SwiftVets.com

[Mother]

some embedded with our troops.
I really hate posting this stuff without a response or plan of action to counteract. But I'm speechless.

I was gonna quit smoking, but I lit the whole pack.

Fresh attacks have appeared -against this Marine-
and now also against U.S. Rep. Walter B. Jones, Jr. -Rep. N.C. (a staunch supporter of US veterans in an area with more military bases/personnel per capita than anywhere in the US.

I received a very nice response from the corporate offices of Cox News about my compliments to our weekly newspaper. Link to the letter:
http://www.swiftvets.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.phpt=17736&highlight=letter+leader

But was it lip service? Seven days later, yesterday, an editorial appeared in a larger weekly Cox newspaper The Daily Reflector in Greenville, North Carolina... the editorial and my response are posted below. The email addresses of Cox's corporate and Greenville administrative folks are listed in the event any of you feel compelled to comment.
BTW the Reflector motto (est. 1882) is "Truth in Preference to Fiction"
and I had a pretty good relationship with these newspaper folks...until yesterday. This is not a "letter to the editor", I feel sure that IF I could pare it down to the required 300 words that it would not be fit to print.
We have two Iraq veterans in the circulation area who actually supported the war effort...whose widows likely read this paper.



From: "Mark Wilson" <mwilson@coxnews.com>
To: "Julie Rose" <jrose28530@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Thank You
Date: Fri, 3 Dec 2004 10:23:14 -0500

Julie,
Thank you for such a great letter. I too am proud of Amanda, Mitchell and The Times-Leader. They do an excellent job for their community.
Also, thank you and your son for your sacrifices. We will be praying for his safe return.
Mark Wilson


http://www.reflector.com/news/content/news/opinion/stories/2004/12/10/20041210GDReditorial.html
The Daily Reflector, December 10, 2004
Wrong Way
On Nov. 16, media around the world broadcast video of U.S. Marines entering a mosque in Fallujah, and one of those Marines killing a wounded and presumably unarmed Iraqi insurgent with a single point-blank shot to the head. The response was swift, overwhelmingly condemning what appears to be a rash and brutal act by a lone American soldier.
U.S. Rep. Walter B. Jones Jr. saved his criticism for a different target - the cameraman who filmed the scene and those who aired it. In fact, the 3rd District Republican recently wrote Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld requesting that embedding, the process that places reporters and cameras with American troops in combat, be halted.
Freedom of the press was included in the Bill of Rights with a purpose, to ensure that information about the government and its actions be freely available to the people for their judgment. Even as U.S. troops are fighting to establish that freedom in Iraq, it would seem Jones would have it eroded at home. It is antithetical to democracy, and citizens should hope that Rumsfeld and the Bush administration view it as such.
Like all Americans, Jones wants the best for U.S. soldiers fighting terrorists overseas. His record in the House show strong support for the military, which is not surprising given that his district includes Camp Lejeune and Cherry Point. Jones wants the nation’s leadership to do all in its power to provide for troops’ protection, and he should hope that those wearing the American flag conduct themselves at the highest moral level.
In the matter of the Fallujah mosque, that does not appear to be what happened. A court will decide that question, and the military has pledged to investigate. Americans, however, are left to wonder how many such events occur when the cameras are not rolling.
If Jones had his way, citizens would not know. He believes that images like this harm American soldiers and help the enemy. He fears the possibility of a soldier hesitating in battle because of the media’s presence, and compromising safety as a result.
Perhaps Jones also believes that questioning the government’s actions helps the enemy. Perhaps he would rather Americans not have a full view of a country where more than 1,000 brave men and women have given their lives. Perhaps he would rather that acts like this, or the prison torture that came to light this year, be swept under the rug.
Thankfully, Americans do not agree. They want information about Iraq and this nation’s efforts there. They want to know why Americans continue to die in Iraq, nearly 20 months after the president declared our mission to be accomplished there. And they want confirmation that the overwhelming majority of those doing the fighting in Iraq are representing this nation with honor, decency and compassion. Reports from the front lines and with troops fighting American’s enemies help accomplish that.
Jones should view embedding as a tool that places information in citizens’ hands. He should focus on helping that effort rather than harming it.


Corporate: dmwilson@coxnews.com, toder@coxnews.com, contactus@coxenterprises.com,
Greenville Administration: jwhichard@coxnews.com, aclark@coxnews.com
I also included sowell@stanford.edu in the email as I had included his column in the first letter
and felt he might be interested in keeping up with the issue.


