Catastrophic Success

I posted this as a comment to this post by The Diplomad regarding their experiences with the stalwart young Marine Security Guards who stand watch over our embassies and protect our Foreign Service Personnel. Their tribute touched me to tears and I wanted to thank those Marines in my own way, but all of our armed forces deserve these thanks and praise. Their service is a gift to the undeserving, a payment in advance for the promise of living our lives to the best of our ability.

Thank you Diplomad. The tears stream down my face now, thanks to your love for these brave men and women who guard our shores, our embassies, our freedom. Would that all of America could see the love these “poor, simple” warriors have for their country and their countrymen. They do not do this for the pay (how could they?), they do not do this for the glory (they won’t accept it), they do not do this for bloodlust (they hate death too), they do this for love: love of their family, love of their freedom, love of their country and love of their corps. Their daily sacrifice shames me for not giving 100% of everything I have into everything I do. I dishonor their sacrifice with every moment of wasteful slack. I may or may not be worthy of their tireless effort, but it doesn’t matter to them. People may or may not appreciate their willing sacrifice, but that doesn’t matter to them either. They do their job because they have chosen to dedicate their lives, and sometimes lay down that life, in the ultimate service to their nation and their people. These men and women are the exemplar of all that it means to be an American. May they always feel the joy and the pride that we owe them, that many of us feel for them and never feel the want of it from those who do not understand the magnitude of the duty they gladly accept every minute of every day.

I have family in the armed forces (mostly Army and Navy). In fact, my cousin’s husband just returned from heavy fighting in Iraq. My brother is in the Navy. I am astounded every time I am around these people at the simple confidence they exude in every facet of their military life. I know they wish their personal lives could be as ordered as their “work” life, but Uncle Sam’s reach only extends so far (thankfully). I considered joining the military (the Marines if I had qualified) after high school. I didn’t. I didn’t believe I would be a good fit in a military that expects conformity and is unkind to non-conformity. Indeed, my mouth being faster than my brain at that time, I surely would have found myself in a great deal of trouble. In addition, I didn’t trust the Commander-in-Chief or the Administration with my life (at least that’s what I believe now, I may be projecting current feelings on the past though since I voted for Bill Clinton in ’96, the year I graduated). At any rate, I wanted to express my thanks to our military, especially those who can not be at home with their families this Christmas or Hanukkah because they are putting their lives on the line to ensure that we can be concerned about burning the ham instead of watching another skyscraper burn against a blue sky.

I once saw a woman and a young boy sitting outside my local library as I was walking to put my nearly overdue items in the night drop since the library hadn’t opened yet. They were patiently waiting for the librarians to unlock the doors and let them in. I admit I was rushed as I was almost late for work anyway, but I saw the Army uniform this woman was wearing, so sharply pressed and ready for inspection. The boy sat close to her, so I knew they belonged together, although I didn’t know if he was her son or her brother. I stopped in my mad hurry, and looked her in the eye and said “Thank you.” That was all. I wish I had said more. I wish I had asked her name, where she was headed, what her story was. But I can’t blame my shortened schedule. I was just too dumbstruck and shy and, frankly, ashamed to say more. All I could squeak out was “Thank you.” I looked at the boy too, to make sure he heard and understood. I wanted to ask him if he knew how important his mother or his sister’s sacrifice meant to me. How much my family and I owed this women who chose to strain her family life to protect her family. But I couldn’t. And I don’t think I had to. She returned my gaze and thanked me! She thanked me for appreciating her. I don’t deserve her thanks, but I hope she carries my gratitude with her into battle. It won’t protect her, but I hope that my Thank You tips the scale in her mental balance toward her job being worth it, rather than thinking it thankless work for an ungrateful nation. At the very least, I hope it made her day brighter. I know it made mine.

Please, if you see a uniformed member of our military, tell them Thank You. Ask their name. Ask their story. Let them feel the love of a grateful nation and give them the knowledge that they don’t fight in vain. We owe them so much more than that, but please, give them what you can. It costs you nothing, and it gives you so much.

Thank you.

Terry McAuliffe, the soon-to-be-outgoing Chairman of the Democratic National Committee released a statement today that leads me to believe I have woken up in some alternate dimension where everything I hold to be true is, in fact, false.

