Archive for January, 2007

Jihad Jane

Sunday, January 28th, 2007

J. D. Pendry
 

I wrote this in 2005, when Jihad (formerly Hanoi) Jane was hawking her book and promising us that she was coming out for her next anti-America tour.  Well, it’s two years late, but here she is in all of her America and Soldier-Hating glory.  Instead of writing something new, I thought I’d repost this with some minor edits.  If Americans stand by once again and allow Fonda and her cohorts to demoralize American Soldiers and demonize our Country, then Americans deserve what that brings with it.  During these times when our enemies can and will strike at America, we cannot afford to have the same beaten down, demoralized Military that we had Post-Vietnam.  That is what we now face.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 ”The image of Jane Fonda, Barbarella, Henry Fonda’s daughter…sitting on an enemy aircraft gun was a betrayal…the largest lapse of judgment that I can even imagine,” – Jane Fonda on 60 Minutes April 3, 2005


 

 

 In the United States in August of 1972 if you flipped on the AM radio, which in those days still played popular music, you’d likely hear Gilbert O’Sullivan singing Alone Again (Naturally), the Three Dog Night singing Black and White or Mac Davis’ Baby Don’t Get Hooked on Me.
 

A 19-year-old Soldier lucky enough to have down time from patrolling the jungle, sitting in his sandbag reinforced hooch way inside the concertina wire somewhere in South Vietnam, might have heard this coming from Radio Hanoi:The following was submitted in the U.S. Congress House Committee on Internal Security, Travel to Hostile Areas.  [HR16742, 19-25 September 1972, page 761]

Broadcast from her hotel room in Hanoi, 7:11 PM, August 22, 1972  

“This is Jane Fonda.  During my two-week visit in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, I’ve had the opportunity to visit a great many places and speak to a large number of people from all walks of life - workers, peasants, students, artists and dancers, historians, journalists, film actresses, soldiers, militia girls, members of the women’s union, writers.
 

I visited the (Dam Xuac) agricultural coop, where the silk worms are also raised and thread is made.  I visited a textile factory, a kindergarten in Hanoi.  The beautiful Temple of Literature was where I saw traditional dances and heard songs of resistance.  I also saw unforgettable ballet about the guerrillas training bees in the south to attack enemy [American] soldiers.  The bees were danced by women, and they did their job well.
 

In the shadow of the Temple of Literature I saw Vietnamese actors and actresses perform the second act of Arthur Miller’s play All My Sons, and this was very moving to me- the fact that artists here are translating and performing American plays while US imperialists are bombing their country.
 

I cherish the memory of the blushing militia girls on the roof of their factory, encouraging one of their sisters as she sang a song praising the blue sky of Vietnam - these women, who are so gentle and poetic, whose voices are so beautiful, but who, when American planes are bombing their city, become such good fighters.
 

I cherish the way a farmer evacuated from Hanoi, without hesitation, offered me, an American, their best individual bomb shelter while US bombs fell near by.  The daughter and I, in fact, shared the shelter wrapped in each other’s arms, cheek against cheek.  It was on the road back from Nam Dinh, where I had witnessed the systematic destruction of civilian targets - schools, hospitals, pagodas, the factories, houses, and the dike system.
 

As I left the United States two weeks ago, Nixon was again telling the American people that he was winding down the war, but in the rubble - strewn streets of Nam Dinh, his words echoed with sinister (words indistinct) of a true killer.  And like the young Vietnamese woman I held in my arms clinging to me tightly - and I pressed my cheek against hers - I thought, this is a war against Vietnam perhaps, but the tragedy is America’s.
 

One thing that I have learned beyond a shadow of a doubt since I’ve been in this country is that Nixon will never be able to break the spirit of these people; he’ll never be able to turn Vietnam, North and South, into a neo - colony of the United States by bombing, by invading, by attacking in any way.  One has only to go into the countryside and listen to the peasants describe the lives they led before the revolution to understand why every bomb that is dropped only strengthens their determination to resist.  I’ve spoken to many peasants who talked about the days when their parents had to sell themselves to landlords as virtually slaves, when there were very few schools and much illiteracy, inadequate medical care, when they were not masters of their own lives.
 