December 10, 2004
Gentleman and/or ladies,
Below you will find an earlier correspondence written to Cox Enterprises regarding journalistic efforts, followed by today‘s editorial in the Greenville, North Carolina Daily Reflector. I write again, days later, to express my complete dismay that Cox Enterprises did not take my thoughts truly to heart nor understand the context from which it was written, to the end that such efforts would be corporately emulated.
Included with my earlier correspondence for reference is other various and sundry information.
First, there was NOT a swift, overwhelmingly condemning response to what might have been portrayed as a rash and and brutal act by a lone American soldier as alleged in today's edition. If Cox News’ Daily Reflector had checked the facts, would it have have had the integrity to print them?
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?as123
400 signatures an hour, from one signature every other second to several a second, in the first twenty four hours of the petition 1198 in thirty minutes 208550 Total Signatures at 2227 Eastern - 6640 signatures in four hours! 220,776 Signatures…
331945
total signatures to date
This editorial states emphatically that a United States Representative has a proven record whereby he “wants the best for…” “shows strong support for…” “wants the nation’s leadership to do all in its power to provide for…” the United State military.
This editorial states “he believes images like this harm American soldiers and help the enemy. He fears the possibility of a soldier hesitating in battle…compromising safety as a result.“
This editorial blows a rod stating “perhaps he would rather Americans not have a full view of a country where more than 1,000 brave men and women have given their lives.” I take real offense at the this statement. I believe Rep. Jones and a great many Americans are greatly misrepresented. I believe Rep. Jones, along with 331,945 other people to date make the statement, clearly, that we would rather stand next to this Marine than a reporter. I believe we would also rather have America’s sons and daughters next to this Marine than a reporter.
This editorial blows a head gasket when it says, “Thankfully, Americans do not agree” (that the practice of embedding reporters should be halted).
Certainly Americans want information about Iraq and our nation’s efforts there. Americans should be able to safely assume that American media would do everything in its power to providing information which is an asset to our military. There is something significantly wrong with the fabric of this nation when we can not trust American media to place with the welfare of America's military as its first priority.
I am so disheartened when I see statements by The Daily Reflector which state Americans haven't figured out why Americans continue to die in Iraq. I find that trite.
I ask that with each letter tapped out on a keyboard, with a debt of gratitude to those who have died, whose survivors may be reading the paper, that inflammatory statements not be permitted.
“…they (Americans) want confirmation that the overwhelming majority of those doing the fighting in Iraq are representing this nation with honor, decency and compassion.” Yes, we would. When might we expect that?
The Reflector states our United States Representative should view embedding as a tool that places information in citizens’ hands. Some of us, 331,945 to date, view some reporting as a tool that places hate in jihadists’ hearts. He should focus on helping that effort rather than harming it? This editorial is not a one time occurence. This happens on a daily basis all over America.
I wish that Walter B. Jones, Jr. had not felt it necessary to request removal of reporters. But the slap in the face of this editorial to any military families, with living or dead, proves the point. Armchair quarterbacking is acceptable in the living room. Irresponsible media coverage with American lives is not.
There was not one positive headline in the National section of today’s issue, unless one considers another sales gain for McDonald‘s positive.

Julie Rose

(This was included with my letter)
Wall Street Journal
November 18, 2004
Pg. 18
Some 40 Marines have just lost their lives cleaning out one of the world's worst terror dens, in Fallujah, yet all the world wants to talk about is the NBC videotape of a Marine shooting a prostrate Iraqi inside a mosque. Have we lost all sense of moral proportion?
The al-Zarqawi TV network, also known as Al-Jazeera, has broadcast the tape to the Arab world, and U.S. media have also played it up. The point seems to be to conjure up images again of Abu Ghraib, further maligning the American purpose in Iraq . Never mind that the pictures don't come close to telling us about the context of the incident, much less what was on the mind of the soldier after days of combat.
Put yourself in that Marine's boots. He and his mates have had to endure some of the toughest infantry duty imaginable, house-to-house urban fighting against an enemy that neither wears a uniform nor obeys any normal rules of war. Here is how that enemy fights, according to an account in the Times of London:
"In the south of Fallujah yesterday, U.S. Marines found the armless, legless body of a blonde woman, her throat slashed and her entrails cut out. Benjamin Finnell, a hospital apprentice with the U.S. Navy Corps, said that she had been dead for a while, but at that location for only a day or two. The woman was wearing a blue dress; her face had been disfigured. It was unclear if the remains were the body of the Irish-born aid worker Margaret Hassan, 59, or of Teresa Borcz, 54, a Pole abducted two weeks ago. Both were married to Iraqis and held Iraqi citizenship; both were kidnapped in Baghdad last month."
When not disemboweling Iraqi women, these killers hide in mosques and hospitals, booby-trap dead bodies, and open fire as they pretend to surrender. Their snipers kill U.S. soldiers out of nowhere. According to one account, the Marine in the videotape had seen a member of his unit killed by another insurgent pretending to be dead. Who from the safety of his Manhattan sofa has standing to judge what that Marine did in that mosque?
Beyond the one incident, think of what the Marine and Army units just accomplished in Fallujah. In a single week, they killed as many as 1,200 of the enemy and captured 1,000 more. They did this despite forfeiting the element of surprise, so civilians could escape, and while taking precautions to protect Iraqis that no doubt made their own mission more difficult and hazardous. And they did all of this not for personal advantage, and certainly not to get rich, but only out of a sense of duty to their comrades, their mission and their country.
In a more grateful age, this would be hailed as one of the great battles in Marine history -- with Guadalcanal, Peleliu, Hue City and the Chosin Reservoir. We'd know the names of these military units, and of many of the soldiers too. Instead, the name we know belongs to the NBC correspondent, Kevin Sites.
We suppose he was only doing his job, too. But that doesn't mean the rest of us have to indulge in the moral abdication that would equate deliberate televised beheadings of civilians with a Marine shooting a terrorist, who may or may not have been armed, amid the ferocity of battle.
Semper Fi

