Posted By:
Catherine Moy
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I’m back from the hills, where my family and I sat clueless about the political bombs dropping around us. I’m happy to say that my guns are clean and ready for skunk hunting.
And that brings up the crazy liberals who are attacking Gen. David Petraeus even before he utters a word about his report on the troop surge. The sickies over at Moveon.org showed their hand a long time ago, but they want the world to know – just in case we missed their hate for our troops and military – and bought a full-page ad in the New York Times.
So what were the lefties selling: snake oil, of course. Lies and betrayal. They attacked Gen. Petraeus as “betray us.” (What is it with the left that their chants and rants have to rhyme?)
Moveon.org is not a credible group. They take politics into the sewer where even the rats can’t stand the stench. Remember: This is the group that put together commercials with a weeping Cindy Sheehan in an effort to get John Kerry elected as commander in chief. No wonder they’re weeping in their Wheaties.
Kerry was a bedwetter during the Vietnam War, when he demanded Purple Hurts for little boo-boos that took nothing more than a Band-Aid. Yes, his push to go to Vietnam during that brutal, unpopular war was heroic. But then he turned on his brothers-in-arms like a rabid hyena on her pups.
He reminds me of other war critics these days, such as Jon Soltz, who has taken the left’s polluted prose and turned them against his fellow soldiers. Shame on him. Shameon those like him. It’s no wonder so many who served with him couldn’t stand his presence.
If the lefties and hanky-wipes would get their heads out, they’d look back at recent history and note that President Bush has always told United States citizens and the world that the war against terrorists will be long. He said we’d take casualties. And our brave men and women signed up, and signed up again to fight the evil-doers.
Here are President Bush’s words on Sept. 20, 2001:

“Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated . . .

“Now, this war will not be like the war against Iraq a decade ago, with a decisive liberation of territory and a swift conclusion. It will not look like the air war above Kosovo two years ago, where no ground troops were used and not a single American was lost in combat.

Our response involves far more than instant retaliation and isolated strikes. Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign unlike any other we have ever seen. It may include dramatic strikes visible on TV and covert operations secret even in success.

We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place
to place until there is no refuge or no rest. And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation in every region now has a decision to make: Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.

And what about the parents of those who gave their lives? Don’t they have the ultimate authority to speak? Wel, then listen to Debbie Lee, whose son, Marc Alan Lee, was the first Navy Seal to be killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

“My son willingly laid down his life for his country, and I know he is
looking down on us right now and wondering what on earth are we doing when
certain people in Congress would attack a general who has made such
terrific progress in the war on terrorism.  Has politics sunk to such a
low that some people think it’s ok to hurl accusations against the most
honorable people in our society such as the officers and generals of the
United States military?” asked Debbie Lee.

Debbie and Blue Star Mom Deborah Johns are on the historic Move America Forward “Fight for Victory Tour” and they are demanding an apology from the real traitors who have attack the hero, Gen. Petraeus. Patriots stand with this man no matter what he reports.

Gen. Petraeus is speaking in about 30 minutes. So you leftie-losers better put on your big-girl panties and deal with it.

Posted By:
MAF Blogger Danny
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I have to give a big, huge, ginormous thank you to the people and the city government of Las Cruces, New Mexico.

No other city, to my knowledge thus far, has given us as much cooperation as Las Cruces did. I was not coordinating this effort, Mary Pearson was, but I think that the city officials in Las Cruces basically took care of everything.

Okay I also have to tell you why we were late. First of all, our Tucson rally ran really late. Our rally in Tucson went really well so usually that means you stay later. A lot of the people who came wanted to hang out with us and talk afterwards, and also meet and talk to Col. Byrge who had been one of our speakers. So it took us a little while getting out of there. Then on the road it got worse because of Joe and Ryan’s little mishaps. What happened was that Joe and Ryan were up ahead of the RV. I believe because we in the RV had to stop for gas whereas Ryan and Joe kept going. They had a pretty good lead on us, so Joe and Ryan decide to stop and enjoy some of the local offerings off Highway 10. There they found a diary queen and “THE THING!”

The dairy queen satisfied their hunger and THE THING satisfied Joes quest for adventure and expanding his knowledge of the world. What burning questions about the purpose of life or man’s place in the world would THE THING answer?

None.

The thing was just another cheesy roadside attraction that the intelligent, well-read staff of that most well-respected and admired organization Move America Forward were suckered into wasting several precious dollar bills on. Well on the plus side Joe and Ryan got a burger and some ice cream out of it too. But as a consequence they went from being 15 minutes ahead of the caravan to 40 minutes behind it!

