A Marine Apologizes

This was [apparently not] written by Lieutenant General Chuck Pitman, US Marine  Corps, Retired:    [This is a Mike Adams Column here] Thanks Mike you speak for me, many Americans and a great many soldiers...........

For good and ill, the Iraqi prisoner  abuse mess will remain an issue. On the one hand, right thinking Americans  will abhor the stupidity of the actions while on the other hand, political  glee will take control and fashion this minor event into some modern day  massacre.   

I humbly offer my opinion here:   

I am sorry that the last seven times we  Americans took up arms and sacrificed the blood of our youth, it was in the  defense of Muslims (Bosnia, Kosovo, Gulf War 1, Kuwait,  etc.).   

I am sorry that no such call for an apology upon the extremists came  after 9/11.   

I am sorry that all of the murderers on 9/11 were Islamic  Arabs.     

I am sorry that most Arabs and Muslims have to live in squalor  under savage dictatorships. 

I am sorry that their leaders squander their wealth.   

I am sorry that their governments breed hate for  the US in their religious schools, mosques, and government-controlled  media.     

I am sorry that Yassar Arafat was kicked out of every Arab country and  high-jacked the Palestinian "cause."   

I am sorry that no other Arab country will take in  or offer more than a token amount of financial help to those same  Palestinians.   

I am sorry that the U.S.A. has to step in and be the biggest f  inancial supporter of poverty stricken Arabs while the insanely wealthy Arabs  blame the USA for all their problems.   

I am sorry that our own left wing, our media, and  our own brainwashed masses do not understand any of this (from the   misleading vocal elements of our society like radical professors, CNN and the  NY TIMES).   

I am sorry the United Nations scammed the poor  people of Iraq out of the "food for oil" money so they could get rich while  the common folk suffered .   

I am sorry that some Arab governments pay the  families of homicide bombers upon their death.   

I am sorry that those same bombers are brainwashed  think ing they will receive 72 virgins in "paradise."   

I am sorry that the homicide bombers think pregnant  women, babies, children, the elderly and other noncombatant civilians are  legitimate targets.   

I am sorry that our troops die to free more Arabs from the gang  rape rooms and the filling of mass graves of dissidents of their own  making.   

I am sorry that Muslim extremists have killed more Arabs than any  other group.   

I am sorry that foreign trained terrorists are trying to seize  control of Iraq and return it to a terrorist state.

I am sorry we don't drop a few dozen Daisy cutters  on Fallujah.   

I am sorry every time terrorists hide they find a convenient  "Holy Site."     

I am sorry they didn't apologize for driving a jet into the World  Trade Center that collapsed and severely damaged Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox  Church - one of our Holy Sites.   

I am sorry they didn't apologize for flight 93 and  175, the USS Cole, the embassy bombings, the murders and beheadings of Nick  Berg and Daniel Pearl, etc....etc!   

I am sorry Michael Moore is American; he could feed  a medium sized village in Africa.   

America will get past this latest absurdity. We  will punish those responsible because that is what we do.   

We hang out our dirty laundry for the entire world  to see. We move on. That's one o f the reasons we are hated so much. We don't  hide this stuff like all those Arab countries that are now demanding an  apology.     

Deep down inside, when most Americans saw this reported in the  news, we were like - so what? We lost hundreds and made fun of a few  prisoners. Sure, it was wrong, sure, it dramatically hurts our cause, but  until captured we were trying to kill these same prisoners. Now we're supposed  to wring our hands because a few were humiliated?   

Our compassion is tempered with the vivid memories  of our own people killed, mutilated and burnt amongst a joyous crowd of  celebrating Fallujahans.   

If you want an apology from this American, you're going to have a  long wait!     You have a  better chance of finding those seventy-two virgins.   

UPDATE: I received the above in an email from a friend at a foreign embassy.It was erroneously attributed to Marine Pitman when in fact it first ran here .I didn't run it for its attribution, I ran it because it spoke to truth. That and I loved it.
It doesn't matter who said, it needed to be said (and I love that I got it from the consul of a foreign embassy..................)

