Penned by JB Williams – (8/2/11)

Democracy is exactly what we have in America today and it’s even worse than Thomas Jefferson warned when he said – “A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.”

It’s really much worse than Jefferson indicated… it’s what Karl Marx said it was, “the road to socialism.”

Thomas Jefferson was a well-traveled and studied individual, commissioned to write our Declaration of Independence at the founding of our country and a significant player in the formation of our Constitutional Representative Republic. He was also one of our nation’s most prolific writers of the time, quoted more than any other Founding Father.

It was Jefferson who said – “He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.” – and once again, he may have understated the truth.

A hundred years past the onset of leftist indoctrination in America, via the press, academia, entertainment and politicians, few American’s know much about our founding principles and values, yet many are convinced that they do.

Terms like patriot and constitutionalist are greatly over-used, even abused, and often proclaimed by people who have not even read our founding documents recently, much less lived by them.

Among the many lies sold to American generations since the turn of the twentieth century is the lie that America is a democracy. It functions much like a pure democracy today, as we watch thirty percent of the nation use democratic “mob-rule” tactics to run roughshod over seventy percent of the nation.

But we were not formed as a democracy, and for good reason.

Our system of self-governance was carefully crafted as a Constitutional Representative Republic, which is much different than a democracy. A Constitutional Representative Republic bears three important traits not found in a pure democracy.

1.    A Republic is a state in which the exercise of the sovereign power is lodged in representatives elected by the people. From the local precinct delegate, to city, county, state and federal lawmakers, to the Electoral College, to the Presidency, these are all elected representatives of the people.

2.    As a Representative Republic, the elected representatives must at all times represent the will of the vast majority of citizens, or it is not a system of self-governance, nor is it a system of representation.

3.    The Constitution provides checks and balances, and strict limitations upon the authority of these representatives of the people. They must represent the will of the majority – they are limited to the authority granted them in the Constitution – and they cannot use the will of the majority to infringe upon the rights of any minority.

Today, our representatives do not represent the will of the majority of citizens. Instead, they pander to the parasites of our society for purpose of political gain. They are using the taxpayer’s revenue to buy votes, plain and simple, and those votes come from a collection of special interest minorities.

They are in no way restricted by the limited authority granted in the Constitution and this is not a republic. We are watching democracy right now, as a minority of Americans use the democratic process to force the nation into socialism against the will of the vast majority.

What was once an underground subversive socialist/communist movement against the Constitutional Republic is now an overt act of open treason against the Republic and the people it is supposed to represent, coming from within the halls of our own government.

The debate is long over… Republicans are spineless wimps and Democrats are pure communists.

The two legislative branches of the Democratic Socialists of America are the Progressive Caucus and Black Caucus. If you are trying to figure out how and why our once free nation is racing towards the communist cliff at break-neck speed today, look no further.

Funded by international labor unions, today’s Democrat Party is controlled by the Democratic Socialists of America via their two congressional caucuses. Every prominent Democrat is a member of these caucuses today, and most of them are members of DSA-USA, the Socialist Party or Communist Party who partnered together to form The Democratic Socialists of America.

If you want to know who Obama’s citizen army is, it is American socialists and communists, the new Black Panthers, illegal immigrants, and labor union thugs like those seen in the recent Wisconsin battle to balance their state budget.

The Class Warfare assault based on the Cloward-Piven Strategy has hit its stride in America, pitting the proletariat against investors and employers, blacks against whites and illegal immigrants against legal U.S. citizens.

As Democratic Socialists replace our Constitutional Republic with their proletariat democracy, in which the 51% who don’t pay income taxes in America can run roughshod over the 49% in America who do pay taxes, our nation reaches a point of no return warned about in my October 2006 column, When 51-49 becomes 49-51.

After a hundred years of socialist indoctrination in America, even many Republicans and Tea Partiers wrongly refer to our form of government as a democracy. Many, who proclaim the status of constitutionalists, believe in democratic principles, not republican principles, even though the Constitution clearly guarantees every state and every citizen “a republican form of government.”

You know your freedom is in danger when the Prime Minister of Communist Russia calls you a nation of parasites – “They are living beyond their means and shifting a part of the weight of their problems to the world economy,” – Putin told the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi. – “They are living like parasites off the global economy and their monopoly of the dollar,” – Putin said at the open-air meeting with admiring young Russians.

As the balance of the world struggles to escape the bankruptcy caused by their own experiments with socialism and communism, the U.S. government is rushing towards the communist cliff and not a single Republican will lift a finger to put a stop to it.

Karl Marx was right, as was Thomas Jefferson… Democracy is the road to socialism and socialism is but a stepping stone to communism. We don’t call it that anymore. We prefer the politically correct term – progressive.

We call it wealth redistribution, but it is pure socialism. Half of Americans now want it and the other half has no idea how to stop it.

As long as both sides think we are a democracy, we will remain on the road to socialism.

Only by demanding an immediate return to our Constitutional Representative Republic can we turn away from impending disaster. But with most Americans convinced we are a simple democracy by mob rule – -who is going to make that demand?

“I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.” – Thomas Jefferson

It’s too bad that most Americans no longer revere the brilliance of our Founders. Common sense was long ago replaced with unbridled class envy. Only the politicians win that game!

JB Williams

EVIDENCE BROADENS OBAMA NATURAL BORN CONSPIRACY
Source: Managing Editor – (6/7/11)

Evidence that we have a fraud and a usurper currently residing in the people’s White House is overwhelming, despite the overt lack of journalistic investigating on the part of the American press. But now new evidence indicates that the conspiracy to carry out that fraud was much broader than originally thought.

The story of whom and what Barack Hussein Obama II really is – is a forty-year story that requires a book, not a column, to tell. Strong evidence suggests that he was being groomed from a very young age for the moment in history that would end American supremacy in the world, and usher in a new era of Global Marxist Governance.

But there was a major hurdle that had to be overcome – the U.S. Constitution, in this case, Article II – Section I – Clause V specifically, which requires that “no person except a natural-born citizen of the United States” can hold the office of President. – Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States…and may not even be a legal citizen of the United States. So, how can he be President?

This column focuses upon the period 2003-2008 and the political maneuvers that took place in order to make way for America’s first unconstitutional resident of the White House.

Efforts to Eliminate the Natural Born Requirement (2003-2005)

Proving that the players involved knew the correct definition of natural born citizen borrowed from the Law of Nations by our founders – 1) those born in the country, of parents who are citizens; 2) those children naturally follow the condition of their fathers, and succeed to all their rights; 3) The country of the fathers is therefore that of the children; 4) in order to be of the country, it is necessary that a person be born of a father who is a citizen. – that they knew Barack Hussein Obama II did not meet that definition as a foreign or dual citizen via his father’s British citizenship and that they worked feverishly to find a way around this constitutional requirement for office, as Obama was about to become president…

The effort to remove the natural-born citizen requirement from the U.S. Constitution actually began in 1975 – when Democrat House Rep. Jonathon B. Bingham, [NY-22] introduced a constitutional amendment under H.J.R. 33 which called for the outright removal of the natural-born requirement for president found in Article II of the U.S. Constitution – “Provides that a citizen of the United States otherwise eligible to hold the Office of President shall not be ineligible because such citizen is not a natural born citizen.”

Bingham’s first attempt failed and he resurrected H.J.R. 33 in 1977 under H.J.R. 38, again failing to gain support from members of congress. Bingham was a Yale Law grad and member of the secret society Skull and Bones, later a lecturer at Columbia Law and thick as thieves with the United Nations via his membership in the Council on Foreign Relations.

