. Distinguished Graduate.

Jan 1977-May 1981 -- Taught Engineering Mechanics at the Air Force Academy. Promoted to Major. While at the Academy went TDY to Luke AFB to train inthe F-15. The course was too short, and I didn't have enough experience in Air Combat, so I failed. All my experience was in air-to-ground combat.

Jun 1981 -- Went to Patrick AFB FL for training in the OV-10. It is a forward air control aircraft.

Aug 1981-Aug 1982 -- Osan Air Base Korea flying OV-10s as the squadron operations officer.

Aug 1982-Sep 1984 -- University of Texas. Studying for a PhD. Didn't finish the program. Promoted to Lt. Col.

Sep 1984-Sep 1987 -- Norton AFB, CA, Worked as an engineer on thePeacekeeper Ballistic Missile system. In charge of the Nuclear Certification process. Was the safest system ever fielded.

Sep 1987-Sep 1989 -- We deserted you at UCLA and went to Osan again. This time I was in charge of all Air Force military exercises in Korea.

Sep 1989-Aug 1991 -- Yokota again to be the air liaison officer to the Army. It was a nothing job.

Aug 1 1991. Retired after 31 years 4 months. Most of the time it was goodto me. I didn't like the job at Norton or my last one at Yokota.

I hope this is what you were looking for. Bye for Now, Love for Always,

Pop


I'm not sure of the year, but this is my Dad; and I believe that is an F-5 Freedom Fighter that he stands beside.

Of course the anti-war peace activists know what's best for Iraq better than the Iraqis themselves, do!

For anyone sick of reading and hearing nothing but tragedy news and all the negatives that happen in the world (with blame toward America), and in Iraq in particular, click on to an Iraqi blog or a military blog; chances are, 9 times out of 10, what they have to say does not reflect the popular perception, pushed by a bi-assed media. Things are tough over there, no question about it; but the media makes it all the worse, helping the insurgents win the propaganda war. Iraq is hardly the "quagmire" the media portrays it to be, nor the "second Vietnam" those on the Left seem to hope that it turns into. Find out what the people over there really think.

When U.S. Senators slime our rebuilding efforts by comparing Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib to Nazi death camps, Soviet Gulags, Pol Pot, etc, it strengthens the terrorist/insurgent cause; (Ok...I admit it: on a serious note, being forced to listen to Christina Aguilera music qualifies and quantifies as cruel and unusual punishment, and is going a bit too far; those responsible- from the interrogators, up through the chain of command to President Bush, himself, should be held accountable by the "global community") Senator Dick Durbin certainly made himself the center of attention in Al-Jazeera news, this last week. Good going, senator!

I found this link at Little Green Footballs. What amuses me is the part where he shares some letters he's received from those on the far Left who are just so ideologically driven blind, that they cannot fathom how an Iraqi could possibly support the War that removed Saddam and who appreciates the presence of U.S. and Coalition forces in his country, to help rebuild a democratic and free Iraq. They assume he must be a fraud or a puppet of the CIA, in the same manner that they'd like to believe that the Iraqi government isn't being elected but is being selected by the U.S. as a stooge, to be controlled by us.

from Democracy in Iraq:

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Responses to the 2 Year Anniversary

Thank you all for the messages you have sent me in response to my reflections on the two year anniversary. I did not realize that they would reach so many people, and I am honored to have touched some of you. While the vast majority of the responses I received were positive there were some negative ones. I must frankly say I have a hard time understanding these people who attack me. For what for expressing my opinion? The vast majority were from countries outside of the Arab world. I must say that one thing I am learning through the work I am doing on my blog is that there are some people even outside of Iraq and the Middle East who seem to content to want to live under dictators, in an environment where expression is crushed. I will share some letters below in italics and my response:

Dear Hussein:What the hell is wrong with you, you don’t mind having your country blown up by others but you mind people not understanding you. This is a pure crock, and you sir are either mentally unstable or working for the United States.

Oliver Jordan

Because you dont say what you want to hear I am a liar? This is a great insult to me, this is something that gives me anger. You sit in your box and tell me what is happening in my nation?

Husayn, you are an idiot, I think you are really American. No, I know you are American, no Iraqi feels like you do you lying scumbag. How much is the CIA paying you to spread lies about the occupation of Iraq? I hope you get yours.

Nameless

This is a very common thing I hear from people, they say I work for the USA or the CIA! I do not work for either, although I am sure if I did my family would be better off. I am a simple Iraqi young man who is scratching a living for his family. I tell things how I see them, and I am giving you what I see in Iraq so that our message, our voice is not extinguished. Interesting how the nameless have the most bravery in slinging insults!