But now, despite the bombs, despite the crimes being created - being committed against them by Richard Nixon, these people own their own land, build their own schools - the children learning, literacy - illiteracy is being wiped out, there is no more prostitution as there was during the time when this was a French colony.  In other words, the people have taken power into their own hands, and they are controlling their own lives.
And after 4,000 years of struggling against nature and foreign invaders - and the last 25 years, prior to the revolution, of struggling against French colonialism - I don’t think that the people of Vietnam are about to compromise in any way, shape or form about the freedom and independence of their country, and I think Richard Nixon would do well to read Vietnamese history, particularly their poetry, and particularly the poetry written by Ho Chi Minh.”

While sipping hot beer and longing for the day when he boarded the freedom bird, he was blessed with the voice of a cultural elitist.  A privileged, rich, American glorifying his enemy while characterizing him and his brothers in arms as murdering tools of an American Imperialist country .  Never mind that he knew what the Viet Cong were capable of doing and often did to the people of a village that might befriend Americans.  ….” read Vietnamese history, particularly their poetry, and particularly the poetry written by Ho Chi Minh.”

To think that only yesterday
I was cheerful, bright and gay.
Looking forward to well wouldn’t do
The role I was about to play
But as if to knock me down
Reality came around
And without so much, as a mere touch
Cut me into little pieces
Leaving me to doubt – Gilbert O’Sullivan, Alone Again (Naturally)

Yes Jane, the poetry of Uncle Ho - that’s what our Soldier needed.  When he arrived home, a disillusioned war scarred teenager, you welcomed him with chants of baby killer.  Instead of helping him recover from the scars of war, thanking him for his service and welcoming him back home, you plied him with guilt.  Too often, he turned toward drugs and alcohol seeking the comfort he didn’t get from you.  He often didn’t come back from his self-doubt.  You stole his youth; you stole his glory; you stole his service to his country.  For that, you’re proud.  For a picture, you’re sorry.

Talk about God and His mercy
Or if He really does exist
Why did He desert me in my hour of need
I truly am indeed Alone again, naturally

 

Just to make sure you really know who Jihad Jane is:

 

On Nov. 21, 1970 she told a University of Michigan audience of some 2,000 students, ”If you understood what communism was, you would hope, you would pray on your knees that we would some day become communist”.  At Duke University in North Carolina, she repeated what she had said in Michigan, adding “I, a socialist, think that we should strive toward a socialist society, all the way to communism.”  – The Washington Times - By Bruce Herschensohn, July 8, 2000

 

Jihad Jane had plenty of allies in those days.  The Vietnam Veterans against the War, a group of which many were complete frauds, received funding from her.  I’m sure you’ve heard of their well-known spokesman, John Kerry.  Who by the way is a protégé of Ted Kennedy’s from then until now.  It’s important to know that the people who would be running our country are close allies in action and ideology to Jihad Jane.  Johnny, who met with the Communists in Paris, while still a Naval Reserve Officer, has now met with the Syrian terrorist enabler and has proclaimed in the presence of the former Iranian President that the United States is an international pariah.  People like Jane, John and Ted don’t change.

 

JJ was quite apologetic recently about her photo opportunities in Vietnam.  That was preceding the release of her book and movie [2005] - another Hollywood socialist benefactor of capitalism.  Now that both the book and movie have fizzled, she’s reverting to her old reliable, Soldier hating, America hating and treasonous self.

 

Girl, you’re gettin’ that look in your eyes
And it’s startin’ to worry me- Mac Davis, Baby Don’t Get Hooked On Me

 

In a veggie oil powered bus, Hanoi Jane plans to become Jihad Jane – an Al-Jazzeera cover girl.  [2005]  “I’m coming out”, she says, and bringing with her a “lot of baggage” from her Hanoi Jane days.  JJ, please give some thought to the route you’ll take, and who accompanies you on your trip.  Let me offer some suggestions that’ll make the tour a hit with Soldiers and Veterans:

 

