letter from a peace activist and my reply

[wrbones]

From: Gene Harris
To: wrbones@rushmore.com
Sent: Sunday, February 16, 2003 5:42 PM


Mr Bones,
I am not sure how I stumbled on your letter but I felt I must write .I am not sure when you wrote this but I am curious as to if you are referring to gulf war veterans being spit on.I am well aware that Vietnam vets were wrongly treated this way but I can assure you that cooler heads would only have looked upon them at their return with respect and anger for those who sent them to a poorly managed and probably a wrongheaded war.One of my best friends was in Danang and experienced this treatment when he got back . I asked him how he didn;t punch the daylights out of them and he just said he was just shocked by it and didnt relly give a f@#$. I agree with your frustration with the treatment of veterans , but lets face it ,I don;t care if its a Republican or a Democrat in office,veterans get the shaft when they get home with regard to benefits and denial of health issues.
This is one of the main reasons I protested yesterday with many others.If they are to send or soldiers into battle it better damn well be justified and not so damn grey aread like this crap.
Peace to you and all fighting men!
G harris




At least you seem to have thoughtfully considered your position. That cannot be said for many who are involved in peace protests. Personally, I would be ashamed to be associated with many of them, whatever their espoused cause. Marines were being spit on by my own knowledge as late as 1980. I have current knowledge of Marines being spit on by peace protesters as late as last month. In addition the families of Marines are being threatened and physically attacked on the street in some venues on the east coast.

You seem like an honorable man. Perhaps it would be to your venefit to consider the financial backing behind many of these protests.

When the people begin to honor the Veterans of this nation, the government will as well. Until that time, peace protesters are performing seditious and often violent acts against the government and the people's own protectors. Our valiant and brave Military men and women. I cannot even say that peace protestors are excercising their rights to free speech, for they are not. They are committing crimes against other people and against the nation that keeps them free.

This 'battle' that is currently being pursued is just and right and good.

Warren Bonesteel
Sgt USMC 1976-1983
55 Crestview Drive
Rapid CIty, SD 57701

[wrbones]

.
To those who organize 'Peace Rally's'

There is a movement that is slowly but steadily growing among veterans. It is a grass roots movement. A few Marines here, a couple of soldiers there, several sailors somewhere else, two or three airmen at a bar.

It is a movement of frustration born of failed policies and horrible mistreatment by both our government and civilians during and after wars and conflicts past. It is a movement whose heart and soul cries out, with determination, "This shall not happen to another veteran again."

It is a formless movement at this time, and it is essentially leaderless. But it will grow. It cannot be otherwise. Many civilians do not know what sacrifices have been made for them. They cannot comprehend the pain, the horror, the unbelievable long hours and constant wear and tear on bodies, families, friendships, and even sacrificed careers that have been made by these people. These Veterans. They cannot begin to understand the isolation most feel after years of honourable and good service only to return to a nation and home wherein they are incomprehensibly spit upon, lied to, lied about, ignored, or threatened, abused and shouted down by those whom they gave so much to protect. They only want to go back to work, to live in peace and freedom once again as any other American citizen justly demands and expects.

In time, wherever there are peace protesters, there will be a Veteran offering another point of view. Our freedoms do not come cheap. The freedoms of others do not come cheap. Let there be peace. We, as veterans will gladly welcome it. Let there be no man or woman ready to defend freedom, there will be no freedom. Peace will thence disappear.

Any who will not support the men and women of our armed forces in their time of need neither deserve, nor apparently value, the freedom that has allowed them to abuse the Veterans who served, fought and died to ensure freedom and liberty for all of us. Protest. It is your right. Protest in front of 'city hall'. Protest in the town square. Do not bring a peace protest to a monument that was built to honour a Veteran. You have defiled the Veterans and the monument raised to honour them. This is a slap in the face to all Veterans. It is the equivalent of going to a graveyard to protest lethal injection. It is like going to a maternity ward to protest abortion. It is like going to Martin Luther King's grave site to protest equal rights. It is a senseless, vile and inappropriate use of freedom. It is irresponsible, reprehensible, and shows your ignorance of what has been given for you. It is, quite frankly, childishly irresponsible to do so.
Protest any war. You have the right to do so. But do not be surprised when you see a Veteran opposite you who watches and waits.

Be responsible in what you do. Your protests have a negative impact on the morale of many who serve. When they should be otherwise concerned with the life and death job at hand, they might be thinking of you...and wondering why you do not consider what they have done honourable or important. In the past so called peace protests have physically, mentally and emotionally harmed Veterans. If the people of the United States do not support the Marine, the Sailor, the Soldier, the Airman or even the Coastie, in the times that they need you most...in time, there may not be a man or a woman to protect you when it counts. The future of any army, at any time, has depended solely upon the treatment of it's veterans after a war or conflict. I'm sorry to say that our world is not perfect nor safe. Our nation's armed forces are a necessity of life.

Several enemies have declared war upon us from several places and at several times over the last twenty years. Many of them have called it 'Jihad'. This is an eternal feud to those who have declared it. They will not stop until we are dead as individuals and as a nation. Yet another enemy has ignored sanctions and given it's own people over to terror, starvation and death by it's own chemical weaponry in order to live off the 'fat of the land‘. This government has attacked our men and women in uniform on an almost daily basis since 1991, ignoring peace protocols imposed by the UN and the rest of the world. Another enemy has killed several thousand men, women and children on our on lands, in our own nation. We are at war already. Other nations and organizations have declared war against us and openly attacked us. No other nation is able, even if willing, to defend us. We must defend ourselves.

Sadly, peace is no longer an option. This is the choice of those who have named us enemy. Peace protests in this environment are illogical and irrational, and in my own opinion, treasonous.


signed

Warren Bonesteel
USMC 1976-1983


.

