What really puzzles me is why politicians expect us to risk our lives in the service of our country so that our loved ones may live in a free land yet expect us to be cowardly sheep in our own homes. Most of us who have served have done so voluntarily. Don't those idiots realize that we are even more willing to fight and die on our home turf if need be to keep our loved ones safe and free? They need to realize that we have made our decisions and will act without hesitation when the time comes.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Quote of the Day
Indian Doctor made a point in a response to "One Hundred Heads" that I think deserves repeating:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
Should be REQUIRED READING.
Even with air supremacy and the will to use it, you can still lose or be stalemated.
"Don't those idiots realize that we are even more willing to fight and die on our home turf if need be to keep our loved ones safe and free?"
Apparently not. Maybe it's because so few of them have served or that their value system doesn't recognize absolutes so they can't understand what the consequences of their actions will be.
Or it could be that they just don't give a shit if they personally aren't affected.
I am going to pick one little nit here. Many will hesitate. They will hestiate, not because of cowardice or lack of conviction, but because we have pledged allegiance and taken oaths, that first we must convince ourselves were taken to a nation that no longer exists. If it did still exist, we would be bound by our honor to it.
The name of the replacement nation that we never swore fealty to and that never sought to advance the liberty of its citizens will not be different from that which we did swear our love, loyalty and lives to. After all, the usurpers of our constitutional republic are well aware of the power of "brand identification and loyalty".
Therefore,I posit that a great many men of good character and proven faithfulness will hesitate. At least while they work out the truth that will be hidden from them if possible.
Seriously, we would not want them on our side, if they were not men of conscience. Unfortunately, we will need them more quickly than is likely they can respond while they work out the problem and see it for what it is.
A great many of them are not paying attention at this moment in history. And we may not be able to survive the time of their learning curve when they finally realize that something is wrong.
But I do pick this nit. Because of the good character of many of these men, there will be hesitation, maybe fatal hesitation.
Sort of a Catch 22, ain't it?
Indian Doctor's insight is very powerful and needs to be spread far and wide.
As Robert A. Heinlein once wrote:
"The price of freedom is the willingness to do sudden battle, anywhere, any time and with utter recklessness."
He was right, and those of us who served, who swore an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, understood that price and understood that we may be called upon to pay it at any moment.
It should come as no surprise that we are still, to this day, willing to pay it.
That oath is for life. We took it deadly serious then, and we take it deadly serious now.
And we are OATH KEEPERS.
For us, it is that simple.
But our enemies just don't get it. I think part of the reason is that they are demonstrated OATH BREAKERS, for whom the oath of office was merely some stupid formality they had to mouth on their way to the power and the perks.
They never meant it.
Because they are devoid of honor,and never meant it, they simply cannot understand us oath keepers who did mean it.
In their world, men only do things because they are either forced to do so, or because they are rewarded (paid) handsomely for doing it. They just don't understand free men actually fighting for freedom.
As a result, they monumentally miscalculate our resolve - our "willingness to do sudden battle, anywhere, any time and with utter recklessness."
It wouldn't be the first time our enemies have made this mistake.
throughout our history our enemies have confused the American love of peace, prosperity, and our respect for the rule of law, with weakness.
Parliament and the British Officer Corps made that mistake back in 1775, convinced that the colonists were “cowardly and would never fight the Crown." Major General Alured Clarke famously declared:
"that with a thousand British grenadiers he would undertake to go from one end of American to the other and geld all the males, partly by force and partly with a little coaxing.”
General Hugh Percy shared that opinion – until he experienced the wrath of the Americans swarming around him during the retreat from Lexington. Afterword, he wrote to General Harvey, in England:
"... during the whole affair the Rebels attacked us in a very scattered, irregular manner, but with perseverance and resolution, nor did they ever dare to form into any regular body. Indeed, they knew too well what was proper, to do so.
Whoever looks upon them as an irregular mob, will find himself much mistaken. They have men amongst them who know very well what they are about, having been employed as Rangers against the Indians and Canadians and this country being much covered with wood, and hilly, is very advantageous for their method of fighting. . . . ".
Likewise, the Imperial Japanese Army and the Nazis thought the 1940’s generation of Americans was soft and weak, only to find themselves very much mistaken.
Simply because we love life and the blessings of prosperity does not mean we will not fight, and fight hard.
Some now think we no longer have it in us because we have put up with so much that presumably the Founding Generation would not have tolerated.
But remember, for two full decades before Lexington and Concord the colonists tried to peaceably reconcile their disagreements with Parliament, protesting, petitioning, and filing court cases.
As our Declaration says, “mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”
The Founding Generation exhausted all peaceful means of redress – they tried to work within the system. But “when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government.”
And that is precisely what they did, when Parliament finally attempted to disarm them.
That was the final spark, but the causes of the Revolution ran far deeper than just the attempt to disarm them.
Today, we too have been striving to preserve our rights by peaceful means, working within the system, despite a “long train of abuses.” But that should not be mistaken for weakness or a lack of resolve.
Just as the Founding Generation contained combat veterans who had learned much in the way of irregular warfare from their Indian foes, we too have among us tens of thousands of combat vets who have learned similar lessons and “who know very well what they are about.”
Though many vets are aging, they are still most assuredly dangerous old men who should not be taken lightly.
And they will remember their oaths.
Stewart
(sorry for the long winded comment, but Indian Doctor's comment really struck a chord with me).
Stewart, to put it in a few words, we didn't get old being easy.
Perfectly stated, Stewart. It is all about honor, freedom and doing what you know is right.
straightarrow said...
"Stewart, to put it in a few words, we didn't get old being easy."
Amen. And the older we get, the less we care about ourselves, and the more our focus is on what we leave behind for our children and grand-kids.
Post a Comment