Where is this guy and the Americans he speaks of?

OK, I know that this is a Hollywood portrayal by the late George C. Scott but from what I gather this was a real speech given by the real Gen. George S. Patton. It is approaching six minutes and 30 seconds in length, but I think it's worth a look.
The language is salty (be forewarned if you've never seen it) and he paints horrific images of warfare, but he makes this very interesting point:
“All real Americans love the sting of battle. … Americans … will not tolerate a loser. That’s why Americans have never lost and will never lose a war because the very thought of losing is hateful to Americans.”
And I do agree with his overall strategy for victory, though with not quite the same vivid sentiments.
I must say that it saddens me when I hear we’ve lost another young man or woman in battle – and the news of a combat loss is magnified when it comes out of Iraq. And I understand that there are all manner of questions about why we got there in the first place, whether we were lied to, etc.
But we are there and we need to think very carefully about how we exit – examining what kind of message it will send and precedent it will set.
I think we need to reflect on the words of this controversial yet proven American warrior as we debate our next steps in Iraq.
Do the current generations of Americans have the stomach for a protracted conflict of eight to 10 years on other shores so that, as a result, we can live in relative peace here at home, not afraid to go to the grocery store because that little Bondo-colored beater parked in front just might be a car bomb?
Are the Americans the general speaks of now mostly in nursing homes and cemeteries? Are there any in the younger generations with the determination to see something through to the end, no matter how traumatic?
The only ones I can currently think of are the men and women braving the elements and unseen risks in far-off lands such as Iraq. Let’s give them a chance to finish the job and prove to the world that there are still tough, determined and resilient Americans left.

Update and Amen

I know it's been quite some time since I've posted something and for those of you recently steered here, welcome! I don't post much very often. I guess sometimes the day to day seems to be boring material for a mass audience.
But then William Hung got famous for being awful.
We'll see. But little victories like making a business phone call I've either procrastinated on or just haven't had time for doesn't seem blog-worthy. Maybe it is. At least that's what Time magazine says.
I woke rested this morning. Maybe I did so because the baby monitor isn't needed while Jadyn and Amanda are in Pennsylvania. Regardless, I wish they were here. But they are doing what they need to do and by the grace of God they'll be back soon. In the mean time, Amanda left me a very well crafted honey-do list in preparation for Christmas which I hope to make headway on tonight.
OK, here's the Amen part:
Jack Valenti wrote a great piece about the sacrifice of his generation and that it seems lost on the current, younger crowd. This is what bothers me about the ambivalence we see about the current overall War on Terror.
He nails it.
Technical difficulties prevent me from posting a link, but I will paste the text below so you can cut, paste and hopefully see it.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20061221/cm_usatoday/doesthenextgenerationvaluethesacrificeofwar
And if we don't get a chance to do so again, Merry Christmas!

A lot on my mind

So far so good on the blogging for days. I know it doesn't count but that's OK.
Hurting a little for my hometown. I've done service work in the apartment complex where a top floor is gone from one of the buildings in Montgomery.
I bought hundreds of gallons of gas at a convenience store across the street from the skating rink which looks like somebody crumpled it by hand. Thank God the loss of life was limited.

The election
As I try to approach politics from a standpoint of fairness, I want to limit what I say about the results of this month's general election. But I will say that I believe that anything that smells like a withdrawal or a curtailing of our actions in Iraq will look to some in the Middle East as if we are weakening.
I'm concerned they'll see this as an opportune time to attack again. Do I wish for it? Absolutely not!
Revamp the strategy? Yes. Involve a greater number of troops? More than likely. Start a noticeable pullback within the next several months?
Not a good idea.
Sure, it sounds like re-packaging of some bad policy decisions, but I think there's some merit in the notion that the fight in Iraq is the front line in the War on Terror.
Do we want it in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Manchester, Tenn. or Bakersfield, Calif., just to name some towns in America at random? I think not.
I pray that our leaders understand that a misstep now in the War on Terror could have grave consequences for our nation and that any change in course they make is with due diligence.

