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thedrifter
02-20-07, 05:37 AM
Heroes And Cowards

By ALICIA COLON
February 20, 2007
The New York Sun

Corporal Thomas Saba was buried in the Moravian Cemetery on Staten Island last Friday. One of seven Marines killed when their helicopter was shot down in Iraq on February 7, Saba, 30, enlisted in the spring of 2002 in response to the attacks of September 11, 2001. He extended his five-year tour by five months so that he could go with his squadron to Iraq.

It is absolutely amazing how America can continue to produce heroes such as Saba while electing cowardly politicians who mock their sacrifices.

Rep. John Murtha, who once suggested we redeploy our troops to Japan, and other congressional defeatists must be jubilant over the passage of that ridiculous House resolution rebuking the president's request for more troops. Meanwhile Saba was laid to rest with full military honors near the grave of another American hero, Army Sergeant Yevgenly Ryndychin, 24, who was killed by a roadside bomb in Ramadi, Iraq, on December 6.

The last Marine funeral I attended was for Adam Ogbu, a 19-year-old Nigerian-American who was my son's best friend. Young Ogbu died while on a Special Forces training run in Texas. He was in perfect health, and the cause of his death was never fully investigated. This was in 2000, and I mention this because the mainstream press is constantly bombarding us with the number of military casualties, and it is clear that the reports are meant to incite anger about the Iraqi war. How refreshing it would be if partisan politics could be set aside and reporters put news in the proper perspective without bias.

The total military dead in the Iraq war between 2003 and this month stands at about 3,133. This is tragic, as are all deaths due to war, and we are facing a cowardly enemy unlike any other in our past that hides behind innocent citizens. Each death is blazoned in the headlines of newspapers and Internet sites. What is never compared is the number of military deaths during the Clinton administration: 1,245 in 1993; 1,109 in 1994; 1,055 in 1995; 1,008 in 1996. That's 4,417 deaths in peacetime but, of course, who's counting?

A neighbor of mine, Harry Colon, was 19 when he was killed in Vietnam. He had been drafted, and many of those protesting against that war have admitted that it was fear of conscription that was behind much of their anti-war activity. It is so pathetic now (while we have this valiant volunteer military) to watch these hoary relics of the 1960s trying to recapture the relevance of that period. Only a few veteran protesters of that era have the integrity to distinguish between these two conflicts.

The noted Village Voice columnist Nat Hentoff wrote in an April 3, 2003, column headlined "Why I Am Not Marching": "I participated in many demonstrations against the Vietnam War. … But I could not participate in the demonstrations against the war on Iraq." He had learned of Saddam's atrocities again the Iraqi people and said, "If people want to talk about containing [ Saddam Hussein] and don't want to go in forcefully and remove him, how do they propose doing something about the horrors he is inflicting on his people who live in such fear of him?" That's a question these protesters fail to address.

Perhaps the most touching reappraisal of an anti-war position was penned by Pat Conroy, author of "The Great Santini," who wrote, "An Honest Confession of an American Coward." He admitted being a draft dodger and an antiwar demonstrator to an old college teammate, Al Kroboth, whom he was interviewing for a book he was writing. Mr. Kroboth had been a POW and Mr. Conroy learned the details of his experience. Mr. Kroboth endured unspeakable pain while being tortured by his captors, yet he was saved by the extraordinary camaraderie among his fellow prisoners. As Mr. Conroy was demonstrating against Nixon and the Christmas bombings in Hanoi, the POWs were holding hands and singing "God Bless America" under the full fury of the bombs. It was those bombs that ultimately led to the release of the POWs.

After that night in Mr. Kroboth's New Jersey home, Pat Conroy researched the history of world totalitarianism during what he calls "the unspeakable century we just left behind." He concluded about our country: "I knew then in my bones but lacked the courage to act on: America is good enough to die for even when she is wrong."

The "bring 'em home" Democrat majority and the 17 Republican turncoats who voted for that resolution apparently disagree.

Ellie

devildog4life30
02-21-07, 11:38 AM
I have to agree Drifter, by the way I like the links you have!

Sgt Leprechaun
02-21-07, 09:57 PM
The only thing the left is interested in at present is making the President look bad, and, of course, destroying the country for the "Great Socialist revolution".

I think "liberalism" should be listed as a mental disorder, and treated accordingly.

ridingcrops
02-27-07, 11:16 AM
Well I don't think the left has much to do to show what the derserting coward is made of. I wonder if you know Lep that those who die in hospitals from their wounds while serving in Iraq are NOT considered war dead so the numbers look better for the deserting coward. At what is up with not showing picutres of our returning dead heros? Another thing the deserting coward is trying to hide from thepublic and maybe they won't hink about those dead as anything but numbers.
And you can't list leberalism as a mental disorder because they would empty the asylums and have everyone living on the streets like Reagan did.

DWG
02-27-07, 01:16 PM
And you can't list leberalism as a mental disorder because they would empty the asylums and have everyone living on the streets like Reagan did.

They obviously let you out on the street. Almost first of the month, you should be able to renew your meds soon.

Sgt Leprechaun
02-28-07, 06:27 AM
Yeah, right. Another news flash, RC, Reagan wasn't the one who 'empited the asylums', that was the liberal Warren Supreme court, who ruled that the mentally ill (such as liberals) could not be confined indefinetly and couldn't even be forced to take their meds; thus releasing them to the streets of Amurka.

Show proof that those who die from wounds are NOT listed in the totals of KIA in either theatre. Otherwise, it's just another liberal propaganda piece.

Zulu 36
02-28-07, 06:44 AM
Well I don't think the left has much to do to show what the derserting coward is made of. I wonder if you know Lep that those who die in hospitals from their wounds while serving in Iraq are NOT considered war dead so the numbers look better for the deserting coward. At what is up with not showing picutres of our returning dead heros? Another thing the deserting coward is trying to hide from thepublic and maybe they won't hink about those dead as anything but numbers.
And you can't list leberalism as a mental disorder because they would empty the asylums and have everyone living on the streets like Reagan did.

I'm not going to argue everyone of your points with you, but sadly, those wounded who die later in hospital of their wounds are counted as Iraq war dead, if that is where they were wounded.

Go to the "Great Satan's" Department of Defense own web site, http://www.defenselink.mil/ that site publishes every death and has a list of the honored dead.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/ publishes the death announcement as they are made public. You might note that an Army death announced 2/27/07 was for a soldier who was WIA in March 2006.

So, OK, they release photos of returning dead. How would you know one flag draped coffin from another? They could take a set or two of photos and release the same photos over and over. How could you really tell? The dead do not belong to you; they belong to their families. In other words, it ain't your business.

Sgt Leprechaun
02-28-07, 10:37 AM
In reference to those Killed In Action, Rusty says it far better than I ever could:


"You have no idea who those boys were. You have no idea what their motivation was for joining the military. Every man and woman over there knows what the dangers are. They know what they risk everyday. Their deaths don’t belong to you. By claiming moral outrage at their sacrifice you trivialize the lives they lived, the honor that they bought themselves. You sacrifice nothing.
Their service to their country is over. They belong to their families now."

Blogger "Rusty", Milblogs.