Remembering a Fallen Soldier…

by Findalis of Monkey in the Middle


From ACT for America

This moved me so much that I just had to share it with you.

Remembering What We Are Up Against and Why We Must – and Will – Prevail

by Brigitte Gabriel

I don’t believe I’ve ever written a letter quite like this to you before. Indeed, it is difficult to write this without tears welling up in my eyes.

It started as a rainy Friday morning in late August. I was flying from my presentation in Springfield, Missouri, to my next destination connecting through Atlanta. Little did I know that what I was about to experience that day was going to shake me to the depth of my soul, inflame my passion for our country (I didn't think it was possible to be more passionate) and remind me why ACT! for America is so important to our security and the future of America.

I looked out my window at gloomy Atlanta as the plane took off, closed my eyes and pictured home and my loving family meeting me at the airport with open arms, smiles and kisses, waiting to whisk me off to Outback Steak House for dinner as planned.

It was a quiet, uneventful flight. No beverage service. No announcements from the captain — until we landed at our final destination:

"Welcome to "......." . Ladies and Gentleman we have a special request to ask of you. We are carrying on this plane today a fallen soldier brought home from Afghanistan. His body is accompanied by Sgt. "......". Please kindly allow Sgt. "...." to deplane first so he can do his job in escorting the body below. We will leave the seat belt sign on until the body has been taken off the plane. Then when the seat belt sign is turned off, you can deplane."

The plane continued slowly down the runway as the captain’s shocking announcement reverberated among the passengers. As we taxied closer to our gate, tears began to flow as we saw a police car, a military hearse, and a team of Marines standing in formation waiting to carry the body.

And the saddest scene of all — his family, wife and children, all lined up against the wall waiting for him.

Burning tears were flowing down my face as my heart sank into utter pain and agony at such a sight. We always hear about this on the news and feel sad but to experience it in person is completely different.

We pulled up to our gate and Sgt. "...." stood up in all his gloriously decorated uniform, opened up the overhead compartment carrying a folded American flag and a back pack, and started walking out of the plane amid the clapping and tears of all of us on board.

No one in the plane even touched their cell phone. People were transfixed, staring out the window, sharing our respect and sorrow. At that moment we were not Democrats, Republicans or Independents. We were Americans soberly watching one of our own come home in a coffin draped with an American flag.

As they removed the body from the plane, two men holding his wife started walking towards the plane as the wife covered her face and began sobbing. She was followed by her children. The Marines walked in formation and carried his body to the hearse.

We started getting out of our seats and deplaning without a word from anyone except the sounds of crying coming from different people looking out the window as they walked out of the plane.

As I entered the airport, people were standing in lines and rows facing the window watching all this.

Some men were saluting the body. We all stood next to each other, honoring this soldier until his body was finally in the hearse and he was driven off the tarmac.

It was the most sobering, heartbreaking, and patriotic scene. As I cried for the following few hours sitting with my family at home eating Chinese take-out for dinner (I just wasn’t up to going out for dinner), I was reminded of why we need to continually remind Americans that we are at war.

Our men and women are fighting and dying overseas to protect America from an enemy who is not only fighting us across the globe but also advancing here at home.

Just because we have not been successfully attacked at home doesn't mean our enemy has forgotten about us. Their tactics have become more sophisticated. They not only wish to attack us militarily, they are moving at full speed in the advance of their cultural Jihad invading America.

Islamic foot-washing basins in airports; Shariah finance being introduced by American banks; college campuses designating Islamic prayer rooms for Muslims only; Islamic compounds practicing Shariah law springing up across America; public schools using our tax dollars to indoctrinate American students into Islam; demands by Muslim parents that their children be provided private prayer rooms in their public schools; Muslim workers demanding special workplace accommodations no other religious person would ask for; and the list goes on.

As history demonstrates, only organized resistance will stop this. Unopposed by organized resistance, the advance of cultural Jihad in Europe has proceeded to the point that many think a full-blown “Eurabia” is inevitable and irreversible.

And even if we win the war against Islamic terrorism, but lose the struggle against cultural Jihad here at home, we may protect our safety but lose our liberties and our way of life. I just don’t believe this young man who fell on the field of battle would consider that a victory.

“Freedom” is not just freedom from the physical harm our Islamist enemies want to inflict on us. It is freedom from the tyranny and oppression of shariah Islamic law and the supremacist political ideology our enemies are determined to impose upon us.

