Veteran's Day

I don't care what your politics are, Americans are Americans, set aside your petty politics and listen to our President...
Transcript of President Obama's remarks at Fort Hood
11/10/09

We come together filled with sorrow for the thirteen Americans that we have lost; with gratitude for the lives that they led; and with a determination to honor them through the work we carry on.

This is a time of war. And yet these Americans did not die on a foreign field of battle. They were killed here, on American soil, in the heart of this great American community. It is this fact that makes the tragedy even more painful and even more incomprehensible.

For those families who have lost a loved one, no words can fill the void that has been left. We knew these men and women as soldiers and caregivers. You knew them as mothers and fathers; sons and daughters; sisters and brothers.

But here is what you must also know: your loved ones endure through the life of our nation. Their memory will be honored in the places they lived and by the people they touched. Their life's work is our security, and the freedom that we too often take for granted. Every evening that the sun sets on a tranquil town; every dawn that a flag is unfurled; every moment that an American enjoys life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — that is their legacy.

Neither this country — nor the values that we were founded upon — could exist without men and women like these thirteen Americans. And that is why we must pay tribute to their stories.

Chief Warrant Officer Michael Cahill had served in the National Guard and worked as a physician's assistant for decades. A husband and father of three, he was so committed to his patients that on the day he died, he was back at work just weeks after having a heart attack.

Major Libardo Eduardo Caraveo spoke little English when he came to America as a teenager. But he put himself through college, earned a Ph.D., and was helping combat units cope with the stress of deployment. He is survived by his wife, sons and step-daughters.

Staff Sergeant Justin DeCrow joined the Army right after high school, married his high school sweetheart, and had served as a light wheeled mechanic and Satellite Communications Operator. He was known as an optimist, a mentor, and a loving husband and father.

After retiring from the Army as a Major, John Gaffaney cared for society's most vulnerable during two decades as a psychiatric nurse. He spent three years trying to return to active duty in this time of war, and he was preparing to deploy to Iraq as a Captain. He leaves behind a wife and son.

Specialist Frederick Greene was a Tennessean who wanted to join the Army for a long time, and did so in 2008 with the support of his family. As a combat engineer he was a natural leader, and he is survived by his wife and two daughters.

Specialist Jason Hunt was also recently married, with three children to care for. He joined the Army after high school. He did a tour in Iraq, and it was there that he re-enlisted for six more years on his twenty-first birthday so that he could continue to serve.

Staff Sergeant Amy Krueger was an athlete in high school, joined the Army shortly after 9/11, and had since returned home to speak to students about her experience. When her mother told her she couldn't take on Osama bin Laden by herself, Amy replied: "Watch me."

Private First Class Aaron Nemelka was an Eagle Scout who just recently signed up to do one of the most dangerous jobs in the service — defuse bombs — so that he could help save lives. He was proudly carrying on a tradition of military service that runs deep within his family.

Private First Class Michael Pearson loved his family and loved his music, and his goal was to be a music teacher. He excelled at playing the guitar, and could create songs on the spot and show others how to play. He joined the military a year ago, and was preparing for his first deployment.

Captain Russell Seager worked as a nurse for the VA, helping veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress. He had great respect for the military, and signed up to serve so that he could help soldiers cope with the stress of combat and return to civilian life. He leaves behind a wife and son.

Private Francheska Velez, the daughter of a father from Colombia and a Puerto Rican mother, had recently served in Korea and in Iraq, and was pursuing a career in the Army. When she was killed, she was pregnant with her first child, and was excited about becoming a mother.

Lieutenant Colonel Juanita Warman was the daughter and granddaughter of Army veterans. She was a single mother who put herself through college and graduate school, and served as a nurse practitioner while raising her two daughters. She also left behind a loving husband.

Private First Class Kham Xiong came to America from Thailand as a small child. He was a husband and father who followed his brother into the military because his family had a strong history of service. He was preparing for his first deployment to Afghanistan.

These men and women came from all parts of the country. Some had long careers in the military. Some had signed up to serve in the shadow of 9/11. Some had known intense combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, and some cared for those did. Their lives speak to the strength, the dignity and the decency of those who serve, and that is how they will be remembered.

That same spirit is embodied in the community here at Fort Hood, and in the many wounded who are still recovering. In those terrible minutes during the attack, soldiers made makeshift tourniquets out of their clothes. They braved gunfire to reach the wounded, and ferried them to safety in the backs of cars and a pick-up truck.

One young soldier, Amber Bahr, was so intent on helping others that she did not realize for some time that she, herself, had been shot in the back. Two police officers — Mark Todd and Kim Munley — saved countless lives by risking their own. One medic — Francisco de la Serna — treated both Officer Munley and the gunman who shot her.