There are tens of thousands of Marines and soldiers that feel this way  and a handful have written me expressing these sentiments

UPDATE: Another military smear by our 'troop supporting' MSM

Comments

[gcarlston]

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/pitman.asp

Sorry Pamela. You still rock!

[pastorius]

That is a classic. CLASSIC!

[wxjames]

Chuck Pitman for president.

Yes, you heard me. If you have a clear patriotic message and you have the guts to state it, you are on my short list for president.
More leadership, please.

[albydam]

I like it, but it did sound too good to be true. No doubt some Marines feel that way, but Snopes says it is false. I second the "You still rock!"

[BHRC]

I third that you rock personally but that rock you stood on regarding LTG Pitman is shaky. Must have happened cuz you took your hands off the wheel; that's a very big No No No!

[pastorius]

Ah, so this is a hoax? Is that it?

It almost doesn't matter who wrote it, it is still perfect.

Too bad the guy who wrote it didn't just put his own name to it.

[cybercrone]

Pamela,
You are doing a great service for both the Jewish people and the U.S. I realize that you have not been in the public eye very long so maybe you have not fully thought out the ramifications of what you do on your Vlog.

BHRC is right about taking your hands off the wheel is a very big No, No. I encourage my grandchildren, who will soon be driving, to read your blog and was dismayed that they saw the Vlog of you driving.

Teens don't make nuanced distinctions, such as her political ideas are fine but don't imitate her driving. With all the carnage on our highways, it is imperative to set young people an example of 100% careful driving.

Your hands off the wheel, your glance darting back and forth between the road and the camera was unnerving to watch.

I understand that you don't want to alter your personal style now that you are in the public eye, but I'm sure you don't want an adolescent driver to do what you did while the Vlog was being filmed.

My granddaughter is letting her hair grow to look like yours. Kids idolize easily and, again, don't make distinctions in what to mimic and what not.

A concerned grandmother

[tazzerman2000]

Hoax or not I love it... Perfect, just perfect.. :)

[Richard Davis]

It would be nice if the current Marine Commandant DID give this "apology"!

I'd like to see the Commandant back our Marines up (ie: Haditha, Hamandiya - the Camp Pendleton 8, etc) instead of letting them twist in the wind and get shit on by Murtha and the Liberal media.

He should be DEFENDING our Marines, not DEMORALIZING them.

ps - next time you drive, I got "shotgun"

[Pamela Geller]

Grandma, You are right. I won't make excuses and say the vehicle was not really moving yada yada yada. You were right and I will keep my hands on the wheel.
Bless you for thinking of me and your grandkids.

Warmest wishes, Pamela

Any grandma that gets her kids into blog reading deserves my love,respect and admiration.

[Edward Lunny]

Sir, you have nothing to appologize for. Mistakes have been made, some have behaved in an abhorrent manner, a very few. Thank you for your sacrifice and service. And, thank you for your letter, I think that there are many who mirror your sentiments and have not spoken up.

Pamela, careful with your driving habits, your daughters no doubt pay close attention. Your driving habits are the one thing they should not copy from their mother. Thank you for posting this letter.

[Cap'n Billy]

Like the rest of the responders, I completely agree with the substance of this "apology," but forwarding mass e-mails of this sort is very unwise, and putting them on a widely-read blog like this is worse. It so happens I'm a regular reader of Dr. Mike Adams' column on Townhall.com, where I saw it when it was first published a couple of years ago, and such publication is not fair to Dr. Adams or Gen. Pitman. It is quite easy to check these missives out on the following sites, as well as many others:
http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/internet/a/current_netlore.htm

http://www.snopes.com/

http://www.truthorfiction.com/

If you don't have time to check, better not to post or forward, since 99.44% of these are false.

Notwithstanding, I love this blog, and look forward to reading it every day.

[Laptop_Ron]

I saw this one a couple of years ago too. I don't remember the Michael Moore part, though.

Regardless, I don't care if it's authentic or not. I liked it then and I like it now.

[daryl]

What follows is what an Army buddy sent me. It is another example of what keeps this old patriot agitated about the Copperhead media. Read the part about what the editors at Time did with the story from their reporter who was embedded with the 3rd ACR in Tal Afar.

