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thedrifter
02-16-06, 07:39 AM
Our Military and the Left
By Jamie Glazov
FrontPageMagazine.com | February 15, 2006

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Buzz Patterson, Lieutenant Colonel, USAF (Retired). He is the author of the New York Times bestseller 'Dereliction of Duty' and 'Reckless Disregard'. He is the host of 'The Buzz Cut' at Rightalk Radio Network.

FP: Buzz Patterson, it is an honor to have you here with us.

Patterson: Thank you so much for the opportunity. It’s great to be with you.

FP: Tell us some of your thoughts about our military and the Left’s attitude toward it -- as well as objectives with it. For instance, does the Left understand what it takes and what it means to be an American warrior for freedom?

Patterson: Unfortunately for our men and women in uniform the answer is an unqualified “no.” And that’s been true since the early 1960s. Look at the facts Jamie. Since 9/11 we’ve asked our American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines to go 7000 miles from home and fight an enemy as evil as any that’s ever existed. A brutal enemy who while violent also chooses to violate every principle of warfare hiding behind women and children and targeting women and children. Our military swiftly and effectively removed two of history’s more totalitarian regimes in the Taliban and Saddam. And how does the Left respond?

They send Congressman John Murtha to the mat several times to demand withdrawal and denigrate our forces. The DNC Chairman declares the war unwinnable. College campuses across the nation refuse access to military recruiters and ROTC detachments as they have for the last 35 years.

Hollywood continues to churn out anti-American, anti-military films while they completely avoid the realities of radical Islam and the nature of the war we’re in. Look at Spielberg’s Munich or Clooney’s Syriana. And the media! Don’t get me started on the big media. The New York Times and her peers are doing just about everything imaginable to turn this victory into a defeat. But the bloggers have figured that out and the military bloggers are the folks to listen to when it comes to the war. Guys like Blackfive, Mudville Gazette, Michael Yon, and LT Smash are among the many voices of the military today.

The big newspapers and networks can’t hold a candle to these guys. They’ve been there and they know the reality. And then of course we have MoveOn and Code Pink trotting Cindy Sheehan out at the State of the Union address to shout the commander on chief down.

David Horowitz is right on the mark. The Left has formed an Unholy Alliance with our enemies and would love nothing more than to have us fail in Iraq. It’s all they have.

They don’t actually have substantive positions. It’s pure vitriol. Another Vietnam-type humiliation is political leverage for them for years to come. They couldn’t care less about our war with Islamofascism or the support of our troops.

FP: During the Vietnam war, the anti-war protestors were always obsessed with the “body bags” that were coming hope. Why do you think the Left is always on this tip about death?

Patterson: Since they have no capacity to understand military service and no empathy for their country the Left resorts to anything tangible to represent their position. The number of soldiers killed in combat is quantifiable. It’s something they can use to prop up their otherwise hollow arguments. They were very successful doing so toward the latter years of the Vietnam War. They have attempted again to capitalize on “body counts” in Iraq and Afghanistan but with little success. Why do you think they’ve raised such a protest about the Department of Defense not allowing the press to film caskets coming off aircraft at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware? It’s only because they want that prop. It has nothing to do with dignity or respect for the American serviceman or woman who’ve given the last great measure of resolve. It has everything to do with undermining the US military, the Bush administration and our government. It’s quite frankly disgusting.

FP: In my study of the Left I have found that its believers are attracted to death and to death cults. They are obsessed with body bags because they are attracted to death. And it is no coincidence that, in terms of the horrifying record of the 20th century, the Left's hands are drenched in human blood. But perhaps this discussion is for another forum.

You went to Iraq this past July to live and spend time with our troops and the Iraqi military. Tell us some of your impressions.

Patterson: One evening I stood at the gate to Camp Victory, the US and Coalition base outside of Baghdad and watched our soldiers and Marines prepare to roll “outside the wire” on their patrols…on the hunt for terrorists. A very dangerous mission obviously and the ones most likely to encounter ambushes and road-side bombs. It was about 7:00 PM and I remember thinking that I was literally in Hell. It was 115 degrees or so even at that hour and the air was filled with talcum powder-like sand which made it very difficult to breathe.