Bingham’s work lay dormant for twenty-six years when it was resurrected again in 2003 as Democrat members of Congress made no less than eight (8) attempts in twenty-two (22) months, to either eliminate the natural-born requirement, or redefine natural-born to accommodate Barack Hussein Obama II in advance of his rise to power. The evidence is right in the congressional record…

1.    On June 11, 2003 Democrat House member Vic Snyder [AR-2] introduced H.J.R 59 in the 108th Congress – “Constitutional Amendment – Makes a person who has been a citizen of the United States for at least 35 years and who has been a resident within the United States for at least 14 years eligible to hold the office of President or Vice President.” – Co-Sponsors: Rep Conyers, John, Jr. [MI-14]; Rep Delahunt, William D. [MA-10]; Rep Frank, Barney [MA-4]; Rep Issa, Darrell E. [CA-49]; Rep LaHood, Ray [IL-18]; Rep Shays, Christopher [CT-4].

2.    On September 3, 2003, Rep. John Conyers [MI] introduced H.J.R. 67 – “Constitutional Amendment – Makes a person who has been a citizen of the United States for at least 20 years eligible to hold the office of President.” – Co-Sponsor Rep Sherman, Brad [CA-27]

3.    On February 25, 2004, Republican Senator Don Nickles [OK] attempted to counter the growing Democrat onslaught aimed at removing the natural-born citizen requirement for president in S.2128 -  “Natural Born Citizen Act – Defines the constitutional term “natural born citizen,” to establish eligibility for the Office of President” – also getting the definition of natural born citizen wrong. – Co-sponsors Sen Inhofe, James M. [OK]; Sen Landrieu, Mary L. [LA]

4.    On September 15, 2004 – as Barack Obama was about to be introduced as the new messiah of the Democrat Party at the DNC convention, Rep Dana Rohrabacher [CA-46] introduced H.J.R. 104 – “Constitutional Amendment – Makes eligible for the Office of the President non-native born persons who have held U.S. citizenship for at least 20 years and who are otherwise eligible to hold such Office.” – No co-sponsors.

5.    Again on January 4, 2005, Rep John Conyers [MI] introduced H.J.R. 2 to the 109th Congress – “Constitutional Amendment – Makes a person who has been a citizen of the United States for at least 20 years eligible to hold the Office of President.” – Co-Sponsor Rep Sherman, Brad [CA-27]

6.    Rep Dana Rohrabacher [CA-46] tries again on February 1, 2005 in H.J.R. 15 – “Constitutional Amendment – Makes eligible for the Office of the President non-native born persons who have held U.S. citizenship for at least 20 years and who are otherwise eligible to hold such Office.” – No Co-Sponsor

7.    On April 14, 2005, Rep Vic Snyder [AR-2] tries yet again with H.J.R. 42 – “Constitutional Amendment – Makes a person who has been a citizen of the United States for at least 35 years and who has been a resident within the United States for at least 14 years eligible to hold the office of President or Vice President.” – Co-Sponsor Rep Shays, Christopher [CT-4]

8.    All of these efforts failing in committee and the 2008 presidential election looming with an unconstitutional candidate leading the DNC ticket, Democrat Senator Claire McCaskill, [MO] tries to attach the alteration to a military bill in S.2678 on February 28, 2008 – “Children of Military Families Natural Born Citizen Act – Declares that the term “natural born Citizen” in article II, section 1, clause 5 of the Constitution, dealing with the criteria for election to President of the United States, includes any person born to any U.S. citizen while serving in the active or reserve components of the U.S. armed forces.” – Co-Sponsors DNC Presidential candidate Sen Clinton, Hillary Rodham [NY]; DNC Presidential candidate Sen Obama, Barack [IL]; Sen Menendez, Robert [NJ]; Sen Coburn, Tom [OK] – (This was the first effort to also assure that GOP Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain [AZ] would be cleared to run against the DNC primary victor.)
From June 11, 2003 to February 28, 2008, there had been eight (8) different congressional attempts to alter Article II – Section I – Clause V – natural born citizen requirements for president in the U.S. Constitution, all of them failing in committee—All of it taking placing during Barack Obama’s rise to political power and preceding the November 2008 presidential election.
In politics, there are no coincidences… not of this magnitude.

Finally on April 10, 2008, unable to alter or remove the natural born citizen requirement to clear the way for Barack Obama, the U.S. Senate acts to shift focus before the election, introducing and passing S.R.511 – declaring Sen. John McCain a “natural born citizen” eligible to run for and hold the office of president. There was never any honest doubt about McCain, the son of a U.S. Navy Commander. The Sponsor of the resolution is Democrat Senator Claire McCaskill, [MO]

S.R.511 States that John Sidney McCain, III, is a “natural born Citizen’’ under Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution of the United States. S.R511 passed by a 99-0 unanimous consent of the Senate, with only John McCain not voting. The basis was – “Whereas John Sidney McCain, III, was born to American citizens;” – a condition not met by Barack Hussein Obama II. – Co-Sponsors DNC Presidential candidate Sen Clinton, Hillary Rodham [NY]; DNC Presidential candidate Sen Obama, Barack [IL]; Sen Leahy, Patrick J. [VT]; Sen Webb, Jim [VA]; Sen Coburn, Tom [OK] (They had made certain that John McCain would run against Barack Obama)

However, in the McCain resolution is also this language – “Whereas the Constitution of the United States requires that, to be eligible for the Office of the President, a person must be a `natural born Citizen’ of the United States; – Whereas the term ‘natural born Citizen’, as that term appears in Article II, Section 1, is not defined in the Constitution of the United States;”

The U.S. Constitution is not a dictionary. The definition of “is” is not in the constitution either. Yet this is the text that would later be issued in Congressional Research Service talking points memos distributed to members of congress, to protect an individual that all members of congress know and understand to be an “unconstitutional” resident of the people’s White House – Barack Hussein Obama II.

Once again, as the political left was unable to alter the U.S. Constitution by way of legitimate constitutional process, they resorted to altering the constitution via precedent setting, in short, knowingly electing and getting away with seating an unconstitutional president in order to alter Article II requirements for the office via breaking those constitutional requirements.

The press would not ask any questions and the American people were already too ill-informed of their constitution to know or too distracted by daily life to care. The press would provide the cover, swearing to the lies of an unconstitutional administration put in power by criminal actors focused only on their lofty political agenda of forever altering the American form of government.

The people would be caught up in a steady diet of daily assaults on their individual freedom and liberty and overlook the most obvious constitutional crisis in American history, the seating of an unconstitutional and anti-American president.

Evidence of What?

·      Barack Obama is an unconstitutional resident of the people’s White House
·      He did not become America’s first unconstitutional president alone, he had help
·      While most of the criminal cabal are Democrats, some are Republicans
·      Every member of congress knew Obama was ineligible for the office of president
·      Every member of the U.S. Supreme Court knows that Obama is unconstitutional
·      Every intelligent member of the press knows the truth, but won’t dare tell this story
·      Numerous people tried to remove natural born citizen from the constitution
·      They all know the correct definition of natural born citizen and applied it to John McCain
·      None of these people wants to apply the same definition to Barack Obama
·      Nobody in the Federal Government is going to do anything about the greatest constitutional crisis in American history, because all of them are complicit on one level or another

As a result, the DNC was forced to remove the “constitutionally eligible” language from the 2008 DNC certification of the Obama-Biden ticket, omitting from the certification the following language –
“and that the following candidates for President and Vice President of the United States are legally qualified to serve under the provisions of the United States Constitution.”
Instead, the DNC only certified that the Obama-Biden ticket was duly nominated for the offices of President and Vice President, using the following language –

“THIS IS TO CERTIFY that at the National Convention of the Democrat Party of the United States of America, held in Denver, Colorado on August 25 though 28, 2008, the following were duly nominated as candidates of said Party for President and Vice President of the United States respectively:” (Note that the word “through” is misspelled in both DNC versions, indicating that it is an alteration from the same document.)
Later, adding insult to injury, responding to endless public demands for documentation that would prove Obama eligible for the office he currently holds, the Obama White House issued not one but at least two (2) blatant forgeries, the first in the form of a Hawaiian COLB (Certification of Live Birth – not to be confused with a common birth certificate), and then a forged (so-called long form) Birth Certificate, otherwise known as an actual birth certificate.