Thank God for the Internet and thank God for Pam and her Numero Uno superblog!

============================

Norm Glitz wrote: This was forwarded to me by my AF brother, who spends a fair amount of time & travel at this sort of high level thing, both US & NATO. He's a Southwest captain, but puts more miles on his butt traveling for the AF reserve. I have no idea who "Smooth Smith" is, but I'll guess he's ex-Army with an internet presence.

Norm

Thought for the Day - A Good Read from "Smooth" Smith

Earlier this week I attended a retired general and flag officer conference at Fort Carson, hosted by MGen Bob Mixon, the 7th Infantry Division Commander which calls the Fort its home. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Ft. Carson, it is a huge installation located to the south of Colorado Springs; it's in the process of becoming one of the larger Army installations in the country (26,000 soldiers); and it is the test location for the new "modular brigade" concept that will reflect the Army of tomorrow by 2008. It is also the home post of the largest number of troopers who have served multiple tours in Afghanistan and Iraq and, regrettably, the largest number of troopers who have died in combat there over the past three years. There are Ft. Carson units going to and returning from the combat area virtually on a monthly basis. The conference was primarily organized to explain the modular brigade concept, and it featured a panel of officers who had either very recently returned from commands in the combat zone or were about to deploy there in the next two months. Three of the recent returnees were Colonel H.R. McMaster, Colonel Rick S., and Captain Walter Szpak.

McMaster is the commander of the 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment, the unit that, through very innovative and population-friendly tactics, rid the city of Tal Afar of insurgents. The mayor of Tal Afar came back to Carson two weeks ago to thank the troopers and their families personally for "freeing his people". (What's that, you say you didn't hear about that in the mainstream media?) McMaster is considered the foremost U.S. expert on modern insurgent warfare, has written a book on the subject which is widely circulated at the war colleges and staff colleges, and he was asked to testify before Congress when he returned from the 3rd ACR combat deployment. He is obviously one of the great combat leaders that has emerged from the war and is highly respected (some would say revered) by his troopers and his superiors alike.

Colonel S. is assigned to the 10th Special Forces Brigade and he headed up all of the 31 special forces A-teams that are integrated with the populace and the Iraqi Army and national police throughout the country. Many of these are the guys that you see occasionally on the news that have beards, dress in native regalia, usually speak Arabic and don't like to have their identities revealed for fear of retribution on their families (thus the Colonel S.) Captain Szpak was the head of all the Army explosive ordnance teams in Iraq. He and his troops had the job of disarming all the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and explosive formed projectiles (EFPs) that were discovered before they were detonated. They also traveled around the country training the combat forces in recognizing and avoiding these devices in time to prevent death and injury. IEDs and EFPs are responsible for the vast majority of casualties experienced by our forces.

Despite the objective of the conference (i.e., the modular brigade concept), it quickly devolved into a 3½ hour question and answer period between the panel and the 54 retired generals and admirals who attended. I wish I had a video of the whole session to share with you because the insights were especially eye opening and encouraging. I'll try to summarize the high points as best I can.

· All returnees agreed that "we are clearly winning the fight against the insurgents but we are losing the public relations battle both in the war zone and in the States". (I'll go into more detail on each topic below.) · All agreed that it will be necessary for us to have forces in Iraq for at least ten more years, though by no means in the numbers that are there now. · They opined that 80% to 90% of the Iraqi people want to have us there and do not want us to leave before "the job is done". · The morale and combat capability of the troops is the highest that the senior officers have ever seen in the 20-30 years that each has served. · The Iraqi armed forces and police are probably better trained right now than they were under Saddam, but our standards are much higher and they lack officer leadership. · They don't need more troops in the combat zone but they need considerably more Arab linguists and civil affairs experts. · The IEDs and EFPs continue to be the principal problem that they face and they are becoming more sophisticated as time passes.

Public Affairs: We are losing the public affairs battle for a variety of reasons. First, in Iraq, the terrorists provide Al Jazeera with footage of their more spectacular attacks and they are on TV to the whole Arab world within minutes of the event. By contrast it takes four to six days for a story generated by Army Public Affairs to gain clearance by Combined Forces Command, two or three more days to get Pentagon clearance, and after all that, the public media may or may not run the story.