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=4088


To send a comment to U.S. Rep. Walter B. Jones, Jr., R-NC
http://www.house.gov/jones/html/contact_email.html

[Mother]

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=561
December 12th, 2004 5:56 am
Falluja Atrocities Expose True Face of U.S. War
By Joseph Nevins / Common Dreams
Images of a U.S. marine killing an unarmed wounded prisoner during the recent battle for Falluja resulted in widespread shock, leading the Pentagon to withdraw the soldier from battle and launch an investigation. However, the issue--similar to Abu Ghraib--has served as a smokescreen, diverting attention from much larger atrocities and the very nature of war.
No doubt many U.S. soldiers took care in Falluja--as elsewhere in Iraq--to respect international humanitarian law and avoid injuring civilians. But as throughout the U.S. invasion and the ongoing conflict, war crimes and civilian casualties were frequent and often systematic, rather than rare and exceptional.
In breach of the Geneva Conventions, for example, U.S. troops refused to allow males of "military-age" (16 to 55)--defining them all as potential enemy combatants--to flee Falluja. Given the heavy American bombardment of the city, one wonders how many of these men are among the estimated 1,200 to 1,600 categorized by U.S. authorities as dead insurgents.
American military commanders first stated there was no evidence of civilian casualties in Falluja. Now, the Pentagon has accepted responsibility and offered compensation for the death of a family of seven, including a three-month-old baby. Yet it still only admits to having killed a few.
Press accounts, however, described Fallujas streets as littered with corpses. One high-level International Committee of the Red Cross official in Iraq estimated in mid-November that there were "at least 800 civilians" among the dead. More recently, the Iraqi Red Crescent estimated that more than 6,000 people may have died in the battle.
Eyewitness and survivor reports make clear that U.S. forces were responsible--often deliberately--for most of the victims.
At least five fatalities were patients at a Falluja clinic bombed by U.S. forces--despite promising that they would spare the facility. A clinic doctor stated that American snipers killed many civilians, the youngest a four-year-old boy. An Associated Press photographer described U.S. helicopters shooting people trying to ford a river to safety. Among those slain was a family of five.
Similar to the free-fire zones of Vietnam, U.S. forces in Falluja had instructions that they could shoot anyone under the assumption that those left in the city were hostile. As a teacher who witnessed two civilians shot and killed by American troops told the Independent of London, "The only way to stay alive was to stay inside and hope your house did not get hit by a shell."
Given such rules of engagement and what war does to those who wage it, it would be foolhardy to see the execution of the wounded prisoner as an isolated occurrence. Indeed, some of the fellow marines of the soldier who pulled the trigger openly support his actions: "I would have shot the insurgent too. Two shots to the head," stated one. "You can't trust these people."
Such callousness combined with deadly firepower have led to an Iraqi death toll of horrific proportions. An October article in Britain's most respected medical journal, The Lancet, estimated 100,000 Iraqis had died due to war-related violence, mostly from aerial bombings. Over two-thirds of the fatalities have been women, children or elderly--non-combatants, in other words. The Geneva Conventions require occupying militaries to protect civilians from violence and prohibit the use of disproportionate and indiscriminate force. As the death toll in Falluja and throughout Iraq shows, the Pentagon has failed to comply. When such transgressions are isolated, they are war crimes. When they are systematic, they constitute crimes against humanity.
From Vietnam to Nicaragua to Washington's ongoing efforts to undermine the International Criminal Court, American political and military leaders have long insulated themselves from accountability for their illegal behavior overseas. The resulting culture of impunity permitted the Bush administration to launch its illegal invasion of Iraq and has allowed the Pentagon to commit atrocities with little fear of punishment.
Failure to combat official crimes has exacted high costs--at home and especially abroad--and will continue to do so barring far-reaching change. Because Congress is unwilling to hold accountable high-level officials for war-related crimes, it is the American public's political and moral responsibility to reign in Washington. By acting upon this responsibility, a mobilized citizenry can help end the Iraq debacle and lessen the likelihood that U.S. soldiers are even in a position to commit future atrocities.
Joseph Nevins is an assistant professor of geography at Vassar College. Cornell University Press will release his latest book, A Not-So-Distant Horror: Mass Violence in East Timor, in early 2005.