So, this happens all the time, we arrive late or at different times. Something ALWAYS happens. This time however, it would have been really nice to come in with a full convoy because the City of Las Cruces had arranged for a full four-motorcycle police escort from the freeway to the memorial park where they had everything set up.

It was so great when the officers caught up with us. Two of them shot out in front of the RV, and two followed the Tahoe behind us. They had their lights on and we were creeping through red lights like a bunch of big shots or something. And all over the place when we drove people were slowing down or inching out of the way. It’s possible they thought they were being pulled over, or maybe they just wanted to let us have the road.

When we got to the memorial park I was so surprised to see everything they had arranged. I mean in addition to the police escort they brought about twice the amount of sound equipment as we generally lug around. They had a big table that was chock full of letters for the troops all written by local elementary school kids. There was a podium up that looked very neat, clean and professional. I preferred it a lot to the podium we usually use. It was a real pretty blonde wood and it carried the City Seal on it. The city also arranged for an official raising and lowering of the flag at the beginning. The city also arranged for a Marine Corps color guard and bugler to assist the raising of the flag.

Well when we first arrived we thought we wouldn’t be able to start without Ryan and Joe because of lacking the sound equipment. I walked around greeting everyone I could to thank them for putting this on for us and talked a bit with the coordinators and then we realized that Diane could sing and Debbie Lee could speak on the equipment they already had set up. The whole event opened up with an introduction by the gentleman from the veterans association who arranged much of it, and he led us through the waving of the flag and the bugle team played reveille while the flag went up. Then we all pledged allegiance and Delores from the City Counsel recognized several members of the community who were present and who had helped organize everything.

A representative from the local Republican central committee gave some words.

A staffer from Senator Domenici’s field office read a letter from the Senator addressed to the troops and to their families. She could not hold back her tears while reading it. She herself must have believed it as genuinely as the Senator himself.

Peal harbor survivor – one of two who reside in Las Cruces – and his wife.

The Bataan Death March memorial

I was absolutely amazed at all the people present and their heart felt appreciation for what we were doing, traveling around the country, spreading the message about our troops, a message of truth, and pride. You know, at almost every rally people ask Buzz to sign their books. People ask Diana to sign their cds. We ask people to sign our “victory blanket”. But never before has anyone asked me to sign anything for them. I’m just like…the guy who stands behind the table and says “yes we have mediums, would you like fries with that?” But the people of Las Cruces were really thankful.

You know I bet that’s how the soldiers feel sometimes…kind of like… well I’m not doing anything special…but you seem to be thanking me for it. Buzz always tells this story about when he was out in Iraq with some Melanie to do their “Voices of Soldiers” radio thing in July 2005. While there one of the camera men went out on patrol with the Iraqi army and was filming them. Out of nowhere this middle aged Iraqi guy walks up to him in the street with a little girl in his arms, she must have been 5 years old. The Iraqi guy asks, as best as he can with his limited knowledge of English, “Would you please bless my daughter?” Buzz always says that at this point the camera man was freaked out because so far it sounds like a classic suicide bomber move. Use the kid to distract the soldier while you pull the pin and blow everyone up. But what actually happened was that this Iraqi guy took the cameraman’s hand and placed it over his daughter’s forehead and said “Please bless her, Bless her with the freedoms that you have.”

I bet this camera man was dumbfounded. What freedoms? We all hear constantly about how our second amendment rights are being squashed, our all important civil rights, our freedom of speech, due process. We are always complaining about these things because it seems that at any given time, someone is trying to impede your rights.

I don’t want to make light of that. We should always guard our rights to make sure that government never grows too large or too powerful. We must always guard our rights and fight for freedoms that are not given when due. But think of how many freedoms we have that we take for granted.

We may have racism in this country sometimes, but we are no longer living in civil war over the issue. We may not have absolute freedom of speech, but our courts work to protect it under the circumstances where it is applicable, which is most of the time, I think. We may not have all the rights we as Americans want, and our society may not look the way we would like it to look…I’m referring to social problems such as poverty, dependence on government programs, crime, drugs, etc. Our country is definitely not perfect. But think of all the things that we have taken for granted ever since we declared independence from Britain. That right of sovereignty, self-determination, democracy.

That is one fundamental thing that America (for the most part) has ALWAYS enjoyed, and that the Iraqi people have NEVER known. Is that not worth fighting for? To give that gift to another race of fellow men? A gift which we all feel is our birthright…we claim it because we are citizens of this country, but who is to act as advocate for the Iraqi citizen who has lived under oppressive totalitarian regime after oppressive theocratic regime for thousands of years? We must.

