trying to grok

Sarah,

All we can do is keep pointing people in the right direction. Kerry's record can be fact checked all over the internet and after last nights speech there are quite a few points we can make.

Kerry says he's a leader.
Fact: Not one piece of legislature has his name on it.

Kerry says he's for the military.
Fact: Not once did he vote for an increase in military spending.

Kerry says he will make the military more hi-tech.
Fact: He did not approve funding for F-14, F-15, F-16, Patriot Missle, AH-64 Apache, etc.

I focused on military issues because of where you are, but most of his 'key note" issues are not backed up by his past voting record. Keep your chin up, all hope is not lost.

Why so much anger? Don't worry.

Hope is on the way.

I am rfidtag and I approve this message.

I'm not entirely sure from which outlets you get your news, but this week, I basically haven't watched TV, because the coverage is constantly on the DNC convention. So this week has been a bad one.

The other day, I saw a young punk driving his souped-up Honda Civic--you know, the kind with the huge spoiler?--with not one, but two Bush/Cheney stickers on the bumper. In PENNSYLVANIA.

This week's convention taints everything in the news. I have no doubt that the media is incredibly biased and trying to influence the election, but I think it will get (a little) better when the Republican convention rolls into town. The thing I most fear is not the pre-election buzz, but the thought of problems with ballot counting.

Hang tough, we'll get there.

I'm actually feeling pretty good about things and the trends I observe in those around me.

Beyond hyped media coverage, I see almost zero enthusiasm for Kerry locally, and quite a bit more for Bush than I did the last time he was elected.

Isn't Iowa a battle ground state?

As a side note, both Kerry and Bush will be in my town on Wednesday the 4th, should be intersting.

I just found your site. I understand your dejection but keep slogging through the swamp of misinformation from the MSM. I enjoy reading blogs from military families. You all help me get through the worry and the uncertainty. Years ago I was in your position as the wife of a deployed soldier, now I am the mother. Deployments are a time of ups and downs (emotionally mostly downs), but it is also a time for us to fight. We must fight against the lies in the media to protect the morale of those overseas. We must fight with the truth. You are performing a service. You are just as important as those doing the heavy lifting in Iraq. Today you have the internet to communicate with others who think as you do. Don't get discouraged - your sanity, your voice, and your web site will help your country, your military, and your husband. The truth will win in the end. GO BUSH.

Kerry will be a smart courageous president just as he was a smart courageous hero in Vietnam. He will be someone the military as well as the general public can and will respect. Unlike the dim bulb in the white house now Kerry will also get the respect of the rest of the world. God knows we need it.

dc,

Just like he was in Vietnam? So your saying we will only get a President for four months? Sounds about right.

Kerry, as you know served two terms of duty in Vietnam, both times as a volunteer. On his second tour he commanded a fast boats up the river into enemy territory. It was on this second tour that Kerry was wounded under fire recieving three purple hearts, a bronze star and a silver star. It was US policy that after taking hostile fire resulting in three injuries any service member has paid his dues in full and was entitled to go stateside. Do you have a problem with the fact that Kerry saw so much action that he did this in only four months?

I have a problem with the fact he put himself in for all those awards. I have a problem with the fact that he bad mouthed his fellow service men when he returned to the US. I have a problem with him taking the one noble thing he ever did (service to the US) and tarnishing it by his actions then and now. That is the problem I have.

Sarah,
Keep the faith.

Kalroy

For those of you "claiming" Kerry nominated himself for his awards had better re-read the citations. Of course re-reading them would involve comprehension, and I see so little of that here. Including the "site-owner"

It's only natural to feel carpet bombed at this point; this is the nadir.
As for me, I'm holding fire until September (except from time to time when I just can't hold back, like today). Remember, we're after the undecided and the backslidden, not the choir or the enemy.
Keep the faith.

There should be no surpise that thoughtful members of the military support Kerry. He is one of the band of brothers brought together and forever bonded by common war experience. Kerry is also a real hero. He is living proof that the US military never leaves a fellow soldier behind. At great personal risk, while injured, he turned his boat around and went back to save the life of Green Beret Rassman who was blown into the water and was taking fire from both sides of the river. Kerry exposed himself to the fire while pulling Rassman into the boat with his good arm. This is the kind of man any soldier can admire and respect as commander in chief. Compare him with Bush and you see why so many soldiers will be voting for Kerry in November.

Sarah - don't be weary - have faith. Any 'man' who returns during a time of war to LIE about our brave soldiers is a traitor. Listen to his words (all of which were disproved go to Winter Soldier to see for yourself).

Here are two sound files that you should send to ANYONE who is feeling down and out. John Kerry is AGAINST using force for ANY reason. Any potential president after 9/11 (and while we're at war) who would say 'we will respond forcefully to any attack' - is missing the point of acting BEFORE we're attacked.

U.S. Soldiers are War Criminals

John Kerry committed war crimes

Keep your chin up. Truth will prevail.

After the Abu Garab prison scandel photos provided documented proof that soldiers in an immoral war without proper supervision can stoop to the level of sadistic tortureres can anyone doubt the veracity of the testimony soldiers gave about their experiences in Vietnam? What do you want, pictures?

Can you not except the testimony of hundreds of US soldiers with nothing to gain but their immortal souls back by telling the truth.

Just as I don't paint supporters of Kerry with the same brush (of ALL being stupid) I WON'T paint all 140,000 soldiers in Iraq as being engaged in criminal behavior.

Our biggest problem isn't Abu Graib - our biggest problem is being sidetracked from the fact that the ENEMY will do worse (and is doing worse) to everyone they get their hands on. They are not part of the Geneva Convention (which doesn't excuse the 20 soldiers that abused prisoners) - but the point is - ONE DIRTY CRIMINAL DOES NOT THE ENTIRE MILITARY MAKE.

