Walkie-Talkie
Nancy Beggs - Idyllwild, California
First hand account from her father-in-law:
Last week I was in Atlanta, Georgia attending a conference. While I was in the airport, returning home, I heard several people behind me beginning to clap and cheer. I immediately turned around and witnessed one of the greatest act's of patriotism I have ever seen.
Moving thru the terminal was a group of soldiers in their camo's, as they began heading to their gate everyone (well almost everyone) was abruptly to their feet with their hands waving and cheering. When I saw the soldiers, probably 30-40 of them, being applauded and cheered for it hit me. I'm not alone. I'm not the only red blooded American who still loves this country and supports our troops and their families.
Of course I immediately stopped and began clapping for these young unsung heroes who are putting their
lives on the line everyday for us so we can go to school, work and home without fear or reprisal. Just when I thought I could not be more proud of my country or of our service men and women a young girl, not more than 6 or 7 years old, ran up to one of the male soldiers. He kneeled down and said "hi," the little girl then she asked him if he would give something to her daddy for her. The young soldier, he didn't look any older than maybe 22 himself, said he would try and what did she want to give to her daddy. Then suddenly the little girl grabbed the neck of this soldier, gave him the biggest hug she could muster and then kissed him on the cheek.
The mother of the little girl, who said her daughters name was Courtney, told the young soldier that her husband was a Marine and had been in Iraq for 11 months now. As the mom was explaining how much her daughter, Courtney, missed her father, the young soldier began to tear up. When this temporarily single mom was done explaining her situation, all of the soldiers huddled together for a brief second. Then one of the other servicemen pulled out a military looking walkie-talkie. They started playing with the device and talking back and forth on it.
After about 10-15 seconds of this, the young soldier walked back over to Courtney, bent down and said this to her, "I spoke to your daddy and he told me to give this to you." He then hugged this little girl that he had just met and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He finished by saying "your daddy told me to tell you that he loves you more than anything and he is coming home very soon."
The mom at this point was crying almost uncontrollably and as the young soldier stood to his feet he saluted Courtney and her mom. I was standing no more than 6 feet away from this entire event unfolded. As the soldiers began to leave, heading towards their gate, people resumed their applause. As I stood there applauding and looked around, their were very few dry eyes, including my own. That young soldier in one
last act of selflessness, turned around and blew a kiss to Courtney with a tear rolling down his cheek.
We need to remember everyday all of our soldiers and their families and thank God for them and their sacrifices. At the end of the day, it's good to be an American.
from Pasadena pundit
Consider the above story with the following one, many people these days insist there's a moral equivelance between our military, or Israel's military and terrorist organizations engaged in this activity, random bombing of civilian locales, random rocket launchings into towns and villages, intentional use of civilians as shields, etc. ad nausium.
Personally, I think such people are bugshit f**kin crazy.
Turning a blind eye to child suicide bombers
Where's the outrage over the Palestinians' mistreatment of children?
By Dan Abrams
Updated: 10:37 a.m. CT March 26, 2004
It has happened again, still with no ensuing outrage from the human rights groups. Another Palestinian child was narrowly prevented from becoming a human bomb. This one, a 16-year-old (although some have reported that he is only 14 years old), was wrapped in explosives vests under his clothing and was stopped by Israeli forces at a West Bank checkpoint. His family is saying he has the intelligence of a 12-year-old and yet still the human rights groups continue to turn a blind eye.
When an 11-year-old was stopped with a bag filled with explosives on March 15, I asked in my “Closing Argument” the next day, Where is the outrage? Why aren’t the human rights groups chastising the Palestinians as they do others who misuse or mistreat children? Amnesty International told us they “condemn these attacks, regardless of the age of individual.” But they never felt the need to specifically condemn the use of children as suicide bombers because there had been “no previous incidents.”
I offered numerous examples of other incidents. But really, that’s just the beginning of the problem. They still don’t get it. When children are involved, they are being used and manipulated by adults who have indoctrinated them. Just condemning suicide bombing says nothing about the abuse of children. This is not just about Palestinians targeting Israeli civilians. It’s about Palestinians targeting Palestinian children. But when it came to the Sierra Leone conflict, for example, Amnesty International singled out the recruitment or use of children by parties to the conflict as a war crime.
Why are they so reluctant to do it here? Interestingly, Amnesty has long condemned targeted assassinations or what they call “extra judicial executions” by the Israelis. But when Israel killed the leader of the terror group Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, earlier this week, Amnesty still felt it necessary to issue a specific press release condemning that attack. It seems general comments about suicide bombing suffice when it comes to the Palestinians’ efforts to use children to target civilians and yet, when Israel kills a terror leader, it makes for headlines on the Amnesty Web site. What a shame that such a well respected and veritable organization that has done so much to protect so many just can’t be an honest broker when it comes to the Mideast conflict.
'Closing Argument' is a regular segment of 'The Abrams Report.' 'The Abrams Report' airs weeknights, 6 p.m. ET on MSNBC.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4601244/
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