A Voice in the Wilderness In Defense of "Mere Conservatism"

Islamophobia is NOT racism

Good luck finding a better explination why this is so then Mr. Prager's below.

The Lion of Fallujah

by:R.J. Moeller

Since the moment Secretary of State Robert Gates finished his heartfelt, tearful salute to a fallen U.S. Marine last Wednesday in Washington D.C., political pundits and prognosticators have argued over what exactly the rare emotional showing by a characteristically somber figurehead means for the future of the War in Iraq and Gates’ level of support for it.

The “prevailing wisdom” and sentiment from the likes of Newsweek’s Eleanor Clifton, and Huffingtonpost.com’s founder and editor Arianna Huffington (both recently on PBS' Mclaughlin Group) has been that Secretary Gates was sending a subtle message to the American people that he is sick of supporting what Clifton calls a, “bloody, un-winnable mess in Iraq.”

Hmm. Alright, I guess I can see how someone might get that idea from the Secretary's comments.

Huffington said that President Bush’s attempts to “white-wash and sterilize this war” by what she describes as “showing absolutely no emotion in five years” were no longer going to work because Gates had let the proverbial cat out of the bag. She added that it must be “hard-liners in the White House, like Dick Cheney” who are requiring a stiff upper-lip at the news and images of nearly 3,700 dead American soldiers in Iraq.

Now that just may have gone a little bit further than I care to agree with, Ms. Huffington.

“These soldiers are dying in vain and this administration doesn’t care,” Huffington compassionately exclaimed.

Wow! You lost me.

Equally as lost on nearly all the commentators who offered their misguided opinions was the underlying, and vastly more important question. What kind of man could bring the Secretary of Defense to tears during a public speech?

On May 10th, 2007 this country lost a hero and heaven gained a saint.

At 34 years old, Major Douglas A. Zembiec was one of the most respected and revered soldiers fighting in Iraq. When he was killed-in-action, it was in his fourth tour of duty as E Company’s commander, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment. His nickname, emanating from an interview he had done with the Los Angeles Times in 2005 in which he described the determination and ferocity of his men, was the “Lion of Fallujah.”

Zembiec’s funeral was held in Annapolis, MD nine days after his untimely demise on the field of battle in Iraq. Over 1,000 people, including his adoring wife Pamela, came to remember the tragically short, yet undeniably full life of a real American patriot.

The recent context for Secretary Gates’ poignant homage to Major Zembiec was in speaking at a Marine “Tribute Banquet” where the crowd was comprised of soldiers past and present and their families. He was humbly attempting to express the gratitude so many of us wish we could offer directly to our fighting men and women.

Gates explained that he keeps a photo of Zembiec on his desk at the Pentagon to remind him of the very real sacrifice young Americans are making every day across the globe to procure our precious freedom.

“Don’t think for a minute that we (civilian commanders) do not mourn the loss of every single soldier,” Gates explained to the receptive audience. “I write letters to those kids’ families each night and pray for their strength. They aren’t just statistics on a website to me.”

The anti-war press and far-Left defeatists in Congress have done their best to see that Americans’ reaction to the daily reminder of U.S. causalities be expressed in one way, and one way only: “This was a mistake and we must surrender.”

Disheartening stories such as the debacle surrounding the friendly-fire death, and subsequent alleged “cover up” by the Army, of former NFL-star Pat Tillman are never accurately put into the context of a soldier who tragically, but heroically gave his or her life for their country.

“Bush lied, people died,” is generally all you can expect even from the most respected Liberal journalists and politicians.

But let us for a moment examine the all-too neglected thoughts of the most important character in this politically-charged play which is Zembiec himself.

What did the good Major think of the war? Where did his own allegiances lie? Was he prone to verbal fits of disgust toward his Commander-in-Chief and the mission for which he voluntarily enlisted to fight in? Did he regret enlisting? What motivated him to join in the first place?

Major Zembiec’s best friend, Eric. L Kapitulik, offered the eulogy back in May for his fallen comrade. Granted access to Zembiec’s personal journal and diary, Kapitulik read aloud excerpts from the hand-written entry entitled “Principles my father taught me” to further convey the type of human-being and American his best friend truly was.

“Be a man of principal. Fight for what you believe in. Keep your word. Live with integrity. Be brave. Believe in something bigger than yourself. Serve your country”

“Teach. Mentor. Give something back to society. Lead from the front. Conquer your fears. Be a good friend. Be humble and self-confident. Appreciate your friends and family. Be a leader and not a follower. Be valorous on the field of battle and take responsibility for your actions.”

