🚀 go-pugleaf

arminius wrote:
> <WakeUp2005@adelphia.net> wrote in message
> news:r66ng1l9amif1hjbcdnoosiii5rigqs9cv@4ax.com...
> 
>>On Tue, 23 Aug 2005 19:09:58 GMT, Bushsucks
>><ImpeachTheDrunkard@moron.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Let's see: For One Trillion Dollars, America could:
>>>
>>> 1. Build a US high speed railway loop ($50b);  AND
>>>
>>> 2. Build brand new school buildings for 50% of public high and
>>>elementary schools with the worst facilities ($250b) AND
>>>
>>> 3. Replace our deteriorating water and sewage systems ($300b) AND
>>>
>>> 4. Provide every student with a new laptop ($25b) AND
>>>
>>> 5. Add 100,000 border guards for the next FIVE years ($50b) AND...
>>>
>>> well - you get the picture - NOW (maybe).
>>>
>>>http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/08/21/opinion/edbilmes.php
>>
>>6. Deport virtually every illegal alien now present in the USA
>>concurrent with instituting a system to expedite the immigration
>>processing of the hundreds of thousands of foreigners who up till now
>>have been patiently-waiting to enter the USA LEGALLY.
>>
>>  Agree with this post? Please consider PASSING IT ON!.
>>  "So, likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another
> 
> produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating
> the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common
> interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays
> the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter . . .
> It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to
> others . . .
> 
>>  "Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to
> 
> believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be
> constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence
> is one of the most baneful foes of republican government . . . Excessive
> partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another cause
> those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil
> and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots who may
> resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and
> odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the
> people to surrender their interests . . .
> 
>>  "Nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies
> 
> against particular nations and passionate attachments for others should be
> excluded, and that in place of them just and amicable feelings toward all
> should be cultivated. The nation which indulges toward another an habitual
> hatred or an habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to
> its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it
> astray from its duty and its interest."
> 
>>        --  President George Washington
>>            Farewell Address
>>            September 26, 1796
> 
> 
> 
this is an open letter because of the price everyone of us pays everyday 
to secure our freedoms here in our country between our two shores..

Ya know, it seems all well and good to count out the what if's to 
suppose something what could never have happened through standard voting 
means.
Noone dont become an activist for those causes in day to day life, only 
when it become a crisis will someone act and garner support for those 
causes.
It is the history of our American culture to act on a crisis, such as 
school over crowding or the border crossing nightmare.
It seems popular to want to hold candle light vigils against the Iraq 
war, and feel good about being an activist to cause, and demand that we 
bring our troops home.
What many people seem to forget is how we got to this day and age. It 
was not with arming a country, nor was it with activism..
It was the continued and never failing support for a cause called 
Democracy.
It was our duty and honor to serve in war. I am not talking about Iraq, 
or Afghanistan or Vietnam or Korea.
What I am talking about is the Cold War. The war to prevent World War 
III. The Last War. The nuclear war....


When I was stationed in West Germany during the Cold War, and the (Evil 
Empire Days) as coined by President Reagan, I had the opportunity to 
serve with hundreds of people just like us that sweated, bled, and died 
during that war.
One of my closest freinds, Captain Glen Dupuis died when his F-16 Falcon 
went down over the Agean Sea close to Herzegovenia. He punched out and 
his body was lost but his aircraft was found.
We were fighting a nuclear armament war during those years, and though 
there was "peace" at the time, many of our brothers and sisters lost 
their lives defending the security of this nation and many others.

Less than 2,000 men and women have died in the Iraqi Conflict, and 
people state that this "tradjedy" (sp) must end and bring our service 
people home....
In Vietnam, over 58,000 U.S. Americans were killed...
During the Cold War, in Europe, over 20,000 men and women had died in 
the line of duty, although those people will never be awared the Purple 
Heart, nor a CMH, nor any other kind of war medal, because it was not a 
declared "war".

Those of us that served there, stood 12-18 hour shifts guarding nuclear 
aircraft, wore chemical and biological warfare suits and masks to 
protect ourselves from incoming WMD's.
We wore our uniforms with the same honor and dignity that the men and 
women whom serve in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the rest of the Middle East 
do now.
We did not get the recognition that these people are getting, pro and con.
Noone remembers the dismanteling (sp) of the SS-20 nuclear missles along 
the East German border, or the fallback to the U.S. of our Ground Launch 
cruise missles which we deployed to counter the Soviet deployment of the 
SS-20 and multiple MIRV missles..
Noone remembers the 283 Marines that were killed in thier barracks in 
Beruit Lebanon, in 1983 (?) (offhand).. Or the Air Force Major who was 
shot and killed by a Muslim extremist of the Red Brigade faction...in 
East Berlin.
Noone knows about the bombing of Hahn Air Base's Officer's Club on a 
Sunday morning, or the Staff Sergeant who was killed when he sat in the 
seat of his Volkswagon Golf and the pressure activated a switch, thereby 
setting off a dynamite filled Kiddie Fire Exstinguisher, under his car..

I honor every single man and woman I fought with, and those I never will 
know, but they proudly, and with honor and dignity, fight in their 
subsequent duties to defend us.
I would die with every single one as I had pledged to in 1979 when I 
first enlisted.
Now that I am on Retired Reserve, and can be called back up to age 60, I 
am prepared every day to serve again if needed.
I will fight with the determination, respect of every american, no 
matter the race, sex, politcal party, or opinion of me or anyone else, 
because that is what I believe in.
I honor and with humble dignity, salute and pray for every man and woman 
who defends us, whether they are in combat or in support. Army, Air 
Force, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard.

Please my freinds, think about those people who have served to get our 
country where it is, and fought in the undeclared wars... Without them, 
(us), We could not be as free as we are today.

Many of us lived in Germany and other European countries, like Britan, 
and Belgium, and Turkey and Spain and Fraince and so on... There were no 
homecoming parades, nor will there ever be.. We are the true Forgotten 
Soldiers and Airmen who will never have a war medal.
BUT the mission, albeit very tough was well worth it.
There are so many stories I could relate here in this forum about the 
events of those years, that would very much make your hair stand on end. 
Of the accidents and almost missions that would have brough certain 
nucleanistic problems for decades to come on the world.
Those are the stories that noone would ever relate because we want to 
forget them.
Of how close we came to the button so many times but were always brought 
back.
Of Operational Tactical Readiness Inspections with always a loaded 
weapon in my hands but never NEVER able to use it.
The frustration of a war that could never be fought with M-16' and 203's...
To have the ability to kill, and never kill.
This is not to seem as if we wanted to, but remember having the ability 
to kill, does not mean you want to.
We were the prevention, the last stand of a time when evil and good were 
defined very easily.
We were the gaurdians of horror... the utter provision of the 
suffereing, the wall of the sponge of pain.
We were the people who had feces thrown on us, when protesters came to 
our fences.
We were the people who were hated and beaten up because we were 
Americans, but vowed to protect those very same people who murdered us 
in effigy.

There is a movement in our country to recognize we warriors that fought 
the Cold War.
The website is:
http://www.coldwarveterans.com/

thank you for your indulgence and patience...

Take the time to read it and let me know what you think.
Thanks again, and May God bless all of you, and our troops who fight to 
defend our way of life.
May everyone come home alive to be fathers and mothers and be free.