Meanwhile, the entire U.S. Press has been blatantly complicit or terminally derelict in their total lack of interest in investigating or reporting these facts. The fourth estate had become a fifth column.

The Greatest Fraud Ever Perpetrated

The Obama conspiracy to seat an unconstitutional president is the greatest fraud ever perpetrated on the American people and it has drastically altered the American system of self-governance from a constitutional republic to a corrupt democracy of frauds elected by fools.

Obama did not do this alone – he had a lot of help, including from an ignorant electorate.

But these wheels were set in motion in the late ‘90s and placed in overdrive in 2003. Numerous government officials were involved in the conspiracy to defraud the American people out of their government, including key Republicans like Darrell Issa and Tom Coburn. Every member of congress, the courts and the press, have been given the cover-up talking points by the Congressional Research Service and so far, not one individual has the honor or decency to break from those talking points and tell the American people the truth. Their government had been stolen…

Where was Obama while the Path was being cleared?

1992
·      Barack Obama begins working at the firm of Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Gallard as a junior lawyer, hoping to work on civil rights cases.
·      Barack Obama is teaching constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School.
·      1992 is an election year. Barack Obama becomes the director of Illinois Project Vote, an organization focused on registering minority voters. Obama registers approximately 100,000 new voters, primarily in the African-American community.
1995
·      Before achieving a single significant accomplishment in life, Barack Obama releases his first memoire, Dreams from My Father. The creation of the Barack Hussein Obama II story begins.
·      November 7, 1995 – Barack Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, dies of ovarian cancer.
1996
·      Barack Obama wins the Democratic nomination for the seat, and is elected to the Illinois State Senate.
1998
·      After failing to accomplish anything in the Illinois Senate for two years, Barack is re-elected to the Illinois Senate.
1999
·      Barack Obama runs for U.S. Congress and loses due to his record of not showing up for key votes in Illinois.
2002
·      Barack Obama is re-elected to the Illinois Senate. Politically, his stock is rising, not due to a record of accomplishments, but rather due to his increasing circle of influential friends including Rev. Wright and William Ayers.
2003
·      Despite the title of Illinois most absent Senator, Barack Obama becomes chairman of the Illinois Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee.
·      In January 2003, Barack Obama formally enters the race for the United States Senate. Team Obama destroys Democratic rival, Blair Hull, by exposing his domestic abuse allegations.
2004
·      Barack Obama wins the Illinois primaries with 53 percent of the vote. In the general election, Barack Obama faces Republican candidate Jack Ryan.
·      Team Obama pushes Jack Ryan out of the race with reports of a sex scandal.
·      July 7, 2004 – Boston, Massachusetts: The Democratic National Convention introduced the new messiah of the Democrat Party to the world when 42 year old Barack Obama, who had yet to accomplish anything, becomes the hit of the John Kerry convention by the handy work of Sen. Ted Kennedy. [MA]
·      November 2, 2004 – Barack Obama, 43, is elected for the U.S. Senate.
2005
·      January 4, 2005 – Barack Obama is sworn in as a U.S. senator.
·      Barack’s first law is passed with Republican Tom Coburn.
2007
·      February 10, 2007 – Barack Obama announces his candidacy for President of the United States in the 2008 U.S. presidential election.
2008
·      June 3, 2008 – After defeating Senator Hillary Clinton in the primaries, Barack Obama becomes the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party for the 2008 presidential election.
·      November 3, 2008 – Barack Obama’s grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, age 86, dies of cancer, just one day before the Presidential Election.
·      November 5, 2008 – Barack Obama wins the US Presidential Election and becomes the first UNCONSTITUTIONAL President of the United States

In short, as Obama was rising through the ranks of Democrat Party power and being systematically groomed as the new messiah of the party, friends of the movement were busy making way by trying repeatedly to remove Article II – Section I – Clause V from the U.S. Constitution. When they failed to do it legitimately, they did it via setting precedent.

Despite a total lack of significant accomplishment, Obama was clearly fast-tracked by Democrat Party powers and even the massive Clinton War Machine was no match for the people behind Obama’s unparalleled rise to power.

Now you know how this nobody from nowhere came to power in almost no time at all with a completely blank résumé, and if you follow the names attached to the flood of initiatives to eliminate natural born citizenship as a requirement for the office, you can see some of the folks behind that effort.

Since many of the key figures in the three branches of the Federal government were involved in this conspiracy, we know that we cannot rely on anyone at the Federal level to address this crisis, and since we have watched the U.S. press run cover for it, we know not to expect any help from them in returning America to her people.

Only the People Can End this Crisis

From 2003 through 2008, member of congress worked to eliminate Article II – Section I – Clause V of the U.S. Constitution, requiring that all presidential candidates be natural born citizens of the United States.
In 2008, fifty state Secretaries allowed the name Barrack Hussein Obama to appear on their state ballot for the president, despite the known fact that Barrack Hussein Obama did not meet the constitutional conditions for the office sought, and that the Democrat Party had intentionally failed to certify Barrack Obama as constitutionally eligible for office.

On January 20, 2009, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Roberts administered the presidential oath of office to an individual and every member of the Supreme Court had knowledge that Barrack Hussein Obama failed to meet constitutional requirements for the office he was about to take.

The Chief Law enforcement officer in our country is head of the Department of Justice, Eric Holder. A long-time leftist comrade of Barrack Obama who uses the power of the office to silence the vice of American dissenters, while protecting all who intend America harm.

The voting fraud is so prevalent in America today that it is almost impossible to rely upon the election system as a means of correcting anything and even if you could rely on the system, decent honest qualified leaders do not run for political office in this cesspool we call a country today.

Only 25% of the nation strongly supports this White House resident, which means 75% have great doubts, with more than 35% strongly opposed.

Only the people can put this nation back on track to freedom and liberty, the rule of law and our beloved constitutional republic and they cannot do it in the election booth.

The people must rise up, stand together and hold these criminal actors accountable for the theft of our government which has become the greatest threat to the American way of life in history.

The people must wake up, stand up, come together and put this evil down and they must do it while they still have the power to do so. TAKE ACTION TODAY!

The name Barrack Hussein Obama II cannot appear on the 2012 President ballot and neither can the name of any co-conspirator. Every citizen who wants to live in freedom tomorrow must contact the appropriate officials today!

1)    CLICK HERE to demand that your State Officials take immediate action to investigate the crimes of the 2008 Election, and make certain that this can never happen again by holding those responsible fully accountable. Barrack Obama should not have been on the ballot in 2008 and he cannot be allowed to appear on the ballot again in 2012.

2)    CLICK HERE to send a letter to editor notifying the press of the most serious constitutional crisis in American history!

3)    A list of co-conspirators will be served for their direct involvement in the effort to subvert and remove Article II of the U.S. Constitution. (More information on this effort will be forthcoming)
Government Communication software is made available to the general public at no charge, by The United States Patriots Union of Sheridan Wyoming. It’s up to the American people to demand proper solutions, take this action and follow-up until elected servants begin to act in the best interest of the people.

JB Williams

(Picture of Sgt Smith on a mission)

Some information for everybody about myself. I write here (on Pat Dollards website) as SGT SMITH, talk in the chat room during the BTR Jihadikiller hour shows as Smitty. I’ve made a couple appearances on the show calling in. This is to let you know who I am, a little bit of what I’ve done; and why I choose to do what I do.