I take it you would rather have these atrocities swept under the rug, ingored and unpunished.

Look, Kerry after his service in Vietnam told the truth about what was happening in Vietnam. So too did a soldier recentlyin Iraq just a few short months ago when he anonomously wrote to his commanding officer about the atrocities at Abu Garab. Both did the right thing by telling the truth about what was going on.

You don't like it cause it reflects poorly on the entire military. Tough. But everone knows that it the result of command failure that these things are allowed to happen. Command failure starts at the top. Just like in Vietnam when civilian commanders screwed up, so too is Bush, Rumsfield and the other neocons screwing up in Iraq. Just like in Vietnam where the majority of soldiers thought the war was a mistake so too in Iraq where the majority of soldiers feel likewise. When the civilian leadership scews the pooch big time so that the military looks bad it is no wonder so many people demand a change in that leadership.

Knock it off with the Abu Ghraib crap. I'm sure you've heard of the Stanford Prison Experiment, where regular old college students resorted to torture and humiliation of their fellow students; the experiment had to be called off in a mere five days because it was getting out of control. And these were not insurgents who had actually killed one's brothers in arms; these were classmates divided up arbitrarily. So save me the "command failure" and "immoral war" bullshit. Kathleen is right, the enemy is doing much worse.

Sarah - don't lose hope. I was in a political chatroom recently. Someone was talking about swing states saying this and this state would for sure go to Kerry so they really didn't have anything to worry about. One of those states was Minnesota. I told the person Minnesota was not "in the bag" for Kerry. It was very close and that Minnesota's Republican base has grown over the past 10 yrs to the point of the state being almost evenly split. The person was amazed and had no clue and could only say but Minnesota has always gone for the Democrats. I told the person President Bush only lost by 4% in the 2000 race. They had no clue and that is I think going to be the downfall of rank and file Democrats. They don't listen!

Sarah, you proved my point about 'command failure' and out of controll soldiers by reference to the Stanford Prison Experiment. How else to explain perfectly norman Americans acting in such perfectly atrocious ways?

What I don't get however is how you can excuse any soldiers angry lashing out at the enemy just because they killed one of his brothers in arms. Isn't that exactly what the enemy is supposed to do? It is a simple fact of war that while our soldiers are trying to kill them they are likewise trying to kill ours. As human beings I am sure that fighters on both sides feel anger and hatred towards each other. After all they are trying to kill each other. But in a professional military these emotions cannot be allowed to be expressed through torture or the brutilization of the other side. You may scoff at the moral constraints on warfare but let me reassure you, once we lose the moral high ground the war is as good as lost militarily as well.

The fundamental problem is that those who control most of the communications channels in this country...from news commentators to entertainers to college professors...have decided to destroy Bush, and they are using the full resources of their organizations to accomplish this. (These are resources that do not belong to them; they belong to the shareholders, taxpayers, or whoever..but this doesn't deter them.) The behavior is particularly egregious in the case of the major networks and their affliates, who have government-protected monopolies (in the form of their licenses ri exclusive frequencies) and who thus have an affirmative duty to present things in a reasonably balanced way, but seem to be making remarkably little attempt to do so.

Thank goodness for the Internet.

Sarah:

You WILL NOT give up! "Never, ever, ever, give up!" You know who rallied his fellow citizens with those words.

To borrow from Sir Winston some more, I am one of the "so many" who "owe so much" to you, one of the "so few". In this new information age, where the mainstream media are so obviously advocating for Kedwards, and are so viscerally antagonistic toward the Iraq campaign, and subtly (and sometimes not-so-subtly) antagonistic toward your husband, Gator Six, SFC Chromey, LCDR Smash, and all the other men and women who are giving of themselves for us their families, and their comrades-in-arms--we here in the states who don't have someone close to the field of battle, we NEED the Sarahs,Mrs. Chromedomes, the Tims. We even need the Citizen Smashes, too, who come back, see the situation here, assess it, and defend his C in C (and the justness of this campaign), and tells the TRUTH.

You, Sarah, are a bearer of truth. Many of the Old Testament prophets open their books with the phrase, "The BURDEN of the Lord...": bearing the truth is a burden. Sometimes bearing the truth sucks. But you chose to marry your Soldier-husband. He chose to enlist (or be commissioned?). Of course, neither of you chose this world, this time of national crisis. But perhaps Divine Providence has placed you there? (I confess: (I hold to the concept espoused by our founding fathers which they alluded to in our Declaration of Independence.) "Who knows but that you were born for such a time as this?"

Long, I know. But meant to encourage you. I do wish I could contribute again. I served in the USN back in the Carter years, and am now too old--besides, I understand the Navy is going to draw down some 8,000 Sailors in FY '05! What are they thinking?! Oh, well a different topic, a different post.

Keep the faith, check six, and steady as she goes.

GBY,

Jim

To DC:

You, sir (I assume), are (to be charitable) out of line. You engage in non sequitur postings, and throw up specious arguments, and attempt to condemn the whole by taking the micro and extrapolating out to the macro. Typical stunt performed by lazy polemists.

Speaking of non-sequiturs, I know without a doubt there is no gold in Alaska. I've never found any there (of course, that I've never been to Alaska may or may not be germane to the issue--all depends on which political party I am a member of). In like manner, that there have "only" been 35 155mm howitzer shells packed with binary sarin found in Iraq, since I haven't found any, I suppose that means there aren't any stockpiles.

Don't bother arguing; you would be wasting your time as well as mine and Sarah's: She and I, as well as all of us who look at this world without rose-colored glasses are not going to be swayed by malarky and nonsense.

Cordially,

Jim