Texas Rainmaker » Thank You

Thank You
August 21st, 2006 12:00 pm

This was a classic the moment it first aired, but I felt inspired to post it again.

Remember when thanking our troops was more popular than bashing them?

23 Comments »

Who bashes the troops? I ask this question seriously. By all accounts, criticism of the war has not translated into criticism of the troops. Nothing like what happened in the 1960’s is happening.

If you want to go easter-egg hunting for a few anti-troop yahoos that is your perogative, but your desire to create a phantom phenomenom says more about the desperate state of hawkish conservatism than it does about anything else.

Comment by Nate — 10:07 pm
“Who bashes the troops?”

John Murtha

John Kerry

Ted Kennedy

Dick Durbin

etc, etc, etc….

Comment by Texas Rainmaker — 10:35 pm
Nate you have been owned.

Comment by angryamerican — 10:50 pm
I thought you might try this line of reasoning. Suit yourself, but I don’t think criticizing specific incidents or specific policies counts as criticizing the more abstract body that is “the troops.”

Comment by Nate — 11:01 pm
Nate,

Your original post and your weak attempt at saving face after getting your ass handed to you only serves to illustrate just how intellectually weak and morally bankrupt you and your ilk are.

You are a loser, Nate.

Run back to your DU/Kos troll hole, Nate. You are bothering the adults.

Comment by Nahanni — 12:37 am
The following is making the e-mail circuit, SNOPES is still invertigating it, and I am not sure it happened but my money is on it being true….

Last week I was in Atlanta, Georgia attending a conference. While I was in the airport, returning home, I heard several people behind me beginning to clap and cheer. I immediately turned around and witnessed one of the greatest act’s of patriotism I have ever seen.

Moving thru the terminal was a group of soldiers in their camo’s, as they began heading to their gate everyone (well almost everyone) was abruptly to their feet with their hands waving and cheering. When I saw the soldiers, probably 30-40 of them, being applauded and cheered for it hit me. I’m not alone. I’m not the only red blooded American who still loves this country and supports our troops and their families.

Of course I immediately stopped and began clapping for these young unsung heroes who are putting their lives on the line everyday for us so we can go to school, work and home without fear or reprisal. Just when I thought I could not be more proud of my country or of our service men and women a young girl, not more than 6 or 7 years old, ran up to one of the male soldiers. He kneeled down and said “hi,” the little girl then she asked him if he would give something to her daddy for her. The young soldier, he didn’t look any older than maybe 22 himself, said he would try and what did she want to give to her daddy. Then suddenly the little girl grabbed the neck of this soldier, gave him the biggest hug she could muster and then kissed him on the cheek.

The mother of the little girl, who said her daughters name was Courtney, told the young soldier that her husband was a Marine and had been in Iraq for 11 months now. As the mom was explaining how much her daughter, Courtney, missed her father, the young soldier began to tear up. When this temporarily single mom was done explaining her situation, all of the soldiers huddled together for a brief second. Then one of the other servicemen pulled out a military looking walkie-talkie. They started playing with the device and talking back and forth on it.

After about 10-15 seconds of this, the young soldier walked back over to Courtney, bent down and said this to her, “I spoke to your daddy and he told me to give this to you” He then hugged this little girl that he had just met and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He finished by saying “your daddy told me to tell you that he loves you more than anything and he is coming home very soon.”

The mom at this point was crying almost uncontrollably and as the young soldier stood to his feet he saluted Courtney and her mom. I was standing no more than 6 feet away from this entire event unfolded. As the soldiers began to leave, heading towards their gate, people resumed their applause. As I stood there applauding and looked around, their were very few dry eyes, including my own. That young soldier in one last act of selflessness, turned around and blew a kiss to Courtney with a tear rolling down his cheek.

We need to remember everyday all of our soldiers and their families and thank God for them and their sacrifices. At the end of the day, it’s good to be an American.

Comment by nita rene — 1:58 am
I’ve traveled to Atlanta quite a few times in the recent years and there’s a contingent of USO people that stand outside the security line greeting arriving passengers. (I guess Atlanta is one of the main airports for troops arriving home) Everytime a man or woman in military dress approaches, they cheer wildly. It’s a pretty cool feeling walking through this event as everyone around, whether affiliated with the USO or not, stops what they’re doing and joins in.

