Thoughts on Memorial Day 2015
I have a few Memorial Day posts that I tend to put up every year. It’s the easy way out, and saves me some work, although I always look at them and revise them if necessary. It’s often necessary, because events and time move on.
But this year I wanted to add something new. This Memorial Day I can’t help but reflect on the family and friends of those who gave their lives in Iraq and how they must feel about what is happening there now, and the domination of ISIS in areas that were so hard-fought and hard-won by Allied forces.
Obama abandoned that country, and by doing so he abandoned not just the Iraqis who trusted us but the Americans who fought and died there. Some blame Bush for getting us in and argue about whether he was right or wrong to do so, and focus on all the errors made along the way—errors that are virtually inevitable in war. But those errors were mostly overcome by the time Obama “inherited” the war, and certainly by the time he pulled out entirely, declaring it a stable success.
It probably could have remained so with a relatively small amount of continuing presence, but he was not willing to make that investment, despite the fact that all his military advisers suggested it and said that not that big a presence would be necessary to continue to secure the peace. Obama—the smartest person in any room—knew better. And now we face the collapse of not just that country but the region.
If you go back and read many of my early posts about Iraq and the effort there, I always had imagined that in order to succeed we needed to be willing to stay for the long haul at some level, somewhat as in other countries such as South Korea. I was continually concerned that the propaganda of the left and the press would make that impossible—and it has, with Obama as one of the main proponents of our ultimate abandonment and thereby defeat. If I, a mere blogger, feel this way, how bad must it be for the families and friends of those who fought and died in Iraq?
I don’t disagree but would point out an additional factor;
Gallup November 2, 2011
PRINCETON, NJ — “Americans widely support President Obama’s recent decision to withdraw nearly all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of the year, with 75% approving. That includes the vast majority of Democrats and independents. Republicans, however, are slightly more likely to disapprove than approve.”
At that time, after nearly 3 years in office, 96% of democrats, 77% of Independents and 43% of republicans approved of Obama’s decision to withdraw nearly all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of the year.
The heart of the problem is not Obama or the Left but the electorate.
The heart of the problem is not Obama or the Left but the electorate.
TWICE!
The heart of the problem is not Obama or the Left but the electorate.
An electorate that people like to make amateur prophecies about. So when will they wake up, before or after American cities are obliterated by nuclear bombs?
Since the source of the problem is the Left and not humanity, people who wait for people to wake up, can do nothing about it. They have categorically declared that it is so, since they are just in a wait and see mode. It is not a war to them, because when their problem is humanity itself, what would be the ultimate victory of a war, annihilation of humanity besides?
G6loq, Geoffrey Britain, Ymarsakar:
Indeed. But the electorate doesn’t exist in a vacuum. They are shaped by the left and the left working through the MSM, education, and the entertainment industries, among other things. It’s been going on for many many decades to reach the point where Obama was elected twice, and Obama himself is the perfect storm of characteristics the populace has been educated to find desirable.
neo-neocon Says:
May 25th, 2015 at 6:09 pm
G6loq, Geoffrey Britain, Ymarsakar:
Indeed. But the electorate doesn’t exist in a vacuum. They are shaped by the left and the left working through the MSM, education, and the entertainment industries…
That is no excuse … Don’t be a victim.
Actually, the electorate is the problem.
Universal suffrage wasn’t in the Founding Fathers design.
As it is now half the electorate votes itself benefits.
Either welfare or … government “work”.
This is now way to run a household.
Time for a divorce.
G6loq:
Who said it was an excuse?
I believe some people missed the point of your post.
Today, I received an “ecard” from a friend from my teen years which thanked me for serving, etc.
She is herself a Navy Widow; and I thought it appropriate to remind her that thanks is equally due to the families of those who serve in uniform; and special thanks to the wives and mothers who hold it together through trying times.
With regard to Iraq and Afghanistan, I do believe that, like Vietnam, the greatest sin is squandering the lives that were sacrificed, or forever changed.