When I was a Junior in high school, I watched as our country came under attack from cowards. I remember that day as everybody does. My deciding point for joining the military came later that day. My father is a firefighter and that evening, there was a memorial service for all of those emergency responders who had lost their lives earlier that day. I sat in a pew next to my mother as I watched the line of firefighters; who I had grown up with being my big brothers, walk down the aisle with their black mourning bands on their badges. I watched as every one of them lost their composure and started to cry. It was at that exact moment that I was young enough to do something, and that I needed to. October of 2002 I found myself at MEPS in Kansas City volunteering for the Marine Corps.

(My family and I)

I graduated high school in May of 2003 and a little over a month later I was on my way to boot camp, turning 18 only a week earlier. Through 13 weeks of torment and stress I finally earned the title of United States Marine. When I was home on leave I never thought that I would go to Iraq, due to all major operations in Iraq being done. One December 12, 2003 I joined my first fleet unit, 3/7 in 29 Palms, Ca; and learned that I in fact would be making that trip. On Valentine’s Day 2004, I boarded a bus to take me to Iraq. Before my 19th birthday had been baptized by fire, earning my Combat Action Ribbon. Along the way I lost many of my friends, to include Brandon Clinton Smith, my rack-mate through boot camp and best friend in the fleet. After seven months of the “Wild Wild West” in Al Qaim, Iraq, I flew home into the arms of my crying mother.

(Picture of me in Al Qaim after I was told my hair was eccentric, so I fixed it by making it blend in better)

The time between my first and second deployments, I had a very hard time re-adapting trying to find answers to questions that can’t be found in the bottom of bottles. This eventually led to my arrest at Lake Havasu, AZ with initial charges of nine felonies and seven misdemeanors. I had tried to be above the law, under the influence and underage. That never works out well. Thanks to a mishap on the police’s side and my service, I was given a plea bargain. Being convicted of only two misdemeanors with a hefty fine and some other requirements I was sent back to my unit. There I received an NJP, losing my rank of Lance Corporal and was put on restriction. We started our next work-up for another deployment to Iraq. This time I would find myself in Ramadi.

(At Fontana in between deployments)

Ramadi was something out of a movie. War-torn buildings, gunfire every night, not ever knowing what was going to happen next. One night about a month into the deployment, my platoon and I were setting into an ambush position, jumping from one rooftop to the next, when I landed wrong. Pain shot up and down my leg, I wanted to scream but could only whisper to keep our position covert. I was eventually medevac’d to a higher echelon of care where it was determined that I had sheered off a piece of my ankle, cracked my ankle, and had a stress fracture up my shin. I was told that I wouldn’t be off crutches for 6-8 weeks with 4-6 weeks of physical therapy following that. Two weeks later, I lost yet another friend, Jonathan Ross Spears. J.R. was killed by an enemy sniper on a rooftop when he exposed his self to tell one of his Marines to get down. At that point I knew that I would be out on the streets very soon. A week and a half later I participated in Operation Machete, an 18 hour foot mobile cache sweep, one of the largest finds in Ramadi history. I was eventually returned to my old platoon India-4 who were attached to Kilo company operating out and around the government center. Daily gun battles to keep the political strong point safe were nothing out of the normal. We operated non-stop, only a few days a month being spent in the rear in order to wash our balls and cammies. Before another one of our large operations, we sat in the briefing room and were told that we would have the “Hollywood movie producer” attached to our platoon. Thinking the worse, that we had some liberal retard attached tried to get skewed views of the war, nobody was very inviting to Pat. Eventually we started asking him questions and got to know exactly what he was doing. After Pat hanging out of doorways to get demo breaches on film and being out there with us never bitching or being a hassle, he became one of the guys. December 10-12 of 2005 the platoon and Pat was at our newest and most tested OP’s in Ramadi. Pat had came and talked to me right at dusk of the 10th. Pat needed a cigarette so he went downstairs. As soon as he turned off his camera, an RPG slammed into the bottom of my post. Happening during the perfect 5 minutes when it’s too bright to see with NVG’s but too dark to see with the naked eye, as Pat ran up trying to find out what happened I was launching illum rounds out of my 203 to try to find the f***-head that just tried to wax my ass. The next day Pat once again visited my post talking about how crazy the shit from the day prior had been. Then, Pat had to shit. He went down to the wag-bag shitters and popped a squat as mortars dropped all around us. Once, a coincidence, twice- shit starts to get real. Pat came up on the third and final day of us being at the OP, talking shit about how he missed great footage and what-not. Pat left to go talk with somebody else, as a sniper shot punched through my post. I was peppered with small splinters of wood in my upper thighs, a small piece of metal below my nose and another in my left shoulder. The deployment continued on as did the gun battles. Our platoon set oil tankers on fire with our bullets, and killed any insurgent retarded enough to test us. Something more important than all of that is we started to show the people of Ramadi, that Americans truly were there to help, driving a wedge between the civilians and insurgents. Holding elections that finally had voters, and being discriminate and prejudice killers, taking out the bad guys next to civilians, not harming the civilians, as much as possible. The deployment came to an end and we made our way back home again.

(J.R. Spears a few days before the city behind him would take his life)

(Me and some of the guys from India-4)

At this point it was a very critical time in my life with some big issues ahead of me. Do I get out and go to college? Fuck no, I’d wind up killing some liberal fuck-tard professor. Do I get out and be a contractor? The money’s good, get all kinds of high speed gear, good training. Do I stay in? I love the bond between Marines, being a leader. Training Marines and watching them become men, unafraid and courageous. About halfway through my debate, I received a phone call from Troy, one of my best friends since being young kids running around causing all kinds of troubles; his twin who also happened to be my other best friend had been hurt. Trey was a reservist mortarman, on his second deployment. Trey’s vehicle was struck by an IED and he had 2nd and 3rd degree burns over 20% of his body and his lower arm was connected to his upper arm by a quarter-inch piece of skin. They couldn’t stabilize him in Iraq due to his burns and needed to get him to Germany, but the flight would kill him. Trey was stabilized and shipped to Germany but not before I had put my re-enlistment package together, getting me to a unit deploying soon and on the east coast. Trey is currently medically retired out of the Marine Corps and a successful manager for a nationwide store. They were able to save his arm, and he wears a brace to help his prosthetic elbow.

(Troy and Trey)

On December 13th 2006, I checked in with 2d Marine Division Anti-Terrorism Battalion. I would be deploying to Diayla Province. I was looking for a fresh start, without the “Havasu Smith” incident shadowing over me, and that is exactly what I got. Three months into this new unit I was put on a meritorious Corporal board and won. I deployed to Ashraf in April, providing security for the PMOI or MEK, you can look them up on the Department of State website. During this deployment, enemy was all around us but due to being under an Army command, they deemed us going and doing our jobs, killing bad guys and protecting the innocent; and I quote “Too Dangerous”. I no bullshit – laughed out loud when I was first told because I thought it was a joke. The only way to win hearts and minds I decided was to treat people who came into the ECP. The Army was against this because it wasn’t an American job to treat Iraqi’s. I personally treated and never lost under my care 13 life-threatening casualties. Everything from gunshot wounds to the head, to serious burns. I set up an SOP for the base to treat mass-casualties after a bad day for innocent Iraqi’s caught in a crossfire. During that deployment, my platoon was only in one fire fight, and the company was only in a handful total. Even with so little going on, it all came at a price. Our company lost two Marines to an IED, and had more than a dozen wounded. We were back stateside another seven months later, November of 2007.

(An Iraqi and I)

(Betancourt and I)

After coming back, our unit had transformed for ATBN to 2d Battalion 9th Marines, Hell in a Helmet. I fell into “Echo” company. In February I was sent to a formal school “Corporal’s Course” and graduated with the Gung Ho (motivator award) award, class First Sergeant (in charge of the students in absence of instructors), and the fourth highest GPA in the class, I didn’t get third by only .02%. After coming back we went to VA for a month long training evolution. When we returned, I was nominated for a meritorious sergeant board. I won that board as well and was promoted to Sergeant in May of 2008. Throughout this span, I realized that deployments had taken their toll on me, that I might need some help dealing with things that I didn’t know how to. Rather than drinking to not think, or acting out; I talked it out and it seemed to help.

