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=====================================================
THE STATUE
DO
YOU KNOW WHAT THIS IS AND WHERE THIS
IS?
This statue currently stands outside the Iraqi
palace, now home to the 4th Infantry division. It will eventually be
shipped and put in the Memorial Museum in Fort Hood , TX
The statue was created by an Iraqi artist named Kalat, who for years
was forced by Saddam Hussein to make many hundreds of bronze busts
of Saddam in Bagdad. Kalat was so grateful for the Americans
liberation of his country; he melted 3 of the heads of the fallen
Saddam and made a statue as a memorial to the American soldiers and
their fallen warriors.
Kalat worked on this memorial night and day for several months.
To the left of the kneeling soldier is an Iraqi girl comforting
an American soldier as he mourns his fallen comrade in arms.
Do you know why we don't hear about this in the
news?
Because it is heart
warming
and praise worthy..
The
media avoids it because it does not have the shock effect.
But we can do something about it.
Pass this along
to honor all our brave
military who are
making a difference.
=====================================================
TAKE DOWN THE STATUE OF LIBERTY?
This is a very good letter to the editor.
This woman made some good points. For some reason, people have
difficulty structuring their arguments when arguing against
supporting the currently proposed immigration revisions. This lady
made the argument pretty simple.
NOT printed in the Orange County (California)
Paper...................
Newspapers simply won't publish letters to the editor which
they either deem politically incorrect (read below) or which does
not agree with the philosophy they're pushing on the public. This
woman wrote a great letter to the editor that should have been
published; but, with your help it will get published via cyberspace!
New Immigrants
From: "David LaBonte"
My wife, Rosemary, wrote a wonderful letter to the editor
of the Orange County Register which,
of course, was not printed. So, I decided to "print" it myself by
sending it out o n the Internet.
Pass it along if you feel so inclined.
Dave LaBonte (signed)
Written in response to a series of letters to the editor
in the Orange County Register:
Dear Editor:
So many letter writers have based their arguments on how
this land is made up of immigrants.
Ernie Lujan for one, suggests we should tear down the Statue of
Liberty because the people now in
question aren't being treated the same as those who passed through
Ellis Island and other ports of
entry.
Maybe we should turn to our history books and point out to
people like Mr. Lujan why today's
American is not willing to accept this new kind of immigrant any
longer. Back in 1900 when there was a rush from all areas of Europe
to come to the United States, people had to get off a ship and stand
in a long line on Ellis Island in New York Harbor and be documented.
Some would even get down on their hands and knees and kiss the
ground. They made a pledge to
uphold the laws and support their new country in good and bad
times. They made learning English a
primary rule in their new American households and some even changed
their names to blend in with their new home.
They had waved good bye to their birth place to give their
children a new life and did everything in their power to help their
children assimilate into one culture.
Nothing was handed to them. No free lunches, no welfare, no
labor laws to protect them. All they had were the skills and
craftsmanship they had brought with them to trade for a future of
prosperity. Most of their children came of age when World War II
broke out . My father fought along side men whose parents had come
straight over from Germany , Italy, France and Japan . None of these
1st generation Americans ever gave any thought about what country
their parents had come from. They were Americans fighting Hitler,
Mussolini and the Emperor of Japan . They were defending the United
States of America as one people. When we liberated France , no one
in those villages were looking for the French-American or the German
American or the Irish American. The people of France saw only
Americans. And we carried one flag that represented one country. Not
one of those immigrant sons would have thought about picking up
another country's flag and waving it to represent who they were. It
would have been a disgrace to their parents who had sacrificed so
much to be here. These immigrants truly knew what it meant to be an
American. They stirred the melting pot into one red, white and blue
bowl.
And here we are in 2006 with a new kind of immigrant who
wants the same rights and privileges. Only they want to achieve it
by playing with a different set of rules, one that includes the
entitlement card and a guarantee of being faithful to their mother
country. I'm sorry, that's not what being an American is all about.
I believe that the immigrants who landed on Ellis Island in the
early
1900's deserve better than that for all the toil, hard work and
sacrifice in raising future generations to create a land that has
become a beacon for those legally searching for a better life. I
think they would be appalled that they are being used as an example
by those waving foreign country flags.
And for that suggestion about taking down the Statue of
Liberty , it happens to mean a lot to
the citizens who are voting on the immigration bill. I wouldn't
start talking about dismantling the
United States just yet.
(signed) Rosemary LaBonte
KEEP THIS LETTER MOVING!!
I hope this letter gets read by millions of people all
across the nation!!
Ever onward!!
Rose
=====================================================
SEMPER FI!
Gunnery Sgt Michael Burghardt, known as "Iron Mike" or just
"Gunny", was on his third tour in Iraq. He had become a legend in
the bomb disposal world after winning the Bronze Star for disabling
64 IEDs and destroying 1,548 pieces of ordnance during his second
tour. Then, on September 19, he got blown up. He arrived at the
scene after a bomb had killed four US soldiers. He chose not to wear
the bulky bomb protection suit.