Second, the U.S. mainstream media (MSM) who send reporters to the combat zone do not like to have their people embedded with our troops. They claim that the reporters get "less objective" when they live with the soldiers and marines - they come to see the world through the eyes of the troops. As a consequence, a majority of the reporters stay in hotels in the "Green Zone" and send out native stringers to call in stories to them by cell phone which they later write up and file. No effort is made to verify any of these stories or the credibility of the stringers. The recent serious injuries to Bob Woodruff of ABC and Kimberly Dozier of CBS makes the likelihood of the use of local stringers even higher.

Third, the stories filed by reporters in the field very seldom reach the American public as written. An anecdote from Col. McMaster illustrates this dramatically. TIME magazine recently sent a reporter to spend six weeks with the 3rd ACR as they were in the battle of Tal Afar. When the battle was over, the reporter filed his story and also included close to 100 pictures the accompanying photographer took. TIME published a cover story on the battle a week later, allegedly using the story sent in by their reporter. When the issue came out, the guts had been edited out of their reporter's story and none of the pictures he submitted were used. Instead they showed a weeping child on the cover, taken from stock photos. When the reporter questioned why his story was eviscerated, his editors in New York responded the story and pictures were "too heroic". McMaster had read both and told me the editors had completely changed the thrust and context of the material their reporter had submitted.

As a sidebar on the public affairs situation, Colonel Bob McRee, who was also on the panel and is bringing a Military Police Battalion to Iraq next month, invited the Colorado Springs Gazette to send a reporter with the battalion for six weeks to two months. He assured the Gazette, in writing one month ago, he would provide full time bodyguards for the reporter, taking the manpower out of his own hide. The Gazette has yet to respond to his offer.

Ten More Years: The idea that we will have troops in Iraq for ten more years sounds rather grim, even though by contrast, President Clinton sent troops to Bosnia and Kosovo nearly ten years ago. And they're still there with no end in sight. While Iraq is clearly a different situation right now, the panelists believe within a few years at the most, it will become very much the same - a peace keeping, nation building function among factions that have hated one another for centuries. There is factionalism and there was bitter fighting in the Balkans before NATO intervened and with peace keepers, the panelists believe Iraq will be a parallel situation. This, by the way, is why they all believe linguists and civil affairs military personnel are so necessary for the future.

Colonel S. went out on a limb by suggesting if most of the troops in Iraq were deployed home "tomorrow" he could have the entire country "pacified" and the terrorist situation brought under control with just one brigade of special forces. Since these guys are linguists, civil affairs experts, among many other skills and talents, he may not be too far wrong.

Iraqi Attitudes: The panelists agreed the public affairs problem manifests itself most significantly in the American public belief the people of Iraq want us out of their country which we are occupying. They have served in different parts of the country but each agreed we are wanted and needed there. I refer you to the anecdote from Col. McMaster and the thousands of pictures available on the internet of the U.S. forces shown in very cordial relations with the locals. Of course, our media's obsession with Abu Ghraib and, if the initial reports regarding the small group of Marines at Haditha prove to be true, then those attitudes will change somewhat. But as one of the panelists pointed out, the atrocities suffered under Saddam were much worse and much more common.

Morale and Capabilities: Two weeks ago, the local TV channels showed a 3rd ACR re-enlistment ceremony held at Ft. Carson and officiated by Colonel McMaster. Mind you, this unit has just returned from a one-year combat tour of hard and bloody fighting in Iraq and will likely return there again in eight to ten months. Of the 670 soldiers eligible for re-enlistment, 654 of them held up their right hands and signed on for another four years. Incredible!