I am currently deployed once again, we left CONUS 22Sept2008. My battalion’s AO is massive. My platoon’s AO is 1/3 of the battalion’s. We still piss in tubes and use burn shitters. Life is good though. I am down here with my section of Marines, running missions. All though there isn’t any kinetic warfare going on here, the non-kinetics are almost harder to deal with. Being an adviser to political figures within towns, training supervisors for police stations, and trying to root out corruption and insurgents is a thinking man’s game. Don’t get me wrong, combat patrols are some of the most taxing events somebody could experience, but this is difficult. I think because I never thought I would do something like this, that I would always be “hunting muj” and what-not. It’s a tough transition to make, but one that means so much. All of my buddies that have given their lives, even those who I never knew; did it for a reason. I never once in a firefight, debated on the reasons of our presence in Iraq. I never thought “Well this will surely drop gas prices”. I never did it for Republicans, Conservatives, Liberals, Democrats or anybody but the people beside me. I didn’t reenlist because I thought that I would somehow fix our country’s problems. I did it because the country needs people to fight for it. I did it because I will not, ever, let those who have gone before me be forgotten or go in vain. I started out being a Marine for the challenge, to be the best of the best. I do it now because I love it, every second, every cold morning wake up, not getting enough chow or cold water. I love to watch Marines mature and bond. I do this so my nieces and nephew, and my future children will never have to know who Saddam Hussein was other than what they learn about him in school.

(Abigail, Ethan, and I)

(My platoon commander and I) me with long ass hair and clear lenses

Who Are We and What Have We Become?

“You forget who you are—black or white and American or African—and where you come from when you are before God circling the Kabba (the large masonry cubic structure near Mecca) in a two-piece unstitched garment.” These words are from sitting United States Congressman Keith Ellison. This fellow who has a time when he ‘forgets’ he is an American is America’s ‘unofficial goodwill Ambassador’ to the Middle East. Americans held hostage by terrorists, in POW camps and under enemy fire can never forget they are an American fighting man or civilian. But from journalists to politicians of the Left we have people with American citizenship who claim to either be against what we fight for to protect innocent citizens of our country or claim to be ‘neutral.’ Only during the Vietnam War did America begin to tolerate neutrality in time of war. Thank you Uncle Walter Cronkite for that insight. But now it has become an almost accepted ‘truth’ of our country today. It is hogwash and strikes at the very moral fiber of our nation.

Politicians leak intelligence given in closed classified briefings and give it their own spin to undermine our elected leaders and our warriors in harm’s way. But even worse we have a generation of officers in the military and bluenose operatives in government who leak seemingly at will. This they take as their ‘democratic’ right. One has to question if some of these folks took their oath of office with their fingers childishly crossed behind their collective backs. The John Kerry/Daniel Ellsberg type of military officer/government employee are sadly alive and well and are once again multiplying as the leftist press of the media in all forms continues to multiply like a great cancerous growth on the body politic. As long as we excuse treason as just another political slant our enemies will plan to prolong any engagement until we quit like a poodle in a fight with a German Shepherd. Lots of whining and yelping but not much biting by the pussy pups of this genre. We are the Dobermans of war and fear of even a rabid Poodle  is heresy in keeping with our sacrificing forebears.

EXIT Strategy’ equals quitting my fellow citizens.

I am not today nor will I ever be a ‘citizen of the world’ because I am an American, first, last and always.

I do not go back to nations I have fought to apologize to them but simply to smirk in their wretched little faces over how many of their sorry, mentally captured brethren I slew in battle.

I am an Infantry Soldier and my very pride is built on the broken bodies of my enemies.

I am not a purveyor of political ideals but simply a life taker and will breaker because bringing political change is somebody else’s job and not mine.

I am proud of old soldiers when they gather to reminisce. You do not hear a lot of whining as they mingle, even from those who left parts of themselves broken on a foreign shore. They do talk of what might have been if some politically motivated clown act had not snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. But they do so in eternal anger and not in whining discussion groups led by those who were never there. But I do hear a recurring theme which says with great sadness ‘Who are we and what have we become’?

It is rather simple really. We have become a ‘pussified ‘group of self-thinking, propagandized whiners who believe that nothing is worth the long-haul to pursue. ‘Exit Strategy’ has become the catch-word for a nation no longer yearning for or even seeing the importance of the simple but irreplaceable word VICTORY. So when you mouth the phrase ‘Peace on earth, goodwill towards men’ this Christmas, may we remember the price paid on a cruel cross to try and  achieve it.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND GOD BLESS AMERICA AND HER BRAVE.

Black Lions Sir,
De Oppresso Libre,
Rangers Lead The Way
and
Currahee!

Maj. Mark Smith, (US Army Retired)  DSC/Former PoW – Vietnam

Sunday, December 14, 2008; Page B01 on the Washington Post

KHOST PROVINCE, Afghanistan Capt. Roger Hill stood behind a long wooden desk, reading from a piece of paper that trembled lightly in his hand. “Please know that seeing your brothers whittled down one by one by a cowardly and ghost-like enemy is difficult,” he said, glancing up only briefly at the team of military prosecutors assembled around him.

Hill is a U.S. Army officer in Afghanistan accused of detainee abuse, including a mock execution, war crimes, dereliction of duty and other serious charges stemming from an incident last August at a U.S. military base outside the capital city of Kabul. Members of his unit allegedly slapped Afghan detainees, and Hill himself is said to have fired his pistol into the ground near blindfolded Afghans to frighten them.

But after exploring the personalities and circumstances involved in this case, it’s hard for me to condemn Hill or his first sergeant, Tommy Scott, who has been charged with assaulting the detainees. Stuck in the deadly middle ground between all-out war and nation- building, these men lashed out to protect themselves. To me, their story encapsulates the impossible role we’ve asked U.S. soldiers to play in the reconstruction of this devastated country. They are part warrior, part general contractor, yet they are surrounded on all sides by a populace that wants nothing more than to kill or be rid of them.

The soldiers who have served at Hill’s side call him heroic. Others describe the career that the 30-year-old West Point graduate might have had if he and his men hadn’t apparently crossed the line one day last summer. Instead, I watched Hill fight for that career — and for his freedom — earlier this month in a conference room at Forward Operating Base Salerno, a large U.S. military base near the Afghan town of Khost, about 17 miles from the Afghan-Pakistani border.

As Hill tried to defend his actions at a military hearing, his soft voice filled the small, bare room: “Know that sifting through the charred and crumbling remains of fellow service members in order to identify their bodies, or picking up the pieces of another after this ghost-like enemy has hacked off his arms and cut out his heart . . . only for you to later find out that his fingers are being distributed downtown amongst the locals, can somehow make a commander more protective. “

It was against this “ghost-like enemy” that Hill, Scott and the rest of their unit were fighting at Forward Operating Base Airborne in Wardak Province, west of Kabul, where Hill’s company was the sole coalition force for miles around.

There are dozens of bases throughout the country like Airborne. They are full of soldiers who bear the dual and confounding burden of being both an army fighting the Taliban, with all the killing and dying that entails, and a corps of civil servants. They attend shuras (meetings with village leaders), construct roads and help train the Afghan police force. They are expected to work hand-in-glove with people who might have tea with them one moment and inform Taliban killers about U.S. troop movements the next. But talking with local leaders — even leaders who might be playing both sides — is the only way to begin progress toward building institutions in Afghanistan.