**Interestingly, my son has been at PI for less than a week and has received two postcards from the Red Cross asking for his blood.

[Mother]

www.michaelmoore.com
December 11th, 2004 1:26 pm
GI Gets Three Years for Killing Iraqi


By Paul Garwood / Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A U.S. soldier was sentenced to three years in prison for killing a severely wounded Iraqi teenager, the military said Saturday, while insurgents staged attacks in several cities, killing at least 10 Iraqis, including three police colonels, two Shiite clerics and a judge.

Six American soldiers also were wounded in separate attacks in northern Iraq.

Staff Sgt. Johnny M. Horne Jr., 30, of Wilson, N.C., pleaded guilty on Friday to one count of unpremeditated murder and one count of soliciting another soldier to commit unpremeditated murder.

His sentencing included a reduction in rank to private, forfeiture of wages and a dishonorable discharge.

The charges relate to the Aug. 18 killing of a 16-year-old Iraqi male found in a burning truck with severe abdominal wounds sustained during clashes in Baghdad's Sadr City, an impoverished neighborhood that was the scene of fierce fighting between U.S. forces and Shiite rebels loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

A criminal investigator had said during an earlier hearing that the soldiers decided to kill him to "put him out of his misery."

A jury-like panel of seven service members late Friday sentenced Horne — who is attached to Company C, 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment, based in Fort Riley, Kan. — after about four hours of deliberations, the military said on Saturday.

Deadly ambushes, suicide car bombings and roadside bomb blasts took place across the country, killing at least 10 Iraqis and wounding six U.S. soldiers.

U.S. soldiers were ambushed late Friday in Ramadi, a hotbed of anti-American violence 70 miles west of Baghdad, by insurgents firing rocket propelled grenades and small arms from the city's hospital and medical academy, the Marines claimed in a statement Saturday.

Insurgents hid inside the Ramadi General Hospital and Medical College and in nearby areas waiting for the soldiers to move into their ambush zone, said Capt. Bradley Gordon, spokesman for the 1st Marine Division of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

"Some of the muzzle flashes of insurgent firing positions were observed as originating from windows within the hospital," he said.

Officials from both the Ramadi General Hospital and Medical College, rejected the U.S. claims that they were used in the ambush, but said fighting occurred nearby.

Two Iraqi civilians, including judge Omar Abdul Aziz Rashid, were killed during fighting, but no U.S. casualties were reported.

"It was very hard to identify my husband's body, because it was charred inside the car," the judge's wife, Dr. Eman Abdul Qadre, said.

Separately, police on Saturday found seven bodies apparently killed several days ago and dumped near a highway about 20 miles west of Ramadi.

Lt. Col. Ziyad al-Jubouri said the seven didn't look Iraqi, while a hospital official said two Sudanese men asked about the bodies at the morgue. The Sudanese Embassy said it has heard of the grisly finds and sent an official to investigate.

U.S. forces also blew up a large cache of confiscated weapons in Ramadi late Friday.

Militants, who are predominantly from Iraq's Sunni Muslim minority, also continued their attacks against Iraqi security forces and members of the country's majority Shiite community.

Gunmen killed two Iraqi policemen, including a colonel, in an ambush north of Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, on Saturday, U.S. military spokesman Maj. Neal O'Brien said.

Two other police colonels were killed in Baghdad's southwestern Saidiyah neighborhood Saturday morning after being ambushed by two cars carrying eight gunmen, an official said on condition of anonymity. The colonels were assigned to the Interior Ministry's criminal intelligence department.

Another two police officers were killed, including one captain, and two more wounded by militants while patrolling Baghdad's northern Azamiyah suburb late Friday, police Lt. Mohammed al-Obeidi said.

In the nearby Shula neighborhood, Shiite cleric Salim al-Yaqoubi was killed by gunmen near his house early Saturday, a police spokesman said.

A second Shiite cleric, Sheik Ammar al-Jibouri, was slain on Friday near Mahmoudiya, about 25 miles south of Baghdad, as he was driving to the capital. Al-Jiborui once headed a religious court of followers of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al- Sadr in the southern holy city of Najaf.

Al-Sadr aide Sheik Ali Smesim said al-Jibouri's killing was aimed at "flaring a sectarian war between Iraqis."

In the central Iraqi city of Samarra, a mortar shell slammed into a car, killing one occupant and injuring another, U.S. military spokesman Master Sgt. Robert Powell said. The attack happened late Friday near a river ferry terminal and a mile from a U.S. military base.

In northern Iraq, a suspected suicide car bomber wounded two U.S. soldiers in Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, while two more were wounded in a car bomb blast near Kirkuk, about 60 miles to the north.

Two more U.S. soldiers were wounded by a roadside bomb outside of Hawija, near Kirkuk.