Sir I was linked to your blog by another website. What I found is quite interesting. Despite what everyone else in the world says, you are saying that things in Iraq are good. Ignorng the fact that everyday bombs are blown up, you are happy. Despite the fact that Americans are wasting money in Iraq, you thank them. May I ask you, are you blind or just stupid?

Richard Jones– UK

All these things happen in Iraq, but they are not things I focus on or Iraqis focus on. They ahve become part of our life, but we look to the future, and do not want to dwell on evil. That would be self-defeating, and that would be stupid, not what I type.

Mr. Husayn-

Your website would be more enjoyable if you gave us accurate news rather than just telling us about hope and other abstract things. Sure you have hope, but do your countrymen? Do those who died for imperialism have hope? How does it feel to get robbed for oil by the worlds strongest nation? Talk about these things, and then I might start reading your blog. BTW – I found it by accident

Charlene Spector
Boston

Hope is worth more than oil, money or anything else that dictates your life.

This is a sample of what I have received, it is in a way a rude awakening to me of the attitudes that some people in the West hold. Perhaps I was a big naive in the past, I thought these were fringe ideas, but I see that you in the West have people similar to the self-defeating terrorists who infest our nation. If the US or Europe were in a similar situation that Iraq is in, then these people would surely be the ones blowing up innocents so that your nation would be stopped from progress.

And on that note, let me remind my friends, and these enemies of mine that progress is being made, slowly, but surely in Iraq. [Just within the past week, Sunnis have jumped aboard the Democratic bandwagon and that is major progress!- Wordsmith] Yesterday we learned that the terrorists have lost more men this month than in any other month. That is not progress? The more of them that die, the closer we come to absolute freedom. They are like roaches that must be stepped on, and the more that we step on the less there are to eat at us later, and the less there are to breed more!

Long Live a Free Iraq
Long Live Freedom
Long Live the Free World

posted by Husayn at 8:24 PM

Waah....Waah...Waah.....now get over it!

Yup....another self-esteem article. And I point and laugh at the idiocy of the parent as much as the kid:

CHEAP 'SHOT' HITS KID HARD
By DAVID ANDREATTA Education Reporter

June 17, 2005 -- A Queens couple claims their daughter's memories of elementary school have been marred by a "horrible" yearbook pho- to, and are demanding the school recall all 200 books and replace the picture.
Michelle Maihepat, of South Ozone Park, said her 11-year-old daughter, Asheana, is so embarrassed by the "bad picture" that she has been crying and hiding her face in shame from her sixth-grade classmates at PS 121 since the yearbooks were distributed Monday.
"For the rest of her life, she's going to have to be ashamed of that horrible picture," Maihepat said.
"Twenty years down the line, she's going to look at this book with her friends, and her friends are going to say, 'What happened to you there?' "
What happened was this: Asheana was home sick on the day in March that most of her classmates posed for the standard cap-and-gown head shot. She took a make-up photo at the school a month later. But school officials said the $32 shoot took place just one day before the deadline to send proofs to the yearbook printer.
Without time to get the proofs, and fearing Asheana would be missing from the yearbook, her teacher — who organized the yearbook project — snapped the extreme close-up shot and sent it to the printer, school officials said.
The school never consulted the Maihepats, who said they expected the professional make-up photo in the yearbook.
Asheana said she does not recall having the quick substitute picture taken. In it, she appears pale and capless against a black background.
Her mother called the school's version of events "a cover-up."
Principal Henry Somers defended the teacher and said he arranged yesterday for the printer to publish a new book for Asheana, but that there was no way the school could recall all the books.
"We bent over backwards to accommodate this parent and we don't have a budget to pay for 200 new books," Somers said. "The teacher who did this went out of her way to be nice so the little girl would have a picture in the yearbook."
Somers signed a check refunding Maihepat $14 for the cost of the yearbook — a gesture the mom called "insulting."
A teary-eyed Asheana said the episode has upset her so much that she has decided to skip graduation next week.
The family says anything less than a total recall is not good enough, reasoning that the yearbook is Asheana's legacy among all her classmates at PS 121.
"Who knows, one day she might be famous or have a lot of money and someone could blackmail her with that picture," Maihepat said.
Asheana, who stayed home from school yesterday, said, "I never expected to see that picture in the yearbook. My friends feel sorry for me."

Aww....your feelings are hurt? Tough! Get over it!

Two articles:
Yep, life'll burst that self-esteem bubble

Enough already with kid gloves


The author of the second article, Christina Hoff Sommers, was on the Laura Ingraham Show the same week that article was published in USA Today. One caller mentioned how she was a teacher at this one school and given orders not to mark off points on her kids' spelling test; that so long as they made the attempt to spell the word correctly, even if they got it wrong, to still give them the point! In another area, baseball is being played where strikes are eliminated from the rules of the game (wouldn't want to hurt the batter's feelings, y'know). In another school, they played basketball without keeping track of the points; the caller said the kids would become disoriented, not knowing the objective, and would soon lose interest in the game.