The subject matter was ostensibly a Pearl Harbor remembrance. He praised the unity shown by the nation 63 years ago today as the citizenry learned about a vicious attack on an American Naval base on a clear blue peaceful morning. Of course, he completely glosses over the fact that America was deeply divided at the time about whether they should send supplies, munitions, aid or (especially) troops to Europe or if they should stay home and not get involved in another of Europe’s seemingly endless territory wars. Suddenly, the decision was made for them. If Japan could attack us an ocean away from home, then certainly Germany, if successful, wouldn’t stop at the shores of the Atlantic. The sleeping giant was awoken and he made ready for war. America did not ask to be included in the war, only to be left alone, but if we would have to fight, we wage war on our terms: complete and to unconditional victory.

After the attack, Americans knew the cost of staying their mighty hands and retreating from the world: isolation, degradation and subjugation. Instead of passively accepting that, we sent millions of soldiers to fight for four long years, and, sadly, a half million to die. We knew the cost of war, but we knew the price of freedom as well.

The parallels to September 11th are unavoidable. There was a war on elsewhere in the world that didn’t encroach on our lands (usually), but threatened our values. Our enemies were not content to just attack our allies, but agitated for direct battle with us. This time, however, most of us were unaware of the war waiting for us.

When attacked this time on a clear blue peaceful morning, we again bound ourselves together as Americans with ties of love, patriotism, and (unfortunately) fear. We were one people, one country determined to act while we could to ensure our continued existence and to completely, utterly and totally defeat the enemy who dared disturb our slumber. We would fight, as we have always fought, for peace, for the end of fighting, to rid the world of yet another vile ideology of suppression and oppression, to once again make the world safe for Democracy.

But then, something happened. Something altered the course of our new war from the path of World War II. From complete united victory.

In World War II, we didn’t immediately attack Japan and lay siege to Germany. We couldn’t. We had to fight the fights we could win, and then hope we did. We fought in Africa to prove our men’s virtues and abilities before we could effectively fight in Europe. We fought the Japanese in the Philippines and en route to Australia because we could not yet fight them in Japan. It was understood that this war would be long, would cover many fronts and would be fought, must be fought against all of the enemies of the United States, not just Japan. Germany provided succor and support to Japan in its bid on the Pacific and so they were enemies too (not to mention, of course, their brutal attacks on our cultural mother, England). Americans were united not just on December 8, 1941, but also on June 6, 1944 when the war seemed nearly interminable and we were secretly launching our most ambitious assault, disregarding the uncertainty of victory. Americans believed in the necessity of the war and in the justice of the war.

This time though, the cries for “No Imperial America,” “Give Peace a Chance” “This War Can Not be Won” began almost immediately with the commencement of hostilities in Afghanistan. It only quieted when our brute force military chased the Taliban out of Kabul in only two months time. It started its crescendo then as the case was being made for an invasion of Iraq, culminating in the shrill cries of “No Blood for Oil,” and the screams of voluntary human shields who willingly placed themselves in front of Saddam’s military installations to try to prevent the US from destroying them. Where was the unity? Where was the steadfast belief that America must win the war she’s in, whether she started it or not? The War on Terror is a very long war, still in its infancy; a war that must be fought on many fronts (financial, political, social and martial); and a war against another vile ideology of suppression and oppression. But this time, we don’t have the charismatic face of Hitler to rail against. There is no Rising-Sun Flag to aim for. Our enemy is faceless. He has no country, no homeland to invade, no border to cross. He is liquid, mercurial, a chameleon, able to attack and fade back into the civilian populace whose attire and appearance he hides behind.

We must be creative and completely united in our struggle against an enemy whose main weapon isn’t the ability to make young men willing to blow themselves up in a cafe, but is the ability to make our own media question our motivations or our actions, so that he can point to it and say “They know they are evil and yet they come to destroy us all anyway.”

And so the protestors from before the Battle for Iraq and the Battle for Afghanistan played right into their hands by decrying every action of America as evil. Every time someone yelled “No Blood for Oil,” a terrorist got his wings. It gave comfort and solace to the terrorists that American could not stomach a protracted war. Americans would call their troops home at the first sight of blood. I am thankful that President Bush is not that kind of man. I am thankful that the American people re-elected him.

