I was watching the O’Reilly Factor this morning and Bill had a guy on there that disgusted me. This typical leftist elitist named Todd Chretien who wrote a proposition that bans recruiters from school campuses. The referendum goes by the name: College not Combat.

The referendum was drafted last year after students at San Francisco State University began protesting military recruiters on their campus. Todd Chretien, the author of the referendum, said “the impact of Prop I is tremendous” and shows that San Franciscans stand behind the students’ efforts. This win, he says, is only the beginning of a larger effort to get recruiters legally banned from campuses.

So hold up for just a moment. Obviously you see where this is going. One small battle won in a city that is known for its almost outlandish and sometimes spotlighted political agenda’s. Now don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with that, but when it becomes a trend then I go by the old saying, if it walks like a duck, blah blah. I think people don’t see the hidden political movement in this referendum. If they do then they need to wake up and really smell the Java. If they want to offer alternative programs, that is fine. We live in America and everyone has a right to decide. However, don’t shun the ability to empower our youth by taking the recruiter away from the campuses. This is exactly what this referendum did in one city. Now the people behind this think that because it worked in one city, then they can take it to the federal level and ban recruiters from entering campuses across the US.

I wonder if these people realize that this war was a political decision and not the choice of the people that make up the military, including me. Why hone your attack on the people that protect your asses? So riddle me this Batman, if San Francisco residents don’t want recruiters in their school, should we not send any soldiers to their beloved city if a riot breaks out or if a natural disaster hits? I mean they don’t support the members of the Armed Forces right? So why should they reap the benefit when they may need it?

I am disgusted to think that a person would protest against the individual soldier. The ones who fight for the freedom, which in turn gives them the right to speak their mind. I think there is a problem with perception these days. Some civilians are angry because we are dying in Iraq. What they fail to understand is we are dying in the war on terror, whether in Iraq or somewhere else. Those bad people that we fight would not hesitate to come into your little town and snatch your daughter up in the middle of the night and gang rape her and then come to your house and do the same thing to your wife or husband, whatever your choice is. Think I am far fetch? What was Udays favorite past time when his daddy was in power? Would you consider that terrorism?

Let me help you understand the definition:

ter•ror•ism
The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.

So let this be one example that terrorism was occurring in Iraq. However this is not about Iraq. It’s the fact that the US is fighting the war on terror, wherever that may be. Iraq is just one of those countries that we are fighting it in. Will we go to other countries? Most likely!

However I am nothing but a mere soldier who is in the military and knows full well what I signed up for. Not to be led blindly and slaughtered in a land where we don’t belong. No my friends, I do it so we don’t have to fight the terrorists here. So if I were told to go to Iraq and fight. I would pick up my shit and go to Iraq. Without question or hesitation! Why you ask, because I prefer to take the battle to their home turf. I like to know that my family is safe where I live. I wish everyone could say that.

So back to the point. Should we empower our kids to make decisions? Yes we should. Do we do a disservice to them if we take a decision away from them? Yes we do. Should we offer more post graduate programs for our students? Yes we should. Can this be accommodated without throwing our recruiters off the campuses? Yes it can. The focus of the aforementioned referendum should have clearly defined how that can accommodated instead of inadvertently making it harder for recruiters to get their opportunity to students.

UPDATE: This is why. Comments are now closed and we are moving on. Like it or not, fuckoff if you don’t!

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 Walter J. Rausch and 1st Platoon
101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)

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General

I was informed today that my writing is not like how it used to be. Full of so much emotion and the no holds barred in your face passages. I will admit that I didn’t really notice a change until today. I have been so consumed with trying to fix myself, work, finishing the book and my family that I haven’t put a lot of emphasis on this site. I took a good look at the month of November and compare it to last November 2004. There is a major difference and I sat back and realized the difference.

I can say that there have been a lot of things that has gone on since my return. My individual odyssey to get my shoulder fixed has been reached and then some. I would say that my shoulder is about 90% now.

Work has kept me quite busy and so hasn’t the Army. I’ve been deployed twice to assist relief efforts. Once for Katrina and the other in my home state. I can tell you this; I’ve had enough water to last me for a while!

My family is doing well. It was slow going at first but the routine of life slowly fell into place. Habits that formed while I was away took a little while to break but certain compromises were met. There is an old saying that goes like this. One step forward and two steps back. Well without going into too much detail, that saying could sum up a lot of things since my return. It has been tough and I’ve had to make some tough decisions. However, things are a lot better now.

This journal means a lot to me and to defer from it is not going to happen. I’ve enjoyed many email conversations with the thousands that have stumbled upon this site. It gets overwhelming but I do my best to write to everyone who graces me with their words. I was astounded earlier this week to see that people came together and donated to Project Valour-IT from my site. I was also proud to see that so many people voted for me in the competition among bloggers. There were some heavy hitters in that competition. It was all that and then a single email from a person telling me that all they wanted was to read the things that brought her to my site day to day. The ‘stuff that amazed’ her.

So with that, I will say that I never left, but I have returned.

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General, News from home

What it really means to me on this day. From a childs imagination yields the appreciation that is the crux of Veteran’s Day.

Thank a Vet today, you will most likely get a Thank You back.

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General