Look in Your Own Mirror or
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
March 16th, 2007 at 2:26 am
Doings and Writings…
So as usual, I’m the usual number of weeks behind the power-curve in the blogosphere. You oughta be used to that from me, by now! But the time off screen has not been time spent in vain. Pursuant to the…