While Sen. John Kerry and others in the Democratic party think military service is only for rubes and rightwingers, and it’s not even worth mentioning the opinions of Hollywood, academia, and liberal media effetes elites, there’s only one perspective on this matter that really counts — and that’s coming from the soldiers themselves.

It is our great honor and privilege to share a timely letter we received this morning:

—
Subject: why I serve
Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2006 11:56:57 -0500
From: “Washburn-Neal, Grace M SFC USAR”
To: entries@reportingforduty.org

Hello,

My name is SFC Grace Washburn-Neal. I have been in the US Army for just over 18 years.

I joined the Army for one reason. I love my country. From the time I was a small child I can remember, when my birthday would come around and my Mother would ask me, what kind of cake I wanted. I would always tell her a red, white and blue cake. My birthday is in August, so my Mom would always try to convince me to get a cake with summer colors and I would always refuse. I cannot imagine what it would be like to grow up in a country that women are degraded in. Children cannot go to school, your life being dictated in every way by one man.

It is very sad and frightening to know that the United States could possibly end up like this, if terrorism takes over this country. This is the seriousness and reality that American’s do not realize these days.

We have soldiers dying everyday for this country. No one wants to go to war, but if we do not have enough soldiers to fight for our freedom, then we will be destroyed.

I have a family and I know how hard it is for my family to go through what soldier’s families go through knowing they could lose a loved one and all those families who have already lost loved ones. As a soldier I choose to make these sacrifices everyday because I want to continue to have my freedom in the United States of America.

I will give my life for my country, if that is what it takes to keep the Democracy and Freedom in this country.

—

Publisher’s note: We are profoundly impressed by this letter and proudly recognize this soldier for being a great American. We also consider this just one great example of the strength and spirit of the men and women who serve our nation in the U.S. military. Read the letter again. Print it out. Pass it on. Share it with your friends.

God bless our troops and the freedom which they preserve for us.

UPDATE:
Michelle Malkin: “Bush rises to the occasion”

Technorati Tags: John Kerry, Military, Democrats

1. Kerry should be smart enough to apologize…

   UPDATE III: California Conservative has a letter from a real soldier on why he serves. Apologize, dude!…

   Trackback by Don Surber — October 31, 2006 @ 5:16 pm

2. Rats Deserting Sinking Ship…

   John Kerry has canceled all appearances in the wake of his insults and lies about the U.S. military and now Democrats are distancing themselves and calling on him to apologize. Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Harold Ford Jr:“Whatever the intent, Sen…

   Trackback by Cop The Truth — November 1, 2006 @ 2:56 pm

1. If you read the full transcript of Kerry’s speech or see a video of the whole thing, it’s absolutely clear that he’s talking about Bush getting stuck in Iraq, not the troops.

   DO you have ANY critical thinking faculties whatsoever? Do you have to swallow every ridiculous lie that comes out of GOP, no matter how completely divorced form reality?

   Comment by Jake — October 31, 2006 @ 5:23 pm

2. “You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.” — Sen. John Kerry

   Translation: Military service is only for the uneducated.

   Comment by California Conservative — October 31, 2006 @ 5:32 pm

3. Okay Gary, it’s clear you don’t have any critical thinking abilities, so let’s look at the context of what Sen. Kerry said.

   Appearing before Pasadena City College, The Associated Press reported that Sen. Kerry “made the remark after opening his speech with several one-liners, saying at one point that Bush had lived in Texas but now ‘lives in a state of denial’” to great applause. He then, foolishly, went on to mangle the delivery of one very pointed comment: “If you don’t, you get [us] stuck in Iraq” line, omitting the critical modifier “us” which, grammatically would have reflected back to Bush and his C-average grades throughout his education. (For those of you who don’t know, at Yale a “C” is the equivalent of failing.)

   Once again, this is a bunch of idiots who have never served in the Armed Forces for a single day — and that includes Bush, who should have been court-martialed for his failure to report for duty — running the brave men and women in our military into the ground, and then using their sacrifices for political purposes. What shame, what disgrace and what failure the republiCONs have brought to this country.

