SwiftVets.com

[olympian2004]

Does America Still Deserve The Marines?
(by Gunny Bob Newman, retired 20-year veteran of the Marine Corps)

Not that I know what one is, but I do know what one looks like. A parabolic wave is a thing that looks like a wave when viewed from the side. Parabolic waves appear on screens that are part of certain machines and computers and other technical devices. I suspect they are useless, really, but scientists and technicians like them because they look cool and by turning just about any dial, one can change the height and frequency of the wave.

The war on terror can be viewed as a parabolic wave, with crests and troughs. The topographic equivalent would be peaks and valleys. In the last two days or so, as is so frequently the case, we have seen peaks and valleys in the war on terror. First there was a peak, with the death of Azahari Husin in a fight with Indonesian security forces. Who was that? He was the Malaysian who built the bombs used in the Bali nightclub attacks of 2002. Then we had the valley yesterday, when three al Qaeda suicide bombers detonated their deadly wares at three US-flagged hotels in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan’s capital of Amman.

Sadly, American hotel corporations knowingly and willingly live in an especially dangerous valley.

Even more troubling is how more and more Americans are simply unwilling to get serious about the war on terror. A recent MSNBC/Wall Street Journal poll revealed 57% of Americans agree with the Kerry Plan: begin surrender proceedings to the terrorists in Iraq as soon as possible and abandon the people of Iraq to whatever grim fate awaits the poor schmucks.

The same poll said a mere 39% agree with the way we are fighting the war on terror.

Beginning in the late 1960s, America, for a variety of reasons, began seeing retreat and surrender as a viable option when dealing with tyrannical regimes. In 1973 we retreated from Vietnam and left the people of South Vietnam, whom we had promised to defend, to be vanquished by the invading hoards from the communist north.

In 1979 and 1980, Jimmy Carter allowed a terrorist regime to seize our embassy in Tehran, with dozens of Americans held hostage for 444 days. Carter did nothing to punish the terrorists.

In 1984, we fled Beirut on Ronald Reagan’s orders. The terrorists who killed hundreds of Marines were never held accountable.

After quick victories in Grenada, Panama and Kuwait, we retreated from Somalia on Bill Clinton’s orders, leaving that stricken nation in the hands of terrorists and warlords. In 1993, Bubba warmed up for that move by doing nothing about the World Trade Center attack.

Clinton followed that stunt up by allowing terrorists to destroy a US military barracks and two of our embassies, and nearly sink one of our ships with no repercussions.

Then 9-11 came and we got mad. We swore to fight the terrorists everywhere and anywhere we could find them with everything we could fight them with. A paltry four years later, we are shaking and trembling as most Americans call for surrender.

Why? Because America remembered that bullets and shrapnel can fly not only toward the enemy, but toward our troops. Stunned with this revelation, we quickly decided that cowardice is the best way to get terrorists to stop killing us.

If only that were true.

Reality, on the other hand, has told humans for millennia that cowardice just leads to more of people being killed more quickly. But Americans have no interest in history, which is a tedious lesson plan that, if studied and heeded, cuts into our golf time.

At this very moment, Marines I led in the Gulf War are now the battlefield leaders. I dream of them often and think of them many times daily. I fear for their well-being because the majority of the people they swore an oath to defend now want them to surrender.

Surrender to a Marine is anathema. It is unthinkable. It is a concept so foreign that the very suggestion of it being an option brings Marines to a rolling boil.

Sometimes I wake up sweating and shouting orders in some distant dream scape, my Marines, with fixed bayonets, assaulting a burning trench line in the desert.

"Johnson! Get me some Mark 19 fire on the right end of that trench!"
"Washington! Get your squad to cover 2nd squad as they clear from left to right! Make sure your SAW gunners are tight on target!"

"Nishimoto! Pop that clown behind the burning APC! Shoot him in the shins!"

Surrender is never in my dreams.

America spits in the Corps’ face when the majority say the Marines should surrender, and that is precisely what withdrawal before total victory is. Perhaps the majority of this country feel surrender is honorable, but as it has been to the Marines since their creation, it is the most vile of notions, not to mention incredibly stupid given how the terrorists stand no chance of defeating the Corps. Only 21st Century Americans would suggest surrender when victory is assured.

Fortunately for the United States, you can rest assured that on this 230th birthday of the Corps, the Marines will press on ‘til victory, with or without the respect and support of our employers.

Gunny Bob can be reached at gunnybob@850koa.com

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Gunny Bob Newman hosts the 'Gunny Bob' show on 850am KOA from 7:00pm - 10:00pm M-F.

Listen Live at http://www.850koa.com/ (link at top left - no registration required)

Gunny Bob's webpage at KOA:
http://www.850koa.com/shows/newman.html

Gunny Bob Newman profile at Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Newman

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Semper Fi to all of our men and women who have served, are serving and in the future will serve in the Marine Corps.
_________________
Tony in Boulder, Colorado

[GM Strong]

America is more represented by these Marines than by the Liberal Linguini spined surrender monkeys of the left that get all the MSM attention.
_________________
8th Army Korea 68-69

[srmorton]

I just got through reading an article in our local paper that was reprinted
from the Winston-Salem Journal. It was a great article about Jeff Houston,
Captain, USMC. who survived a near-fatal neck wound from an April 2003
ambush in Iraq. Major Houston is a 30 year old 1996 Citadel graduate
and is a descendant of the legendary General Sam Houston. He is now
serving as an instructor in a reserve unit based in Tallahasse, Fl. While
most of the article is very uplifting and focuses on his love and dedication
to the Corps, the writer also mentions the Lance Corporal whose quick
thinking and immediate action in attempting to stop the flow of blood
from a torn artery in the Major's neck undoubedly saved Major Houston's
life and gained the Lance Corporal a Bronze Star.

What got me was at the end of the article, the writer (Sherry Youngquist)
could not resist including the information that the Lance Corporal has now
completed his tour and is "no longer sure why we went to Iraq". He feels
that "it was started for nothing, over someone else's personal vendetta,
but "now that we're in it, we can't just get out." By including this, she
implies that the "gung-ho" officers are blindly dedicated to the war effort,
but that the rank and file enlisted man does not know what the fight is
all about. One day, the MSM is going to have to answer for the shameful
way that they have reported on the war in their attempt to turn the
American people against it as they were able to do with Vietnam.

The picture of Major Jeff Houston, a true American hero and a credit to
the USMC, still shines through the text of the article. All I can say is
Semper Fi and glad to have such an outstanding officer on our side!
_________________
Susan R. Morton

[GM Strong]

If that Lance Corporal had not been there, a good man would be dead. His service was important in more ways than one. Often we wonder what the hell we are doing, and many times during the 60s we may have had the same thoughts, but time has shown it was worth our efforts and the quick answer is not the correct answer. A pox on the reporter taking the L/Cpl to her own advantage and probably distorting what he really told her if indeed he really talked to her.
_________________
8th Army Korea 68-69