Gathering of Eagles update...2MAY08

From Email: “The Sedition Report” Posted: 02 May 2008 07:27 PM CDT Eagles! Look at what Move America Forward has done. Melanie Morgan and her great troop of patriots are making a difference. I smell moonbat blood! Read Mel’s letter first, and then watch the ad. Both are outstanding. Great work, MAF! Larry Bailey Dear Pro-Troop Supporters: I have some great news to share with you!! Please also pass along this information to others who will appreciate the good news. As you know there has sadly been an increasing campaign of violence against military recruiting centers across the nation - conducted by anti-military radicals (who are erroneously referred to as “peace activists” by a sympathetic media). We at Move America Forward researched the vast array of these incidents and compiled them together in “The Sedition Report” which we provided to members of Congress and law enforcement. Today Move America Forward’s legal team received an official response from the U.S. Department of Justice criminal division: “This is in response to your letter to the Criminal Division dated April 3, 2008. on behalf of your client, Move America Forward, Inc., recounting a number of incidences of vandalism and other activities at military recruiting stations.” Much to our delight, the letter went on to say that they had agreed to direct our formal request for an investigation (and appropriate prosecutions based on the results of those investigations), “to Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters for review and appropriate action.” We at Move America Forward will keep pressing forward on this issue. We will not allow our troops to come under attack here on home soil from those who express a seething white hatred towards our military men and women. Over the past several weeks thousands of patriotic Americans provided the financial support that has paid for our legal team to press forward with these efforts. You and other patriots also paid for a television commercial that documented these attacks that has already aired across the nation. VIEW THE AD - HERE Thank you all so much for your continued support of our troops and helping us at Move America Forward to make great progress in our pro-troop efforts. Fondly, Melanie Morgan Chairman, Move America Forward www.MoveAmericaForward.org

The Killing Fields Posted: 02 May 2008 06:12 PM CDT Democrats and the Killing Fields By ARTHUR HERMAN May 1, 2008; Page A17 Most people have never heard of Operation Frequent Wind, which ended on April 30, 1975, 33 years ago. But every American has seen pictures of it: the Marine helicopters evacuating the last U.S. personnel from the embassy in Saigon, hours before communist tanks rolled into the city. Thousands of desperate Vietnamese gathered at the embassy gate and begged to be taken with them. Others committed suicide. Those scenes are a chilling reminder of what happens when a great power decides to cut and run. Two of the three presidential candidates are proposing to do just that in Iraq. We need to remember what happened the last time we gave up on an unpopular foreign policy, not only in humanitarian terms but in terms of American power and prestige. Actually, the U.S. had won the war in Vietnam on the battlefield, just as the surge has done today in Iraq. Over Easter 1972, South Vietnamese forces, backed by U.S. airpower, crushed the last communist offensive, killing nearly 100,000 North Vietnamese troops. The North was forced to sign peace accords in Paris recognizing the Republic of South Vietnam. The last 2,500 U.S. support troops went home. What they left was a fragile but sustainable peace, and an elected government in Saigon that was growing stronger every month. But with 160,000 North Vietnamese soldiers still in South Vietnam, keeping the South free was going to require continued U.S. help, especially air support and military equipment if the North ever attacked again. Democrats and American public opinion, however, had had enough. Much like Iraq today, the vast majority of South Vietnam had been pacified. Its government was taking on difficult but essential political changes, including land reform. The Democratic-controlled Congress, however, did not want to hear about success. They assumed failure in Vietnam would complete their rout of the hated Richard Nixon, who was already out of office thanks to Watergate, and position them for victory in the 1976 presidential election. Meanwhile, the American public had been conditioned by the media to see Vietnam as a failed policy, and taught that America had gotten itself in the middle of a “civil war” which the Vietnamese had to sort out themselves. Once the last American troops left Vietnam, public opinion would never tolerate re-entry into a war widely seen as a blunder and endless quagmire. In early 1975 the communists launched a massive attack. President Gerald Ford asked for $1 billion in supplemental funds to help the South Vietnamese, and Congress refused. They had already pulled the plug on the U.S.