Elsewhere, a car bomb in Mosul exploded near a U.S. military convoy, killing a civilian but causing no American casualties, witnesses said.

Horne was among six Fort Riley soldiers charged with killings in recent months — two for slayings in Kansas and four for deaths in Iraq. Staff Sgt. Cardenas J. Alban, 29, of Inglewood, Calif., is charged along with Horne in the teenager's killing and is awaiting a court-martial hearing.

Two other soldiers from the same unit this week faced Article 32 hearings — the military equivalent of a grand jury hearing — over a Sadr City killing in August.

Human rights groups have condemned the illegal killings of Iraqis — either civilians or wounded fighters — by the U.S. military, saying such acts amount to violations of international humanitarian rights and should be dealt with as war crimes.

Critics also say poor understanding by young U.S. troops of the rules of military engagement leads to the killing of civilians.

"It doesn't help you win the hearts and minds of the public if you put a bullet in their hearts and another in the minds," said Mark Garlasco, senior military analyst for Human Rights Watch.

[Mother]

Well, is this schizophrenic or what? This appears in The Daily Reflector today!!!!!!!!!!!! The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing there. How can they do this to these folks??

http://www.reflector.com/hp/content/news/stories/2004/12/11/20041211GDRwidow.html

For widow, many aspects remain frozen in time

By Stanley B. Chambers Jr. The Daily Reflector
Saturday, December 11, 2004
The message on the answering machine in the Winterville home is a simple one.
"Hey, Dawn, it's me," the voice says. "Just calling to say good night. I love you. I miss you. I'm heading back out in the field, so I won't be able to talk to you in a couple of days, and I'll call you when I get back in."


But those words were left more than a year ago by someone who won't be coming home. Capt. Chris Cash, speaking in the message to his wife, Dawn, was killed near Baqubah, Iraq on June 24 when his armored vehicle came under attack.
Chris, 36, a company commander with the N.C. Army National Guard, was shot as he shouted from the hatch of his vehicle for his men to take cover.
For Dawn, many aspects of life have been frozen since that day in June. She calls home at least once a week just to hear Chris' message, left while he was training in Georgia. Chris' parents, who live in Maine, call as well.
Dawn has no plans to erase the message. She can recite the words from memory; she plays it every night before going to bed. She also has kept the outgoing message Chris recorded.
Chris' brown dress shoes still sit in front of his clothes hamper next to the bedroom dresser. In the hamper are clothes left in February right before he was deployed.
On Dawn's fourth finger, left hand is her wedding ring and engagement band. On the middle finger of her left hand is Chris' white gold wedding band, engraved with "I love you, 8-4-01." Aug. 4, 2001, is the day they were married.
"When you go through something like this, you don't want to face the reality that things have changed," she said. "It's hard to describe; you don't want things to change, so you're not going to change with them."
There have been changes in her life, though. Tears, which can come without warning, tend to ruin her make-up on bad days. She also finds herself attending memorials and other military-related events. On Friday, she spoke at an East Carolina University graduation ceremony.
In late November, it was a military appreciation breakfast at the Ramada Inn. Dawn, another military widow and the parents of a 20-year-old whose son served with Chris shared their stories of losing a loved one, and the country singing group Shedaisy performed a few songs.
The one that struck a chord with Dawn was "Come Home Soon," a song about the life of a military wife whose husband is deployed.
"That song just cut to the heart, because you know that your soldier is not coming home and that you will be dying alone," Dawn said.
Chris was supposed to come home in March 2005. He had two sons from a previous marriage, but the couple wanted to start their own family.
Chris had made his home in eastern North Carolina while attending East Carolina University. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in health and fitness in 1997 and a master's in health education in 2002. He was hired by the ViQuest fitness center on Stantonsburg Road in 2000.
Chris' first marriage had ended in 1994, and he met Dawn, an accountant for a local accounting firm, in 1999 when a mutual friend introduced them. Chris was ecstatic when Dawn told him in April she was training for a 10-mile run. Her exercise regimen had included aerobics and weight training, but she didn't run much before meeting Chris.
After his death, she didn't run at all. Eating wasn't much of an option, either.
"My body did not want it," she said. "Even the thought of food would make me sick."
About a month after Cash's funeral, Dawn finally went for a run with one of Chris' running buddies. Now, she's out running up to five times a week, running for about 20 minutes and then walking for one minute, doing the routine for up to six miles.
"It makes me feel connected to Chris, since he loved to run so much," she said. "It helps to clear your mind; it helps wash everything from your brain. I know it sounds weird, but I feel Chris beside me when I run."
Dawn also visits Chris' grave in Pinewood Cemetery on N.C. 33 a few times a week.
"I feel closer to him here," she said. "Especially in the summer, I would take my journal out there and write."