   So go ahead, go for it. Squeal about Sen. Kerry’s remarks. This, too, will backfire.

   Oh yeah… where in the world is Osama bin Laden?

   Comment by Stop Bush! — October 31, 2006 @ 6:33 pm

4. If, as his defenders claim, he merely mangled the punch line, then why is he unable to apologise for his mistake to the troops. Regardless of whether he meant to do so, his statement DID malign the US military. If it was an honest mistake, it should be simple for him to say (e.g.)” I’m sorry that what I said came out badly. I did not intend to insult the fine people in the military, and apologise for inadvertantly doing so.” Had he done so he would have come out looking like a person who takes responsibility for his mistakes and tries to correct them. As it is he comes off as arrogant and evasive.

   Comment by downie — October 31, 2006 @ 9:23 pm

5. First of all, StopBush. This isn’t Gary’s article. It’s a letter from an 18-year career Army veteran. Show a little respect, although it’s unfamiliar to you.

   Secondly, you are a perpetual amusement on this site, with your ad hominem attacks and long-winded, link-laden rebuttals.

   But we ask again: Once Pres. Bush leaves office in ‘08, will your existence cease? It’s already largely irrelevant, but even a gnat gets annoying after a while.

   P.S. Where’s Osama? Why so trite. If you had him, would you turn him over? Of course not. Because everything you (and your ilk) stand for is to undermine the President of the United States. You hope for failure, and resent any success.

   So, keep rooting for Osama and the Taliban. After all, if they get caught, it only helps Bush. And you are only interested in Stopping him.

   Comment by California Conservative — October 31, 2006 @ 10:04 pm

6. Jake, too late for spin everyone knows now Kerry is a koook. Even dailykos Libs are saying he went too far. ha ha

   “this is a bunch of idiots”

   No SB, this is Kerry alone putting his idiocy into full gear. Isn’t it great? ;)

   Comment by trevor — October 31, 2006 @ 10:38 pm

7. CalCON, thanks for the notes about posting here. I am achieving my goal by speaking out here rather than on DailyKoz, MyDD, etc. If I can reach just one reader and cause them to think, I feel good. Once the long national nightmare ends and Bush leaves office, my work will not be finished any more than Karl Rove’s. I’d be willing to make a deal… I’ll never post again, anywhere, if Karl Rove will fade into obscurity.

   I show no disrepesct for anyone who wears our nation’s uniform. In fact, I routinely thank service members for their committment, sacrifice and service. I have had numerous conversations as a result of stopping men and women in uniform on the street to thank them. It usually lasts only a moment, with a handshake and sincere appreciation in their eyes. On occasion, however, they start talking as though no one had spoken to them in years. I have heard many heart wrenching stories of loss, pain and suffering. I have begun to form an opinion that our military is going through an experience similar to Vietnam veterans who suffered indiginities upon coming home.

   They all say that we don’t know what’s going on in Iraq. One young man who had been home for 3 weeks when we spoke told me of how he had become indifferent to seeing human beings laying dead in the street, and it scared him becuase he saw a homeless person asleep on the sidewalk, and his first thought was worrying about it being wired with explosives, and wondering how long the body would lay there. He told me a routine day in Iraq was picking up an average of 60 bodies, including women and children.

   A routine day.

   That conversation was about 3 months ago, and I can only imagine what it must be like in Iraq this past month, the worst for US fatalities in over 2 years.

   Bush and co. posture for the cameras, say they hold the military in the highest esteem, but when they’re told that the situation in Iraq is untenable, that there must be a change of course, they fire and banish the messenger. He says he listens to the generals on the ground, but just as soon as one of the generals says anything contrary to the official Bush line, they’re undermined, discredited and pushed out. The Rove slime machine is well oiled — pun fully intended.