"You can't react to any sniper fire and you get tunnel-vision,"
he explains. Protected by just a helmet and standard-issue flak
jacket, he began what bomb disposal officers term "the longest
walk", stepping gingerly into a 5ft deep and 8ft wide crater.
The earth shifted slightly and he saw a
Senao base station
with a wire leading from it. He cut the wire and used his 7in knife
to probe the ground. "I found a piece of red detonating cord between
my legs," he says. "That's when I knew I was screwed."
Realizing he was sucked into a trap, Sgt Burghardt, 35, yelled for
everyone to stay back. At that moment, an insurgent, watching
through binoculars, pressed a button on his mobile phone to detonate
the secondary device below the sergeant's feet
"A chill went up the back of my neck and then the bomb exploded,"
he recalls.
"I was in the air and I remember thinking, 'I don't believe they got
me.' I was ticked off they were able to do it. Then I was lying on
the road, couldn't feel anything from the waist down."
His colleagues cut off his trousers to see how badly he was hurt.
None could believe his legs were still there.
"My dad's a
Vietnam
vet who's paralyzed from the waist down,"
says Sgt Burghardt.
"I was lying there thinking I didn't want to be in a wheelchair next
to my dad and for him to see me like that. They started to cut away
my pants and I felt a real sharp pain and blood trickling down. Then
I wiggled my toes and I thought, ' Good, I'm in business."
A stretcher was brought over, adrenaline and anger kicked in.
"I decided to walk to the helicopter. I wasn't going to let my
team-mates see me being carried away on a stretcher."
He stood and gave the insurgents who had blown him up a one-fingered
salute.
"I flipped them one. It was like, 'OK, I lost that round but I'll be
back next week'."
Copies of this photograph depicting his defiance, taken by Jeff
Bundy for the Omaha World-Herald, adorn the walls of homes across
America and that of Col John Gronski, the brigade commander in
Ramadi, who has hailed the image as an exemplar of the warrior
spirit. Sgt Burghardt's injuries - burns and wounds to his legs and
buttocks - kept him off duty for nearly a month and could have
earned him a ticket home. But, like his father - who was awarded a
Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts for being wounded in action in
Vietnam - he stayed to engage in the battle against insurgents who
keep coming up with more ways to kill Americans
=====================================================
NO,
FREEDOM ISN'T FREE!
I watched the flag pass by one
day,
It fluttered in the breeze.
A young Marine saluted it,
And then he stood at ease..
I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud,
With hair cut square and eyes alert
He'd stand out in any crowd.
I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil,
How many mothers' tears?
How many pilots' planes shot
down?
How many died at sea?
How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?
No, freedom isn't free.
I heard the sound of Taps one
night,
When everything was still,
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.
I wondered just how many times
That Taps had meant "Amen,"
When a flag had draped a coffin.
Of a brother or a friend.
I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.
I thought about a graveyard
At the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington.
No, freedom isn't free.
Speech by Brigette Gabriel
She gave this at Duke University also. In today's world, this has
to be considered. Really
worth a read. As a matter of fact, every American needs to read
this.
(Editor's Note: Below are selected excerpts from Brigitte Gabriel's
speech delivered at the Intelligence Summit in Washington DC)
|
We gather here today to share information and knowledge.
Intelligence is not merely cold hard data about numerical
strength or armament or disposition of military forces. The
most important element of intelligence has to be
understanding the mindset and intention of the enemy. The
West has been wallowing in a state of ignorance and denial
for thirty years as Muslim extremist perpetrated evil
against innocent victims in the name of Allah.
I was ten years old when my home exploded around me, burying
me under the rubble and leaving me to drink my blood to
survive, as the perpetrators shouted, "Allah Akbar!" My only
crime was that I was a Christian living in a Christian town.
At 10 years old, I learned the meaning of the word
"infidel."
I had a crash course in survival. Not in the Girl Scouts,
but in a bomb shelter where I lived for seven years in pitch
darkness, freezing cold, drinking stale water and eating
grass to live. At the age of 13, dressed in my burial
clothes going to bed at night, waiting to be slaughtered. By
the age of 20, I had buried most of my friends--killed by
Muslims. We were not Americans living in New York , or
Britons in London . We were Arab Christians living in
Lebanon .
As a victim of Islamic terror, I was amazed when I saw
Americans waking up on September 12, 2001, and asking
themselves "Why do they hate us?" The psychoanalyst experts
were coming up with all sort of excuses as to what did we do
to offend the Muslim World. But if America and the West were
paying attention to the Middle East they would not have had
to ask the question. Simply put, they hate us because we are
defined in their eyes by one simple word: "infidels."