*******She wrote letters to Chris in the journal, telling him of the events in her life, her thoughts and feelings and how proud she is for what he had done in Iraq. She supports the decision to send U.S. troops to Iraq, she said.
"Chris believed with all his heart in their reasons for being in Iraq," she said. "He believed in giving people the life they deserved to have."
Sometimes she becomes frustrated with media accounts of the situation in Iraq because she feels they're not telling the entire story. Chris' unit provided security for the town of Balad Ruz, protecting schoolchildren and helping create a water system for farmers. She was told Chris was well-liked by the town's mayor and citizens.
While the death and destruction that is reported from Iraq continues to upset her, she still tunes in. Some of Chris' men are still over there. *****



Dawn is also taking steps to come to terms with her loss; one step involves a weekly appointment with a grief counselor.
It was about seven weeks after Chris' death when she first saw the counselor on the recommendation of a friend. Their meeting day varies upon each other's schedule, but the topic is the same what happened to Chris and how she is dealing with it.
"She's able to let me talk and get out my feelings," Dawn said. "She just sits there and listens and tells me I'm not crazy, that this is all normal."
Their sessions last about an hour; Dawn doesn't know when they'll end.
"I don't know, that's one of the issues I'm dealing with," she said. "Before he left, I knew what my future was. It was going to be with him and us starting our family. Now, I don't know what my future is. Honestly, you can't think that far in the future. You just think about the next day, how you're going to survive the next day."
Stanley B. Chambers Jr. can be reached at schambers@cox news.com

[Mother]

Latest update on my own war with journalists. It appears I may have won another battle. Semper Fi.

(Oh, by the way, we've received the first letter from our boy at Parris Island. Worth more than gold. He sounds GREAT! Says there's some weird looking (@#*$ which sent his dad into spasms of laughter...guess he hasn't looked in a mirror. Says "the showers have scarred his fragile mind"... and he can't wait to see his girl : ) He's a hoot! We told him no laughing for 13 weeks, looks like he's gonna get it out in his letters.
Gee, do ya think if the NYT got ahold of this they'd call mental health?
You know it.)(By the way, I've sent him some stuff from "ya'll", things that help him grasp and understand what he's doing. Thank you for this.)

This starts with a letter that was submitted by some liberal anti-war, death and destruction, fire and brimstone, gotta-have-voted-for-Kerry person, followed by the paper's editorial, and then concludes with my letter to the editor. Please be reminded I've recently contacted the highest levels of the corporate offices about their responsibility to our armed services, which is documented in an earlier post to this column.

www.reflector.com
12/19/04 LETTER: Widow's remarks deserve coverage on front page
Sunday, December 19, 2004

I believe you missed an excellent opportunity to bring the devastating reality of our war against Iraq to the forefront. Why does the Rose High School football team (Fan enthusiasm for J. H. Rose rampant'') take precedence over the Local & State section article Remembering a fallen soldier''? The Rose article appeared above the fold on the front page of the Dec. 11 Daily Reflector. Isn't this spot reserved for the most important news of the day? Is this really of more importance than soldiers losing lives and the suffering of their families?

The comments made by Chris Cash's widow to the ECU graduates regarding media accounts of the situation in Iraq are buried in the middle of the B section. Our nation must continually be reminded of the daily killing and maiming of our soldiers to bring this war to an end. I challenge The Daily Reflector to do its part to remind its readers of the realities of this dreadful war.


CONNIE K. WIDNEY
Greenville



12/20/04 EDITORIAL: Remembering
The Daily Reflector
Monday, December 20, 2004

On this date 60 years ago, soldiers of the American army braced against the European cold and against what would become the last great German offensive of World War II.

The Battle of the Bulge, as it would later be known, began in the Ardennes Forest of Belgium on Dec. 16, 1944, when at dawn German forces attacked and met with some initial success.

The fighting was brutal. The next day, approximately 80 captured Americans were marched into a field outside the Belgian town of Malmedy by their German captors and machine-gunned to death. Later, as the fighting raged on to the south and west of Malmedy, the town of Bastogne became a focal point. By Dec. 22, German armies had surrounded the town and demanded that the Americans surrender. "Nuts," was the reply from American General Anthony McAuliffe.

The Americans held.

As the fighting intensified and Christmas came and went, the German element of surprise was spent and by the end of January, the last gasp of the "Thousand Year Reich" expired. The Germans fell back.

"The Bulge" was the largest land battle of World War II in which the United States armies fought. More than 76,000 American soldiers were casualties. More than 19,000 of these died. Germany suffered 100,000 dead or wounded.

It is appropriate to commemorate this battle as it is to mourn a Christmas season so brutally marred.

In the years since, American armies have spent many Christmases in harm's way. In Korea and in Vietnam, soldiers fought the cold and heat as well as their enemies and their heartstrings, which tugged with memories of home and holidays. Today, in Iraq, soldiers under our flag squint against the sun in their rifle sights as they struggle forward with the world's ugliest business. As they have done this terrible work, their thoughts inevitably have drifted back to the world they left behind.

