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Agincourt, Biden's handlers, Chinese Communist Party, Cold War, Constitution, DHS, Donald Trump, FBI, George Bush, George Washington, Islamist Savages, Israel, joe biden, King Henry V, liberty, representative republic, Shakespeare, Theodore Roosevelt, USAF, Veteran's Day
I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United State against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.
I took that oath as a very young man and served as a Security Policeman in the United States Air Force during the Cold War. My service was stateside, but like every soldier, sailor, airman, Marine and man and woman serving in the Coast Guard, as I willingly and proudly took that oath I was writing a blank check in any amount up to and including my life. I didn’t realize that then—not really—but as I took similar oaths post-military as a police officer, and as I watched over the years a seemingly unending train of flag-draped caskets returning from foreign lands, such as the 13 from our shameful retreat from Afghanistan, I came to cherish not only my service, but my good fortune to have served and survived. Far too many of our actual, not self-imagined, best and brightest have not. As the war in Israel continues, our terrorist enemies, led by Iran, continue to try to kill our service people in the Middle East, and the Mummified Meat Puppet Administration has, thus far, only bombed a couple of empty warehouses. Bombing empty warehouses tends not to deter Islamist madmen, nor does it protect our troops.
Over a long and adventurous life, I’ve seen many commanders in chief. Some were worthy of the role, and of the sacrifices of our men and women in uniform. They truly cared for servicemen and women—that our military now pretends there are more than two genders is badly damaging our military–and understood the depth of the sacred responsibility with which they had been entrusted. They understood themselves to be the employees of the American people, and the responsibility to order Americans into battle weighed heavily on them. Our service people know, beyond any doubt, who truly cares about them, who truly values their service and sacrifice and their lives.
They also know who sees them as disposable, deplorable, as little more than momentarily useful props for photo opportunities.
‘My Job is not to represent the world. My job is to represent the United States of America.’
President Donald J. Trump
During my career teaching in Texas, I was fortunate to work at a school with a truly outstanding NROTC program. Run by Lt. Col. James Davidson (USMC ret.) and Master Chief Charles Linville (USN ret.), it was award winning on a national scale, and always sent cadets to our service academies. As I watched the kids, many of them my students, learn military custom and discipline, grow in maturity, confidence, adult bearing and dignity, I often swelled with pride and brushed away a tear. As long as we produce such as they, America has a future.
Those kids are a part of a long, unbroken line extending back to the Colonies, a tradition of sacrifice and excellence, of prevailing against all odds, and of, at key points in history, actually saving the world to preserve liberty, always at terrible cost. In so doing, we have asked nothing more of those we saved than the land necessary to bury our dead. Many of those we saved have never forgiven us for doing what they would and could not, yet with our blood and treasure we protect them still.
On this Veteran’s Day, 2023, we face an uncertain future. Our military struggles to recruit, and only the Marine Corps, which still upholds military standards and discipline, meets recruiting goals. Applications to our service academies are dropping, and woke lunacy and anti-white racism are primary factors in promotion, not merit, not military excellence. While we are not in a declared war, our terrorist enemies, armed and financed by Joe Biden’s handlers, are again ascendant. Known terrorists in unknowable numbers stream across our open borders, and our DHS and FBI are only just now getting around to sort of admitting that might be a problem—or something. Our Chinese enemy is in the midst of an unprecedented military buildup, much of it fueled by stolen or otherwise obtained American technology, while Biden’s handlers do all they can to enrich and help the Chinese Communist Party. We fight a proxy war against Russia in Ukraine that could easily escalate to nuclear conflict at any minute, as could the Iran-fueled conflict in the Middle East.
For decades, we understood America had to be capable of simultaneously fighting two major wars. Now, we can’t be sure we can fight one.
Foreign enemies always work to dominate the world, but circa 2023, domestic enemies seek to force “our democracy”—a tyranny of the majority—on us all. They seek to destroy our constitutional, representative republic and civil strife wracks our nation, making the future of our military and Republic uncertain at best. During the Trump years, our service branches were largely rebuilt and had the equipment, supplies and support they needed. It has taken only about three years to not only run us terribly short of munitions, but to demoralize and decimate the ranks of our military. Will the final year of Barack Obama’s third term see restoration, or further deterioration? Will the domestic forces intent on the destruction of America succeed in convincing most young Americans their country is not worthy of preservation, not worthy of their blank checks?
Let us turn, as I often have, to William Shakespeare, the voice of the English speaking world, who in King Henry V, wrote what is one of the greatest battle speeches ever imagined:
This day is call’d the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam’d,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say ‘To-morrow is Saint Crispian.’