We must.

Posted By:
MAF Blogger Danny
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Okay first things first. I got to tell you guys about how retarded I am. So we’re staying at this hotel room Comfort Inn, and we all go to have dinner. When we get to our rooms I haul my stuff in and immediately it’s freezing cold. Now, I like to have a nice cool room, but this was really freezing so went over to turn it off. I pop open the lid for the controls and I see that there are no knobs to adjust temperature. I thought…you gotta be kidding me, I have to stay up late and try to write a blog about Phoenix and I can’t even turn this A/C off? So I devise a plan to control this A/C. I take these pens out of the desk provided, and I popped the tops off of them, so there would be a hole in the end. Then I jammed the pen caps over the little sticks that the knobs usually go on. It worked! I had two little makeshift control knobs. But when I tried to adjust my A/C it did nothing, no matter where I turned the knobs it was still blowing freezing cold air out. So I just toughed it out and felt miserable all night. Then the next morning I am telling everyone about how I couldn’t sleep because of the cold and they were like… “Danny are you stupid? The A/C controls were on that little box on the wall.” Oh god. I hadn’t even looked, so my little A/C fiasco could have been easily avoided, but it was funny.

Tucson was a whole day ago. I have definitely got to catch up with writing these blogs because each time I like to try and write as much as I can, but some days we have 3 rallies in a day, and on September 8th we are going to have 4. Four rallies in one day. We’re going to be starting off in San Antonio, trying to make Waco, Crawford and Dallas by the end of the day.

Well we all got up and moving early and we were a bit concerned about the rain. At the hotel it was drizzling out in the parking lot so I was expecting some kind of inclement weather to play havoc on our plans. Well fortunately, when we got to the park it was fairly clear. I think it was a little bit damp in the dirt areas but we were able to deal with that by setting up under the picnic area.

When we pulled into the park’s back parking lot where everything was to be set up I was really surprised to see three of the local radio stations out setting up little tables to hang out with visitors. I knew that one station would be present but I had no idea that there would be three. I really hope they aren’t angry with us about that, because it seems that usually Radio stations don’t like to be involved in anything isn’t exclusively theirs. But no one seemed upset about it.

The most amazing thing though was that our attendees in Tucson had actually set everything up and decorated before we even got there! When we rolled up to the parking we were absolutely astounded to see dozens of American flags all over the place. They were sticking out of the ground; people were walking around carrying huge big old flags on long poles. It was really heartwarming. I really have to thank the faithful people of Free Republic for putting a lot of this together for us. Those are some really dedicated people who got up early and came down to our rally with flags and patriotic signs in hand to decorate the whole park up for our arrival.

The most awesome part was all the flags they had lining the park and they had a flag for every branch of the military. They also had put out big posters for people to start signing for the troops and it was just great to have that as a supplement to our stuff and it was just a nice thing to do!

The crowd was very enthusiastic at this rally, as evidenced by all the signs and flags they had put up. So when Diana came up to sing “Where Freedom Flies” everyone was very touched and when she sang the Star Spangled Banner she had everyone there singing with her!

Our first speaker was United States Air Force Col. Byrge who is C4 (command, control, communications and computer systems) Director for SouthCom (Southern Command). Col Byrge talked at length about the tangible progress in Iraq and what the reality on the ground is. We wanted to know what the soldiers see there every day and what they think about it. According to the Colonel the Iraqis want us to stay in Iraq and most of the soldiers there believe in the mission and want to bring democracy, freedom and all the things that we as Americans enjoy to the Iraqi people who do not have that privilege…yet.

Here are some highlights from Col Byrge’s speech.

The Top Ten Myths of the War in Iraq.
1 – that the war is all about Oil.
2 – The US is fighting alone
3 – Iraq is engulfed in a full scale war
4 – Iraqis were better off under Saddam Hussein
5 – Iraqi government is ineffective
6 – There is no economic development in Iraq
7 – Contractors are costing the Government too much
8 – The troops are not properly equipped
9 – Troop morale is low
10 – We have lost the war.

Col Byrge told us how all of these myths are wrong and in fact the opposite is very true of each of these. Here are some interesting facts and figures:

The Brookings institute estimates that an immediate pullout of Iraq would result in 750,000 civilian deaths almost immediately

26 countries militaries as well as 331,000 Iraqis and contractors from 40 countries are all working with us.