-supported government of Lon Nol in Cambodia. Ford had no choice but to order the evacuation of remaining U.S. personnel. After nearly two decades of devastating war and 58,000 American combat deaths, the U.S. left Southeast Asia. As the last helicopter lifted off from Saigon, the New York Times’s Sydney Schanberg wrote an article with the title, “Indochina Without Americans: For Most, a Better Life.” And the Times’s columnist Anthony Lewis asked, “what future could possibly be more terrible than the reality” of a war that had cost so much in lives and treasure? With the North Vietnamese Communists and the Khmer Rouge taking over, the world was about to find out. At least 65,000 Vietnamese were murdered or shot after “liberation” – the equivalent in terms of Vietnam’s population at the time, of killing three-quarters of a million people in today’s U.S. The new communist regime ordered somewhere between one- third to one-half of South Vietnam’s population to pass through its “re-education” camps, where perhaps as many as 250,000 died of disease, starvation, or were worked to death (the last inmates were not released until 1986). That number does not include the thousands of “boat people” who tried to flee the totalitarian nightmare of communist Vietnam, and perished at sea. Cambodia’s fate was even worse. At least one and a half million innocent Cambodians were butchered or starved to death in the Khmer Rouge’s killing fields and re-education camps, put to death by a fanatical regime that believed that anyone who wore eyeglasses must have “bourgeois intellectual tendencies” and be shot. The scale of moral collapse and suffering went beyond Indochina. The pullout had a ripple effect on U.S. power and prestige, just as the proponents of the so-called “domino theory” had warned. American foreign policy, crippled by remorse and self-doubt, stood helplessly as others rushed into the power vacuum. Marxist-Leninist regimes emerged not only in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, but in Ethiopia and Guinea Bissau (1974), Madagascar, Cape Verde, Mozambique, and Angola (1975), Afghanistan (1978), and Grenada and Nicaragua (1979). Soviet troops were welcomed in Fidel Castro’s Cuba for the first time since the 1962 missile crisis. Cuban troops traveled freely to Africa to prop up Marxist regimes there. In 1979 the Ayatollah Khomeini was able to establish his brutal theocratic rule over Iran, confident that America, having learned “the lessons of Vietnam,” would never intervene. The judgment of history, as Raymond Aron once remarked, is without pity. History will judge how America and its leaders handle global responsibility in Iraq and the Middle East in the next decade. As Winston Churchill said of the appeasement of Hitler at Munich, in 1975 Americans were “weighed in the balance and found wanting.” We have a responsibility to the Iraqis – and to the memory of those we left behind – not to let that happen again. Mr. Herman is the author, most recently, of “Gandhi and Churchill: The Epic Rivalry That Destroyed An Empire and Forged Our Age,” just published by Bantam.

THE VALUE OF MILITARY ANALYSTS Posted: 02 May 2008 05:53 PM CDT Eagles! Brigadier General Jim Cash, USAF (Ret.), is one of the most astute observers of today’s politico-military scene whom I know of. Please read both his note and his article and cogitate on them. He is spot-on in his analysis of the leftist slant of the NY Times and kindred institutions and individuals. Well done, General Cash! Larry Bailey From: jcash1 To: Subject: Emailing: THE VALUE OF MILITARY ANALYSTS Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:34:20 -0600 My friends, the New York Times and Ike Skelton (D-Mo) have stepped over the line on this one. I refer to the irrational attack from the Times and supported on the floor of the House by Skelton on our retired Military Analysts. I know many of these men, and they are the most professional patriots in the country today. Yes, there are a few Wesley Clarks out there, but an eel is slippery, and a few slip through. Attached is my answer to this far-left attack, and several other retired military have written the Times. I ask that you forward this to as many as you can to include Congress and talk show hosts. The story from the Times has gotten legs, and it definitely needs to be rebutted. Thank you, Jim Cash THE VALUE OF MILITARY ANALYSTS The most patriotic group of individuals found in this country today has just been assaulted by the New York Times and Representative Ike Skelton (D-Mo). I refer to the recent article in the New York Times concerning Military Analysts attempting to convey what is going on around the world from a military point of view. These men have spent their lives being schooled and living these issues. They are an invaluable source of information to the American public. Modern day issues are so complex that it is impossible to define them in a two minute TV segment, and these analysts normally follow up with articles which give greater depth and understanding. Who in this country is more qualified? Everyone I know is grateful for their efforts to add perspective. The Pentagon realized long ago that news networks valued input by retired military professionals, so information was provided to these individuals. This effort was never meant to sway their opinion, but to insure they had accurate and current information to convey to the public. How many of you have ever tried to sway the opinion of a retired military member who served 20 or 30 years defending this nation? Try it sometime. I think you might be surprised, and maybe even entertained. I am personally a good example. Altogether, I served over 35 years combined duty in the Army National Guard, Army Reserve and on US Air Force active duty (29 years active duty). I learned early how lucky I was to be born in this country. I have never taken for granted the freedoms we have, nor the price we have paid for them. When