THE FOUNDATION"Patriotism is as much a virtue as justice, and is as necessary for the support of societies as natural affection is for the support of families."
Benjamin Rush
The beleaguered Left has recruited a pawn to pitch its phony anti-war agenda.
Army Specialist Casey Sheehan died valiantly—heroically serving "the men beside him." His mother's actions minimize his noble sacrifice.
Liberty is often not easy, and in the rough-and-tumble of human life, it can be downright ugly.
"[Republicans are] not just wasting money; they're... massively growing government."
Connecticut's complaint about No Child Left Behind doesn't go far enough—federalism is the real issue here.
SUPPORT THE 2005
PATRIOT FUND ONLINE
(CLICK HERE)
SUPPORT THE 2005
PATRIOT FUND BY MAIL
(CLICK HERE)
Publisher's Note
After months of research and preparation, The Federalist Patriot launched new HTML and PDF formats this week. There were many reasons for developing the new formats, not the least of which is the fact that each edition must go out flawlessly to hundreds of thousands of subscribers. We've received accolades from most readers accompanied by some complaints. Most of the latter were from those of you who subscribe to the HTML format and found the font to be too small. That has been rectified with this edition—though because our readers utilize a wide variety of e-mail software and browsers, some may still have problems with the font. In addition to the three formats we now offer (text, HTML and PDF), which are user-selectable from the "Manage Your Subscription" link, we'll be offering a fourth option—a printer-friendly HTML version with no graphics. We will continue to improve these formats as we hear from you. As always, we are honored to count you among our Patriot readers.
TOP OF THE FOLD
Moore Useful Idiots...
V.I. Lenin called Western Leftists who sided with Socialists in political debates "useful idiots." He's been dead for 81 years, but there appears to be no shortage of Michael Mooronic idiots lending aid and comfort to those seeking to destroy the "beacon of liberty" today.
Recently, this column warned that re-emerging anti-American movements were gaining momentum. That essay "Spitting on The Few, The Proud..." outlined the Left's anti-war modus operandi between 1968 and 1973, noting how elitist politicos like George McGovern and Ted Kennedy, joined by glitterati like Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden, came together to rally adolescent fervor. The resulting spectacle—one created by young protesters and promoted by Walter Cronkite and the Left's nightly newscast dezinformatsia machine—was a major factor in dissuading public support for the defense of South Vietnam.
That spectacle also, by extension, cast a pall over everyone in a military uniform, including those coming home in flag-draped caskets. American military personnel were viewed with seething glares and subject to spitting and name-calling from "enlightened youth" and their protagonists who tagged all military personnel personae non gratae. The entirety of them were even labeled "war criminals" by none other than John Kerry.
Today, Kennedy, Kerry, Fonda and their ilk are still at it, but they have not had much success since 9/11, when America virtually and rightly united behind President George Bush's campaign against asymmetric Jihadi threats and their host nations—collectively known as Jihadistan.
In recent weeks, support for the Iraq campaign of the Long War has begun to wane in some circles—not because of 58,000 casualties as in Vietnam, but because, once again, as America's finest are defending liberty at home by fighting for freedom in critical regions abroad, the beleaguered Left has recruited a pawn to pitch (perhaps hurl) its phony anti-war agenda across the nation. For a solid month, the Leftmedia has focused its broadcasts and headlines on Ms. Cindy Sheehan and her well-funded road entourage. The network talkingheads have in fact awarded her "Peace Mom" heroine status—which provided a big political break for the Left.
Sheehan's 24-year-old son was killed in action in Iraq last year. President Bush met with her shortly after his death at her request, and Sheehan said of that visit, "I have a new respect for him because he was sincere and he didn't have to take the time to meet with us. I now know he's sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis. I know he's sorry and feels some pain for our loss, and I know he's a man of faith."