5 resolutions in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom have been passed

Recruits from Ramadi – Nov’06 4 recruits. Mar’07 1500 crecruits.

The majority of Muslims are not extremist fundamentalists and do not feel that Islam needs to rule the whole world.

Since Hussein there has been a 25% increase in immunizations and 90% reduction in measles.

Before the war most of Iraq got 4-8 hrs of electricity/day. Now those areas have 8-10.

75% of Iraqis get twice the time on electric grid than they did before the war.

The US Army Corps of Engineers has completed 3704 construction and public service projects with 4794 planned projects.

The Iraqi government has done remarkably well in one year when you consider that the US constitution took 9years to become effective.

Iraqi GDP up 9 and many countries have forgiven debts that Iraq owed them including Suadi Arabia and Russia. Also inflation has been cut in half.

We work with 129,000 contractors in Iraq of which; 21,00 are US, 43,000 international, and 65,00 are Iraqi.

Having contractors working in Iraq means less troops deployed, they perform high quality work and average only 3% profit.

All the troops have body armor and no troops leave base without an armored vehicle.

On a typical day in Iraq there are 1200 cargo trucks making deliveries, 400,000 meals served, and 2.8 million pieces of laundry cleaned…in ONE DAY

Tribal leaders are starting to resist Al Qaeda

26% decline in sectarian violence since Operation Fardh Al-Qanoon.

Debbie Lee did a great job talking about her son and as usual the crowd listened to Marc’s story and reacted very emotionally. When Debbie asked if there were gold star families around one gentleman raised his hand.

This is Lance Corporal Joshua Lucero. He was killed in Anbar province.

This is Josh’s father Michael at our rally talking about his son and what happened. It was really emotional and somber around the rally. Michael has said before that he is “proud of” his son because he “did what he wanted.” Josh was assigned to the 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion, 2nd Marines based out of Camp Lejeune, NC. Josh was a real patriot and he served his country with pride and honor. His father told me that he also supported the mission behind Iraq and wanted to help bring freedom to the Iraqis. With men like that representing our nation, it makes me proud to be American.

Overall the Tucson rally was really something special. We had more radio present than in other rallies, although it was unfortunate none of them had a live broadcast. We had the Free Republic people who set up lots of great signs, and flags. And then we had Col Byrge to talk with us about what’s really going on in Iraq and how what the media presents is only part of the story. The people were just awesome too, they kept giving all our speakers uproarious applause and they hung around for a long time. Unfortunately we have to keep our rallies as short as we can in order to make it to the next stop on time.

Posted By:
MAF Blogger Danny
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Phoenix was a pretty interesting rally because of all the crazy things that happened on the road on the way there.

For one thing, the screw covers on the motor home basically started ripping off the overhang and started flapping all over the place while we were trying to drive. That was not fun. They would start waving around pretty violently and at one point they were slapping the drivers window and I thought it was going to break the glass. So we had to pull over and get gas and we put some duct tape over the rubber covers to try and keep it from coming off again.

We also kept having trouble with the generator on board the RV. It just kept dying over and over again. We could never get it to stay on for more than 10 minutes it seemed. Without a generator we had no Air Conditioning, no internet for our laptops as well as no power. Our cell phones ran down, our computers ran out of power and couldn’t be used for long periods of time, not to mention we were sweaty.

So yeah, that was not very fun, but the PHOENIX area PRO-TROOP rally on the other hand WAS!

Did I mention we were late? Big surprise right? Well because of the plastic seal thing fiasco and the generator crisis we had to pull a few extra stops and we ran a long way behind schedule. In fact we let Joe and Ryan run ahead of us because we had to keep stopping and did not want to slow them down.

The Vietnam Memorial, one of several at Wesley Bowlin Memorial Park

When we got to Phoenix people were waiting for us around the memorial area. Ryan and Joe had been set up for a short while already and shirts were already going out and CD’s were passing hands.

Now, not to discredit Joe or Ryan any, but really the show could not start without us in the RV because we had stars, Diana and Debbie. Diana Nagy really got the crowd going when she took up the microphone and sang the star spangled banner for us and then her hit “Where Freedom Flies.” I think it is so funny now that I have heard Diana sing her songs so many times at these rallies because I am starting to know all the words and it’s such a pretty and catchy song that I often found myself singing along. But looking at the faces of those who have never heard Diana’s song, I see faces that are touched by the passion of Diana’s singing and the pride that is it’s message.