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say ‘These wounds I had on Crispian’s day.’
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he’ll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb’red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.
This speech, these words, have ever passed the lips of the thoughtful American serviceman and woman:
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers…
It was 25 October, 1415, King Henry V, at the battle of Agincourt, fought and defeated a far larger French force. Fighting spirit, the spirit handed down over the centuries to British, then American, fighting men—and now women—prevailed then, as it has prevailed to build and preserve western civilization. How many, in America, circa 2023, are willing to write that blank check? How many are physically, mentally capable? How many hold their manhoods cheap in comparison to veterans? How many yet shed a tear at the thought, the memory, of men and women far better than they who died so they could tear down the statues of giants, burn our cities, cry for the blood of Jews and praise Islamist savages, stir up racial hatred of people who gave all their tomorrows so they could have what some Americans now so cruelly and foolishly take for granted?
Shakespeare’s words are fiction, a play, yet they live on because they so well express the spirit of liberty, of patriotism, that has filled the hearts of American patriots, that glorious and terrible belonging to something larger than oneself. It is trendy, oh so terribly woke, to ridicule the patriotic, to attack the very idea of patriotism, yet it is that quality that stirred the hearts of Henry V’s Englishmen, and the hearts of Americans to fight, and die, for people unfit to brush the dust from their combat boots. They died for them, yes, for those that hate them, that think them intellectually and morally inferior, but in their sacrifice, they demonstrated a selflessness that puts their ankle-biting detractors to eternal shame—were such capable of feeling shame.
Theodore Roosevelt understood. On 23 April, at the Sorbonne, he gave this speech, this part of which has come to be called “The Man In The Arena.” He prefaced it thus:
The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer. A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticize work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life’s realities—all these are marks, not … of superiority but of weakness.
Like Shakespeare, Roosevelt understood the soldier, the man in the arena:
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
The horror is it’s now impossible to imagine a d/S/C politician giving that speech or anything like it. It’s not far from impossible to imagine a Republican politician doing the same.
Perhaps as never before, we are deciding our nation’s future. Will it be a future of totalitarian nihilism, of people who know only to hate, complain and destroy? Or will it be a future lit by the light of those who love, learn and build? Will it be a nation of the savage or the civilized? Will it be a nation of ruthless social justice and lawlessness, a two-tiered system of injustice, or a nation under the Constitution, the rule of law with equal justice for all? Will we be one nation under God, or a divided nation under the least and most malign of us?
If America is to have a future as a representative republic, as the shining city on the hill, a beacon and example to all nations, we must resolve that every veteran shall not have died in vain. We must ever honor them, living or dead. We too must support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and we too must ensure that the nation—the idea and noble experiment—for which they sacrificed so much, and for which so many gave their last, full measure of devotion, shall not die, but shall ever serve as the last, best hope of mankind.
It’s little to ask to honor those who have given so much, that have given everything that we might have such abundance, and to ensure a United States of America still lives that liberty might live in the hearts of men—so help us God.
Doug said:
Each year you post these “memoriums” to Veterans Day and each year I decide to bite my typing fingers out of some level of respect given it’s your take on patriotism mixed with current politics and Americans you dislike as your enemy. This one just irks me to no end. I’ll accept the patriotism as it relates to respect for Our Fallen in defense of the country… but the rest?
I too was an Air force cop… was even part of Nixon’s (my Commander-in-Chief) extended protection detail during his summit in Iceland when I was stationed there. I too, took the military oath, as well as the Boy Scout oath, and like everyone else, The Pledge of Allegiance. I was even in Army ROTC in high school. As much as I despised Trump as President (and still do as a human being… and will if he wins) I also felt an American duty that were I ever in such a position, I would defend/protect him in his office as part of my duty to the Constitution. Unlike you, my duty and devotion go to no man but to the Constitution.
So while you are relishing cutsie, mindless unpatriotic memes comparing Ike with Milley (or vice versa) to make some weak Trumpian point and quoting Shakespeare and citing Middle Ages Brit-French battles, I prefer to acknowledge the sacrifice of Americans.
Speaking of Trump (ugh)… you might check your sources on the accuracy of his wild successes in “re-building” the military.
https://www.factcheck.org/2020/07/trumps-false-military-equipment-claim/
Regardless of all the political harangue, we both served. Have a good day and thanks for serving when you did.