What a difference a few media lights can make. Now this peacenik poster child says Mr. Bush is an "evil maniac," a "lying bastard," and a "filth spewer and warmonger." In addition, she's asserted that the President and his "band of neo-cons" wanted the 9/11 attack "to get their neo-con agenda through." "We are not waging a war on terror in this country," protests Sheehan, "we're waging a war of terror. The biggest terrorist in the world is George W. Bush!" Sheehan has been hounding the President around the countryside asking for another meeting, but why would President Bush dignify such remarks by meeting with her?
Army Specialist Casey Sheehan enlisted, and then re-enlisted in April of 2004, in order to go to Iraq. Two weeks after arriving there, he volunteered for a rapid-rescue force deployed to help save fellow soldiers from an ambush by Shiite militia outside Baghdad. Casey died valiantly—heroically serving "the men beside him."
Cindy Sheehan, of course, has every right to free speech, but Ms. Sheehan is also responsible for the exercise of that right. Her crusade is not about "grief," as her Angry Left cronies claim; it is about the arrogance and selfishness that uniformly characterize the Left's causes célebres. Her fallen son deserves the gratitude of all Americans, yet Ms. Sheehan's actions merely minimize his noble sacrifice.
Despite Sheehan's disgracing of her son's sacrifice, the rest of his family issued the following statement: "[We] lost our beloved Casey in the Iraq War and we have been silently, respectfully grieving. We do not agree with the political motivations and publicity tactics of Cindy Sheehan. She now appears to be promoting her own personal agenda and notoriety at the expense of her son's good name and reputation. The rest of the Sheehan Family supports the troops, our country and our President, silently, with prayer and respect." The statement was signed "sincerely" by "Casey Sheehan's grandparents, aunts, uncles and numerous cousins."
Indeed, those closest to the President, and most objective observers, would agree with this assessment of his sense of obligation as Commander in Chief. "I've been with the President of the United States when he has met with the families of those brave young men and women who have sacrificed all," says Senator John McCain. "I have seen his compassion, I have seen his love, I have seen his concern. So any charge of insensitivity or uncaring on the part of this president is absolutely false... I'm sure he wouldn't like to hear me say this, but I saw him afterwards. He was very, very grieved."
Objectivity, however, has never been the guiding principle of Leftmedia "journalists." To wit, no headlines have featured or news leads have featured comments from the parents of Army Cpl. Forest Jostes, 22, who served with Casey Sheehan in the 1st Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Cavalry. On 4 April 2004, Forest died beside Casey in the same battle with Jihadis.
Last week, Forest's parents, Von and Diane Ibbotson, had this to say about his death: "We were at a crossroads, but we decided from the day he died that we were going to honor him, his sacrifice. We support the President, and we have made a conscious effort to not make this political."
Of Ms. Sheehan's behavior, Forest's parents said, "We both lost sons in the same battle, but the similarities pretty much end there. Cindy Sheehan has a right to protest, wave signs, march or whatever, a right she wouldn't have had it not been for men like our sons. My son gave his life for the freedom we enjoy in this country; I hope that the Iraqi people have that someday. We feel sympathy for Mrs. Sheehan, but we're angry because she presumes to speak for so many. I resent the fact that she says she 'speaks for the millions' and is the face of the Gold Star families. That is not so."
President Bush echoed those sentiments on Monday, saying, "She doesn't represent the view of [families of those KIA] I have met with."
Cheers completely overwhelmed the jeers this week as President Bush addressed thousands of military families in Idaho. While there, the President introduced Pocatello resident Tammy Pruett, who now has four sons in Iraq, and whose husband and a fifth son served there last year. "Tammy says this—and I want you to hear this: 'I know that if something happens to one of the boys, they would leave this world doing what they believe, what they think is right for our country.' America lives in freedom because of families like the Pruetts."
Of course, so do our nation's anti-war protesters. As was the case three decades ago, the revived anti-war movement is casting its long shadow over our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen. Nowhere is this more regrettably evident than at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, DC, where hundreds of Patriots are recovering from severe wounds suffered in Iraq.