If you have not already heard it, this song is a great crowd pleaser and is really catchy. I don’t know how many times a day I look over at Diana in the RV and she’s working on something and I’ll just sing a line from the song (poorly) and tell her how it was securely lodged in my brain! Seriously though, this is a very heartwarming song when you consider how it was written. Diana’s mother is actually the writer of the song, and as Diana tells the story of the origin, her mother was inspired by seeing a group of anti-war protestors on the TV again, and burning the flag as a sign of protest.

When Debbie Lee came and took the podium she asked the crowd if there were Gold star families, Blue star families and past or current veterans present. Phoenix is also Debbie’s home town, so when several Gold star families came up, Debbie knew some of them and they all knew who she was. She also had them all go up on stage and be recognized by everyone in attendance. It seemed like almost everyone at least knows a person who has been in the military. This might be the reason behind the fact that I noticed how well the crowd in Phoenix responded to our presence and our rally. It was like they were really engaged in a conversation with us, when Debbie was talking. If Debbie said something about the higher numbers of well-trained Iraqi police or army, someone in the crowd would not hesitate to yell out an ‘amen’ or some kind of agreement with whatever the statement was. You could tell that Phoenix had some very dedicated groups.

One such group was the Buffalo Soldiers who I caught up with and had the opportunity of getting to know. The Buffalo Soldiers is a Motorcycle Club that does many charitable things for the community. One responsibility they take upon themselves is to preserve the history, knowledge, spirit and of course the legacy of the original Buffalo Soldiers who served in an all-black combat detail during the Civil War. Pictured here, from left to right are Lieutenant Eric Reed, Bill “Dark Knight” White, and Chaz F Jackson, who is President of this club. You can get more information at www.buffalosoldiers.com

This is Susan L Walker who helped put together the Phoenix area chapter of www.packagesfromhome.org and made it out to our rally so she could help promote the good work that we are both doing. “Packages” does a lot of good work by sending things that our troops are asking for such as phone cards, toilet paper, and other such items that they ask for by request. “Packages” does things a little differently than MAF, but both share one common goal, to give our troops the support they desire and must have in order to accomplish their missions.

This is Chris Cook. Chris is a conservative minded young man who came to our rally and is very active in documenting rallies and protests ranging from conservative, liberal, independent, to extremist, etc. He also writes for www.modernconservative.com and posts pictures or video of his documentary work there. I talked to Chris briefly at the Phoenix rally because like me, he was chasing down the Buffalo Soldiers to get a statement or some information on who they were. I wondered why Chris would be interested in them so I enquired as to why he was interested in talking to black conservatives in particular. Chris gave me some very interesting information about how the liberal politicians and the Democratic Party has historically manipulated the black population for its own gains. He sees the current system of social programs as a chain that limits blacks from reaching their highest potential and basically forces blacks that rely on welfare and Medicaid to believe that they are completely unable to compete with other races without the assist of these programs. This political ‘farming’ of blacks, he says, keeps the black population in poverty and voting Democratic automatically every election. I personally thought that most of his views deserved considerable merit and it’s not something you hear every day. Visit www.modernconservatives.com/newwideawakes/ and decide for yourself.

Finally, there was another car at this rally that was grabbing as much attention as the Marine Corps car that we saw in Fresno. This 2006 Chevrolet Corvette is owned by Lt. Col (Ret.) Pratt Ashworth. Pratt is a Vietnam-era vet who served in the United States Air Force for 22 years. During Vietnam Lt. Col Ashworth was a Forward Air Controller, basically meaning that he flew reconnaissance and close ground-support missions, low above the treetops of Vietnam just south-west of the DMZ. Pratt is very proud of his record of service which includes over 500 combat missions flown.

That’s going to wrap it up for me today, thank you all for continually sending us your love, your prayers and words of encouragement!

Posted By:
Catherine Moy
Permalink

Debbie Lee stood still, her hands clutching a poster-size photo of her son who gave his life for America’s freedom and security. Standing nearby was Deborah Johns, a proud mother whose son has served three tours in Iraq and signed on for a fourth.

The two women told their sons’ stories as more than a hundred individuals stood and stand in silence.

This was only our second stop at Move America Forward on our “Fight for Victory Tour.” We were very late - more than an hour. But there was a crowd, some dressed in their retired military uniforms, some with their dogs dressed in red, white and blue.

What was missing were the loud-mouthed, whining protesters. It was then, during the solemn, respectful gathering that I knew for sure that America will win this war against radical Muslim Jihadists.

Our biggest critics, the enemy within, didn’t have the chutzpah too wait an hour so they could prattle on with their tired protests. It’s no wonder they can’t stand more than a few years of war.