This time, instead of posing with the enemy on a gun emplacement, I suggest that you find yourself some black hooded beheading Jihadis and a nice Improvised Explosive Devise (IED) on which to sit.  I’d select a tour that takes you to Washington DC, Hollywood, New York city and San Francisco.  In those places, you’ll draw sympathetic crowds and media.  Avoid my neck of the woods; although we have plenty we’d like to share with you, most of it is in the form of rotten produce.  You’ll need an entourage.  Why not have Terezza mother the group.  She’s a fine role model.  Of course, you’ll have to include Teddy.  Make sure to stock the liquor cabinet and bring the life preservers and snorkeling gear.  Just for kicks, I’d add Michael Moore.  He can document the trip for you.  He’s as good with the truth as you are.  If you bring him and Teddy, you’ll need to make sure the veggie bus has heavy-duty suspension.  On the bright side, if the bus runs out of fuel, I’m certain you can squeeze a few gallons of French fry grease out of Mike.  Bring along Commando Kerry, he connects so well with veterans and just for kicks, toss in a washed up old hippie band and a bale of pot.  It’ll be like old times. 

 

Some potential good may come from your anti-America tour.  The manufacturers of Hanoi Jane Urinal Targets will likely see an upsurge in demand for their product.  I think I’ll invest some of my military retirement check with one of them.

 

“I can’t go into any detail except to say that it’s going to be pretty exciting,” she said.

Yep, Jane, I’m thinking it just might be.

The world is black, the world is white
It turns by day and then by night – Three Dog Night, Black and White

Copyright © J. D. Pendry 2005 

 

Posted in General | 3 Comments »

The State of our DisUnion

Saturday, January 27th, 2007

J. D. Pendry

 

Started this early in the week.  I’m on recuperating time.  Have you ever been upside-down in a pick-up truck?  No, I don’t mean that time.  It was a new experience for me too.  Gives you a whole new perspective.  Iced over bridges are unforgiving.  Anyway, the F-150 is in truck heaven.  I got away with some fractured ribs, dings and bruises.  Never sneeze if you have fractured ribs.  Or laugh, cough, bend, reach, breathe deeply, yawn, yell at stupid politicians…  Other than that, there is no pain or inconvenience associated with the injury.  

Fortunately, there were no other vehicles nearby when the truck rolled, but plenty were within view of the wreck.  From a steady flow of morning commuter traffic, not a single, citizen stopped to help or check.  Not one.  I fumbled through the wreckage for nearly ten minutes trying to find the pieces of my cell phone, while traffic blew past, which I finally did and called 911.  Once the Police and other emergency vehicles arrived, many looking for some blood and gore did slow down to rubberneck.  Makes you feel warm and fuzzy about our fellow citizens, doesn’t it?  But, it shouldn’t surprise you.

 

The United States looks like a truck wreck.  There’s lots of noise, banging and screeching.  The emergency lights are flashing.  Members of Congress that could be helping are either rubbernecking as they pass problems by or they’re busy blaming the driver while punching holes in his gas tank.  The public?  They’re just checking in for blood and gore.  Just to keep harmony with the ignorance emanating from the Halls of Congress, I assure you if I had known then what I know now, I would not have driven to work Wednesday morning past.

 

Where is the declaration proclaiming emphatically that Congress stands behind our Troops and their mission and will take all measures in their power to ensure their victory?  The political cowards that produced the Biden-Hagel Doctrine of Defeat will never make such a proclamation.  They live by public opinion polls, a political method that will produce defeat in this or any war.  An overwhelming number of the people you and I sent to Congress voted to send American Service Men and Women to war.  It now appears to have been a poll driven vote of political expediency and not one of true commitment to our Country or its Service Men and Women.  Our troops, serving in war, have no reason to believe that they can count on 535 members of their team to protect their backs in dangerous times.  That is sad.  Very sad.  This week, they’ll trot out Hanoi Jane herself.  When people like her sense defeat for the U.S., they cannot help themselves.  Did you ever wonder how it feels inside to have placed yourself into a situation where you must work to ensure American defeat in order to prove that you are right?