I traveled here to work as an embedded reporter with the soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division, based at Fort Campbell, Ky., about an hour from my home in Nashville. I’d planned on spending most of my time with the 101st as they engaged the Taliban on the Pakistan border.

But while waiting at FOB Salerno for a helicopter ride to a smaller base, I heard talk about Hill and the Article 32 inquiry he was about to face — the military justice version of a grand jury hearing. I learned that Hill and Scott could face life in prison if the matter proceeded to a court martial. Another half-dozen members of Hill’s company will soon have Article 32 hearings of their own. One soldier is already being held in a military jail in Kuwait for his role in the incident.

I decided to stay.

Hill’s path to the hearing room in Khost began, according to witness testimony, when he received reliable intelligence late last August that Taliban agents were working on his unit’s base, which is manned by no more than 200 coalition soldiers. One of these reported interlopers, a man identified only as “Noori,” was Hill’s personal interpreter. Two more purported Taliban informants were running the base’s small, locally owned coffee shop. The intelligence said that all three, as well as some others, were relaying information about U.S. troop movements and artillery positions to Taliban agents in Wardak, an area the size of Connecticut where Hill’s small company faced off against a large number of hostile locals.

The intelligence report detailing how these Afghan men were working with the Taliban is classified “top secret.” But an Army spokesman who has seen it said that the evidence against them was incontrovertible. “There was a legitimate report saying that [Hill's translator] was a bad guy and was sharing information with the Taliban,” said Marine Capt. Scott Miller, media liaison for the hearing. “He was providing information to recognized bad people.”

Continue reading this here.

Posted: 17 Dec 2008 12:55 PM CST

IN THE BOOK, The Sociopath Next Door, Martha Stout says something really interesting. Her book is about normal, everyday sociopaths (also known by the somewhat outdated term, “psychopath”). In other words, the book is not about serial killers, but about the neighbor who drives you crazy, the spouse who seems dedicated to making your life miserable, the cruel, unfeeling boss, etc.

A sociopath is someone who feels no empathy for other human beings. The consequences of this lack are enormous. These people are, in many ways, not recognizably human. And there is no cure for sociopathy. It is not caused by upbringing. Therapy only makes them worse.

About two percent of the population is sociopathic, and those who are in a relationship with a sociopath need to understand what makes sociopaths tick. The more you know, the less likely you are to be fooled, used, or destroyed by a sociopath.

But Martha Stout said something interesting for us here in our conversation about Islam. She wrote about the techniques sociopaths use to exploit people around them. Sociopaths use people. And there is one thing sociopaths use more than anything else because it works so well with normal people. Their ultra-effective weapon is to evoke pity.

Stout wrote:

The most reliable sign, the most universal behavior of unscrupulous people is not directed, as one might imagine, at our fearfulness. It is, perversely, an appeal to our sympathy.

I first learned this when I was still a graduate student in psychology and had the opportunity to interview a court-referred patient the system had already identified as a “psychopath.” He was not violent, preferring instead to swindle people out of their money with elaborate investment scams. Intrigued by this individual and what could possibly motivate him…I asked, “What is important to you in your life? What do you want more than anything else?” I thought he might say “getting money,” or “staying out of jail,” which were the activities to which he devoted most of his time. Instead, without a moment’s hesitation, he replied, “Oh, that’s easy. What I like better than anything else is when people feel sorry for me. The thing I really want more than anything else out of life is people’s pity.”

I was astonished, and more than a little put off. I think I would have liked him better if he had said “staying out of jail,” or even “getting money.” Also, I was mystified. Why would this man — why would anyone — wish to be pitied, let alone wish to be pitied above all other ambitions? I could not imagine. But now, after twenty-five years of listening to victims, I realize there is an excellent reason for the sociopathic fondness for pity. As obvious as the nose on one’s face, and just as difficult to see without the help of a mirror, the explanation is that good people will let pathetic individuals get by with murder, so to speak, and therefore any sociopath wishing to continue with his game, whatever it happens to be, should play repeatedly for none other than pity.

More than admiration — more even than fear — pity from good people is carte blanche. When we pity, we are, at least for the moment, defenseless, and like so many of the other positive human characteristics that bind us together in groups…our emotional vulnerability when we pity is used against us…

The reason I thought that was interesting and relevant is that pity is one of the most common techniques Islamic supremacists use, and it is the main reason they’ve been able to get away with as much as they have so far. They exploit the egalitarian, multiculturalist, good-hearted nature of non-Muslims. They evoke pity and then use our own kindness and our desire to “get along with others” against us.

I was just reading the book, Tripoli: The United States’ First War on Terror. The ruler of Tripoli had been seizing U.S. merchant ships, adding the ship to his own fleet, keeping the contents of the ship, and selling the captured sailors into slavery. It was a very lucrative pirating business. The U.S. wanted Tripoli to stop it, of course. The ruler of Tripoli said, “Sure, we’ll stop attacking your ships if you pay us tribute every year.”

So for awhile the U.S. paid the tribute because they were a new country and had no navy to speak of, and they wanted to continue with their overseas trade. But the ruler of Tripoli decided the tribute they had agreed to wasn’t enough, so he demanded more and when he didn’t get it, he started seizing U.S. ships again.

Meanwhile, the U.S. was frantically building a navy, and by this time had enough warships to put up a fight, so they did. Suddenly Tripoli’s ruler wanted to talk peace. But in the negotiations, the man negotiating on behalf of the ruler asked for a gift of money. The U.S. said no, absolutely not. The U.S. said basically, “You have not been fair in any way and have only acted as our enemy, and no, we will not pay you to stop the fighting.”

Then Tripoli’s negotiator tried to appeal to pity: “But Tripoli is very poor,” he pleaded. “she cannot subsist without the generosity of her friends; give something then on the score of charity.” In this case, Tripoli had already established a poor reputation with the Americans, so the pity plea did not work. But even after the U.S. negotiator said no, Tripoli’s negotiator tried to make the U.S. negotiator feel guilty for not feeling pity. He asked, basically, “You say you want peace but you won’t give this gift of charity to obtain the peace?”

Islam uses the pity plea anywhere it can. Mohammad used it, Muslims in Tripoli were using it, and Muslims today are still at it. In their dealings with powerful non-Muslims, the basic stance of Islam is: “We are an oppressed, persecuted people. We’re a minority. We’re under siege. We are wrongly accused. We’re the victims of bigotry, hatred, and Islamophobia.” And if they can’t find anything to point to that proves their oppression, they literally create something.

It’s like a game they are playing, except this is a game with very serious consequences. A single sociopath using the appeal to pity can completely ruin the lives of many people. And this is, of course, nothing compared with what Islamic supremacists have done. They’ve killed over 270 million people since they started. They’ve ruined even more lives, and they are affecting the lives and livelihoods of billions of us today.

I would like to spend my time working on productive, positive, life-affirming activities. Instead, I am spending many hours of my short time here on earth trying to stop the insidious Islamic encroachment, reading and writing about things I wish didn’t exist. It’s an upsetting topic. It’s disturbing. But the consequences of ignoring it are even worse, so I devote a large portion of my life to it.

And, of course, I’m not alone. Every one of us has been influenced in hundreds of ways we don’t even know about by the third jihad (and the first two jihads).

It’s important to understand how they do it. One of the most successful techniques they use is the appeal to pity. The good news is that as soon as someone sees the appeal for what it is, the game is over, the magic disappears, the trance is lifted.

When you find a good example of how Islamic supremacists use the appeal to pity, please give us the example in the comments on this article. Let’s help each other see through the con game, and with our open eyes, let us completely defeat the third jihad.

