Would that congress demonstrated the same resolve as this soldier and his unit. http://sgthook.com/2005/11/17/taste-of-freedom/ -- Mom, Be my voice. I want this message heard. It is mine and my platoon’s to the country. A man I know lost his legs the other night. He is in another company in our batallion. I can no longer be silent after watching the sacrifices made by Iraqis and Americans everyday.Send it to a congressman if you have to. Send it to FOX news if you have to. Let this message be heard please… My fellow Americans, I have a task for those with the courage and fortitude to take it. I have a message that needs not fall on deaf ears. A vision the blind need to see. I am not a political man nor one with great wisdom. I am just a soldier who finds himself helping rebuild a country that he helped liberate a couple years ago. I have watched on television how the American public questions why their mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters are fighting and dying in a country 9000 miles away from their own soil. Take the word of a soldier, for that is all I am, that our cause is a noble one. The reason we are here is one worth fighting for. A cause that has been the most costly and sought after cause in our small span of existence on our little planet. Bought in blood and paid for by those brave enough to give the ultimate sacrifice to obtain it. A right that is given to every man, woman, and child I believe by God. I am talking of freedom. Freedom. One word but yet countless words could never capture it’s true meaning or power. “For those who have fought for it, freedom has a taste the protected will never know.” I read that once and it couldn’t be more true. It’s not the average American’s fault that he or she is “blind and deaf” to the taste of freedom. Most American’s are born into their God given right so it is all they ever know. I was once one of them. I would even dare to say that it isn’t surprising that they take for granted what they have had all their life. My experiences in the military however opened my eyes to the truth. Ironically you will find the biggest outcries of opposition to our cause from those who have had no military experience and haven’t had to fight for freedom. I challenge all of those who are daring enough to question such a noble cause to come here for just a month and see it first hand. I have a feeling that many voices would be silenced. I watched Cindy Sheehan sit on the President’s lawn and say that America isn’t worth dying for. Later she corrected herself and said Iraq isn’t worth dying for. She badmouthed all that her son had fought and died for. I bet he is rolling over in his grave. Ladies and gentleman I ask you this. What if you lived in a country that wasn’t free? What if someone told you when you could have heat, electricity, and water? What if you had no sewage systems so human waste flowed into the streets? What if someone would kill you for bad-mouthing your government? What if you weren’t allowed to watch TV, connect to the internet, or have cell phones unless under extreme censorship? What if you couldn’t put shoes on your child’s feet? You need not to have a great understanding of the world but rather common sense to realize that it is our duty as HUMAN BEINGS to free the oppressed. If you lived that way would you not want someone to help you???? The Iraqi’s pour into the streets to wave at us and when we liberated the cities during the war they gathered in the thousands to cheer, hug and kiss us. It was what the soldier’s in WW2 experienced, yet no one questioned their cause!! Saddam was no better than Hitler! He tortured and killed thousands of innocent people. We are heroes over here, yet American’s badmouth our President for having us here. Every police station here has a dozen or more memorials for officers that were murdered trying to ensure that their people live free. These are husbands, fathers, and sons killed every day. What if it were your country? What would your choice be? Everything we fight for is worth the blood that may be shed. The media never reports the true HEROISM I witness everyday in the Iraqi’s. Yes there are bad one’s here, but I assure you they are a minuscule percent. Yet they are a number big enough to cause worry in this country’s future. I have watched brave souls give their all and lose thier lives and limbs for this cause. I will no longer stand silent and let the “deaf and blind” be the only voice shouting. Stonewall Jackson once said, “All that I have, all that I am is at the service of the country.” For these brave souls who gave the ultimate sacrifice, including your son Cindy Sheehan, I will shout till I can no longer. These men and women are heroes. Their spirit lives on in their military and they will never be forgotten. They did not die in vain but rather for a cause that is larger than all of us. My fellow countrymen and women, we are not overseas for our country alone but also another. We are here to spread democracy and freedom to those who KNOW the true taste of it because they fight for it everyday. You can see the desire in their eyes and I am honored to fight alongside them as an Infantryman in the 101st Airborne. Freedom is not free, but yet it is everyone’s right to have. Ironic isn’t it? That is why we are here. Though you will always have the skeptics, I know that most of our military will agree with this message. Please, at the request of this soldier spread this message to all you know. We are in Operation Iraqi Freedom and that is our goal. It is a cause that I and thousands of others stand ready to pay the ultimate sacrifice for because, Cindy Sheehan, freedom is worth dying for, no matter what country it is! And after the world is free only then can we hope to have peace. SGT XXX and 1st Platoon 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)
While I tend to believe anecdotal evidence to be counter to critical thinking, my anecdotal feeling tells me to pull them out. Sorry basso.
I don't buy it. It's too poetic. Sounds more like one of those emails that floats around the internent.
why do you guys lend such authority to the views of murtha, yet ignore those of grunts on the ground in iraq?
Murtha's view is his view. This soldiers view is his view. Congress will vote tonight, each member of congress voting their view. Sort of how the system works isn't it? Do you have a problem with someone expressing a different view then your own?
Yeah that thing just needs a soaring music score, a bald eagle, and a flag flapping in the breeze to finish off the imagery. It's fake.
LOL. Why do we hate America? I'm not saying I ignore the words of the soldiers. I've read blogs of soldiers - they don't sound anything like this email. You oughta check 'em out - they're great to read (at home, I have some links to soldier blogs. I can post 'em later tonight.)
We know exactly who Murtha is and what he has done. He was a Marine, fought on the ground in two wars, and has been a Democratic champion of the military for three decades. Your email is from an anonymous person who may or may not be a soldier in Iraq. That person has good writing skills, to be sure, but good writing skills do not necessarily translate into good policy decisions.
Halliburton or any other contractor. I love how you people are instantly skeptical... but you'll take the words of politicians 9000 miles away over that of the soldiers on the ground have to say. I have 6 extended family members currently serving over there, and they all send emails just like this one, telling of the good they do rather then the crap they see on the news. Pull the wool over America's eyes and shame their deaths why don't you? Do any of you saying it is fake know and communicate with people personally over there? I would think not.
I'm not saying I hate the soldiers or anything. I'm just saying that, to me, it doesn't sound like a letter written by a soldier.
Raw, raw. Another right wing pep rally speech. I'm sure there is good going on over there, but is the good outweighing the bad?
send it to fox? probably written by fox to air. If it is real, OK. Soldiers need to feel right about the fight. If they don't the war is over. Units can get microcosmic view of the war. Most polls show that Iraqis don't want us there yet this soldiers sees nothing but cheers from civilians? OK. The shot about people who are against the war probably never served in the Military? This is a very political statemant. The subtext of that "true patriotic americans support the war, and wimps don't". BTW, Which presidential candidate served in Vietman and which ran?
Phony GOP Iraq withdrawal bill starts a bonfire this evening on the House floor. Check it out on C-SPAN if you have the chance. Late Update: During the debate, Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH) came on the floor and read a letter purporting to be from a United States Marine which said something to the effect of "Please tell Murtha, cowards cut and run, Marines never do." The clear 'feel' of her statement was that she was calling him a coward. The House burst into yells and pandemonium. Schmidt was forced to come back to the House floor and ask that her remarks be stricken from the record. This is the woman, remember, who barely beat Hackett just months ago -- quite an auspicious start. -- Josh Marshall