 

Examine for a minute the public opinion in America that drives politicians.  How it is formed is no different from how public opinion is formed by people that have their opinions issued to them each day by mad mullahs.  Americans in general do not take time to study issues and instead take the gullible approach of believing that news organizations provide complete, unbiased truth about world events and that their politicians are at least informed.

 

If all one hears from major news venues is negativity and hopelessness constantly reinforced by Biden-Hagel like politicians then public opinion forms accordingly.  It’s like a do-loop in a computer program that never ends or the instructions you find on the shampoo bottle.  Wash – rinse – repeat.  The Biden-Hagel Doctrine of Defeat constantly tells Americans we’ve lost.  Pelosi and her astute military advisor Murtha constantly tell Americans we’ve lost.  Every Democrat hoping to be President (and some who’ve conceded they’ll never be President – sorry Johnny) constantly tell Americans we’ve lost.  The news reports to Americans every day on the hopelessness of the situation – accented of course with blood and gore.  Amazingly enough the polls show that many Americans have accepted what they’ve been hammered with repeatedly for years.  Biden-Hagel cites public opinion polls….  Wash – rinse – repeat.

 

Here’s another thing that’s put a burr under my rib support.  Probably a little off topic, but maybe not.  I want to puke each time I hear some screeching idiot ask why the President doesn’t send his kids off to war.  The President doesn’t send anyone’s kids off to war.  He sends Men and Women who volunteer to serve in our country’s Armed Forces – our Spartans – who are less than one-half of one percent of the population of our country.  Screeching idiots along with more than 99.5 percent of our population choose not to serve – most of them in any capacity.  It’s great to live in a country where service is a choice.  It’s a shame to live in a country where many of the benefactors of the service of others don’t appreciate and often deride it.
 

American politics when faced with a warring, fanatical enemy, defines stupidity.  If you were an informed leader of a terrorist organization or any of the problem factions in Iraq, would you initiate an attack inside the United States?  Our enemies, just as enemies past, know that winning a war with the United States is not about combat assaults, but about wearing down the will of the American people to continue to support the fight.  Because they’re winning the war of wills, they wouldn’t dare attack inside the country.  Why risk re-energizing waning American will with an attack?

 

Al-Sadr is using a strategy in Iraq that also compliments the Biden-Hagel Doctrine of Defeat.  He knows that if the militias stand down and Baghdad appears pacified, the noise to disengage coming from our Biden-Hagels and their allied Hanoi Janes will increase a hundred-fold.  America will prematurely disengage and the next time around many more of America’s Spartans will die trying to correct a failure of politics.

 

Our enemies know that our weak link in fighting a war is our politics, media, and the socialist elites who ally with them in waging war against the American will to sustain a fight.

 

Their advantage, and they know how to use it, is the State of our DisUnion.

Copyright © J. D. Pendry 2007

Posted in General | 4 Comments »

Stark Blunder

Sunday, January 21st, 2007

J. D. Pendry

…and a tragedy.  That’s how Madam Speaker describes the attempt at victory in Iraq.

Madam, mushy-headed American voters made the stark blunder on Election Day 2006.  In a world of stark blunders, it’s probably the champion.  Ultimately, its one that will cost Americans and American Soldiers.  Do you know what else is stark?  You are pretending to care about our Military.  Does anyone need to remind you about who voted you into office?  The people, your constituency, who kicked JROTC out of San Francisco Schools, who voted to ban Military Recruiters, the San Francisco City Supervisor that believes the United States should not have a Military and the City Supervisors that refused to have the Battleship Iowa as a museum?  Caring about Soldiers and defending our Country will not get you re-elected, and you know it.  So spare us the feigned compassion for our Soldiers and concern for their mission.  No one who accepts that you support the Troops should handle sharp objects or venture outdoors alone.

Here’s another stark, and stupid, blunder for you - a Congressional resolution opposing victory.  It’s the Biden-Levin-Hagel Doctrine of Defeat driven by spit in the wind politics.  Do you think the jihadis don’t have television?  There’s a satellite dish atop every hut.  You and your imbecilic colleagues are talking directly to them and I imagine your speeches and posturing are riveting and encouraging.  Al-Jazeera is already on it like a duck on a June bug.