It may be hard to comprehend the twisted logic that led to this tragedy. But this much we do know — no faith justifies these murderous and craven acts; no just and loving God looks upon them with favor. And for what he has done, we know that the killer will be met with justice — in this world, and the next.

These are trying times for our country. In Afghanistan and Pakistan, the same extremists who killed nearly 3,000 Americans continue to endanger America, our allies, and innocent Afghans and Pakistanis. In Iraq, we are working to bring a war to a successful end, as there are still those who would deny the Iraqi people the future that Americans and Iraqis have sacrificed so much for.

As we face these challenges, the stories of those at Fort Hood reaffirm the core values that we are fighting for, and the strength that we must draw upon. Theirs are tales of American men and women answering an extraordinary call — the call to serve their comrades, their communities, and their country. In an age of selfishness, they embody responsibility. In an era of division, they call upon us to come together. In a time of cynicism, they remind us of who we are as Americans.

We are a nation that endures because of the courage of those who defend it. We saw that valor in those who braved bullets here at Fort Hood, just as surely as we see it in those who signed up knowing that they would serve in harm's way.

We are a nation of laws whose commitment to justice is so enduring that we would treat a gunman and give him due process, just as surely as we will see that he pays for his crimes.

We are a nation that guarantees the freedom to worship as one chooses. And instead of claiming God for our side, we remember Lincoln's words, and always pray to be on the side of God.

We are a nation that is dedicated to the proposition that all men and women are created equal. We live that truth within our military, and see it in the varied backgrounds of those we lay to rest today. We defend that truth at home and abroad, and we know that Americans will always be found on the side of liberty and equality. That is who we are as a people.

Tomorrow is Veterans Day. It is a chance to pause, and to pay tribute — for students to learn of the struggles that preceded them; for families to honor the service of parents and grandparents; for citizens to reflect upon the sacrifices that have been made in pursuit of a more perfect union.

For history is filled with heroes. You may remember the stories of a grandfather who marched across Europe; an uncle who fought in Vietnam; a sister who served in the Gulf. But as we honor the many generations who have served, I think all of us — every single American — must acknowledge that this generation has more than proved itself the equal of those who have come before.

We need not look to the past for greatness, because it is before our very eyes.

This generation of soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen have volunteered in a time of certain danger. They are part of the finest fighting force that the world has ever known. They have served tour after tour of duty in distant, different and difficult places. They have stood watch in blinding deserts and on snowy mountains. They have extended the opportunity of self-government to peoples that have suffered tyranny and war. They are man and woman; white, black, and brown; of all faiths and stations — all Americans, serving together to protect our people, while giving others half a world away the chance to lead a better life.

In today's wars, there is not always a simple ceremony that signals our troops' success — no surrender papers to be signed, or capital to be claimed. But the measure of their impact is no less great — in a world of threats that no know borders, it will be marked in the safety of our cities and towns, and the security and opportunity that is extended abroad. And it will serve as testimony to the character of those who serve, and the example that you set for America and for the world.

Here, at Fort Hood, we pay tribute to thirteen men and women who were not able to escape the horror of war, even in the comfort of home. Later today, at Fort Lewis, one community will gather to remember so many in one Stryker Brigade who have fallen in Afghanistan.

Long after they are laid to rest — when the fighting has finished, and our nation has endured; when today's servicemen and women are veterans, and their children have grown — it will be said of this generation that they believed under the most trying of tests; that they persevered not just when it was easy, but when it was hard; and that they paid the price and bore the burden to secure this nation, and stood up for the values that live in the hearts of all free peoples.

So we say goodbye to those who now belong to eternity. We press ahead in pursuit of the peace that guided their service. May God bless the memory of those we lost. And may God bless the United States of America.


In Flanders Fields

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)

Don't just say it, do it. Honor the veterans of this and every country. You can support your military more by honoring them and giving them the means to function when they return from their service than by buying into some politician telling you that every war their country fights is just. The Crusaders thought their cause was just in the Middle Ages, but we all know how that turned out (FYI, there is still fighting going on in the same region).

In this country it is simple, be an American: learn your history, pay your taxes, vote, serve your country in any way you find possible, but most of all, don't waste their sacrifice. That's how you honor the veterans of the United States, not through empty gestures and yellow ribbons, not through tea parties and shouting down dissenting viewpoints, and not by violating the religious freedom that the founders of our government fought to ensure and wisely separated from the governing process. Remember that the next time that someone tells you that you're un-American because you did not buy some yellow ribbon magnet that supposedly honors our troops but was made in China (happened to me once, sorry to vent).