Under the banner of Islam "la, ilaha illa Allah, muhammad
rasoulu Allah," (None is god except Allah; Muhammad is the
Messenger of Allah) they murdered Jewish children in Israel
, massacred Christians in Lebanon, killed Copts in Egypt,
Assyrians in Syria, Hindus in India, and expelled almost
900,000 Jews from Muslim lands. We Middle Eastern infidels
paid the price then. Now infidels worldwide are paying the
price for indifference and shortsightedness.
Tolerating evil is a crime. Appeasing murderers doesn't buy
protection. It earns one disrespect and loathing in the
enemy's eyes. Yet apathy is the weapon by which the West is
committing suicide. Political correctness forms the shackles
around our ankles, by which Islamists are leading us to our
demise.
America
and the West are doomed to failure in this war unless they
stand up and identify the real enemy: Islam. You hear about
Wahabbi and Salafi Islam as the only extreme form of Islam.
All the other Muslims, supposedly, are wonderful moderates.
Closer to the truth are the pictures of the irrational
eruption of violence in reaction to the cartoons of Mohammed
printed by a Danish newspaper. Fro m burning embassies, to
calls to butcher those who mock Islam, to warnings that the
West be prepared for another holocaust, those pictures have
given us a glimpse into the real face of the enemy. News
pictures and video of these events represent a canvas of
hate decorated by different nationalities who share one
common ideology of hate, bigotry and intolerance derived
from one source: authentic Islam. An Islam that is awakening
from centuries of slumber to re-ignite its wrath against the
infidel and dominate the world. An Islam which has declared
"Intifada" on the West.
America
and the West can no longer afford to lay in their lazy state
of overweight ignorance. The consequences of this mental
disease are starting to attack the body, and if they don't
take the necessary steps now to control it, death will be
knocking soon. If you want to understand the nature of the
enemy we face, visualize a tapestry of snakes. They slither
and they hiss, and they would eat each other alive, but they
will unite in a hideous mass to achieve their common goal of
imposing Islam on the world.
This is the ugly face of the enemy we are fighting. We are
fighting a powerful ideology that is capable of altering
basic human instincts. An ideology that can turn a mother
into a launching pad of death. A perfect example is a
recently elected Hamas official in the Palestinian
Territories who raves in heavenly joy about sending her
three sons to death and offering the ones who are still
alive for the cause. It is an ideology that is capable of
offering highly educated individuals such as doctors and
lawyers far more joy in attaining death than any respect and
stature life in society is ever capable of giving them.
The United States has been a prime target for radical
Islamic hatred and terror. Every Friday, mosques in the
Middle East ring with shrill prayers and monotonous chants
calling death, destruction and damnation down on America and
its people. The radical Islamist deeds have been as vile as
their words. Since the Iran hostage crisis, more than three
thousand Americans have died in a terror campaign almost
unprecedented in its calculated cruelty along with thousands
of other citizens worldwide. Even the Nazis did not turn
their own children into human bombs, and then rejoice at
their deaths as well the deaths of their victims. This
intentional, indiscriminate and wholesale murder of innocent
American citizens is justified and glorified in the name of
Islam.
America
cannot effectively defend itself in this war unless and
until the American people understand the nature of the enemy
that we face. Even after 9/11 there are those who say that
we must engage our terrorist enemies, that we must address
their grievances. Their grievance is our freedom of
religion. Their grievance is our freedom of speech. Their
grievance is our democratic process where the rule of law
comes from the voices of many not that of just one prophet.
It is the respect we instill in our children towards all
religions. It is the equality we grant each other as human
beings sharing a planet and striving to make the world a
better place for all humanity. Their grievance is the
kindness and respect a man shows a woman, the justice we
practice as equals under the law, and the mercy we grant our
enemy. Their grievance cannot be answered by an apology for
who or what we are.
Our mediocre attitude of not confronting Islamic forces of
bigotry and hatred wherever they raised their ugly head in
the last 30 years, has empowered and strengthened our enemy
to launch a full scale attack on the very freedoms we
cherish in their effort to impose their values and way of
life on our civilization.
If we don't wake up and challenge our Muslim community to
take action against the terrorists within it, if we don't
believe in ourselves as Americans and in the standards we
should hold every patriotic American to, we are going to pay
a price for our delusion. For the sake of our children and
our country, we must wake up and take action. In the face of
a torrent of hateful invective and terrorist murder, America
's learning curve since the Iran hostage crisis is so
shallow that it is almost flat. The longer we lay supine,
the more difficult it will be to stand erect.
Brigitte Gabriel is an expert on the Middle East conflict
and lectures nationally and internationally on the subject.
She's the former news anchor of World News for Middle East
television and the founder of AmericanCongressforTruth.com.
More bio info at
http://www.intelligencesummit.org/speakers/BrigitteGabriel.php |
You can easily measure a person's character by observing
how they treat someone who can do nothing for them.
Enjoy Your Freedom
&
God Bless Our Troops!
editor@117th-cav.org
webmaster@117th-cav.org
Created
by:
J.A.C.
Technical Services, LLC
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