The Islamist web sites also give full support to your strategy of defeat:

 

The Islamic State in Iraq Comments on Bush’s New Strategy
 

Islamist websites recently posted a message by the Islamic State in Iraq responding to Bush’s new strategy in the country.  The message stated: “…This nonsense [i.e. Bush’s new strategy in Iraq] is nothing but [a step on the way to] admitting defeat and fleeing from the hell that is Iraq… The [piece of] media hype known as the Baghdad Security Plan or Bush’s New Strategy will not change the nature of the fighting in any way.  The enemy has [merely] started to [try and] save face… The security plans which were [initially] applied to all of Iraq have [now] been restricted to Baghdad, after the courageous mujahideen… forced [the enemy] to taste bitterness.”

It’s apparent Madam that your stark blunder enjoys wide support among the people who are killing Americans and with your hometown constituency, which aids them.  Their words sound like you might have said them yourself.

Each time you open your mouths to broadcast to the jihadis that the American People don’t support the war; they crank up another high visibility attack for the benefit of your media allies and the American public.  They do it, because you encourage them.  Those attacks are in support of you and what you’re doing.  Your media cohorts report to the same mushy-headed Americans that voted you into power only the news that supports the vision you share with them.  Combined, you work to convince the public that it’s hopeless.  That victory is not possible and that we should again abandon a people that trusted us.  You and your political and media allies cannot afford for us to have a victory in Iraq.  It would disprove all the rhetoric and negativity you’ve spewed for the past few years.  It would be the end for both of you and you know it.  That is why you work so hard every day to ensure our defeat, just as you did with Vietnam.

I have a suggestion.  Why don’t you start a Congressional Glee Club Madam Speaker?  You could direct.  I’d suggest Hagel, Specter, Snowe, Biden, Levin, Kennedy, Reid, Kerry, Durbin, Clinton…  You can call them the Stark Blunderers.  They’re already a hit on Al-Jazeera.

It is fortunate that our Soldiers have focused leadership and, contrary to your polls, many American people who actually do care for them and their mission.  It takes greater men and women than any of you can ever hope to be to see beyond your political nonsense and willingly sacrifice for the greater good of our Country and in this instance ultimately the Western World.

The infinitesimal percentage of our population that makes up our Military and their families must question each day why they sacrifice for the likes of you.  Fortunately, for you and us, they know.  Their great service to our Country is their legacy.  Your treatment of them and our Country is your legacy.  It’s your stark blunder.  Let’s hope it doesn’t become America’s tragedy.

Copyright © J. D. Pendry 2007

Posted in General | 1 Comment »

Victory and Defeat

Tuesday, January 16th, 2007

J. D. Pendry

“In war, there are two exit strategies.  One is called victory.  The other is called defeat.”  – Senator Joe Lieberman

Senator Joe Lieberman is a liberal.  He and I would not agree on much.  The difference between him and many of his political colleagues, liberal and conservative, is that he gets it.  He understands that the outcome in Iraq, our pivotal battle in a global conflict, affects the security of the United States and will further define us in the eyes of our enemies for decades to come.  How we leave this fight will brand us as a nation that pursues it enemies to the end or one that lacks the will to sustain tough battles.  Our political failure and loss of national will in Vietnam three decades ago stand as evidence of that.

Many Americans seem content to concede defeat and withdraw into a perceived cocoon of safety - the same warm, fuzzy cocoon we lived in on September 10, 2001.  Politicians in general, bolstered by populist thinking and ignorant media, unlike Senator Lieberman, cannot view anything or situation outside the parameters of their personal political futures or the power of their political parties.  Politics as usual subjugates national security, your safety and mine.  The media is only interested in reporting on the politics of this war.  They’re concerned about who it might propel into the Whitehouse more so than what exit strategy number two means for our country.  Since 2000, the defeat and destruction of George Bush is more important to powerful media liberals and their political allies than is the defeat and destruction of Islamic fascism.