Joining the crowd

OK, I'm going to join the crowd, since my blog tends toward the unwritten.
The crowd I'm speaking of is the one blogging every day in November.
First off, I'll start with an appropriate salute to our fighting men - and women here on Veterans' Day. As an AP story circulating today aptly points out, the enemy doesn't particularly care who's standing around when they launch an attack.
It sounds trite, but it's true: Their sacrifices keep us a largely free nation who can, for the most part, make its own decisions about its course.
Americans in combat today deserve our full support, regardless of our feelings about the conflicts they find themselves in or the politicians who sent them. We should always welcome home our military men and women with open arms and full hearts.
I do pray that our nation's defense contractors will continue to find ways to shield them from harm as they do their duties with better, stronger protective gear and clothing, explosive detection devices and other helping tools.
May God bless all our veterans - past and present - and remember those who've paid the ultimate price with their lives.

Where has the indignation gone?

It's buried under time, and certainly under the numbers of war dead, but there was a moment when this nation clamored to set the scales right by the imbalance created by Sept. 11, 2001.
Decisions were made on faulty intelligence - hopefully flawed by miscalulation than by intentional deceit - to unseat Saddam.
Sure, the protracted nature of things in Iraq give us a sense that we shouldn't have done anything.
Where would be now if we hadn't? Sure it sounds jingoistic to some ears, but should we have taken the passive approach and wait 'til someone struck again before going forward?
To second-guess the current situation in Iraq, in my view, is to Monday-morning-quarterback decisions which are three years old, and undermine the sacrifices our men and women have made.

Not a fan

The Bush administration rightfully earned much of the criticism it received over its repsonse to Hurricane Katrina.
I also do think something smells funny about all the Haliburton contracts.
On the whole I do support the administration's approach to the War on Terror and I think people like Cindy Sheehan are a distraction to an effort which is right on the whole (I think the WMDs are in the hands of people friendly to Saddam, but that's just a hopeful wild guess.).
Anyway, I do have one significant bone to pick about the nomination of Harriet Miers - it looks a bit too much like cronyism.
If I were the president, I'd be inclined to nominate someone I felt personally comfortable with and who'd given me what found to be solid advice.
But the president isn't the one with final say.
She probably can handle the job but even though the lean toward bench experience among court nominees is apparently fairly recent, I think it's a good trend. I think the president is committed to Ms. Miers but will probably have to rethink his approach after she gets shot down.

Views on the War

In general, I'm in support of our nation's global pursuit of terrorists.
As a Christian, I'm conflicted about my visceral desire to see faceless cowards meet an untimely death at the hands of shadow warriors, exterminating the threat before it even surfaces - before they slice off the heads of innocent civilians, denotate improvised explosive devices with a cell phone from a mile away and snuff out life in random yet calculated efforts to disrupt Western civilization.
Scripture encourages us to pray for our enemies and see them come to know the Lord. Do these enemies pose a threat so great as to ride our anger to its ultimate conclusion? Or do we merely sit around and wait for the next high-profile target to fall victim to the deluded?
Somewhere in between lies the right answer.
In the mean time, I'll pray.
I'll also pray that somehow our military leaders use the knowledge gleaned from the tactics of the mujahadeen in Afghanistan against the Soviets to protect our men and women.
Somehow I've gotten the impression that our military leaders have said that they don't know how to combat IED attacks because we've never had experience with them.
Maybe they haven't said it, but it's how they're acting.
Maybe they didn't tell us everything they were doing, but the mujahadeen - whom we supported as I understand - used tactics very similar to those being employed by the "insurgents" in Iraq. Remember that bin Laden supposedly was among the mujahadeen at some point along the way.
Here's an example I saw on television:
The mujahadeen would get explosives, implant them on or near the road bed, then recreate tank track impressions over the explosive-laden area. Then, BOOM! (I saw this on a recent Military Channel show the name of which I never caught.)
So let's use the knowledge - whether we taught them how to do it or not - to save lives and get us back to the job at hand, securing Iraq enough to turn it over to the Iraqis.
I have a friend who's being deployed soon and I want to see her come home in one piece and alive. I don't think it's too much to ask that we do everything we can to keep our sons, daughters, sisters, brothers and friends alive as they go about their duties.