It has been just over one year now that I returned to the states from Afghanistan with my working dog Axel and I wanted to send this message out to everyone who feels as strongly as I do and from Ed's comments that I have read he does as well. Every day our brave men and women in the military and contractors along with their K-9 partners face incredible danger in order to help bring democracy and safety to members of countries that depend on the United States Military and support groups from the U S (notice not from the cowards in France, Spain and the rest of the UN weenies) but from the USA.

It sickens me to hear people like Cindy Sheehan, John Kerry, Hilary Clinton, and the Hollywood morons condemn the actions of these brave souls who serve while they sit back and ridicule and support Al Qaeda and the Taliban. And believe me every time one of these cowards speaks Al Jezara Network is more than willing to blare it out over the air waves so that the terrorist will get that little boost that keeps them going.

I watch my brave partner who is now my working Police Service dog lying by my feet and thank God that we both made it back safe and sound. If anyone here feels the desire to write a quick letter to a member of the Military or even private contractors who are working dogs either in explosive detection, mines, or patrol I know it would be greatly appreciated. I know how important these letters are because they helped me get through many difficult times when I was feeling alone and forgotten.

Our troops and supporters need to know we are behind them and proud of them. Please don’t let the pathetic, cowardly, quitters force our president to accept defeat. We are Americans, we do not run, we do not quit, and we sure as hell don’t surrender. Our men and women and their K-9 partners need to know we are behind them and fully support them. I realize that the left wingers think we (the US) are the bad guys and to them all I can say is you are pathetic traitors who don’t understand that freedom isn’t free.

Man this is liable to be a pretty heated topic if it ever takes off... lol

We all know Ed F's mind on this, He's has web pages dedicated to it. There won't be a debate, or at least a very long one.


How 'bout a photo or two of you and your dog?

Thank you for your service. I have friends and had a couple family members that have served in both theaters. The son of a friend was KIA last year. Luckily none of my family members have been killed or seriously injured. I support the troops but have no faith in the civil leaders in charge. Believe me growing up in the deep south I'm no left-winger. But, I have a hatred for right wingers like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Ben Ferguson. Who like Dick Cheney and our fearless leader George Bush support war but don't have the strength of character to fight. They let the children of others do the fighting and dying.

Rush, George and Dick all supported the Viet Nam war but didn't have the courage to fight. Anyone old enough will tell you if your family didn't have money or political stroke you didn't get into the Guard or Reserves like George. Much less jump 250 names to get into the Texas Air National Guard better known back then as the Champagne Air force. Dick took 5 deferments just a few years ago said "He had better things to do than go to Viet Nam and fight." Rush suffered from a Anal cyst talk about Irony.


Sean,Ben and other right wing radio personalities, haven't given up their cushie jobs as talk show host to join the fight in Iraq or Afghanistan. When Ben Ferguson was asked on Larry King. "If you support the war why don't you join the military and fight?" His answer floored me it went something like this "just because I support the New York Yankees but doesn't mean I have to wear their uniform.

This shows the real character of these men. They are willing for others to fight what they believe in but lack the courage to fight and put their lives in danger. They sit on their fat asses and make millions of dollars promoting this War.We should amend the Constitution to say when this government commits to War "The children 18 to 42 of our political leaders shall be the first to go." Then you would see The USA fight to win or not fight at all. The press should ask the media cheerleaders that support the War when are they going to join and fight.

Anyone that loses a child or actually has served in War like Cindy Sheehan and John Kerry, have earned the right to protest. Our founding fathers wanted us to voice our dismays against the government. They didn't want blind followers. They wanted the people to challenge the government when we believe it is not moving in the Nation's interest.

This nation has been at war for 5 years and spent over 400 billion of borrowed dollars to wage it. If anyone is responsible for a lost it will be George W. Bush. He has recieved everything he asked for from Congress during the last 5 years. George needs to read history The Roman,British,French and all other Superpowers in history have eventually lost to insurgencies. It is nearly impossible to fight a foreign wars half way around the world. The reason these superpowers of their times lost to lesser powers is because those governments lost the backing of their citizens. The leaders told their citizens everything is going great with full knowledge it wasn't. They kept coming back asking for more men and money. Finally the citizens wake up and demand an end to the war.

Great Britain had the most powerful military in the world and our founding fathers through guerrilla warfare broke their will and Treasury. That's what our enemy's are doing today.

The War in Iraq is stretching our military and breaking the Treasury. It is creating a training ground for radicals that will use those techniques sometime in the near future. Maybe someone should enlighten our President. Either fight until the enemy surrenders. That means no safe zones like schools,Masque, hospitals or hiding behind innocents. If you shoot at US soldiers from these safe zones we will kill everyone in the building. Winning hearts and minds doesn't work until you kill the enemy in numbers they look around and say it's not worth fighting anymore. Gen. Patton was right you make the other bastard die for his country. You kill them until they quit with no conditions or don't fight. We didn't half ass against the Germans or Japanese and the world is a better place for it.