It’s a miracle that we can find in America any decent leader willing to stand up and lead.  I’m not even sure we deserve an honest, courageous leader.  We seem more willing to follow those offering meaningless minimum wage increases or those who can flow seamlessly from calling our Soldiers Nazis to professing compassion for them in practically the same damn speech.  Or, we stand by and allow possibly the most accomplished black woman in the history of our country to be shown total disrespect by a demonstrably ignorant white, female Senator.

George Bush has to make tough decisions that would leave most of his detractors in thumb-sucking fetal positions.  I suppose many of them – and us - believe it’s a simple undertaking to be the one man ultimately responsible for defending a wide-open nation of 300 million.  A majority of us elected him to lead.  Now we stand by and listen while he’s called an incompetent liar during every 15 minute cable news cycle.  How often have you heard supposedly learned people say that he’d be much better if he could only deliver a good speech?  I heard one of the country’s top ranked talk radio show hosts go on ad nauseam during his program about how it’d all be just fine if he could only give us a good speech.  Shows the shallowness of our national thinking doesn’t it?  I can think of plenty of people who can make good speeches, like our talk radio host, but I don’t want them to have access to the nuclear release codes because of it. 

An overwhelming majority of Congress voted for the use of force against Iraq for its non-compliance with more than a dozen United Nation’s resolutions.  After 9/11, a vote otherwise would have been derelict.  Now they run about saying if I’d only known then what I know now…What?  That war is hard.  That our enemy is fanatical and determined.  That Jack Bauer can’t solve this one for us in one television season.  I’m sorry, but when you’re an elected leader of people, you don’t get a do over.  When it comes to a fight, once you’ve voted us into it you’re obligated to us to make sure we win it.  We don’t want what comes with being runner-up.

Iraq is not another Vietnam, as the brother of the President who got us into that war would have you believe.  No, Iraq is to the Global War on Terrorists as Gettysburg was to the Civil War and Normandy and Midway were to World War II.  It’s the pivotal battle.  The one on which the eventual outcomes rests.

This war goes back to Isaac and Ishmael and it doesn’t end here.  We’re in a battle with a warring culture that’s existed since the very beginning of time.  This is what they do.  Brainwashed and led by evil men, they’ll keep seeking paradise over the bodies of infidels.  We have to attempt to turn the tide of that culture.  The alternative is smoldering American cities, not just the loss of a few buildings and a few thousand people.  We’ve fought this enemy for centuries, which is why President Thomas Jefferson had a copy of their manual of operations.  This enemy feels it’s on a divine mission, but unlike Thomas Jefferson, today’s leaders save a very few Joe Liebermans would rather focus on a strategy for their political futures rather than on one that leads to the defeat of our enemy.

What President Jefferson taught us and what centuries of history tells us is that one of the two exit strategies described by Senator Lieberman will subdue this enemy, at least for this point in world history.  The other will embolden him.  We should choose our exit strategy from Iraq wisely.

Copyright © J. D. Pendry 2007

Posted in General | 1 Comment »

Look in Your Own Mirror or

Sunday, January 7th, 2007

No Punches Pulled Here, Insight of a Sergeant Major, Axis of Idiots, America Must Confront its Media…

J. D. Pendry
 

… and probably some versions I’ve not seen.  You’d think that a note sent to a private mailing list of a few hundreds and posted to an unheard of website would be ancient cyber history seven months later.  Obviously not so, welcome to the Internet.  It’s time, however, to lay this one to rest.

Reading email from people angered by something I wrote seven months ago, or even those still cheering it frankly, has grown tiresome, but has taught me some lessons.  Maybe those lessons will make a better communicator of me, if it’s possible to help me at this late stage.

What did I learn?  When people read, they filter words through their worldview drawing conclusions based on their own biases.  I know that’s nothing profound, but important to understand.  It’s human nature.  I do it too.  When you write, people don’t see your facial expressions, hear the tone of the voice that’s in your head, see with what force you’re tapping on the keyboard….  So, the words have to stand alone and they rarely do.  Only a few people zeroed in on the message On Your Hands was meant to send, while the rest chose to either hate or cheer it for what it wasn’t, but instead for what they wanted it to be.  That’s my fault, for not communicating the message clearly.  When you write for an Internet audience, you have to get it done in as few words as possible (some of you have already surfed away).  There’s usually neither time nor space to set the writer’s mood for the reading audience.