Bagram Air Base
Afghanistan

5:38 A.M. (Local)

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much. Thanks for the warm welcome. Thanks for coming out to greet me — at kind of a strange hour. (Laughter.) General, I appreciate your accommodating what I’m calling Rudolph One. (Laughter.) After all, it is the holiday season. You might have heard, we made a little refueling stop in Baghdad earlier today. And now I’m proud to be back in Afghanistan. (Applause.) You might call it an early-morning wake-up call. Or in some of your cases, I might have cut your evening off. We won’t go there. (Laughter.)

In either case, I am proud to be with brave souls serving the United States of America. (Applause.)

And my dear wife sends her very best regards. (Applause.) So, on behalf of Laura, and everybody else back home, merry Christmas, and a happy holidays. (Applause.) Congratulations on your tremendous accomplishments. And above all, thank you for volunteering to defend the United States of America.

You know, they often say, what are you going to miss? I’ll miss the airplane, of course. (Laughter.) But I’m mainly going to miss being the Commander-in-Chief of such an outstanding group of men and women.

I appreciate Sergeant Major Vince Camacho for his service. I want to thank Ambassador Bill Wood, the Commanding General of U.S. Forces Afghanistan General David McKiernan; Brigadier General Mike Holmes, Commanding General 45th Expeditionary Wing. Soldiers of the 101st Airborne — (applause.)

I told the General that I had the honor of going to Fort Campbell the other day. (Applause.) I saw a lot of your comrades, and I saw a lot of your families. And they have a message for you: Air Assault! (Applause.)

I thank the airmen of the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing. I kind of like your motto: Start right, finish strong. (Applause.) Yes, that sounds pretty good for a guy with 36 days left. (Laughter.)

The soldiers of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division — the Big Red One. (Applause.) Soldiers of the 1st Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, Task Force Warrior. (Applause.) I want to thank all the troops from our coalition partners.

I appreciate your countries for supporting this noble cause. I want to thank all the civilians, the diplomats, the embassy personnel who are critical to our success. I thank all the other brave Americans here today, including members of the United States Navy, the United States Marine Combat personnel, FBI agents — (applause) — and last but not least — (laughter.) They may sound small, but they’re plenty tough. (Applause.)

And last but not least, the 101st Army Band. (Applause.)

You probably played some high notes to keep the folks awake. (Laughter.)

Afghanistan is a dramatically different country than it was eight years ago. When I took office in 2001, the Taliban was brutally repressing the Afghan people. Girls were denied access to school. People who did not submit to the regime’s radical beliefs were beaten in the public, or executed in soccer stadiums. Al Qaeda had freedom rein to operate the country — in the country. And it was here in Afghanistan that the terrorists planned the attacks of September the 11th, 2001.

After that date, America gave the Taliban a choice: You can turn over the leaders of al Qaeda, or you can share in their fate. And when they refused, our just demands were enforced by the United States military. And thanks to you, the Taliban has gone from power, the al Qaeda training camps are closed, and 25 million Iraqis are free. And the American people, your loved ones, are more secure. (Applause.)

Removing the Taliban was a landmark achievement. But our work did not end there. See, we could have replaced one group of thugs with another strongman. But all that would have done is invited the same problems that brought us the al Qaeda safe havens and the attacks on America in the first place. Those were the mistakes of the 1980s and 1990s, and we were not going to repeat them again in the 21st century.

So America set an ambitious goal — to help Afghanistan’s young democracy grow and thrive, and emerge as an alternative to the ideology of hate and extremism and terror. This is a difficult and long effort. It’s not easy to do this. It would have been so much simpler to say we got rid of one bunch and here’s another one. But that’s not what we believe is right. We want to lay the foundation of peace for generations to come. We want to do the hard work now so our children and our grandchildren can grow up in a peaceful world.

So we rallied good allies to our side, including every member of NATO. We’ve developed civilian experts in the form of civilian [sic] reconstruction teams. And together with the determined people of Afghanistan, we are making hopeful gains.

Thanks to you, girls are back in school across Afghanistan. Does that matter? I think it does. I think it does. Thanks to you, boys are playing soccer again, and flying kites, and learning to be Boy Scouts. Thanks to you, access to health care is up dramatically. Thanks to you, Afghanistan’s economy has more than doubled in size. And thanks to you, the Afghan people are preparing to go to the polls next year for another round of free elections. Thanks to you, Afghanistan has a democratic government that is no longer an enemy of America; it is a friend of America.

The enemies of freedom in Afghanistan are determined, no question about it, and the fight has been tough — I don’t need to tell you. This is a large country; it has a long way — it’s a long way away from a modern economy with a viable infrastructure. It’s hard to get around Afghanistan. Yet we have a strategic interest, and I believe a moral interest in a prosperous and peaceful democratic Afghanistan. And no matter how long it takes, we will help the people of Afghanistan succeed.

As a sign of our commitment, we’ve increased American troop levels in Afghanistan. Our NATO allies have done the same. And so have the Afghan people — Afghan army and police have grown. I call it a quiet surge. It’s a surge that hadn’t gotten much attention. But it has an unmistakable message: The Taliban has gone from power, and it’s not coming back. Al Qaeda terrorists have lost their safe haven in Afghanistan, and they’re not going to get it back. Afghanistan will be a successful society and a hopeful society and a free society. And Afghanistan will never again be a safe haven for terrorists to attack the United States of America.

In recent months, the violence has increased in some parts of Afghanistan. This is partly because we’re going into new areas where the terrorists have never been challenged before. And if the enemy are fighting back, they don’t like it when we show up. But ultimately, they will be no match for the Afghan people or her coalition partners. And they’re certainly no match for the men and women of the United States military. (Applause.)

I am confident we will succeed in Afghanistan because our cause is just, our coalition and Afghan partners are determined; and I am confident because I believe freedom is a gift of an Almighty to every man, woman, and child on the face of the Earth. Above all, I know the strength and character of you all. As I conclude this final trip, I have a message to you, and to all who serve our country: Thanks for making the noble choice to serve and protect your fellow Americans.

What you’re doing in Afghanistan is important, it is courageous, and it is selfless. It’s akin to what American troops did in places like Normandy and Iwo Jima and Korea. Your generation is every bit as great as any that has come before. And the work you do every day is shaping history for generations to come.

Because of you, America has a strong friend and partner in the fight against extremism in a pivotal part of the world. Because of you, people across the broader East — Middle East now have an example of a more hopeful path — a model of liberty that can prevail over tyranny and terror. Because of you, killers who wanted to take the lives of Americans back home have been brought to justice before they reached our shores. And because of you and all who work to protect our nation, America has done something many said was impossible: We have gone more than seven years without a terrorist attack on our homeland.

This time of year is especially a time when we thank the Almighty for our freedoms. And we think of those who laid down their lives to protect those freedoms. Back home their children are growing up without a mom or a dad. But all of our children are growing up with something else — the promise of a safer America, the promise of a better world, and the more likelihood for peace.

This is a lasting memorial — all who have sacrificed here in Afghanistan. And thanks to you, that memorial will be achieved, and the sacrifice of your comrades will not have been in vain. We think of the comrades who have been wounded. Our nation pledges that we will give them all the care and all the support they need to recover.

And finally, we think of your families back home. You’ve got a loved one wondering what you’re doing, how you’re doing — I want you to do me a favor: When you get back to wherever you’re getting back to, call them, e-mail them, or write them. Tell them you love them, and tell them the Commander-in-Chief thanks them for their sacrifice, thanks them for loving you like they do, and thanks for — thank them for standing with you as you serve the noble cause of peace.

I am proud to be with you. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. May God bless you, and may God continue to bless the United States of America. (Applause.)

END 5:54 A.M. (Local)

President Bush Visits Troops in Iraq
Al Faw Palace – Camp Victory
Baghdad, Iraq

White House News Photos

In Focus: Defense
In Focus: Iraq

8:05 P.M. (Local)

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you for coming out to say hello. General, thank you for the introduction, I am honored to be at Camp Victory.

AUDIENCE: Hoo-ah!