I teeter on either side of the line from international hawk to isolationist. While, I do believe that military intervention is sometimes right and necessary; I always fear that American political leadership, and the American populace, will not have the courage to see it through. I grieve for the lost; I grieve most deeply for those who suffered in vain.
It’s enough to make me cry, actually. Iraq – given that we had stuck with it in a purposeful way – might have been in the same position as South Korea, after fifty years. No, SORK didn’t look very promising materiel when my dad was stationed there in the 1950s, and no, the ongoing government wasn’t all that for a couple of decades … but eventually they finished up with a strong and modern country.
It’s enough to make me cry. This present administration threw away the blood of our troops – those comrades of my daughter – just to make a temporary political point.
I don’t have words enough to describe how much I despise Barry and his coterie.
neo-neocon Says:
May 25th, 2015 at 6:53 pm
G6loq:
Who said it was an excuse?
I don’t believe/accept that “They are shaped by the left… is a justification.
They’re players. They can’t say Herr Goebbels’ propaganda made me do it or such.
That applies to the Republican voters too. They are as of now passively accepting the depredations of the Repubic establishment. There should be an uproar.
Sin of omission.
The takers are rabid, the makers subdued and de-facto collaborationists.
In an era of galloping technological advances, dumb electorates are a problem.
The machines won’t tolerate it.
Shape up or you’ll be shipped out.
Setting the record straight on the law and policy, fact basis for Operation Iraqi Freedom matters to me because the cultural legacy of OIF for our Iraq veterans and their families, especially for the children who will only ever know their KIA-OIF father (or mother) through the cultural prism of OIF, now depends nearly exclusively on whether the President’s decision for OIF was justified in the first place. President Obama has assured that there will be no Eisenhower course to cultural redemption of the Korean War for OIF.
At the same time, the US-led enforcement of the terms of the Gulf War ceasefire was the defining international enforcement of the post-Cold War for the leader of the free world. It was a paradigm. The cultural conception and political judgement of the Iraq intervention orients our course ahead for every American international design.
For example, regarding Iran, simply stated, if Presidents HW Bush, Clinton, and Bush were right on Iraq, then President Obama has been wrong on Iran. And vice versa.
Right now, we’re making generational decisions for American policy and politics based on misconceptions about OIF. We’re being tricked. Clear-minded decisions for our national course, even if we eventually come around to like decisions, requires us to set the record straight on the law and policy, fact basis of OIF at the premise level.
Sgt. Mom: “This present administration threw away the blood of our troops — those comrades of my daughter — just to make a temporary political point.”
From From Robert Gates, former defense secretary, offers harsh critique of Obama’s leadership in ‘Duty’, by Bob Woodward, in the Washington Post:
Neo,
Scrivener’s error – the post title says 2016, instead of 2015.
Neo: “But the electorate doesn’t exist in a vacuum. They are shaped by the left and the left working through the MSM, education, and the entertainment industries, among other things.”
The general will, including the collective will to fight, is a social entity that is a function of activism.
Would that this were Memorial Day 2016! Or better yet: Halloween 2016….
“Indeed. But the electorate doesn’t exist in a vacuum. They are shaped by the left and the left working through the MSM, education, and the entertainment industries…”
I take that as a given and, am in FULL agreement.
I’m so glad that we have one professional prophesier here, who unlike all the amateur prophesiers here, (I count myself among that number) can straighten us out, as to the ‘correct’ perspective.
Sgt. Mom,
It is to weep. Conversely, it makes their sacrifice all the more profound. Almost Christ like, for can you not see the parallels? “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”… at the least, that applies to all the LIVs.
Those soldiers that we honor have paid that “last full measure of devotion” and in doing so, they demonstrated Christ’s dictum; “greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends”
G6loq,
Right, it is indeed not an excuse, it is however, an explanation.