   I worry about the families of the nearly 3000 soldiers who have died in Iraq, and the estimated 20,000 who have suffered life-altering and debilitating injuries. And God knows how many Iraqis have been killed. I say estimated because the Bush administration will not release any accurate figures. You accuse me of not being respectful and not supporting the president. Yet when confronted with the toll of his actions, Bush cannot find it within himself to acknowledge the sacrifices of our soldiers, the loss of life in Iraq, and the overall cost of this mistake. Why can’t the administration admit their mistakes, and not just on Iraq, but elsewhere?

   You’re all in a dither over a stupid joke gone awry Sen. Kerry told. Let’s assume for a moment that the joke was told as intended, and it was meant to insult to our troops. Now, let’s compare insulting our troops by calling them “uneducated” with sending them into battle without a plan for victory, without adequate armor, and without a thought as to the enormous toll of committing our troops to actions that will consume at least a decade, if not multiple decades, before being resolved.

   Sticks and stones
   may break my bones
   but names will never hurt me.

   Finally, let me address your rediculous assertion that I somehow root for bin Laden and the Taliban. I purposefully insert this question to annoy CONservatives, to remind you that, as the party in power, you have failed, and starting with job #1. Do any of you recall Bush in Crawford saying, “We have an old saying out West… dead or alive.” I do. What happened? The various republiCON candidates across the land laud Bush building “the best Army in the world” almost every day, but we can’t catch a 7-foot tall Arab who needs daily dialysis? We capture al-Queda’s “number 2″ on a routine basis, and even with “no-brainer” torture and rendition to countries that have no problem drilling holes into live human skulls, we can’t find where bin Laden is hiding? What’s wrong with this picture?

   Maybe, afterall, what John Kerry did was not so stupid. He’s not running for anything. By insulting the military, it only reminds the American people that we’re still in Iraq, we’re still losing soldiers every day, still spilling blood and spending our treasure to bring democracy to a people who wouldn’t know freedom from the hole in the ground where their home used to be.

   I hope we catch bin Laden, quash the Taliban, establish a thriving democracy in Iraq, stop Iran from building nukes, disarm North Korea, stop the genocide in Darfur, and more. However, platitudes and positioning mean nothing. Forgive my doubt that we will achieve any of these worthy goals, until we have what we are sorely now missing: real leadership.

   Comment by Stop Bush! — November 1, 2006 @ 12:05 pm

8. If I’m not mistaken, Bush served longer in the military than Kerry. And yes, Nat.Guard is duty, or do you libs want to malign them as well?

   No one can defend John Kerry. Period. The real joke read, “If you get an education, you won’t wind up in Iraq. Just ask George Bush.” How exactly is that different? Beside the fact that George W. Bush’s GPA (grade point average) at Yale was higher than Kerry’s, he still states that if a student gets an education he can avoid going to Iraq.

   John Kerry is a man who volunteered for service in Vietnam to ensure a short tour, escaping a year or 2 tour that every other draftee or volunteer faced in the 70’s. He served in Vietnam from November 1968 to March of 1969 for a grand total of FOUR MONTHS. This is a man who who injured himself to avoid continuing service in Vietnam. This is a man who, once he returned to the US, bought medals from a military surplus store, which he lobbied laboriously to get, and threw them over the White House wall to show how much he distained his service and those awards.

   By the way, why do you libs throw around the term “neocon”? Isn’t that synonomous with supporting the Jews? That means you’re antisemetic, right? YOu must be proud.

   Anyone who can show how this was a joke gone awry, please explain. The original comment,again, was supposed to be: “If you get an education, you won’t wind up in Iraq. Just ask George Bush.” Fine, but that still slams the troops because it is not Bush on the ground in Iraq, but the troops. This is a nobrainer.

   Slamming the Comamnder in Chief is no better. Kerry is a communist and a soldier who did everything he could to denounce his service in Vietnam, even lie about it to hurt the war effort.

   Kerry has made many anti-troop remarks over the years. The people trying to say this is just a bad joke gone back is trying to conduct damage control. It’s that simple.

   We’re an active duty Army family. We know what Kerry meant. None of it is good. He does NOT respect the troops and he DOES think we’re stupid. He cannot understand a patriotism that sparks a young man just out of high school (or leaves the NFL) to serve America in a time of war. This idea is foreign to him. He does not get it. Remember the book he wrote, The New Soldier with the flag upside on the cover? THAT is the real John Kerry.