(Describing his first time fighting insurgents in Iraq) “[It was] the greatest day of my life. I never felt so alive, so exhilarated, and so purposeful. There is nothing equal to combat, and there is no greater honor than to lead men into combat. Once you’ve dealt with life and death like that, it gives you a whole new perspective.”

There is much more, but you get the idea.

This was a man of conviction, of fortitude, and of bravery. He loved his family. He was loyal to his country. He was resolute in his actions.

In short, Major Douglas Zembiec epitomized the greatness we seem to currently believe exists only in summer movies about Comic Book superheroes.

No one had tricked Zembiec into joining the military as John Kerry (D-MA) accused last October. To contradict Congressman Charlie Rangel (D-NY) own comments, no empty promise of fame, riches or glory had lured Zembiec unsuspectingly into combat’s harmful way. He was not even there for George Bush or Hillary Clinton.

It was personal responsibility, civic duty, and the desire to be apart of something bigger than himself that drove this man (and the hundreds of thousands like him) to take the fight to our enemies each and every day half-way around the world.

Of course most of us back here in the safety of these United States will never fully appreciate the strain our armed forces have had placed on their sturdy shoulders. How could we?

The problem as I see it entails a complacent, complaining citizenry and Press here in America that is more interested in expressing grossly under-informed opinions and emotional outbursts of pent-up frustration toward a war and a fight that they have done little to nothing to contribute to.

We should know enough to know we don’t know too much.

But where do we look for solace and an accurate assessment of the war? The extent of the blind bias against all-things-Bush is clearly exhibited in the swarm of mainstream media commentaries regarding the categorically misinterpreted Gates-on-Zembiec quotes from that Marine dinner last week. Anyone with an internet connection, a phone line, and the desire to get the whole story would have followed up on who this dead soldier that made the Secretary of Defense weep really was.

That inquiry would have resulted in, whichever pessimistic journalist had actually gone beyond reading Liberal talking points from Howard Dean, abandoning the story altogether for fear of rousing what little patriotism and good sense remains in Blue-State America.

Zembiec: “Never forget those who were killed. Never let rest those who killed them.”

Perhaps we should start listening to the people our journalists and reporters claim to know so much about, and we may just come to the stark realization that it’s really been about “us”, instead of “them”, all along.

Withdrawal From Iraq Would be Fatal Mistake

Bush makes his case yet again for why pulling out of Iraq is unthinkable at this time. He's got the intelligence community behind him on this one. Sorry, Democrats. Better get busy on those "Six in '06" campaign promises we're all still waiting to see come about.

Say it ain’t so, Grylls?

I don't care what they say about you Bear, I'll keep watching. I'd sleep in a hotel or lodge to if I were out in the wild.

Apparently Man vs. Wild isn't all that is claims to be, and now the BBC is upset. The New York Post this weekend tells more of the sorted details.

At least I still have WWE wrestling...

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07242007/news/nationalnews/grylls_thrills_bogus__expert_nationalnews_don_kaplan.htm

Democrats debate via YouTube

I saw Anderson Cooper hosted....what was Seacrest getting his upper lip waxed?

Please read the columns by Cal Thomas and Ken Connor linked below to gain some clarity on this issue.

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_6462585
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/KenConnor/2007/07/29/the_youtube_debate_send_in_the_clowns
Will "Text" voting be an option in 2008? This mockery of the Presidential election process has gone far enough. Why are there 10 candidates from each Party on up on that platform? Pick five or six legitimate contenders, give each candidate more than the current allotment of twenty seconds where pre-fabricated, sound-bite response cheapen the exchange altogether, and let the American people decide who is best to lead this great country going forward based on what is actually said by each politician; not simply how they say it.

Congress passes 9/11 Bill

My girl breaks down the latest Dem’s debate

Take a guess on whether she enjoyed it or not?

Taliban forces kill South Korean hostage

Indecision Will Kill You

Historical Lessons from a real leader

“The middle way is no way at all. If we finally fail in this great and glorious contest, it will be by bewildering ourselves in groping for the middle way.”
-John Adams, regarding the ill-fated attempt by some Congressional delegates to make peace with the British before the eventual signing of the Declaration of Independence

In case you’ve been lost-at-sea or wandering aimlessly in the Sierra Nevada’s since last December, the Discovery Channel’s Man vs. Wild has become the best show on television during that time.

The basic premise entails a man who is purposely dropped into the Wild of remote places around the globe such as the Kimberly Outback in Australia or the jungles of Ecuador. He then has five days or less to survive, all while attempting to find some outpost of civilization and subsequent rescue.

Best part: we get to watch him do it. (Usually with Central Air roaring through a well-stocked home.)