[Sparrowhawk]

However that peacenik has it all wrong heshoule be protesting with the veteransfor better benefits, he has his clothes on backwards.

[USMC0311]

The **** will NEVER end.
Posted - 02/25/2003 : 2:37:04 PM at http://www.grunt.com/forum/default.asp
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I had some pretty disturbing news from a high school friend of mine who has a son in the Marines.

She went out with her boss on a business trip to Philadelphia last weekend in time to be trapped in the hotel by the big snowstorm that swept the East Coast. When she was done, she and her boss took separate flights home to Des Moines.

Her boss was on an American Airlines flight, seated in the middle of a couple dozen Marines. Directly in front of her was a young yuppie couple. They were drunk. Very drunk. They started calling the Marines baby killers. They cursed them with every dirty name you can think of for the entire flight. They said that if they had any brain cells they would be in Harvard now instead of on their way overseas to kill innocent mothers and children.

The Marines took it.

The news got worse when she got home. Her son called her at 3:30 AM, sobbing uncontrollably. He had been out with his Marine buddies from Camp Pendleton. He split from them to go home to his apartment when a large group of guys, he doesn't know how many, jumped him and beat the **** out of him. The whole time they were calling him a baby killer. They had him on the ground kicking him. They were screaming anti-war crap at him. He told his brother and sister what they said but they won't repeat it to his Mom. She's torn up enough.

What hurt him more than the beating was the awful peace crap. He and his buddies were about to ship out to Kuwait to fight the war, maybe die in the process, and here he was being atttacked by his own countrymen. He said it was all about patriotism, all about loving the flag. He was doing this for them and they don't get it. They don't care about the country. They don't care about the flag. They were trying to kill him. He was inconsolable that they had attacked him because he was a Marine. He was ashamed to tell anyone about it.

He just made Sergeant. He made his plane to Kuwait. He's there now.

If you haven't done anything to support the troops, now is the time to do it. Don't look around for somebody else to stand up for the country. It's up to you. If you don't make a stand now, right now, right this minute, the traitors will take over. Now is a good time to put the flag up, to greet people in uniform and tell them explicitly that you support them and wish them well, and to aggressively confront those who wish them harm.
http://www.grunt.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1187

My ****in comment:

Payback is a muther. Now you people that rag on Vietnam Vets are aware of the situation that MOST Vietnam Vets have been dealing with for over 35 years. I ain't telling you this for no friggin pity. NOW ya got a heads-up that people still **** with Marines and the "baby killer" ****. I got my scars (physical) and I welcome the opportunity to get more defending Vietnam Vets. Protesting is a right for the scum. Because they have the right to do so doesn't mean that we have to condone the actions they take. Stand Up For wtf you believe. Lead, Follow or get the hell outa the way. "Get Sum"

Don't give me any **** about havin a attitude either. I ain't in NO mood to take **** from anyone anymore.

Semper Fidelis, Marines Mess with the best, Die like the rest.

Joe

[Sixguns]

HAS COMPLAINED ABOUT OIL PRICES???
HAS A FAMILY MEMBER IN THE MILITARY?
SERVED IN THE MILITARY THEMSELVES?
HAS EVER LIVED IN OR SEEN THE CONDITIONS OF OTHERS LIVING UNDER TYRANNY??

"My existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives...." Col. Jessup, A few Good Men.

Maybe we should start sharing the responsibility of national defense with these critics or their next of kin. Selective Service should be more selective.. we should ear-mark these people and their loved ones to be called up to serve this country.



SF

[USMC0311]

the cowards wouldn't serve Bruce. and I am a vengeful person, but I'd never put the blame on their kin. Hell my own father condemned the Vietnam war and me for being it. I still do hate the puke even though he is dead. I never went to his funeral and I never have and never will go to his grave. I was relieved when he died. No more of his back-bitting and bigoted criticism.

Hey Marine. Congratulations and thank you for serving Our Corps for all these years Bruce.

Semper Fidelis, Marine

[Sixguns]

Thanks for your kind words. I have done no more or less than you and all our brothers and sisters.... I served. I made a career of being a Marine, but being a Marine will last longer than any career.

I know you don't want the family members of these critics to serve just because they had parents or others who condemn what we chose to do as a profession, but I believe that may be the dose of medicine to have the critics realize the nobility of service and those who wear a uniform and defend not just our freedoms, but those who are to weak to gain their own!!


SF

[wrbones]

I've been forwarding that kind of stuff to every news agency I can think of.

Need to get some of that sent to the Congressmen maybe. Load up the President's email box or something.

I'm working on it.

[firstsgtmike]

The ghosts of the valiant Marines that lost their lives in Beirut Lebanon cry out; "Avenge us".

The sailors who lost their lives on the USS Cole cry out; Avenge us".

The citizens who went horribly to their deaths on September 11 2001 in the Twin Towers cry out; "Avenge us".

The personal who lost their lives in the Pentagon on September 11 2001 cry out; "Avenge us".

The brave patriots who gave their lives over Pennsylvania on September 11 2001 cry out; "Avenge us".

We all, Americans in uniform, and civilians alike are called to duty to "Avenge" the loss of our brothers and sisters. To all those who are marching and chanting in the streets, close your mouths and listen to the cry of these brave souls. For now is the time to stand up for your countrymen, like they stood up for you.
Jeff H.
-----------------

An interesting note. Then, as now, and tomorrow, Osama Been Hiding didn't ask if they were anti-war, pro-war, peacenics, or whatever. We are ALL infidels.

So the next time a terrorist attack happens, don't think they will be exempt because they participated in a peace march.