Colin Powell endorses Obama, not the bigger story of the interview!

Colin Powell endorses Barack Obama this morning on Meet the Press. I could almost forgive him for helping to sell us Iraq just for that. Yet, the statement that he made about Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan during his endorsement was much more poignant for me.

"Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is no. That's not America. Is there something wrong with a seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing he or she could be president? Yet I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion that he is a Muslim and might have an association with terrorists. This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

I feel particularly strong about this because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who were serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay, was of a mother at Arlington Cemetery and she had her head on the headstone of her son's grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone, and it gave his awards - Purple Heart, Bronze Star - showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death, he was 20 years old. And then at the very top of the head stone, it didn't have a Christian cross. It didn't have a Star of David. It has a crescent and star of the Islamic faith.

And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan. And he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was fourteen years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he could serve his country and he gave his life."

Awesome quote General. Here's a bit more information about the young soldier he was speaking of:

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/more-on-the-soldier-kareem-r-khan/#comment-495458

http://blog.nj.com/njwardead/2007/08/army_spc_kareem_r_khan_august.html

I've never understood where the Republican party gets off saying they're the "Military Party"

Even their nominee is a veteran, yet he gutted veteran rights bills and helped kill bills that would increase military pay, included the G.I. Bill, and gave funding to Veteran Hospitals. Just because Clinton closed bases, doesn't mean the Republicans are on the military's side. If they were, diplomacy would be exercised more and we would have NEVER gone to Iraq. Then you wouldn't be seeing ads like this one...



I too am humbled, this man is a testament to our military and the human spirit. Let's not overlook him and his like on election day for simple closemindedness. The Republicans love to invoke 9/11, yet here is an example of the human price of their botched attempt at revenge for it.

Maybe I've lost focus

Maybe I, like the rest of the country, have gotten too self-indulgent with the election and the economy going tits up. Have we all forgotten the war(s)? Sort of a redundant question as we forgot Afghanistan years ago and that's why we're losing. I know that self-interest drives politics, but we've gotten to a pretty ridiculous point of contradiction. Ignoring these problems doesn't make them go away. Every speech about how the surge in Iraq working distracts from the idea that we haven't won the "hearts and minds" of the Iraqis that we were told were crucial to lasting peace in the region. It also distracts us from the the point that we've reached a tipping point in Afghanistan. We've never even attempted the "nation building" that we tried in Iraq. That would constitute an actual focus on what many concieve to be the real "War on Terror". A focus that we've ignored.

The Bush Administration used to repeat the claim that if we don't support the troops then we weren't real Patriots. Yet, since the inception of these wars, there has never been a concerted effort to actually support the troops. We've sent sub-par supplies when we've actually sent them. This has no rational basis because we've spent an obscene amount of money on these wars, Iraq in particular, yet we hear horror stories from returning soldiers over and over about inadequate equipment. Aren't we the finest outfitted fighting force in the world?

Speaking of returning troops, when is the last time you saw one? I don't mean in person, but on television, and I mean a soldier, not a General? For all the claims of a liberally biased media, I've still yet to see the image of coffins coming home, the iconic, polarizing image from Vietnam. These wars have no human face and that's why it seems that no one cares. Who is to blame for that? Surely the liberal media? Or quite possibly, the administration which has continually used other issues as a red herring to draw the people happily away from an ugly war that has gone on longer than any in American History?

Active duty military are donating to Obama 6 to 1 according to a new study. In light of that, who is "Joe Six Pack" actually supporting? If these are the freedom fighters that we profess to admire and support, maybe we should follow their example. The questions I ask myself every time I watch the news bother me. I'm sure many people would love to accuse me of being un-American if I put my thoughts out there, but I'm not concerned about peoples' opinions. I'm more concerned about the direction of this nation. Therefore, here are a few of my questions:

When are we going to actually start supporting the troops in a meaningful way?

What's the status of the G.I. Bill?

What condition are the VA hospitals these days?

Are we supporting them in a meaningful way or is this business of yellow ribbon magnets and flag bins all just lip service?

Ask yourself if putting county first means going along with failed policies of the last four years or re-evaluating our policy and position in the new world. Then, vote your conscience, but don't blindly vote party lines without actually doing some soul-searching before pulling that lever.

I've decided on my vote, I just hope this new nastiness in the campaign does not render it useless again, like it did 8 and 4 years ago. Read the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Federalist Papers, and some of Thomas Jefferson's and John Adams' writings. Then come back and tell me if we're going in the right direction. I haven't met anyone in my 31 years who can read these objectively and say that the divisive, extreme viewpoint politics that have taken over this country are good for us.