Comment by Texas Rainmaker — 4:50 am
The troops are not stupid. When political party leaders speak the way Murtha, Kerry, Kennedy, Durbin and others have regarding circumstances and events involving the military and they see and hear the reports from MSM outlets, they piece together the impression that liberals/Democrats in general do not support their mission, and therefore do not support them. You can agrue nuanced fine points all day long, but you do nothing to change the opinion of the ones who wear this country’s uniforms.

The troops see a real need to be where they are doing what they are doing. They see gains and successes that are not reported along with failures and more challenges ahead, but they believe in a positive outcome. Those that oppose their mission are viewed as not supporting them. The very openly stated Democratic position of: Iraq is a quagmire, Iraq is not the war on terrorism, Iraq is not winnable, withdraw from Iraq now; the troops interpret that as non-support. They are kind of narrow minded when it comes to nuanced rhetoric like that.

Comment by Old Soldier — 5:21 am
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Pingback by Tai-Chi Policy » Worth Mentioning all on it’s own. — 8:16 am
Last Friday in a bar I met an Air Force guy who is training to become some kind of rescue medic. When the Iraq war came up, he quoted the famous Tennyson poem:

“Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die.”

He is correct, and I think that’s a necessary approach to take for members of the military. But for the rest of us, the voters and our elected representatives, it is our constitutional duty to reason why. The fact that so many of you are failing to reason why, and go so far as to infer that those of us who do reason why don’t support the troops, is something that undermines our constitutions, our country, and most of all our troops.

Comment by Nate — 9:50 am
“But for the rest of us, the voters and our elected representatives, it is our constitutional duty to reason why.”

Perhaps you should read the rest of “The Charge of the Light Brigade”, from which your new friend quoted:

While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro’ the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder’d.
Honor the charge they made!
Honor the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred.

Honor them. Don’t call them “broken”. Don’t claim they’re “worn out”. Don’t equate them to terrorists. Don’t compare them to nazis.

Honor them.

Comment by Texas Rainmaker — 10:31 am
You are twisting the intent of Durbin and others’ comments. Durbin objected to the policies put in place by the Bush administration, which are redolent of certain elements of awful regimes. I agree that the Nazi reference was poorly chosen, but I think the intent was honorable concern for our troops. Others object to the torture policy, which has elements that overlap with the tactics of the terrorists. Saying this doesn’t “equate” our troops to terrorists.

I’m not naive enough to think that our troops don’t need support to sustain morale. But criticism of the mission, or the military policies, or bad behavior by certain troops, this all comes with the territory. Armies that are placed on a pedastal and immune to any criticism are weak armies. Such adulation reduces the necessary free market of ideas that is integral to US strength of strategy, and makes us vulnerable to the rigid, inflexible approach of say, the Red Army. I’m not saying one has to criticize anything if they don’t want to, but honor the troops by taking part in the debate, not smothering it.

Comment by Nate — 10:51 am
“Others object to the torture policy, which has elements that overlap with the tactics of the terrorists. Saying this doesn’t “equate” our troops to terrorists.”

But saying “there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children” does.

“I’m not saying one has to criticize anything if they don’t want to, but honor the troops by taking part in the debate, not smothering it.”

By virtue of your words being broadcast throughout the world on this very site proves that the debate is not “being smothered”. Care to introduce any other strawmen?

Comment by Texas Rainmaker — 10:59 am
You want congratulations because you haven’t descended to the level of a fascist and banned all critical discussion? That’s a low bar.

Your Kerry quote is way off-base. Terrorize is a verb. We terrorized the people of Iraq when we bombed them. We terrorize children when our soldiers burst into their homes. That does not make us terrorists in any reasonable sense of the word, any more than a soldier who kills an enemy combatant should be labeled a killer.

I’m not saying you overtly support banning free speech. I am saying that by setting the terms for what constitutes “supporting the troops” you are stacking the deck and branding certain lines of criticism as unpatriotic, therefore reducing the comfort level of people to express themselves. It’s a sleight of hand move, and one that smothers discussion of the war in any meaningful way since people are worried about folks like you branding them unsupportive of the troops.

Comment by Nate — 11:50 am
“You want congratulations because you haven’t descended to the level of a fascist and banned all critical discussion? That’s a low bar.”

I’m not looking for your praise. I’m refuting your claim that calling people to the carpet for bashing our soldiers is somehow “smothering the debate”.

“I am saying that by setting the terms for what constitutes “supporting the troops” you are stacking the deck and branding certain lines of criticism as unpatriotic.”