That being said I watched our guys don their body armor, an additional 35 pounds of Kevlar helmet and flak vest, on top of what was already a very uncomfortable battle dress uniform or BDU. These were 18, 19-year old young men and their commander was a captain probably 26 or 27. They weren’t aware I was watching and I watched closely for their attitude and demeanor. Having spent 20 years in the Air Force and commanded many units I’ve always known that a quick look into a military unit’s morale and esprit de corps is best seen when they are operating in oppressive conditions.

Jamie, what I saw was remarkable. Not only were these soldiers professional and motivated they were also poised well beyond their years. They each possessed a steely-eyed confidence and it wasn’t a false bravado. There was a quiet calm and as they rolled out the gate I was shaken. Nothing I’d ever experienced in my 20 years of service prepared me for that moment. I realized then that I had just seen America’s future and it was bright and promising. The American people should experience what I did…every one of them. Our military is America and we should all be very proud and thankful for the ways in which they are representing our nation in this brutal conflict.

The following day some of our group visited an orphanage in Baghdad’s Red Zone the so-called dangerous area of the city. In a one room building with no air-conditioning in 130 degree heat were probably 35 to 40 children ranging from birth to about nine years old. While our folks were there one of the U.S. Army units assigned to the zone came by. They had adopted the orphanage, each soldier responsible for his own child, and they go by every day to drop off diapers, creams, milk, toys, whatever it takes to keep the orphanage going. The little hands that came out of each cradle and the soldiers who knew each child by name had our radio talk show hosts in tears.

As lethal and violent as our troops can be, they can also be the most compassionate on earth. That’s what makes America great…that’s what makes the American military history’s most lethal and yet most charitable in the world.

FP: Can you tell us a bit about your own experience in the USAF?

Patterson: I was very proud and honored to wear the uniform of the U.S. Air Force for 20 years Jamie. I can honestly say that I would not change a single day of my Air Force career. The people, the missions, the experiences are all still very close to me. I came into the service as a pilot and spent most of my career flying C-141 transports around the world. I was fortunate enough to have been involved in the 1983 Grenada Invasion under President Reagan and on the initial day of the operation flew the 82nd Airborne onto the island at Point Salinas. I was later involved in some special operations missions following the hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship in 1985 and the successful capture of those terrorists. I flew in Somalia before and after Black Hawk Down, Rwanda, Haiti, and commanded a squadron delivering food and humanitarian aid to the peoples of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina when the Serbs had closed off the city.

I also had the opportunity to serve as President Bill Clinton’s Air Force Aide in the 1990s and carry the “nuclear football.” That experience more than any other convinced me to shake off my political antipathy and get active. Seeing the Clinton administration up close for two years was an epiphany. I was thrilled to be offered the position and walked into my White House office that first day in May 1996 expecting so much. But over the next few years realized just how vacant the man and his administration were. There was no vision, there were no moral standards, and everything was done for political expediency. Everything! And to see what he did to our military during the 1990s was difficult to endure. He tore us down and set us up for 9/11.

FP: What do you think of this whole "torture," "eavesdropping" hysteria going on right now? How and why could the Left be against "eavesdropping" when it has just been confirmed that this security tactic prevented a 9/11-type attack on L.A. several years ago?

Patterson: Nothing infuriates me more Jamie. These sorts of political schemes during war are at a minimum reprehensible but I also consider them subversive and extremely destructive to the nation and our military. Clearly they reveal that the Left has allied with our enemy in common cause with each seeking a Vietnam-type humiliation for the U.S. For the Left a loss in Iraq offers an opportunity to regain power in D.C. For the Islamofascists it’s the defeat of the Great Satan and another victory on their march toward global Islamic rule.

I cannot comprehend, nor will I ever, how an American citizen can be so contemptuous of his country that he could choose to undercut our security (and our troops) solely to destroy George Bush and see his guy in the White House. Or on a more basic level a sick motivation to one day be able to say “I told you so.” The Left has done their most significant damage to the war effort in this regard -- grossly exaggerating Abu Ghraib, creating false accusations about Gitmo, enflaming Arab hatred and inventing scandals such as “eavesdropping” where none exist -- and American servicemen are dying for it…it’s a sad commentary on the Democratic Party.