Mike McDaniel said:
Dear Doug:
Your frequent comments indicate you’re a regular reader, yet I worry about your reading comprehension. If there is one, constant, thread in my scribblings, it is that I distrust all politicians, and constantly argue that only full fidelity to the Constitution can save and preserve the republic. Apparently you’re confusing me with someone else?
Oh, and the “Americans you dislike” would be those who would ignore or obliterate the Constitution, in part or whole. As always, I’m comfortable with allowing readers to define me and my beliefs, as long as they do so accurately.
Oh, and spare me the sanctity of “fact checkers.” If Trump didn’t build up and support our military, from where did all the munitions we’ve sent to Ukraine come?
Doug said:
Soo.. given that, you then dislike Trump. Yet you seem to support him. What remains then is you will vote for your perception of the lessor of two evils. That choice I can agree with, although the two choices available are not good either way.
Mike McDaniel said:
Dear Doug:
As you say, we are far too often reduced to voting, if not for the lesser of two evils, for whoever might do the least damage to the Constitution. Given current choices that’s Trump. Though as I’ve often written, I don’t see him as anything resembling a savior and would be delighted to vote for any truly sane, conservative candidate that will put America first in all things, uphold the rule of law, and defend the Constitution.
Doug said:
You object to fact checking? You leaning MAGA I’m not surprised. Do you have some proof that all the stuff we’ve sent to Ukraine was manufactured during Trump’s term as a result of his amazing efforts to “re-build” the military, and not simply from existing stockpiles?
Mike McDaniel said:
Dear Doug:
I object to dishonest, politically slanted “fact checking,” which accounts for about 95 of that sort of thing. Unfortunately, I have no access to DOD procurement and inventory records. That sort of thing is classified. However, it takes little research to discover how much support Trump directed to our military, particularly in comparison with Obama and Biden.
Doug said:
As always, we differ not on the facts, but as to what source(s) we choose to believe are reporting some semblance of “facts” we prefer to believe..
Mike McDaniel said:
Dear Doug:
Not quite. I don’t give a damn about the source. I care only about verifiable facts that conform to science, reason and common sense rather than a politically constructed reality.
Doug said:
Ok.. so let me get this straight… everything you post has been verified either by science (which generally is sourceable.. at least up until the pandemic when biased politics began defining it) and filtered through your reasoning and common sense…. which means, given you are human (presumably, given this IS the internet), is entirely subjective.
Mike McDaniel said:
Dear Doug:
Objective fact exists, regardless of your continuing denials of same. No one should take what I have to say as absolute truth merely because I write it. Everyone should do their own research, which is why I always do my best to provide substantive links.
Doug said:
You do indeed provide links.. to largely Conservative slanted MAGA-inspired myopia (if not your own previous posts) many of which do promote the current illegitimacies. Which is the entire issue of the national divide; each side conforms to their own sources for what they perceive presents the “facts”… usually centered on conformational bias. Perfect for establishing that “no one is correct”, except for self.
Your fave satirical self-victimization is referring to Hillary’s “deplorables”. Now all of a sudden, Trump blunders out that the Left are “vermin”. Now we have smurfs and kidney bangers in Congress. Facts? Who needs ’em. Get a gun and threaten a civil war.
mongoose said:
Amen to that, brother.
We, gentlemen in England, will see how far we have fallen in London this coming Sunday morning.
Doug said:
Maybe you’ve already hit bottom and now you’re on the rise? :)
Somebody Special said:
May God Bless all of you who have served and are serving. Like you Mike, I consider my service time more today than I did when I was in. I pray especially for those going in today knowing that many of the landmines they face are political and from their own ranks.
Mike McDaniel said:
Dear Somebody Special:
Indeed.
Carolyn 😊 said:
Thank you each, Mike, Doug and Somebody Special, for your service to our country. Each of you made very valid points and thanks be to God for the freedom we each enjoy to express them! That freedom is what you pledged your life to defend … and because of that, we enjoy it immensely in this blessed land. God continue to bless the USA! :-)
Doug said:
And bless you, Carloyn, :)
Mike McDaniel said:
Dear Carolyn:
You’re very welcome, and thanks for visiting this scruffy little blog.
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Mike McDaniel said:
Dear Doug:
As always, thanks for the link.
oldvet50 said:
I, too, was 81150A, serving Korea and Dyess during the cold war. I appreciate your posts and whole-heartedly agree with your sentiments. I hope we can turn this current situation around for our progeny.
Mike McDaniel said:
Dear oldvet50:
Thanks for your service and kidn comments, and we’ll keep working on that.