Sgt, Mom: “It’s enough to make me cry. This present administration threw away the blood of our troops — those comrades of my daughter — just to make a temporary political point.
I don’t have words enough to describe how much I despise Barry and his coterie.”
You’ve expressed my feelings much better than I could. Although my son fought in Afghanistan and not Iraq, the point is the same: not just our own sons and daughters, but everyone over there who have subsequently had to see their children crucified, buried alive, and sold into sex slavery just so that Obama could claim for the sake of his election that he had “ended the war”… As though World War II and the Korean War have not ended since we still have troops stationed in Germany and Korea. What a fraud the man is, and how much human suffering as a result.
The Leftist traitors saw how they were able to scrawl over the truth of history with their foul lies about Vietnam, its abandonment despite our military victories, and the subsequent massacre and enslavement of its people. All of which they worked to bring about in concert with the communists overseas.
So now they know they can get away with genocide, enabling totalitarian dictatorships, lying monstrously about America’s role in history, all of it.
And they will do this. Every. Single. Time.
We see that even a death toll that was twice that of Pearl Harbor wasn’t enough to drive the spike of reason into their skulls. Because they live to hate America and freedom.
I feel very sorry for those in the military having to serve under this CINC. Hopefully, any future Republican president has learned a lesson from Obama. Don’t start anything you can’t finish during your own administration.
605 days.
50+% are drooling, cross eyed, mumbling, pointing at the sky idiots fixated on reality tv women with big butts. Personally I welcome the collapse of the global economy and the urban chaos that will follow. it is then when we shall learn who will survive and who will die.
“If I, a mere blogger, feel this way, how bad must it be for the families and friends of those who fought and died in Iraq?”
One can hope that, in the fullness of time, there will come a moment when the families, friends, and comrades-in-arms of those who died in Iraq will have an opportunity to redress the balance.
I just watched a public TV Memorial Day program on the U.S. Military cemeteries abroad. It was a wonderful rendition which annotated the meaning of each cemetery; and the sacrifice that each represented. I watched with tears in my eyes.
So much sacrifice.
As a kid during WWII, I saw it first hand in the neighborhoods around me. At the time it was no consolation for the families; but, in the fullness of time they could know that their loss was in the quest for a better world. And that was achieved, for a time. As I said above, the tragedy is compounded when the pain and suffering is endured for no purpose; and the sacrifice is squandered due to cowardice or political expediency.
Eric:
Thanks, fixed!
I’ve got the presidential election year on the brain, I guess.
Beverly Says:
May 25th, 2015 at 9:29 pmWe see that even a death toll that was twice that of Pearl Harbor wasn’t enough to drive the spike of reason into their skulls. Because they live to hate America and freedom.
Exactly, Oé¯kophobes.
This.
Note the bimbette eagerly at the ready for a chocolate bar. They know what they’re doing.
The purpose is to insult and demoralize. A part of the demonization process. Eventually, off to the gas chambers you’ll go. A well rehearsed routine.
Again, there are no excuses. It is our fault if we passively allow it. The victim stuff is BS.
You might not be interested but you will have to fight. Prepare.
I support continuing to fight domestically for the founding principles and values as politics is never over and there are always cycles, ups and downs. Who knows, twenty years from now this could be an openly conservative country again.
However when it comes to war I can’t see sacrificing thousands of young men when it has become clear through Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan that the lefts goal is always to undermine and destroy America and its victories.
So if a war can’t be fought in one term, in-victory-out, just let it be. Only in a real existential situation should that rule be violated.
On the topic of memorial day, here’s what I wrote for Bookworm’s pre day post.
A republic needs more than soldiers to sustain itself, it needs patriotic citizens, the guardians of their own civilization. Warriors and soldiers may defeat external enemies from foreign lands, but they are not allowed to decimate or weaken enemies within. Not in a republic.
As for the Husseins and the Obamacans vs the Americans:
“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague.”
can straighten us out, as to the ‘correct’ perspective.