Let me address the whole “torture” thing first. The U.S. military does not torture…period. Much to the Left’s chagrin I’m sure. Although the terrorists we’re holding in our prisons are not legally protected by the Geneva Conventions. The Left’s constant shrieks of disgust, their bogus outrage and false indignation about “torture” not only speak to their subversive intent but their astonishing ignorance. No doubt the incidents committed by a handful of idiots at Abu Ghraib were disgusting but their actions no matter how despicable don’t nearly rise to the level of torture. Even so, Senator Kennedy equated our soldiers with the murdering, raping barbarians of Saddam’s Baathist Party. I’m sorry but when the Left brays about panties on heads and nudity but can’t muster outrage when Americans are beheaded or burned and hung from a bridge in Fallujah I think that speaks volumes. And Kennedy has had some experience with bridges. There were a dozen or so prisoners victimized by emotional abuse at Abu Ghraib. With his irresponsible words Senator Kennedy victimized 135,000 U.S. troops and the Iraqi peoples’ hopes for democracy.

At Guantanamo Bay never has so much been made of so little and been so damaging to America’s military. When Senator Durbin compared Gitmo to Nazis, Soviet gulags and Pol Pot based on unsubstantiated reports of loud music and extreme temperatures our guys in uniform were incredulous. What kind of moral calculus or lack thereof does it take to connect mass starvations, gas chambers, mounds of skulls and shots to the heads in Siberia with hot and cold temperatures and loud music? “Temperatures over 100 degrees?” Do you know how hot it gets in Iraq senator? In the summer 120 degrees is balmy…and that’s before you strap on your Kevlar and torso vests on top of your long-sleeved B.D.U.s, wool socks and leather boots. “Cold temperatures?” It’s Cuba, its called air conditioning! “Loud infidel music while chained to a cell?” Sounds like just another Friday night at the Clintons.’

What sort of political party not only won’t condemn this sort of destructive behavior but in fact endorses it? What galls me the most is that the Left has either no clue how their actions and words negatively translate to our soldiers on the battlefield or they don’t care. I’m not sure which is worse. In response to Durbin one soldier wrote “What the hell is that all about? Doesn’t he understand how this crap hurts us? Doesn’t that S.O.B. have a clue about Morale? God, Osama couldn’t pay enough to get that kind of free propaganda.” Again it shows the agenda and the ignorance from those on the Left.

The truth about Gitmo is this: it is the most humane and culturally-sensitive detention center in the history of warfare – and to a fault in my opinion. Of the more than 70,000 Al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists we’ve captured in this war we hold only about 500 at Gitmo who would otherwise be killing Americans and relishing it. Instead of the “torture” the Left claims each jihadist receives three hot halal or religiously correct meals a day, doughnuts (if they don’t throw feces or urine at the guards), prayer rugs and Korans, five broadcasts of Muslim prayer each day, painted arrows pointing to Mecca, access to a jihadi library (yes, that’s right), showers, exercise and superb medical care. They’re living conditions are better than our soldiers and Marines in the field in Iraq but I don’t see the ACLU or the Center for Constitutional Rights lobbying on behalf of our guys – just the Islamofascists.

Finally, on “eavesdropping” or “wiretapping.” We’ve been doing it as a nation since World War II under all sorts of presidents and all sorts of national threats. Carter did it, Reagan did it, Bush 41 did it and Clinton did it. In fact an historical fact the Left refuses to acknowledge like so many others is that JFK authorized eavesdropping on Martin Luther King. Somehow I’m sure they’ll figure out a way to attribute that to the Bush family or Carlyle Group but I digress. The recent revelation by President Bush of the interrupted attack on LA is clear indication that the system works. Also, it was only one of many. Most of the other attacks we’ve stopped involve assets and/or countries we can’t reveal at this point without compromising future operations or identifying allies and agents which would prove counterproductive. To believe that we wiretap innocent Americans speaks to the ignorance of the Left and their lack of understanding of current technology and operations. Without getting into areas that are classified let me assure you and your readers Jamie that we have progressed well beyond the Dragnet days. Let me also predict that if and when we have our next 9/11 the Left will be screaming that we didn’t do enough to stop it.

FP: Buzz Patterson, thank you joining us today.

Patterson: It’s been a real pleasure. Front Page is always my first and last stop each day to catch up on what’s happening in the world. Thanks for including me.

Ellie