The Army goal for re-enlistments for fiscal year 2006 was for 40,000 soldiers to extend their active duty commitments. With four months remaining in the fiscal year, they have already exceeded their goal of
40,000 and may have to go back to Congress for authorization to exceed their force structure manning limitations. Since Congress has been pontificating for the past couple of years the Army is woefully under strength, that should not pose any difficulty. Iraqi Forces: Every one of the returning commanders had experience in joint operations with the Iraqi soldiers - and in the case of some of them, with the local and national police. They are all are supportive of the quality of the forces, but culturally, they believe we may be expecting too much from them as a pre-condition for handing over greater responsibility for area control. McMaster said he worked with the army and the police at Tal Afar and was not the least bit reluctant to assign major responsibilities to them in the operations conducted.

Col. S.'s Green Berets, on the other hand, caught a national police lieutenant who was directing the emplacement of an IED by cell phone in order to disrupt a convoy - immediately after the lieutenant had been briefed on the convoy's route. The good news in this situation was they were able to reroute the convoy, safely, and track the lieutenant's entire network through the use of the speed dial on his phone. Having terrorist infiltrators in both the army and the police force remains a problem. But by no means does that detract from the courage and determination of those who are loyal to the new Iraq.

Explosive Devices: The combined command in Iraq is becoming increasingly effective in countering the significant threat posed by the IEDs and EFPs. The frequency of attacks has decreased in large part through training to recognize the threat, the new technology (UAVs - unmanned aerial vehicles or drones, for example) which help discover where the devices are emplaced, the infiltration of some of the terrorist cells, etc. However, the technology being used by the terrorists is also improving measurably. In the past six weeks, two bomb making sites were found, raided and the bad guys arrested. In both cases, the head bomb makers were master's degree graduates (one in chemistry and one in physics) from American universities. That's a lot of brain power to bring into the fight, but we also have some pretty talented people in the military, industry and academia who are doing their best to even the odds.

Conclusion: This is more than I had intended to write on the subject - so what's new a lot of you might say - but it is a subject that doesn't get the proper balance from other sources, in my judgment at least. I trust the information we received far more than anything I have heard or seen in our usual news sources. The most disturbing thing I heard was that our MSM is changing the stories filed by their own people on the scene because they sound "too heroic".

The over riding opinion I came away from the conference with is that we have incredibly talented and professional leaders who are facing up to the challenges and are making inexorable progress toward the goals of our nation. We're fortunate to have courageous and valorous people on the combat front, even though there seems to be a serious dearth of these same types of people in Congress and the mainstream media.

***********************************
"The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it."
Albert Einstein

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P.S. I don't know Norm or "Smooth" either. I got this maybe 3rd or 4th hand, but I have buddies serving with OIF. I helped with Major Danny Davis's and Col. H.R. McMaster's campaign to bring Christmas to the children of Tal Afar. The response on all sides was incredible. One guy alone donated enough equipment for an entire soccer league. Needless to say, the Mainstream Media didn't find this story worth reporting about either.

Daryl

[Richard Davis]

daryl - INCREDIBLE REPORT!! This should be a headliner somewhere.

So much positive news going unnoticed by the public because of MSM is the 5th column. The most painful example was how the MSM twisted the story because it made our troops sound "too heroic" - reminded me of Communism.

The most positive news was that after spending a year fighting in Iraq, of the 670 soldiers (from the Fort Carson, Colorado unit)654 (97%!!!) RE-ENLISTED!!

This is most reassuring, because ultimately, we will win because enough young men and women understand how important this mission is, and are willing to risk injury and death to keep the rest of the world free.

Also you said this: "The mayor of Tal Afar came back to Carson two weeks ago to thank the troopers and their families personally for "freeing his people". (What's that, you say you didn't hear about that in the mainstream media?)"

I believe this same mayor was in Philadelphia and said the same thing. "We love the US troops, we want them in Iraq untill the job is finished, there is no civil war, etc etc" and the Phila press completely refused to report it. (I only knew about it because my neighbor works for the city and told me about the mayor and his comments). In addition, I advised local talk radio people about the Tal Afar mayor being in town and the stations were unable to get the city to give them access to the mayor.... one reason given, "they have bad accents and you would need a translator"..

If the mayor had Anti-Troops or Anti-USA message to report, you could bet the Philly media would have had this mayor headlining EVERY NEWSPAPER and TV station, even if they needed 10 translators they would have gotten THAT out...