Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Alright readers, it’s time to be PatDollard.com Bloggers. I’d like everyone whose got that special rant in them to let loose for the world. Send me yours at submit AT patdollard.com, along with a photo, and I’ll post it on the front page as the latest featured Reader Post. Today’s most excellent piece was written by John Howell.

Failed Ideology
July 9, 2007
By: John Howell

Victory in Iraq seems to be way out beyond our limited sight. Or so the main stream media would help the democrats paint this picture. Media channels, outside of talk radio (read Rush, Sean, Mark, Hugh, Laura) continue to tell us the bad guys score. We are constantly reminded about how many of Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines have given their lives to protect us. Well it is not quite put that way in the reports by the media or on the floors of either chamber of Congress. The reports are framed in such a way that if you knew nothing about what was going on in the world these brave men and women have been murder for no particular reason what so ever, and it is all President Bush’s fault.

These men and women are fighting a battle that both chambers of Congress authorized them to fight. There was a vote. There was a consensus of support for taking the fight to those who would come to our cities and towns and kill as many of us as they can. I was proud that we had politicians that looked outside of politics and made a decision that was good for the nation without the usual partisan bickering and back biting. I just thought that it would last, on this issue at least, until the job was complete.

Throughout the past election cycle democrats ranted about a failed strategy with no new ideas of their own outside of retreat, I’m sorry I mean REDEPLOYMENT. The democrats would not let us forget about the numbers of U.S. service members that were coming home in flag draped coffins. Reps. Murtha and Pelosi and other democrats told us that we did not have enough boots on the ground to get the job done right. Or they complained that we had too many troops committed to the fight that we could not go and police other nation’s humanitarian crises like the genocide in Darfur.

Maybe it is not a matter of politics but of the way that reality is viewed. When you look back over the past twenty years or so our military has been looked at in the eyes of the democrats in Congress or the White House as a well armed Peace Corps, with a few exceptions. Our military was sent to Somalia to feed the starving Somali people, our troops were attached to United Nations peace keeping forces to protect Bosnians and Croats from the Serbs. Neither place did we have any interests. There was absolutely no benefit direct or indirect, outside of feeling good about doing something nice, for America. The exceptions to the above being the missiles that we fired into Afghanistan and other nations, in response to acts of terrorism. These attacks had little or no effect, as they were planned by predominately democrat administrations to inflict minimal casualties. We are not allowed to protect our own interests. It is just not fair that our way of life is that much superior to any other in the world.
Our fearless Congress seems to have become delusional. They continually want to over step their bounds. We can start last year with the whole baseball steroids hearings, boy that is one of those issues that needed to be tackled to keep our streets safe and secure our way of life. We can even go back a few years with the Valerie Plame debacle. How many years and millions of taxpayer dollars were spent to try to entrap someone high up in the administration? Patrick Fitzgerald knew the identity of the leaker in the second week of the investigation, there was no crime, end of story. Our newest Speaker of the House violating the Logan Act by going to Syria to attempt to enact her own vision of Foreign Policy, and getting it all wrong speaking for America and Israel.

Where are our all mighty legislators when we really need them? They are continually trying to save our troops, who by the way do not need saving and not saving those that truly need to be saved.

The group that truly needs to be saved is the Oakland Raiders football organization. Having gone 2 and 14 last year you cannot go without feeling sorry for those brave men who go out every Sunday and put their bodies on the line week after week, without success. Congress should focus all of their energy on impeaching Al Davis for his failed strategy decisions. All 53 players on the Raiders roster are more than likely praying that they are REDEPLOYED, traded, to other NFL teams. I was only a Marine who volunteered to fight and protect our way of life, so I do not know much about the fragile psyche of the professional athlete. The only pro that I may be able to identify with is Pat Tillman. I can however, as a recreational softball and co-ed kickball player, empathize with these brave men of the grid-iron. If I was a young football player coming out of college, I would pray to God/Allah or any other deity that had the power to keep me off of the Raiders radar on draft day. I mean where are our All Mighty legislators when they are truly needed?

We could make Sen. Harry Reid the Head Coach and cheerleader, Speaker Pelosi could run the Special Teams squads, and Rep. Murtha could be the defensive coordinator. No, I did not forget about the offensive coordinators position, there would be no such thing in a democrat run Raider organization. What is the point of trying to win when you can just run away and hide in the locker rooms of local high schools?

We could even go as far as to replace Iron Mike Ditka and his fight for injured NFL players with Sen. Ted Kennedy. Sen. Kennedy could be the momentous force to change the way the game is played; advocating for not keeping score at the Raider games, so that no players walked away for the game feeling poorly about their effort on the field. Come on, let’s do it for the Athlete! It is just not FAIR! We need a No Player Left Behind bill in congress, and we need it now! Or we need to help the Raider players retreat to other teams and disband the Raiders organization.

The main stream media could even report that the game is being played at an alternate venue, maybe in St. Louis or some other far away city. If by chance the opposing team made it to McAfee Coliseum they could go to the sidelines and the fans and take polls to see what plays would be acceptable to run. We may even see some new NFL strategy, punting on first down or handing the ball off to the opponent’s middle line backer to run unabated for a touchdown. It would certainly be as fun to watch as a Three Stooges marathon.

Maybe, we should just take the armchair quarterbacks out of the fight in Iraq. They are doing no more good on the battle fields of the world than they could, would or should do in a football stadium.