This week, protesters marched outside the facility's entrance, chanting amid mock flag-draped caskets with signs reading "Maimed for Lies" and "Enlist here and die for Halliburton." They taunted veterans entering and leaving the facility with angry slogans like "George Bush kills American soldiers." Walter Reed has been a primary treatment facility for American Patriots of all ranks for nearly a century. It's the place where Generals Pershing, MacArthur and Eisenhower died. It certainly should not be defiled by such contemptible rabble.
Protest organizer Medea Benjamin, one of Ms. Sheehan's backers, has also backed communists in Vietnam and Nicaragua and recently said of her visit to Cuba, "It seemed like I died and went to heaven." (Perhaps she should return posthaste!) So, we've come full circle. As was the case decades ago, the so-called "anti-war" movement is really the manipulation of useful idiots like Cindy Sheehan in support of a much larger political agenda—that inspired by V.I. Lenin.
If Sheehan and her lemmings were really interested in preventing senseless death, their attention is grossly misguided. In the two years since 19 March 2003, there have been approximately 1,450 Patriots killed in action defending our nation as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Consequently—indeed, since 11 September 2001—our Armed Forces have kept the warfront with Jihadistan far away from our homeland. Perhaps Ms. Sheehan should become the spokesperson for the 14,500 men, women and children who died on American highways last year as a result of alcohol abuse.
Editor's Note: We would appreciate comments on the current war protests from our military readers and their families. Please enter your comment at our Opinion Survey Page and note your Service Branch affiliation.
Quote of the week...
"A time of war is a time of sacrifice, and a heavy burden falls on our military families. They miss you and they worry about you. By standing behind [their sons and daughters] they are standing for America. America appreciates the service and the sacrifice of the military families. Now we'll honor their sacrifice by completing their mission." —President George W. Bush
On cross-examination...
"The news media have done Cindy Sheehan no favor. They only let a grief-stricken mother embarrass herself; it has been painful to watch. It's past time to shift the spotlight back to her brave son and his surviving comrades, where it has always belonged." —David Gelernter, writing in The Los Angeles Times
Open query...
"Since her first meeting with the president, she has called him a 'lying bastard,' 'filth spewer,' 'evil maniac,' 'fuehrer' and the world's 'biggest terrorist' who is committing 'blatant genocide' and 'waging a nuclear war' in Iraq... Sheehan is symptomatic of something that in 2008 could cause the Democratic Party a sixth loss in eight presidential elections. That something is a shrillness unlike anything heard, in living memory, from a major tendency within a major party... Do Democrats really want to embrace her variation of the Michael Moore and 'Fahrenheit 9/11' school of political discourse?" —George Will
The BIG lie...
"You know Iraq was no threat to the United States of America until we invaded." —Cindy Sheehan
This week's "Braying Jackass" award:
"You sound more informed than most U.S. Congresspeople, so maybe you should run [for Congress]." —MSNBC'S Chris Matthews to Cindy Sheehan
From the warfront with Jihadistan...
Liberty is often not easy, and in the rough-and-tumble of human life, it can be downright ugly. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the effort to draft the new Iraqi constitution. Originally scheduled for completion on 15 July, squabbling among the three major groups in Iraq, the Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis, forced Iraq's leaders to extend the deadline for another week, with a draft finally being submitted to parliament minutes before the end of the new deadline. A final vote by parliament was delayed three days to allow more time to secure support from the Sunni leadership. The Sunnis, a minority in Iraq but long the source of suppression of the majority Kurds and Shiites under Saddam, now object to their minority status and question several key areas of the new constitution.
It is clear from the new constitution's text that the Iraqi leadership truly desires a modern democratic state, but by enshrining Islam as the official state religion, Iraqi officials created a seemingly impossible dilemma. For example, sections of the Iraqi constitution read as follows: "No law can be passed that contradicts the fixed principles of Islam's rulings. No law can be passed that contradicts the principles of democracy. No law can be passed that contradicts basic rights and freedoms mentioned in this constitution." Clearly, the first sentence contradicts the next two, but this is realpolitik in the fractured world of the Middle East, where borders were drawn at random in the waning days of the British Empire.
The Patriot editors would like to make a few observations about this Iraqi constitutional process
