He did it again last night – Barack Obama once again transfixed the nation with his message of hope and change at a time when so many Americans, as well as our neighbors around the globe, have lost faith in our country. Reuters reports that this convention speech may have set a viewership record, with one quarter of all U.S. households tuned in. And I, as an Iraq war veteran whose life is forever changed as a result of my combat tour, could not have been prouder to cheer him on, there at Spud’s Pizza Parlor with the couple dozen others who showed up for our watch party.
Now, Spud’s isn’t your most liberal place, a detail that was only brought to my attention by one of our attendees who mentioned it in the RSVP. My first clue should have been the previous evening, when I went over there on a last-minute recon, making sure everything would be suitable for our group. Several of the young servers approached me, curiously, and demanded to know why they should “vote for this guy.” Oh, that got me on a roll, even though just as I began to respond, my cell phone signaled me that my house alarm had been tripped! Ignoring the alarm, I rattled off a number of convincing reasons why Barack is the man for the job right now, then politely excused myself to see to the problem at home.
Wouldn’t you know it, one of those young people was at the front desk last night, sporting a hand-lettered “Go McCain!” t-shirt. I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit under my breath – yes, we like it like this, invading “enemy territory,” preaching not only to the choir but to voters of every ilk. Just wait till he starts speaking, I thought to myself with a secret smile.
So we settled in to our assigned area – not the cramped little game room, as they had originally arranged. Turned out they didn’t know how to change the TV channel in there (huh?), so they relented and put us into a raised platform area within the main dining room. I’m sure the manager must have been fuming, because during my previous evening’s visit, when I inquired about possibly moving it into a similar raised area in the bar due to overwhelming response, she snapped that we would be in the game room, and that was that.
I passed around the sign-in sheets and stickers and went over a few admin notes while everybody chatted and watched the preliminaries on the screen. And then, the time came, and folks got quiet to watch a moving little documentary on his life.
Finally, Barack came onstage, lights shining, music playing, and all of it outshone by his million-watt grin. “Thank you, thank you,” he repeated over and over for what seemed like two minutes, as the crowd refused to quit cheering long enough for him to start his speech. But at last, they quieted down and listened.
I won’t go into every detail of what he said. My focus at the moment is how I, as a combat veteran, heard the remarks of our next commander-in-chief.
And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight. On November 4th, we must stand up and say: "Eight is enough."
I was in the front yard talking to my neighbor this morning, and the conversation drifted to last night’s speech. My neighbor had begun by saying, “Yeah, well, I think I might be starting to lean toward him….” I did my best to regulate my passion as we talked, mostly about the war and how it’s ravaged our country, but also about the economy, our standing in the world, and other critical issues facing us. Some people harbor the mistaken notion that anybody who disagrees with the current administration or its policies must be anti-American. Not at all, I assured her: “I love this country, and I love our military, and it saddens me to no end to see how this president seems bent on ruining both! We’re so beaten down by Iraq that we cannot even answer the up-and-coming threats cropping up on the horizon, and THAT puts us in great peril! It is time for a president who will at least put us back on the right track, even if he can’t solve all our problems in one term….”
And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as President: in ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.
Wasn’t it John McCain who promised that as president, he would ensure that oil independence would “prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East”? Hmm, well that’s just one candidate talking, but if it’s true, how does he think it makes me feel about my combat service that people treat as such a noble thing? And how would it make me feel about him, who AGREES with Bush’s policies 90 percent of the time, and who thinks it’d be fine to keep U.S. troops in Iraq for “maybe a hundred” years?
Yes, we do need to wean ourselves from foreign oil, and Barack is committed to that goal, with clear plans for achieving it. As a conservationist, I applaud his proposals as outlined in his speech. But as a veteran, I am deeply disturbed and insulted by John McCain’s implication that my sacrifice and that of so many of my comrades was chiefly to protect our nation’s oil interests. AND, as Barack pointed out, McCain has done nothing concrete in support of his stated intention:
Washington's been talking about our oil addiction for the last thirty years, and John McCain has been there for twenty-six of them. In that time, he's said no to higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, no to investments in renewable energy, no to renewable fuels. And today, we import triple the amount of oil as the day that Senator McCain took office.
Now is the time to end this addiction, and to understand that drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution. Not even close.
Barack gets it right when he talks about the wrong way to do things:
You don't defeat a terrorist network that operates in eighty countries by occupying Iraq. You don't protect Israel and deter Iran just by talking tough in Washington. You can't truly stand up for Georgia when you've strained our oldest alliances. If John McCain wants to follow George Bush with more tough talk and bad strategy, that is his choice - but it is not the change we need.
