Comments on: Confessions of a Chickenhawk on Memorial Day Weekend

By: navyone

navyone — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 03:21:29 +0000

Here is a good quote to sum up this topic:

May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

By: Luther McLeod

Luther McLeod — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 04:36:58 +0000

Well navyone, it is a fine line. Sometimes it is only those who have walked that line that appreciate the factors involved. I don’t like calling it that way, and maybe I’m wrong in doing so. But I think young Casey might have agreed with me, versus his Mom. Though it may have ripped his heart to do so. Maybe I’m going full circle on the ‘chickenhawk’ meme. I mean, naively, do I get extra points for experience? Its late, a bit much brandy, and watching UofA Women’s Softball. IOW’s distracted.

By: Buddy Larsen

Buddy Larsen — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 03:27:10 +0000

Ain’t it the truth –makes you wonder about the honesty of the complaint, doesn’t it–

By: navyone

navyone — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 01:04:33 +0000

Luther, I concur on the fine line of dissent. Take Sheehan’s form of dissent, she grumbles about her country on a soapbox built upon her son’s death. Has anyone interviewed friends of her son? I had the idea of tracking some of them down and seeing how Casey Sheehan felt about his mother and the war. If he saw his mother as a kook, then her “populist” dissent born on her son’s back is all a sham. Same thing if he vehemently supported the mission. And everything points to the fact that he did. He was in not in an MOS (job field) that required him to be on the front lines every day. Yet, he volunteered for the duty that got him killed. I respect the son as an American hero and distrust the mother as an American fraud.

Buddy, you had me at “large ship.” Any form of Navy analogy is bound to win me over, shipmate. I agree, the truest polls are elections, including the one in 2006. Are they perfectly honest? I doubt it, but I still highly trust them. Notice that just leading up to the election the loony Left was taking about the diabolic Diebold machines. Even the day of the election, there was talk of a conspiracy going on. And when the Left won, suddenly all that went away!

By: Buddy Larsen

Buddy Larsen — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 11:52:50 +0000

I agree –well said, navyone. Re the topic of dissent, dissenters need to remember that our elections are polls, and that the only way to work things is to have elections and then support the results where foreign policy is concerned. Deviations from that base are fine, but these deviations should always proceed from that base, from a recognition that the nature of the project–that is, making policy alongside global allies–requires that it not turn on every whim will-nilly, that it proceed as a large ship (indeed the ship of state), and move slowly, surely, and without surprise antics.

Big ship, not speed boat hauling frolicing water skiers.

By: Luther McLeod

Luther McLeod — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 03:51:10 +0000

Good words navyone.

I don’t mind dissent at all. If it’s honest. And that is a fine line I admit. Perhaps my history jades my view. Keep up your comments if possible.

By: navyone

navyone — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 01:15:29 +0000

This is an very important topic.

What is the proper way to dissent while still remaining patriotic? Forget that stupid quote that my shipmate (John Kerry) tried to attribute to Thomas Jefferson, what really matters is this: how can we keep dialogue open on both sides while showing respect for the troops and our current status? I see this, obviously, as a dilemna mostly afflicting the Democrats.

That said I have absolutely no idea the solution to this challenge. My enlistment threw my family into a minor emotional chaos. I have some family members that became politely belligerent and began blaming George Bush’s faults on me, irregardless of the fact I had never yet voted for a Republican when I had joined. (I have since remedied that blemish.) I have not spoken to one of my brothers since he caused a scene at my OCS graduation pre-planning. (It was over the phone, but still painful.)

Abu Gharib was brought up very pointedly at one dinner conversation. It was Thanksgiving (only a handful of posts on this blog and again I bringing up that holiday!) when I was still in training. Now that I have been operational for a couple of years, and more mature, I wish I had the opportunity to address Abu Gharib more explicitly. If one claims to support the troops while bringing up Abu Gharib, I would say, that person better know the 2 names of the Medal of Honor winners from this current war. (SFC Paul Smith, USA, and CPL Jason Dunham, USMC.)

My family has grown a lot in the last couple of years. It has been a good struggle, but I only have to see them once every two years or so. It is convenient to be deployed sometimes. I can sincerely point to members of my family who have grown along with me, and while they do not support the mission or its handling, they are very supportive of my role. Every family should have at least one person in the military at any one time. It lends an interesting dynamic.

But the question still remains, how does the Left show its patriotism while supporting us? I don’t buy John Edwards or Hillary Clinton or Kerry for a second. There is a hilarious picture floating around of Hillary with a soldier, who is flashing the POW sign for coercion (middle finger) while smiling into the camera with her. (www.snopes.com) And I just read an essay on John Cary today written by a SEAL who called him a Blue Falcon. (The Blue stands for Buddy, guess what the Falcon stands for. . .) Joe Lieberman and one or two other Democrats are the few from that aisle who come across as genuine in their support. Of course, I don’t speak for the whole military, just myself and maybe my small circle of friends.

Once I became a one issue voter, terrorism, I had no place with the Democrats. They had better wise up. They are not winning elections on their own accord, but on the failure of the Right. And the Right, like the South, will rise again, hopefully very soon.

Lastly, Markus thanks for your acknowledgement. I see there exists some unexploded and exploded ordinance among you and some other posters on this site, and I appreciate your comment regarding my service. However, it is not through sheer altruism that I serve. I don’t want to die in another 9/11. And I like the fact that I don’t have to pick out my clothes every morning.

By: Buddy Larsen

Buddy Larsen — Thu, 31 May 2007 20:23:28 +0000

–scroll to the “T”s.

By: Buddy Larsen

Buddy Larsen — Thu, 31 May 2007 20:19:24 +0000

Tommy, by Rudyard Kipling

By: Insufficiently Sensitive

Insufficiently Sensitive — Thu, 31 May 2007 18:47:46 +0000

Rudyard Kipling was 100 or so years ahead of you. Except that he didn’t particularly have to go through a conversion to see what social benefits the Tommies conferred on civilization in general. But some of the English had gotten a little too comfortable with their situation, and like a lot of our goodthinkers of the left, didn’t think much of their own military guys.

And I can’t think of the title of the jingle RK wrote, but there are a couple of lines in it that are spot on with your post above:

Oh, it’s Tommy this, and Tommy that, and “chuck him out, the brute!”

But it’s “Thin red line of heroes” when the guns begin to shoot.