I'm not a left winger or a right winger, but I wish someone could define "Support the Troops" for me. I see a lot of people wearing this badge on their sleeve these days, like they're in some sort of fraternity, but it doesn't seem like they do much else... Does support the troops mean to support the war?

 Quote: Ed Abel

I realize that the left wingers think we (the US) are the bad guys and to them all I can say is you are pathetic traitors who don’t understand that freedom isn’t free.

Well, we're definately not the good guys. Don't forget, we invaded Iraq based on false information. The only reason we're still there is to clean up the mess we made. Ans strangly, oil investors are getting rich right now. Hmmmmm...

We have and are today a big supporter of our troops,even though all my relatives are french and live there, it has caused friction between us because of their lack of understanding about the war yet Marseille looks like Iran, sickening to me to say the least.
My husband was a tank commander in the Army and now a Gov. Special Agent, we are very supportive of you guys and we don't forget the importance of your duty.
I wish you the best Ed.

By the way, the Schutzhund USA has a great pictures of troops and their K9 in their New Magazine.

Tracy:
"George needs to read history The Roman,British,French and all other Superpowers in history have eventually lost to insurgencies."


Back to reading history, my friend. Look up Great Britian's battle in the Malaysian guerilla conflict. Britian came out on top and set the stage for Special Ops training for the next 50 years.

Philipines, American Indians, That Unpleasantness with the North, Whiskey Rebellion, KKK, might be a few others I missed

Support the troops means just that, doing or saying anything that places our troops at risk is not supporting them. Every single time I hear someone say "I support our troops but this war is wrong and we are invaders" I want to scream. The President of the United States is the Commander and Chief and once we enter into a war or conflict we as Americans must stand together in unity.

I see the problem as this, as Americans we simply will not face the fact we have become spoiled, run at the mouth, whiners who think we have the absolute right to say anything we want without any regard to the implications it may create. Everyone knows how the country should be ran, how the war should be fought or ran away from, or how dumb the President is. This fuels those who wish to destroy our very way of life. This doesn't mean we should not have opinions or views on various issues that face us or even to disagree with policy, however, this does not mean we can say anything we wish even when it aids our enemies and harms those who protect our rights to act like asses.

We did not attack Iraq or Afghanistan without cause, they supported and gave aid and comfort to those who chose to come to our country and slaughter 3,000 Americans on 9/11. These are the same people who have kidnapped, beheaded, and tortured people who believe in democracy. Yet we have people in this country as well as those who support the UN who feel we are the bad guys and go as far as to do and say things that fuel our enemies. Wake up! You can not have your cake and eat it too. I agree with George Busch when he said you are either with us or against us in the war on terrorism. This doesn't mean that I agree with everything he has done or said but my god if we don't show respect for the office of the President of The United States who and what do we respect?

I also find it quite ironic that those who feel we should sit down and negotiate with the likes of Hammas or Al Qaeda won’t give a minute of thought to sitting down and listening to our Military leaders, advisors, Secretary of Defense, or the Commander and Chief. Of course in their eyes these are stupid war mongers who don’t give a damn about the service men and women they place in harms way, unlike the terrorist who preach death to the infidels and use young children as human bombs and an obvious disregard for human life.

What does support the troops mean, it means standing tall with respect and dignity as Americans, it means letting brave souls who defend democracy and freedom know that they are never out of our thoughts, and most of all letting the rest of the world know we don’t turn our backs and run on those who need us even if they turn their backs on us.

There's a song by Darryl Worley, "Have You Forgotten" that sums up how I feel. Lyrics: http://www.countrygoldusa.com/have_you_forgotten.asp

Unfortunately, Ed, my son has come across people on the internet who have cast a shadow on the "Support Our Troops" stickers, because to some people it means to pull our troops out, which is "their" meaning to Support Our Troops. To me, supporting them means what you said it means.

I do struggle, however, with the death of our American soldiers in Iraq. My reason for this inner struggle is because I don't believe we will ever "win the minds" of the Iraqis, nor the minds of any of the peoples in that region. They have hated us as they hate Israel, and personally I have no use for them (sorry). I realize there are some glimmers of hope that some of them are relying on us so their country isn't overtaken, but this is to me just using us, not liking us. I don't like seeing our guys die for people whose track history is dislike for the USA and war with each other. It doesn't bode well for the future.

At the same time, to pull out now (or maybe ever) would be disastrous. I think our country is between a rock and a hard place, and don't see any easy answers. It has to do with the region. The people in that region don't know anything except war, it's part of their culture for centuries. If they aren't warring with us or Israel, they're warring with each other. Granted, some of the countries there are superficially "at peace" with us, simply because they get rich off of us with oil. But they don't like us, never have, never will.