I, like most of my fellow veterans, was proud to answer the call to duty and take up arms in defense of my country. It is what we raised our right hands and swore to do, and we did it willingly. In my case, I was singled out at the staging area, getting ready to board the plane, sitting on my duffel bag like everyone else, because someone in the medical facility had discovered a slight discrepancy in my civilian medical records. They wanted to hold me back to resolve it, and send me on to meet my unit later. “No way,” I replied, with a disbelieving chuckle. “I’m ready to go, and I’m going with my unit.” Little did I know the real – or made-up, as the case may be – reasons for this invasion.
As Commander-in-Chief, I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will only send our troops into harm's way with a clear mission and a sacred commitment to give them the equipment they need in battle and the care and benefits they deserve when they come home.
Nor did I understand the nature of the enemy we were about to confront – but who could blame me? Neither did my superiors as far up the chain as I could tell. The TACSOP (tactical SOP) that was supposed to be my “bible” over there had nothing to do with the reality on the ground. We made it up as we went along. The two months of training at Ft. Dix (during their worst blizzard in 26 years, I might add – wonderful preparation for the desert!) was a complete waste. The scenarios we rehearsed bore absolutely no resemblance to anything we had to do in Iraq.
And let’s not even talk about the equipment. I was issued a medium flak vest because they were all out of the small size. When I shouldered my weapon repeatedly, I’d get bruises on my biceps from where they’d hit the edges of the armholes, and the collar went up so high it would push my helmet down over my eyes in a prone firing position. My M-16 was famous for misfiring, and one range NCO disassembled and inspected it, and summarily ordered it off of his range for safety reasons. I could not get it replaced – they had no other weapon to issue me. No weapons cleaning kit, either, and the clothing sales store at Ft. Dix never had them any time I was able to check. When we got to Kuwait, I had to casually mosey on over to the Rangers’ tent across the way every morning and beg to borrow their weapons cleaning materials.
AND, my unit made me turn in my atropine injectors in Kuwait, before sending me to join a different unit in Iraq! When I arrived at that unit, the first sergeant asked to see my atropine, and I had to tell him I’d been made to turn it in. “They sent you to IRAQ with no ATROPINE???” he blustered. Yep, it was true. I don’t know if they were short on it or what, but that was still at the very beginning of things, when we weren’t sure whether NBC was going to be a factor.
Yes, Senator Obama, we will proudly serve, especially knowing that our commander-in-chief would never send us into battle lightly, without a clear mission, under false pretexts, under-equipped and ill-trained. You, Sir, will command the respect of our troops, and we’ll give 110 percent for you, knowing that you’ve got our back.
The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America - they have served the United States of America.
When I went to war, I was not a Republican or a Democrat, or even an Independent. Politics repelled me, and I stayed far removed from it, beyond casting my ballot every four years (which led to my amusing but sincere question upon being named PCO: “So I understand I’m responsible for organizing a precinct caucus – what’s that, some kind of meeting, right?”).
When I got home from Iraq, I had little hope left. My experience with this no-win, aimless war and the pathetic way my unit had treated me before, during and after (I was what is known in the Reserves as a “cross-level,” meaning I deployed with a unit I didn’t actually belong to), along with some very callous and insensitive remarks from various civilians upon learning of my role in the conflict, left me with a deep sense of despair. I had just put my life on the line, every day for 367 days, for THIS? It felt unreal. I didn’t even know why I had come back.
One day I read in the newspaper that Barack Obama had announced his candidacy for the presidency. “Barack Obama?” I thought. “Who’s that? Is he even American?” So I Googled him when I got home, and came up with his campaign website. I clicked on his announcement speech. Now, normally it’s difficult for me to focus my attention continuously on one thing – you learn that in combat, always keep your eyes roving, never sit still too long, be aware of your situation at all times, watch your back – but for that half-hour or so, I was stone-cold riveted. His speech left me teary-eyed. Wow. If this guy can do half of what he says he wants to do, he NEEDS to be president! But like he said himself, and continues to say, he can’t do it by himself. It’s going to take each and every one of us to get involved. So, I clicked a link on his website, and here I am today, having run (and attended!) my first precinct caucus, given the Obama persuasion speech at my legislative district caucus, running weekly meetings as well as speech watch parties and similar events, and talking to everyone I know about Obama. Because at last, here is something I can do that will really do something good for this country I love! All the blood, sweat, and tears I shed in Iraq didn’t do a thing to make our nation safer, healthier, or more prosperous – in fact, just the opposite. But now I finally have the opportunity to make a difference for GOOD for America – this country I love, red, white, and blue.
Oh, and for what it’s worth, we gathered a few onlookers at Spud’s, people who just stopped to watch the speech with us. Some were very quiet, some pounded on the railing enthusiastically. All, I am sure, will remember this night for time to come, because this was indeed history in the making. It is not too late for our country – we are still the last best hope.
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