Why would anyone who feels confidence in their own judgement, require someone else with the ‘correct perspective’ to straighten them out? Or do you no longer have this confidence given your track record making predictions about Leftist behaviors?
Also, American wars for WWII and Korea, were not in vain because of Republican patriotism. Republicans muted their own disagreements during WWII, after Roosevelt lied about getting involved, in order to maintain the integrity and strength of the Republic in the face of foreign adversaries.
Democrats? Democrats are parasites first and foremost. They aren’t interested in the Republic nor are they strong enough to deserve one.
So it’s not American policy people have come to hate, they just call it American policy. What is hated is Democrats and the behavior of Democrats. That gets attached to the American label so all Americans carry it around like some kind of Original Sin responsibility. Get rid of Democrats, and things would be lighter and less difficult.
Why would anyone who feels confidence in their own judgement, require someone else with the ‘correct perspective’ to straighten them out? Or do you no longer have this confidence given your track record making predictions about Leftist behaviors?..
Yup! As if there was a need predicting given the repetition.
Once shame on you …etc. Yawn! We are the morons for tolerating that crap.
And again, there are no victims, only players …
And again, there are no victims, only players …
And, worse of all in the sorry bunch are the enablers … which “Conservatives” have de-facto become.
Geez!
Personally, I’m not going to forgive Leftists or anyone who props them up, for:
WACO
Ruby Ridge
Vietnam
Wilson WWI
Roosevelt WWII demilitarization and CYA
Democrats for body armor in Iraq
Iraq II
Afghanistan
And the list goes on for another 5000 entries and so forth.
Death is the only true equalizer. And until they get their equality they crave, they aren’t going to be satisfied.
The Leftist alliance is already at war, with humanity, with American patriots. Your only choice is how many of you will die disarmed and kneeling in the sand vs how many will die destroying the enemy as warriors and citizens.
ISIS is AQ 3.0. This is from Lt. Col. John Nagl. He wrote the COIN book and worked for Gen Petraeus. Nagl says we will be fighting Islamists for 100 years.
The big, big difference with ISIS is that it has standing army, it controls real estate and it has money. Lots of money. And it has a steady and reliable cash flow from oil. AQ 1.0 never had that.
Nagl also commented at the Anapolis book fair that people under the control of ISIS don’t like them at all and we should be able to harness that hatred.
But ISIS has force of arms and money. The poor people under them have neither.
Obama’s unforced error has created a well-funded califate that can attack us and the Euros.
The big, big difference with ISIS is that it has standing army, it controls real estate and it has money.
And, it has battle proven tactics.
And the list goes on for another 5000 entries and so forth.
Your Obama voting family member, “friend”, neighbor, acquaintance, colleague, does.not.mean. you.well.
It has happened before, we let it happen, we have not excuses:
Tyranny in democratic republics does not proceed in the same way, however. It ignores the body and goes straight for the soul. The master no longer says: You will think as I do or die. He says: You are free not to think as I do. You may keep your life, your property, and everything else. But from this day forth you shall be as a stranger among us. You will retain your civic privileges, but they will be of no use to you. For if you seek the votes of your fellow citizens, they will withhold them, and if you seek only their esteem, they will feign to refuse even that. You will remain among men, but you will forfeit your rights to humanity. When you approach your fellow creatures, they will shun you as one who is impure. And even those who believe in your innocence will abandon you, lest they, too, be shunned in turn. Go in peace, I will not take your life, but the life I leave you with is worse than death.
Alexis de Tocqueville
See comments at.
The struggle never ends.
Although a little late this article says a lot.
Here is a 7 min Youtube video of an 11 yr old that knows more about Memorial Day than the president/first lady and every other political hack in Washington DC.
http://bearingarms.com/remember-fallen/?
“This Memorial Day, please spend time with those whom you love and cherish their company, but also set aside time to remember those who sacrificed their lives to defend our nation and way of life.”