   We in the military feel offended and insulted. Kerry is not a patriot nor a friend of the military.

   Comment by Amy Proctor — November 1, 2006 @ 3:10 pm

9. Amy,

   With all due respect, your response is full of holes.

   Bush served longer in the military than Kerry…Nat.Guard is duty

   Umm… proof? Of course, this is assuming that Bush’s “service” was actually served. I believe we’re talking about a guy who couldn’t be bothered to take time away from campaigning a state over to come back for a physical? And let’s not even discuss Cheney’s “other priorities” that got him out of serving.

   Without maligning anyone, there is a difference between the National Guard and the Armed Forces, at least there was until Iraq. Now we’re pushing the NG to perform the military role overseas. There is a reason we call it the National Guard. It is too bad that we’ve come to using the National Guard for military purposes, and I think we all saw the upshot of this policy last Summer in New Orleans.

   George W. Bush’s GPA (grade point average) at Yale was higher than Kerry’s

   Source? Where are you coming up with these claims?

   John Kerry is a man…

   So now we’re supposed to think that VOLUNTEERING FOR SERVICE is worse than NOT SHOWING UP? OBTAINING FIVE DEFERMENTS FOR “OTHER PRIORITIES?” Hardly! Amy, you’ve been drinking the kool-aid. Anyone who volunteered to go to Vietnam is a hero, and should be respected as much. For God’s sake, he was injured in the line of duty! What more do you wingnuts have to see before you’ll respect a member of the Armed Forces for sacrificing for their country? It’s pretty disgusting that you’re willing to denegrate an honored veteran and esteemed Senator, simply because of your partisan poltics.

   Now, as to what he did with his medals, well, they are his medals to do with what he pleases. If he tossed them over the fence to make a point and stand up for what he believes in, so be it. Who are you to question what a war hero does with his medals?

   Further, I didn’t defend Kerry’s remarks at the Pasadena City College. In fact, I stated in simple and clear language that I thought he should apologize for the remark, regardless of what he meant to say, and he has apologized for it, TWICE. But, that’s just not good enough for you republiCONs, is it? Why don’t we tar and feather Kerry in the town square, and get it over with already.

   By the way, why do you libs throw around the term “neocon”?

   Umm… Google it. Do you even know what you’re talking about?

   Slamming the Comamnder in Chief is no better…

   Okay, so now we’re not supposed to criticize the President. I’m glad you’ve said that. WHY THE H-E-DOUBLE TOOTHPICKS DID EVERY REPULIcon ON THE PLANET DO NOTHING BUT CRITIZE CLINTON? I’ll tell you what: you and your ilk take back every criticism of Clinton that you’ve made, and I’ll take back my remarks about Bush. I’ll even change my login name to “Stop ____” and CalCON can hold a contest to choose the name.

   We in the military feel offended and insulted.

   And Sen. Kerry is sorry for your offense, and has apologized. Why don’t you grow up and gracefully accept the apology?

   Kerry is not a patriot nor a friend of the military.

   In your opinion. In my opinion, he is a patriot, and honorable Senator, and deserving of the same regard accorded all public officials.

   Amy, I have nothing but respect for your family’s sacrifice to service in our Armed Forces. You, however, are seriously deluded. Your freedom to speak your mind comes at a cost, and John Kerry has been a leading advocate for your rights throughout his career. You don’t have to like him, you can criticize him, and you can certainly work to elect somebody else. But remember, if it not for men like John Kerry, this country would not be what it is today.

   And with that, I think it time to put this thread to bed.

   Comment by Stop Bush! — November 1, 2006 @ 9:04 pm

10. SB evidently doesn’t have a day job.

    further debate is futile because it’s not about facts, but who has more time on his hands to squander on empty rhetoric.

    Amy, let SB go to bed. so far, he’s a nightmare.

    Comment by Kris Larson — November 1, 2006 @ 9:43 pm