The Democrats were united only in that they opposed everything about George W. Bush and America’s self-interest. They were otherwise divided in how much they should oppose it, whether America should just declare a stalemate or should be defeated completely to “teach us a lesson,” over just which actions contributed to which root causes which caused those poor militants and activists to kill us. Every major issue had 15 different viewpoints in the Democratic Party this year. In fact, their whole nomination was a battle to see who could be more anti-war and still have the credentials to seem the most capable when dealing with National Security.

And then Terry McAuliffe has the gall to say national unity 63 years ago enabled Americans to go forward and defeat the country’s enemies, but the same kind of unity needed now was being undermined by Republican disagreements over provisions of the yet-to-be-voted on intelligence reform bill. (Italics quoted from the Washington Post article in the Title Link).

He goes on to say:

“While we as a nation are united in this fight, there are clearly deep divisions within the Republican Party, divisions that are impeding our fight against terrorism.”

Wait. The REPUBLICANS are impeding the War on Terror? What was the political affiliation of all of those useful idiots who protested and continue to protest everything America does? Who is the party who could not get a coherent message broadcast to oust a completely oustable President? Who is the party of obstruction? Who is the party of intolerance? Right. Terry McAuliffe’s Democratic Party.

He goes on to say:

“Moving forward, it is my sincere hope that the Republicans running Washington will stop playing their political games and start fighting for the American people, just as our honored veterans did 63 years ago.”

Of course the Democrats abhor political games and would never be so crass as to play them (like, for instance, using an attack on America to bolster a ridiculous attack on a group of Senators who are fighting to ensure that the pressure to do something doesn’t prevent them from doing the right thing). Obviously if the Republicans want to be thorough in the passage of the intelligence reform bill, they are dividing the nation and are divided themselves.

I think McAuliffe is intelligent enough to make his arguments for the Intel-Reform bill he wants to see without subverting the truly astounding sacrifices made and tragedies withstood by America’s Greatest Generation ™ to do so. It is shameful and cheapens those men and women and himself. I think those men and women can handle it with no damage, but I am doubtful of Mr. McAuliffe’s ability to endure the same.

Via LGF

LGF posted this as one of its “It’s hard not to hate the French when…” but I think there is more to it than that.

The article states:

Less than ten days after Hezbollah’s “al-Manar” television station was permitted to broadcast in France, one of its commentators has stirred uproar after he accused Israel of “repeated attempts in the past several years to spread AIDS throughout the Arab world”.

The commentator, who was defined as an expert on the “Zionist entity”, described at length how Israel has been trying to spread dangerous diseases, including AIDS, in the Arab world.

I suspect that this meme is being floated for the benefit of European and Middle East muslims to promote the idea that, of course, AIDS is not a result of poor behavior choices, but rather of a deliberate introduction into the Arab population, leading to a specification of the Palestinian Arabs. The end-state of this is to allow Arafat’s nephew to anounce that he died of AIDS and that the Israelis purposely “poisoned” him with HIV so that he would die of AIDS. This way, he will not only be a legendary hero, but also a martyr who was killed by the Zionist Entity. This would, of course, demand more suicide bombers to attack Israelis as retribution. Thus the PA, PLO and Fatah can legitimately drum up international resistance to any Palestinian capitulation in the “peace process” and demand that Israel give up more than they already have as redress for killing their beloved leader.

Give it a month. I will not be surprised.

I just tried posting this question to the Blogger support desk, but I get an internal error whenever I submit it, so I’m posting it and hoping someone can help me out.

I recently registered misterbixby.com through ENameCo.com. They offer a free re-direct service so that hits there redirect to misterbixby.blogspot.com; however, their method of doing so adversely affects my sitemeter referral logs since all visits appear to come from misterbixby.com rather than the actual referring site. Is there a DNS location I can provide to ENameCo to register the misterbixby.com address to so that it actually points to my blog on blogger? I know that the alternative is that I can have them add my sitemeter HTML to their redirect page so that sitemeter reads it as the same site, but ENameCo hasn’t yet responded to my request on this (admittedly it hasn’t been long, but I hate kludge). I would like to avoid unwieldy workarounds, so I wanted to know if I could just permanently point misterbixby.com to misterbixby.blogspot.com.

Thank you very much for your assistance,
Paul R. Bixby, Jr.

Frankly, I want to start using misterbixby.com in all of my comment posting to make it easier to remember and a personal domain seems a little more grown-up than a blogger address I think, so if anyone can help me out I would appreciate it.