I retired from the US Air Force, I vowed to come back to Montana to fish, fly airplanes, ride motorcycles, and enjoy life as long as health permitted. I had no desire to become part of the Military Industrial Complex (whatever that is), nor to make money based on any ill-conceived plan that could remotely hurt this great nation in any way, as alluded to by master distorters from the New York Times. I have never taken one penny for my writings, appearing on talk shows, speaking locally or otherwise. I have not been on an Air Force Base in over 10 years, and avoided the Pentagon like the plague, even while on active duty. Also, I initially vowed to remain very quiet, and worked hard not to influence local opinion. It is the American way to let the people decide on issues, based on their own merit. About two years ago, this attitude changed. I began to see the local, Socialist-Leaning, Far-Left types in our beautiful valley begin to dominate our local newspaper. You know who they are. They write almost daily, and are basically country hating, military hating, Bush hating, haters. Many of you read my articles, and write telling me that you refuse to read their stuff as soon as you see their names. I woke up one morning and decided that someone had to at least attempt to set the record straight. The far-left diatribes were hurting the country and our state, especially when the country is being threatened to the degree it is today. I wrote an article, and it received such a positive response it was overwhelming to me. The people wanted to hear the truth, so I wrote another. FOLKS, THE PENTAGON HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH MY DECISION TO SUPPORT WHAT IS RIGHT WITH AMERICA!!!!! I take real offense to the far-left comment, “B/G Jim Cash, whose columns are loaded with dire statistics that only a fool would believe he carries around in his head.” What he means is that the Pentagon is feeding me the statistics, so that I might influence you. This is criminal in my opinion. These statistics are available from a multitude of different sources, and I simply put them together in, hopefully, an easy to read format. In fact, I do carry most of them in my head, as I was personally influenced negatively every time I served under a Democratic President. In this short article, I cannot convey to you how difficult it was to serve under Jimmy Carter. The Clintons like to tell you how terrible it is that our young men and women are serving 15 month tours in Iraq, when Bill Clinton’s downsizing of our military is the direct cause of those long tours. Retired military, as well as active duty, attempted to deter that massive downsizing, but Clinton was Hell-Bent on capitalizing on the non-existent “Peace Dividend” after the collapse of the old Soviet Union. My friends, someone has to get the truth out to the American people, and the only group I see doing that right now is our retired Military Analysts. All others are wrapped up in petty squabbling and trying to win elections. Now, the far-left has sunk to the level of attacking the most patriotic group in America, our retired military. That is unforgivable. On a personal note, I know retired M/G Paul Vallely and LTG Tom McInerney very well, and I am proud to call them friends. I would put my life, and the life blood of this country, in their hands any time. Combined, these two patriots have devoted nearly 70 years to defending this nation. If money had been their aim, they could have easily gone into industry to become CEOs of major companies. To make an insane insinuation (as the Times did) that these two men, acting as puppets for the Pentagon, would distort what is happening during wartime is beneath contempt. It is my considered opinion that the far-left has reached a new low. We have seen all the far-left radio and TV talk shows fail, or suffer low ratings that are leading to failure. This certainly includes the mainstream media. We have seen a few retired military members like Wesley Clark attempt to curry favor with the far left in an attempt to secure Cabinet level appointments should the Democrats win the Presidency this year. We have also seen the Democratic Party take control of our Congress and fail miserably. On the other hand, we see the Conservative talk shows grow stronger, due in part to their use of military professionals committed to the welfare of this country. I would guess that well over 90% of retired military members are conservative in nature, and they are not reluctant to speak out. First, we recently saw the Left attempt to pass laws that would force radio talk show hosts to give equal time to the Left, as the left-leaning shows could not make it on their own. That effort failed. Now, the far-left, New York Times has convinced Missouri Democrat and House Armed Services Committee Chairman, Ike Skelton, to attempt to silence retired military members though congressional action.. It is as if he feels they are not worthy of the First Amendment’s right to free speech. Like most Democrats these days, he was foolish enough to bite on this nonsense. My question to the nation is simply, HOW FAR WILL WE LET THESE FAR-LEFT LOONEY-TUNES go, before we vote them all out of office and stop buying their propaganda. I am in great hope that the good Americans of this country can see through the fog created by the far-left in an attempt to win elections, even though logic and truth are, and never have been, on their side. Jim Cash B/G, USAF, Retired (and proud of it)