One of the most consistently stressed forewarnings issued by Grylls, himself an ex-member of British Special Forces, is for any potentially stranded hiker, camper, or climber to immediately make up his or her mind that survival is the only goal that matters. Doubt and emotional distress is just as much a killer in these situations as the weather or predatory animals.

With the affirming objective of survival in mind, a plan must be formulated. Decisively quick action is paramount. Grylls adopts a “no plan worse than bad plan” motto. Indecision becomes more an enemy than poor decision when your life is at stake.

Often in life and politics, what Founding Father John Adams would call the “middle way” of compromise can impede the necessary progression toward a stated, required goal. In his case, that goal was our liberty and right to freedom.

The fall of 1775 and winter and spring of 1776 found Adams in Philadelphia as the preeminent voice advocating for Independence from King George and the suffocating English rule.

Responses to his epic orations on the floor of the Continental Congress were not out-right oppositions to his pleading for unanimity in the decision to break free from, what Winston Churchill would one day call, the “Old World”. No, what hindered the eventual Declaration of Independence from being made earlier than July 4th of 1776 (the actual vote took place on July 2nd) were the irresolute and undetermined words coming from the mouths of bold patriots who themselves knew liberty to be Divinely granted, and personally longed for: sovereignty apart from Britain and autonomy inside a newly created Union of States.

In John Adams, pulitzer-prize winning biographer David McCullough tells of the influential statesmen from middle and southern colonies like John Dickinson of Philadelphia who attempted to offset the “rebellious, treasonous” rhetoric of their more zealous counterparts from New England. This even after an army had been commissioned by that very Congress, with George Washington selected to command it.

Ironically, Dickinson not four years earlier had written a stirring pamphlet entitled Letters from a Pennsylvanian Farmer, illuminating the evils of British policy in the colonies. He was well known in Philadelphia as an eloquent attorney, but Letters made him a legend. This, in addition to being a statesmen-solider (a Colonel in the Continental Army), rendered the man near infallible in many Americans’ eyes.

John Adams, however, knew him to be dead wrong on this most important matter.

Adams also knew, confoundedly, the Congress at this time was split into thirds. One-third were Tories (those still hoping for a return to British rule), another third Moderates (Dickinson-led “undecided” representatives), and lastly, the “Blue” patriots (those ready for the fight they understood to have had already begun).

Dickinson’s plea for continued dialogue with, and appeasement to, the British manifested itself in the form of the Olive Branch Petition of 1775. Adams publicly and correctly predicted that King George would emphatically reject it. Adams’ worst fears were then realized because England now sensed indecision among the Congressmen, the fact of which was confirmed to Parliament and the King by British spies shortly thereafter.

Important to the story here is the fact that the battles at Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill had already taken place. In fact, at that very moment Washington’s disheveled Continental Army laid siege to Boston in a standoff that would culminate months later in a Colonial victory. The idea that Congress could now avoid war and that independence could be kept from being proclaimed by America and her people was “delusional” to those who understood the “realities on the ground”.

Adams had personally witnessed much of what had already taken place militarily in the colonies of New England. He privately lamented in letters to his wife Abigail the horrendous prospects that war brought with it, but feared much more the prospects of a war fought with “half-measures and hesitancy”. He understood the risks and costs involved, but it remained decisively clear to himself and General Washington as to which path the Americas, her Congress, and her Army, were to take.

The time for dialogue, as it pertained to the question of war with England, had long passed and no two individuals appreciated this fact more than Adams and Washington.

Dickinson and other men like Robert Morris who had opposed the secession from Britain eventually gave-way to the all-but-unanimous consent of Congress (New York abstained from the final vote) and most of the delegates would sign the Declaration of Independence on August 2nd, 1776. Morris appropriately wrote in his diary at the time, “I think an individual that declines the service of his country because its councils are not comfortable to his ideas makes a bad subject.”

What is more, when the first Continental troops marched out of Philadelphia that fall to reinforce their colonial comrades fighting the British in New Jersey, none other than anti-war delegate John Dickinson himself rode at the head of the company. Sick, ill, and exhausted from the past months of debate concerning independence, Dickinson served his country proudly till his death.

What can we learn from such bravery? What can be said that fairly articulates the gratitude we, who daily reap the blessings paid for by the sacrifice of men who might not even have agreed with the decisions to bring the country to war, ought to express?

Once the decision for war has been made, and particularly in cases such Lexington and Concord, Pearl Harbor, and 9/11 when it has been made for you: To waver then, in search of a “middle road,” is to have already failed.

Making the best of an Iraqi situation

Krauthammer's inspired assessment of potential "solutions" in Iraq.