So are you saying that publicly declaring that our soldiers are “terrorizing women and children”, are equal to “Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and Pol Pot”, and are “murderers” is “supporting” them?

Comment by Texas Rainmaker — 12:15 pm
“calling people to the carpet for bashing our soldiers”

There you go again, stacking the deck. I have made it clear that the politicans in question were calling the architects of bad military policies on the carpet, and even if I grant you that the language they used was sloppy (which I don’t), that doesn’t take away from the fact that their intent was clearly not to malign our soldiers.

I’ve had it with this parsing of language, this seizing of every little critical comment as being unsupportive of the troops. Call it the curse of being “militarily correct”, the right-wing equivalent of being politically correct. You guys are right-wing Al Sharptons and Jesse Jacksons, ready to pounce any perceived slight to the military and hold a big media and blog blowout in solidarity with the troops. Well I for one support the troops, and I do so by speaking what is on my mind regarding military affairs and refusing to cave into the “militarily correct” police.

Comment by Nate — 1:59 pm
Nate, you will never be able to discern between collateral damage and terrorism. It would crumble the very foundations of your fantasy.

I KNOW you’ve read that terrorists fire from schools and hospitals, virtually directing the return fire to the same spot where the pallywood producers will “document positive proof” of anti-muslim terror.

I sincerely hope that it’s simple innocence that prevents you from comprehending what actually transpired and not the slime of the fifth column.

This bloody battle mayhem is only half of a weapon of the terrorists, YOU being the other half. The one they murder’ em’ all for. Without you providing free high-grade propaganda for al jizzeroo, their weapon is useless.

They cannot win by force. They need YOU! YOU are wayyy too happy to comply. I find that unsettling.

If you actually believe that US, IDF and the others are purposely considering unarmed civilians a strategic target of value, when hitting them returns only damaging news-grief then you know nothing of warfare, are simply too uneducated to enter the debate, and/or YOU are the enemy.

BTW, if you really thought Dubya was a bona-fide terrorist, you’d be falling all over yourself to appease his pants off.

Comment by Cheapshot911 — 2:06 pm
You cannot support the troops if you give propaganda to the enemy.
Sure, yes, of course, totally, and soooo true, you have the freedom of speech.
You have the right to give al jizzeroo the ammo to pass on to the jihadi’ i.e. “They hate Dubya! they tell themselves it’s all the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time, we are close to victory my brothers! GIVE MORE TO THE CAUSE! FIGHT HARDER!”

You do this and they do that. Of course, there’s no connection here in your fantasy.

That’s how you, in fact, support the terrists.

Comment by Cheapshot911 — 2:33 pm
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Pingback by rightlinx.com » Blog Archive » Saying ‘Thanks’ — 5:55 pm
Jason, Nate and I have had some long exchanges in the past. I once thought he was truly searching for and exchange of ideas and clarification of positions. This comment stream only serves to evidence that Nate is open minded to his ideology alone - there is no room for another’s’ opinions or positions. And now the introduction of a new label to those who disagree with his expertise on military matters - “Militarily Correct”. I’ve got news for Nate. The term “Militarily Correct” has existed for many, many years. It refers to doing things correctly IAW with regulations, e.g. saluting, dismounted drill, tactics, etc.

Nate, you tipped your hand when you attempted to defend the atrocious remarks made by Kerry, Kennedy, Durbin and the like. You defended them with as much tenacity as we defend the military. Think about that for a moment. Not one of those comments made by those legislators was clarified to mean that they were trying to make the military better, stronger, etc. They were cheap shots aimed at rallying the support base.

Nate, the vast majority of the military would not consider your rhetoric “support”.

Comment by Old Soldier — 6:59 pm
Old Soldier, you and I clearly have far too much disagreement to even entertain the idea of a constructive dialogue, so I’m not going to respond to your remarks.

Comment by Nate — 10:40 pm
GWB: “Bring it on.”

…The dumbest thing ever uttered by any President ever.

That alone endangered and undermined our troops FAR greater than any sound byte or comment by any other legislator, candidate, or political pundit.

He might as well have just said “I *DARE* you…”

Comment by YellowRibbon — 2:54 pm
When it came to foreign policy, Theodore Roosevelt said “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”

What’s g-dubya say?

“Shoot your mouth off and let others pay for it.” ???

Comment by YellowRibbon — 3:02 pm

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