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Ron Paul Letter From a Soldier
December 04, 2007 - FreeMarketNews.com
I joined the Army in the early months of 2001; my patriotism
led me to
the recruiter?s office. I had grown up in awe of my grandfathers
and
their stories of World War II, and their reminiscing became my
dreams.
When I got to basic training I did not talk about missing home
like the
other recruits around me, I felt at home in ways I never had
before.
The weeks after 9/11 found me in Kosovo, part of C co 3/7
Infantry, 3rd
Infantry Division, patrolling the border with Macedonia as part
of our
duties. We had ammunition to defend ourselves with and the authority
to
apprehend anyone crossing the border illegally. I will get back
to why
these details are important later.
Fast forward to 2003, I am rolling across the desert in the
back of a
Bradley fighting vehicle, part of the spearhead into Iraq. Other
than
those first three weeks of ?Shock and Awe? what I remember most
about
Iraq was the people. Crowds of kids wanting to know about Michael
Jackson and Britney Spears, open-minded adults wanted to know
about our
social freedoms, and ninety some percent of Iraqis just wanted
to raise
their families in peace and did not hesitate to tell us. I really
fell
in love with the Iraqi people. My platoon and I played soccer
with some
of those crowds of kids, we had dinner and shared food with families
in
their homes, we even went to a few house parties, and my lieutenant
and
I spent one very memorable afternoon swimming in an irrigation
ditch
with five young women. It is all of them I think of when anyone
tells me
we need to turn the Middle East into a sheet of glass or that
all
Muslims are our enemies.
I remember thinking on this briefly when I was there, but
more so since
I?ve returned, usually when I?m day dreaming behind the wheel
of my van,
but what we were doing when we were doing our jobs, patrolling
the
streets, conducting road blocks, vehicle searches, bodily searching
individuals, and searching houses, couldn?t be helping our long
range
plans for winning hearts and minds. I really have to wonder,
how long
would it take me to move from a position of thanks for my despotic
government being removed, to feeling like I lived in a conquered
and
occupied country if I saw foreign troops on the streets of my
hometown
Tallahassee everyday? Add to this our having bases and troops
in Turkey,
Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Egypt, Oman,
the United
Arab Emirates, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Saudi Arabia, (
I may have
missed a few, we have approximately 700 bases in 130 countries
) some of
them for decades, our Navy of their coast, our fighter jets in
their
sky?s , the CIA in business with monarchs, dictators and thugs,
and our
State Department treating their leaders like irresponsible children,
it?s no wonder moderate Muslims takes to the streets shouting
? Death to
America? and a minority takes action against us. I would expect
we would
be doing the same thing if say, China had bases on our soil,
and her
Navy patrolled our coastline and Chinese fighter jets streaked
across
our sky. In short, this is all hard to admit, but our actions
do have
consequences.
Fast forward again to the present day, I am out of active
duty, and in
the Army Reserves. (I wanted to stay active duty, but my wife
said I
would be single, so we had a compromise.) To be honest the reserves
has
bored me to tears and I haven?t felt like I?m giving anything
back to my
country, so I looked into getting attached to a National Guard
unit on
our border with Mexico for a tour or two. However, when I learned
they
don?t have the authority to apprehend illegal border crossers
and can
only call up our overworked and over-stretched border patrol
when they
spot illegal activity, I got myself in trouble again by thinking
- about
what I had done in Kosovo and about what I knew our military
had done to
our own people in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina (disarmed
law
abiding civilians only trying to protect themselves when the
police had
failed to do so).
To add insult to injury, our Guardsmen and women on our own
border don?t
have ammunition and have on several documented occasions actually
had to
retreat when facing fire from Mexican paramilitary groups. Now
why would
I want to sign up for that? To be witness to the violation of
America?s
sovereignty? No one in the Executive branch of our government
is doing
anything about it, and it makes me wonder why I am even in the
Army at all.
Why are we the world's policeman when our own country is being
openly
violated? Why are we borrowing money hand over fist from nations
not
exactly our friends, just to spend it on our out-of-control foreign
policy? I am starting to feel like the powers that be do not
have
America?s interests in mind at all. It?s starting to feel like
our ruin
is their objective. From our factories closing and moving overseas,
to
the plunging value of our dollar, America is crumbling. Yet I
love her
far too much to watch her fall apart.
This is why I am taking my personal revolution and joining
forces with
Dr. Ron Paul?s revolution. His ?bring all the troops home?
non-intervention foreign policy and plans to put America first
again are
just what we need at this time in our history. I don?t expect
you to
agree with everything he says, but I do hope we can all put our
differences aside and join him in seeing that ALL the troops
come home,
the Republic is restored and America saved.
Thank you and God Bless.
Zakery Carter
exclusivelyamericanmade@yahoo.com
"We should have a strong president -- strong enough
to resist the temptation of taking power that a
president shouldn?t have." --Ron Paul |