THE PRESIDENT: Laura and I have been having a lot of Christmas parties at the White House, so I thought it would be kind of neat to change the scenery.

AUDIENCE: Hoo-ah!

THE PRESIDENT: And I would rather be with the men and women of the United States military than with anybody else. (Applause.)

So as you can see I decided to fly over, and in the spirit of the season we renamed Air Force One to Rudolph One.

AUDIENCE: Hoo-ah

THE PRESIDENT: Thanks for coming. I bring greetings from a proud and grateful nation — Merry Christmas to you, happy holidays. Congratulations on your inspiring accomplishments here in Iraq. And above all, thank you for volunteering to defend our country in a time of danger.

AUDIENCE: Hoo-ah!

THE PRESIDENT: This is a time of year to give thanks for our many blessings B- and the greatest blessing we have is freedom and the fact that we’ve got a United States military to defend that freedom.

So General, thank you very much for your leadership. I’m proud to be with you again. I appreciate the leadership of General Austin, as well. Ambassador Crocker and Christine are with us today. I had the pleasure of meeting Sergeant — Command Sergeant Major Lawrence Wilson; Command Sergeant Major Joe Allen; Major General Hammond — (applause) — put it together for Hammond. (Laughter.)

AUDIENCE: Hoo-ah!

THE PRESIDENT: Command Sergeant Major Gioia.

AUDIENCE: Hoo-ah!

THE PRESIDENT: Major General Oates. (Applause.) How about, have you ever heard of a guy named Redmore? (Applause.)

Thanks for coming out. I am thrilled to be here with the diplomats, embassy personnel who are so critical to our success.

I want to thank the Iraqi citizens who are here with us today. I appreciate your courage. I know there are members of the coalition who are here with us. There have been a lot of troops from around the world who have come to help this young democracy survive and thrive. And so I want to thank the citizens of those country [sic] and the troops who have served here before us.

This is my fourth trip to Iraq — and you’ve probably heard I’m heading into retirement — (laughter) — so it’s going to be my last trip as the President. But thanks to you, the Iraq we stand in tonight is dramatically freer, dramatically safer, and dramatically better than the Iraq we found eight years ago.

AUDIENCE: Hoo-ah!

THE PRESIDENT: And as a result of the sacrifices of our troops, America is safer, and America is more secure.

AUDIENCE: Hoo-ah!

THE PRESIDENT: I want to take you back to what life was like eight years ago here in Iraq. Iraq had a record of supporting terror, a record of developing and using weapons of mass destruction, was routinely firing at American military personnel, systematically violating United Nations resolution. Life for the Iraqi people was a nightmare, with Saddam Hussein torturing and murdering anyone who did not support his repressive rule. Iraq was a sworn enemy of the United States at the heart of the Middle East; the region was a serious threat to the us.

After the attacks of September the 11th, 2001, America concluded we could not tolerate a regime like this in a pivotal region of the world. I gave Saddam Hussein a chance to peacefully resolve the question as to whether or not he had weapons of mass destruction. You might remember, I went to the United Nations, where a body said: disarm, disclose, or face serious consequence. It was his choice to make. And he made the wrong choice. And so the United States military, with a vast coalition removed this man from power and the world is better off for it. (Applause.)

AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA!

THE PRESIDENT: I doubt in his worst nightmares he ever would have dreamt that we’d be standing in one of his palaces.

AUDIENCE: Hoo-ah!

THE PRESIDENT: Thanks to you, 25 million Iraqis are free.

Thanks to you, Iraq is no longer sponsoring terror — it is fighting terror. It’s making American people safer as a result.

The enemies of freedom in Iraq are determined, and this fight has been tough. Two years ago, the situation had grown dire — the political process was frozen and sectarian violence was spiraling out of control. Some of you were here then/

Many said the mission was hopeless; many called for retreat. Retreat would have meant failure — and failure is never an option.

AUDIENCE: Hoo-ah!

THE PRESIDENT: So instead of pulling troops out, we sent more troops in — called the surge. And because of you and because of your courage, the surge is one of the greatest successes in the history of the United States military.

AUDIENCE: Hoo-ah!

THE PRESIDENT: Terrorists who once held safe havens across the country are being driven out of their strongholds. The political process that was once stalled is moving forward. Iraqi citizens once afraid to leave their homes are going back to school, and shopping in markets, and leading a more normal life. And American troops are returning home because of success.

AUDIENCE: Hoo-ah!

THE PRESIDENT: The dramatic turnaround you led in Iraq culminated in the two agreements completed last month, which the Prime Minister and I affirmed in a ceremony earlier today.

These agreements formalize the ties between our two democracies in areas ranging from security and diplomacy to culture and trade. These agreements show the way forward toward a historic day — when American forces withdraw from a democratic and successful Iraq, and the war in this land is won.

There’s more hard work to do before we reach that day. But if there is any — but if there is no doubt — but there is no doubt in my mind, there’s just no doubt that we’re going to reach that day. I am confident because our cause is just. And freedom is universal. I’m confident because the Iraqi people are showing unshakable determination and courage.

And above all, I am confident because I know the character and the strength of those who wear the uniform of the United States military.

AUDIENCE: Hoo-ah!

THE PRESIDENT: Over the past five years, you have shown the world some unmistakable truths:

You have shown that when America is tested, we rise to meet the test.

You have shown that the desire for freedom is more powerful than the intimidation of terrorists.

You have shown that there is no task too difficult for the United States military.

AUDIENCE: Hoo-ah!

THE PRESIDENT: And so I have a message for you and all who serve our country: I want to thank you for making the noble choice to serve and to protect your fellow Americans. Sometimes it can be hard to tell when history is being made, particularly if you’re in the middle of the action. What you’re doing in Iraq is as important, and courageous, and selfless as what American troops did in places like Normandy and Iwo Jima and Korea. Your generation is every bit as great as any that came before it. And the work you do every day will shape history for generations to come.

I guess what I’m telling you is your grandchildren some day are going to say, “Thank God you showed up and served.”

America now has a strong friend and a partner in the fight against extremism in the heart of the Middle East, and that is historic.

People across this troubled region of the world now have an example for a more hopeful path — a model of liberty that can prevail over tyranny and terror. Killers who wanted to take the lives of Americans back home have been brought to justice before they reached our shores.

Because of you all who work to protect this nation — and all who work to protect the nation, America has done something many said was impossible: We have gone seven years without a terrorist attack.
AUDIENCE: Hoo-ah!

THE PRESIDENT: We think of those who have laid down their lives for freedom here in Iraq. Their children are growing up without a mom or a dad. But all of our children are growing up with something else — the promise of a safer America and a better world. And that is the lasting memorial of all who have sacrificed here in Iraq. And thanks to you, that memorial will be achieved — and their sacrifice will not be in vain.

AUDIENCE: Hoo-ah!

THE PRESIDENT: We think of your comrades who have been wounded. And this nation pledges that we will give them all the care and all the support they need to recover.

AUDIENCE: Hoo-ah!

THE PRESIDENT: We think of all your families back home. I know many of you have a sweetheart who misses you, or a daughter who longs for her dad, or a mom who worries about you day and night. For many of you, it won’t be your first holiday away — and that certainly doesn’t make it easier. So I’m going to give you an order: When you get out of here, call home or email home; you tell your families you love them; and you tell the Commander-in-Chief came by to thank them for their sacrifice along with yours. (Applause.)

Thanks — thanks for coming by to let me say hello. Thanks for serving the United States of America. They ask me what I’m going to miss as the President. I’ll tell you what I’m going to miss: being the Commander-in-Chief of such a fabulous group of folks. May God bless you, and God bless America. (Applause.)

END 8:13 P.M. EST

You can read the Fact Sheet: The Strategic Framework Agreement and the Security Agreement with Iraq here.