It is difficult to imagine or describe the feelings of a soldier spending this season at war, except that there is no feeling more foreign. It is good, then, for those of us who are the beneficiaries of this service to note a soldier's sacrifice in our holiday thoughts and prayers.

We should also take a special moment to recall those who lost their lives in that great battle 60 years ago and strain to think on how they felt as they spent their last Christmas fighting to preserve a world they would never see again.



My 12/21/04 email to Cox News editors:

In a season designated for Love, I was surprised by Connie Widney's letter about our soldiers. Ms. Widney believes the nation must continually be reminded of the realities of this dreadful war and challenges the DR to do its part. Many people do not need to be continually reminded-you have neighbors who live with those realities, Ms. Widney, that are " 'buried' in the middle of the B section" . Many of us, your neighbors, hope eternal to read the good news-about those things which survive time and space- and being " 'buried' in the middle of the B section". Ms. Widney missed an excellent opportunity to bring the greatest gifts we have been given to the forefront. However,The DR thankfully did not; by virtue of these words printed in the editorial the day of Ms. Widney's letter: "It is difficult to imagine or describe the feelings of a soldier spending this season at war, except that there is no feeling more foreign. It is good, then, for those of us who are the beneficiaries of this service to note a soldier's sacrifice in our holiday thoughts and prayers. We should also take a special moment to recall those who lost their lives... and strain to think on how they felt as they spent their last Christmas fighting to preserve a world they would never see again." I believe the DR met the challenge beautifully.

Actually it is not difficult to imagine or describe but oh, it is indeed a strain. The comparison about the Rose football team taking precedence over remembering a fallen soldier- from what she calls this "dreadful war"- was interesting. I don't believe Ms. Widney knows Rodney Murray. If not, allow me to introduce you. Rodney Murray loved and coached football-and he teaches as well. He has taught many more than he could imagine, myself included. Thank you Rodney.

In the spirit of the season, Merry Christmas, Ms. Widney.
Julie Rose
Grifton

AYDEN — The following poem was written by Sgt. Rodney Murray on December 16, 2003. It was printed in The Times-Leader and is reprinted with permission.

"It is truly worth reprinting for an insight into Murray’s life and his heart. The poem is as follows:"

Christmas in the Heart

All I want for Christmas is to see my wife,
Friends and family, be at home, that's all.
The young soldier really meant it.
And a bit of guilt he did feel
Of having his miracle come true;
Though not enough to change his plan;
With no kids to play Santa to, yet,
Some with such would have to stay.
Of all such days, Holiest of Holy,
Every soldier, every national, every vulnerable Citizen of this ravaged land
We claim to help should be able to celebrate.
But cold mornings in a lonely guard shack,
Riding lonely desolate supply routes
Tries to deny the celebratory mood.
And chaos and beastly acts alike
Try to rid others of a celebration of sorts.
A ruthless dictator captured
Becomes a festive celebration to some.
While others will avoid, hopefully,
Festive ending fiasco
In loss of life and will.
That's how they'll spend Christmas
If only that reason to celebrate.
Others cling to hope as their Yule Tide;
Hope for home soon from a foreign land,
Hope for a home,
Civilization in a lack luster land,
Hope for a difference one made
Or hope just to make it out alive, another day.
But it's guaranteed, the soldiers who
Have to stay in an Unsilent Night,
A non Holy Night,
Will instinctively glance at their watches,
When subtracting eight equals twenty-fifth at home.
And they'll silently utter Merry Christmas
From the heart to spouses and brothers,
Friends, loved ones, fathers and mothers.
But there's the rub. Like you at home,
All nestled and nice, calm and comfy,
They'll have Christmas in the Middle East.
For it will be in the heart, in grateful
Honor and remembrance of that Holy Night,
When the world received the greatest gift,
Wrapped in Hope, Grace, Mercy, In Love,
For all mankind.
Such will have Christmas
In their hearts, where it should be.
While others in that land,
The one promised to Abraham's seed
Will know nothing of it.
For they must of followed Ischmael's seed
Instead of Issac's.
No Christmas for them.
Can they even tell you their "Messiah's" birthday?
Death date would probably be easier,
But they'll claim to tell you what he wants
You to do to get to Heaven, maybe even
Doing away with ones that follow
That First Noel-
Cause in it you do nothing to get to Heaven,
Save receive the gift,
The Christ in Christmas.
So, you don't take for granted this Holy Season,
And grumble for lack of parking spaces.
Don't let crowds confound you
Or busy bustle bring a frown to you.
Love the busy schedule of family and friends,
Give in honor of the birth of Him who gave
You All.
Remember, some won't have Christmas,
And some will have it merely in their hearts.