It's no longer "tug-o-war". That would be too militaristic. It's now "tug-o-peace". In "tug-of-peace", the objective isn't to overcome the other team; it's to all pull equally so that everyone rises together. Ain't that sweet? Enough to give you a cavity in the brain!

In parts of our nation, we have become so obsessed with coddling our children and protecting them from every little slight, that we do them a disservice. We protect them from a world they have to live in, to such an extreme, that we do not let them maturate coping skills to deal with hurt and failure. Not allowing them to develop any callus to the world's cruelty, is callous and cruel. It's important that children learn early on to appreciate Failure for the wise Teacher that it is; that failure is a natural consequence of trying and a natural part of the life process.

Welcome and Greetings!!!

I've finally decided to start my own blog and don't even know where to begin! There was so much I had to say last year, since it was a very heated election year.

Political thought is the primary motivation for me wanting to start my own blog, as I have been very passionate about it in the last year; however, this will not strictly be a pure poliblog. I intend to write my thoughts and feelings about anything that I feel passionate about.

I used to keep a journal for years, writing in it every day since the 8th grade. I stopped around the year 2000 when I went through a crazy, whirlwind break-up with someone I loved. After breaking the journal-writing habit, it was difficult to get back into the groove of things. My hope is that keeping an online blog will make me feel responsible enough to write in it on a regular basis. Especially if I gain any kind of readership following.

Just to let everyone know, I am a Republican...and allied strongly to many conservative thoughts and ideology. That affiliation really crystallized itself after 9/11. Before that, I'd say I was pretty a-political; perhaps even a bit liberal from years of exposure to liberalism at UCLA. 9/11 woke me up and I began examining the political world and came to the realization that the Democrats just have it wrong, on so many issues. They mean well, but their solutions to helping the poor, the disenfranchised, foreign policy, environment (with some exceptions), and so on...obtain the opposite rather than the desired effect. A recent NY Times article by David Brooks expresses how every social policy pushed by liberals has been tried for the past 50 years in Europe and Canada. The European model has failed. Why would we want to implement failed social and economic practices here, in the U.S.?

Above all else, my alliance to conservativism and the Republican Party, comes from my belief that the War on Terrorism is a very real war, and a very important and necessary war. Many people don't see it as such, because there is no "terrorist country" and no armies threatening our shores. Here at home, it's like business as usual where people can enjoy their Gameboys and sip a vanilla latte, carefree of worries; meanwhile, half a world away, brave men and women are fighting on our behalf, taking the war to the terrorists and risking their lives so that the rest of us don't have to.

I believe that if George W. Bush did not wage this intolerance for militant Islamic terrorism as aggressively as he has, in the longterm, like a cancer that metasticizes, we would have many, many more 9/11's on our shores. Then all the whining about money for schools, gay marriage, abortion, the economy, will mean squat if our civilization as we know it is destroyed.

Over 1700 U.S. soldiers have lost their lives, as well as Coalition soldiers and thousands of Iraqis. It's a high cost to pay. But I firmly believe if we did not go into Iraq to remove Saddam, hundreds of thousands if not millions would eventually have perished on both sides. Saddam's regime was like a cancer on the world and cancer is best treated before the threat becomes imminent.

I see President Bush as the right man, in the right place, at the right time in history. And the more he is hated by the Left, the more I feel he must be doing something right. As Jean Francois Revel puts it, the rest of the world has it wrong, in regards to American foreign policy. If the United States appears to act unilaterally, it's because the rest of the world (if you consider France and Germany to be the rest of the world) has failed in our collective global security. The United Nations is an absolute corrupt organization that lacked the moral courage and compass to enforce its own UN Resolutions, to make them mean anything. And given the Food for Oil Scandal, it's no wonder France and Germany were so much against removing Saddam Hussein. They never would have given us a "permission slip" for war, under any circumstance, so long as they were profiting from his "containment".

I see Bush and Blair as today's Roosevelt and Churchill. Both generations of world leaders were making extremely unpopular decisions in their day. But rather than hand-wringing and worrying about the latest gallup polls, these men had the courage to lead; to do the right thing, even if it wasn't the popular thing.

In 50 years, I believe, history books will remember President Bush fondly as one of the best presidents this country has ever seen. Plain-spoken, he says what he means, and means what he says. I love how the popular media has caricaturized him as a buffoon, a puppet, a moron, and an anti-Christ. It only makes them look foolish; and so long as they believe in the caricature and not the actual man, they will continue to misunderestimate this President and they will continue to lose elections. President Bush thinks big, and confronts the big issues, the fruits of which will more than likely ripen only years after he has left office. God bless George W. Bush.