I doubt this post will receive the same attention as On Your Hands, but I hope it does.  If you stumble across a version of it, or if it turns up in your email - again, would be so kind as to direct traffic toward this one post.  It might be therapeutic.

I’ve answered a lot of mail on this topic, good and bad, and I’ve ignored a lot – mostly the bad.  I had profanity-laced mail from people like Bob.  I tried a few times to explain myself to well-intentioned people like Mel.  I even attempted to explain my Venomous Screed to a selected collection of fans.  All, without much luck.  In the next paragraph or two, I’ll try to explain some more.  After that, On Your Hands goes into the cyber bin.  You’ll either understand it and me or choose not to.  Either way, your conclusions define who you are - not me or anyone else, just you.

Hate-mailers categorize you in order to bolster how they think.  Mostly, mine begin by calling me a neo-con, Democrat hating Republican partisan.  I’ve even been accused of being invented by desperate Republicans.  As they read, they failed to see the common thread that’s so obvious.  The people addressed in the article have by their words and actions brought harm to the military throughout their political careers.  It isn’t my fault that they happen to belong to the Democrat party.  I can only conclude that people who can’t see that must agree with those mentioned who disparage members of the Armed Forces and Veterans.  So, am I a partisan?  Yes, if serving members of the Armed Forces and Veterans are a party, then I’m a partisan.

I was taken to task on more than one occasion for my characterization of Jimmy Carter.  I’ll let President Carter respond to my criticism in words from his own site:

“On November 4, 1979, Iranian [Islamic terrorists] militants stormed the United States Embassy in Tehran and took approximately seventy Americans captive.  This terrorist act triggered the most profound crisis of the Carter presidency and began a personal ordeal for Jimmy Carter and the American people that lasted 444 days. … He pursued a policy of restraint that put a higher value on the lives of the hostages than on American retaliatory power or protecting his own political future.”  – The Carter Library

President Carter’s policy of restraint and his failure to aid the Shah is what gave the Islamic Nazis a foothold.  It was the future of the United States rather than his political future that Mr. Carter jeopardized – and is still working hard to destroy.

I’m a Chicken hawk too.  I’m not allowed to talk about the two Johns, Kerry and Murtha, or discuss the war because I’ve not served in combat.  For 28 years, I went where told and did as asked.  I never took the final test for a Soldier, but let me place that into perspective for the uninformed.  The tip of the spear is tiny when compared to the shaft that propels it forward.  Likewise, the Combat Arm of the United States Army is tiny when compared to the remainder of the force required to support it.  Military Veterans are about 3 percent of the population of the United States.  Combat veterans less than that.  Any way you cut it, I’m a member of a proud and elite group of Americans.  I feel qualified to comment on their treatment by the likes of political opportunists Murtha and Kerry.

I have quite a list of politicians in the article.  If you’re not too familiar with history, allow me to remind you that it was a Democrat majority Congress (which included member Ted Kennedy) that withdrew funding to support South Vietnam.  Genocide followed.  The Democrat leaders of Congress have already sent a letter to the President demanding our phased retreat from the front line.  How long before history repeats itself and a Democrat Congress delivers victory to the Islamic Nazis as one did to the Communist North Vietnamese?
 

What’s striking to me is that through all of the negative mail I’ve received about this article, not a single piece of it mentioned the harmful rhetoric of the politicians mentioned – from Carter to the end.  None defended it, which means they lack the courage to stand behind the conduct of people they support.  None condemned it.  Silence is complicity.

If you can’t find it within yourself to condemn the rhetoric of likes of Kerry, Durbin, Kennedy, Murtha et al who consistently disparage for political gain America’s Sons and Daughters who choose to serve, then you stand with them and the outcome of their actions is on your hands. 

Take a long look in your mirror.  I hope you can find someone in there you can live with.