Merry Christmas
Rodney Murray
12-16-2003

[Mother]

p.s. I am sure glad I didn't see this before or I'd have sent it instead! But rest assured, I'm keeping it on hand in the event this editorial staff has another relapse : ) Thanks, Leatherneck.

http://www.swiftvets.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=17855
Semper fi
3rd Bn 4th Marines Nam 67

R. Lee Ermey for the few of you that missed it was the host of The History Channel's Mail Call and played the D.I. in the movie Full Metal Jacket.

R. Lee is a retired Marine Gunnery Sergeant and a very plain speaker as you will soon read. So, for your entertainment, here is Retired Marine Gunnery Sergeant R. Lee Ermey at his first press conference as U.S. Press Secretary.

The main topic of discussion is the Marine in Iraq who shot the Iraq insurgent to death. We pick up as the reporter asks about how this potential war crime will effect our image in the world:

Ermey: "What kind of a pansy-assed question is that?"

Reporter: "Well I think...."

Ermey: "THINK, nancy boy? Get this through that septic tank on top of your shoulders moron, I DON'T GIVE A F*CK WHAT YOU THINK, DO YOU UNDERSTAN ME??? That Marine shot an ENEMY COMBATANT SH*THEAD, SO GET YOUR HEA OUT OF YOUR a** AND DEAL WITH IT BEFORE I MAKE YOU MY OWN PERSONAL PIN CUSHION!!!

Next question. You in the blue suit."

Reporter 2: Don't you think that the world's opinion of our operations is important?

Ermey: "Oh sure! You don't know the times I have cried myself to sleep worrying about what some g*ddamned French pansy thinks! Oh the days I have had to weep because some sh*t eating terrorist f*cker might be mad at us because we went into whatever god-forsaken hole in the sh*t that he lives in and killed him. WHAT THE HELL KIND OF DUMBASS QUESTION IS THAT YOU PETER PUFFING JACKASS?? WE ARE THE MOTHER F*CKING USA, AND WHEN YOU ATTACK US WE ARE GOING TO COME TO YOUR HOUSE AND BLOW YOUR STINKING CAMEL-LICKING CARCASS INTO PIECES SO SMALL WE WILL BE ABLE TO BURY YOUR SORRY a** IN A THIMBLE!!
I know what you are thinking. You are probably afraid, thinking that I have such an "extreme" attitude and that I need to be more "sensitive" to other people's feelings. WELL LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING YOU POLE SMOKING PANSY! I DON'T GIVE 2 SH*TS WHAT YOU OR ANYBODY ELSE THINKS! THIS IS A DAMN WAR, AND IF YOU CAN'T HANDLE THAT YOU SHOULD GO HOME AND SUCK ON MAMMA'S TIT!! DO YOU HEAR ME YOU RUNT?? NOW GET THE F*CK OUT OF MY PRESS ROOM BEFORE I GO CRAZY AND BEAT THE LIVING SH*T OUT OF YOU!!!

Next question, you with the ugly assed tie. Look at that thing It is hideous."

Reporter 3: "Aren't you going against the freedom of the press by..."

Ermey: "FREEDOM?? WHAT IN BLUE HELL DO YOU KNOW ABOUT FREEDOM? I HAVE SWEATED MY a** OFF IN JUNGLES BEING SHOT AT FOR THIS NATION!! WHAT IN THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE YOU LITTLE SH*T SUCKING WEASEL? WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU PUT YOUR a** ON THE LINE FOR ANYTHING? AND YET YOU HAVE THE UNMITIGATED TEMERITY TO SHOW UP HERE AND MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK THE ACTIONS OF A MARINE WHO WAS DEFENDING HIMSELF AND HIS UNIT FROM ATTACK BY SOME MURDEROUS AL-QUEDA SYMPATHIZER!!! YOU WANNA KNOW WHAT I AM CONCERNED ABOUT NUMBNUTS? I AM CONCERNED ABOUT A BUNCH OF GRABASSTIC, DISORGANIZED MORONS WITH CAMERAS AND MICROPHONES DOING THEIR BEST TO PORTRAY OUR BRAVE MEN AND WOMEN AS WAR CRIMINALS! I AM CONCERNED ABOUT CHICKEN SH*T PANSIES THAT WANT US TO NEGOTIATE WITH TERRORISTS AND THEN
WHINE ABOUT THEIR PISS ANT "FREEDOMS"!!"

Reporter 3: "I..."

Ermey: "Did you have a big bowl of stupid for breakfast this morning numbnuts? I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ANOTHER WORD OUT OF THAT COMMIE CRYHOLE
IN THAT SH*TPILE YOU CALL A HEAD! AND THAT GOES TRIPPLE FOR THE REST OF YOU PANSY-ASSED MORONS! NOW GET THE F*CK OUT OF MY PRESS ROOM BEFORE I SHOVE MY BOOT SO FAR UP YOUR a** THAT YOU CHOKE TO DEATH ON MY SHOELACES!!!!"


_________________
Semper fi
uuurah
Carry On