Copyright © J. D. Pendry 2007

Posted in General | 1 Comment »

Happy New Year

Monday, January 1st, 2007

J. D. Pendry

You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you.  Each man’s life is but a breath.  Psalm 39:5

I resolve to gain weight and eat greasy fried food while seated helmet-less in the smoking section, be politically incorrect and remain intolerant.  There.  Like most Americans, I’ve planned my year.  I think I can stick with this plan; any other might not last past January 3rd.  Sad testament isn’t it?  It’s also in line with the rest of the country.  We seem to be big on resolve when it doesn’t require follow-through or commitment. 

Given that our time here amounts to about a millisecond when compared to the totality of human existence, it is amazing on what most of us choose to focus.  Maybe if we resolve in the New Year to let our thinking progress beyond our waistlines, whether Britney is wearing bloomers or Rosie’s imbecilic commentary, we might just begin to solve some of our serious problems.  At least, if we’re going to focus on the conduct of imbeciles, let it be the ones we elected and sent to Washington.

How do you reckon the rest of the world sees us?  If you’re reading this, you are attuned to the power of instantaneous worldwide communications.  Therefore, you know that they see us infatuated with Britney’s missing underwear while people actively plot our destruction.  Or, they see us giving national airtime to and debating the ignorant commentary of Rosie and other entertainers.  If this is the image we project to the world, and it is, fanatics who believe Rosie and Britney belong in head to toe burlap burhkas must conclude the task they’ve undertaken is an easy one.

What’s more important is how we see ourselves.  That requires each of us to reflect some I think.  Before Christmas, I was reviewing some documents at my day job.  I had to stop and ponder something I saw in one of them.  A medical professional described a person as a Euro-American.  Head scratchingly, I decided that we’ve completed our hyphenation process.  We’ve ran out of Americans to hyphenate.  Does that mean there are no more Uncategorized-Americans?  Must be.  In Ohio, they’re offering college scholarships to Appalachian-Americans.  No kidding.  Google it.  We used to be hillbillies you know.  Guess that’s no longer politically correct.  Do you reckon I’m now a Euro-Appalachian-American?  We haven’t lost our national identity.  We are forfeiting it.  We face an enemy with a single mind, Islamic Fascism; and a single focus, the destruction of the Great Satan – America.  Somewhere in there is the not so subtle message that our survival might dictate that we try to become One-America.

You’d think we could make a reasonable comparison between America and other countries and see that what our founding fathers put together and God has allowed to survive is worth preserving.  Since the beginning, we’ve had free elections and peaceful changes of government in the United States.  We still have political coups taking place in the world, Thailand being recent.  We still have dictators and tyrants controlling the destinies of too many people. Contrary to what the left-out would like us to believe, George Bush isn’t one of them.  In the history of our country, we haven’t executed a single President that I recall.  Of course, I have a public school education, so I may have missed that history lesson.  History is filled with Mussolini’s strung upside down; Ceausescu’s executed by firing squads, Hussein’s hanged; Hitler’s taking the easy way out.  History also accounts for millions of their victims.  Yes millions.  Still, many of our citizens want to call America the villain society.  Study humankind and you’ll find, that even with some of the ugly warts we carry as a nation, there has never been a freer, safer or more productive society or one that’s contributed more good to the rest of the world than has the United States.  Never.

We need to be able to look to our elected leaders to keep our country great, but when I look toward Washington, I’m not encouraged.  As we start the New Year, the majority half of Congress has given itself the mission of ensuring the failure of our President.  The remainder stands with spit-wetted fingers pointing skyward measuring the political winds.  Those with the courage to stand for something are marginalized to obscurity by a biased and ignorant media and self-serving career politicians.  That leaves it up to you and me.

History will not remember our Rosies and Britneys, unless they’re included comprehensively in the chapter on the moral relativism that once again ate a great nation from the inside out.  History will remember but a few politicians - the ones that are glaringly successful and the criminals.  It won’t be as kind to any of them as is the media that’s now recording current affairs. 

History will recall the handbreadth of time you and I are here too.  It will remember what we did collectively during our brief time to either destroy or save the greatest nation God has allowed to exist.

What do you resolve for 2007?

Copyright © J.D. Pendry 2007  

Recently, an elite group of Veterans honored me with an invitation to join their group blog.  Please visit Old War Dogs.

Posted in General | 1 Comment »