So, just as that soldier was on the front lines of this war overseas, we are on the “front lines” here at home. That soldier was part of the “organized resistance” in Afghanistan. We are part of the “organized resistance” here in America.

We cannot afford to fail in our military missions overseas. Failure would embolden and empower Islamists throughout the world.

We also cannot afford to fail here at home.

This is why I appeal to you to take heart and help me continue building ACT! for America. We are the only nationwide organized resistance to this threat. As I said, we are the front lines here at home.

Our families, our communities and our nation are depending on us, even though many do not yet realize it.

For instance, two years ago ACT helped pass the bill in Congress that protects every citizen from lawsuits when they report suspicious activity in public places.

How many Americans know this happened? Very few. Yet they are now protected from lawsuits, which means America is safer as a result.

I know there are other issues right now, such as health care and the economy, that are dominating the attention of the American people. And I understand why that is.

But for those of us, you and me, who grasp the seriousness of the threat of radical Islam, we must continue to do everything we can to make sure that the reason 9/11 occurred is not forgotten. That the reason we are fighting in Afghanistan is not forgotten.

We must continue to push forward, to inform, organize, and ring the alarm bells, even when it feels like a lot of people aren’t paying attention right now or don’t seem to “get it.”

Because there are many good Americans out there ready to respond to our message, if we can only get it to them.

Because we are the modern “Paul Revere's,” the messengers who are warning America even when a lot of America is preoccupied with other matters. It is estimated that over 2/3 of the colonists either were loyal to Britain or were indifferent to the political struggles the colonies were experiencing in 1776.

Yet, through the leadership and sacrifice of the remaining colonists, independence was declared and Britain was defeated.

How I wish I could be standing in your presence this very moment, to grasp your hands, look into your eyes, and say “be encouraged!”

We will win this struggle against radical Islam. It won’t be tomorrow, or next year, but we will, in time, prevail — so long as good, patriotic Americans like you do not lose hope and keep taking action.

We are winning victories, and we will continue to win more – and bigger – victories, so long as good, patriotic Americans like you do not lose hope and keep taking action.

Let’s remember how far we have come together. In less than two years we have built the largest grassroots organization in America dedicated to combating the threat of radical Islam, with 62,000 members and 315 local chapters.

Be encouraged!

I want to close with this. Last week, when Guy Rodgers and I were at the EMP conference in Niagara, NY, the president of a national security organization sat down with us and thanked us profusely for what ACT! for America is doing and has already accomplished.

I wish you could have seen his face and heard his words. This is a man who has served at high levels of government and been around Washington politics for decades.

His message to us – and ultimately to you – was that ACT! for America is KEY to all our efforts to defeat radical Islam. He has watched us grow, witnessed our activism, and rejoiced for our victories.

So I’ll say it again. Be encouraged!

Always devoted,

We must remain vigilant against those who would impose their religious laws and customs upon us. The idea of Multiculturalism and Political Correctness must be cut short. No one faith or culture should be given special treatment in this nation. Each faith, each culture must be equally treated, equally accomodated. Thus the statis quo is assured for all.

Let each of us rejoice in the Freedoms this nation has given to us, and continue to fight against the Islamination of America.

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Finding Clarity in Afghan Strategy

Can we find clarity in the Afghan strategy debate?
By Col. Tom Snodgrass

After describing and linking to the Obama administration's idiotic maundering Col. Snodgrass provides links to diverse sources of opinion before setting forth a list of critical issues.

1) Taliban re-conquest must be prevented so that Afghanistan will be denied to al Qaeda as a base of future operations;

2) to achieve such denial, tribally ruled Afghanistan must be built into a modern state with a democratically elected representative government;

3) this "nation building" will entail robust US counterinsurgency to protect the population from Taliban intimidation and control until the Afghan government can independently maintain civil law and order;

4) while conducting counterinsurgency guaranteeing representative government, US forces must also train and equip Afghani military and police to enforce law and order; and

5) simultaneously with pacifying Afghanistan, US forces must also assist the Pakistanis in subduing the Taliban and al Qaeda who are threatening both the Pak and Afghan governments from regions on the Pak border adjacent to Afghanistan.

Col. Snodgrass follows up with a list of doubts.

1) the religiously motivated Taliban can be effectively and indefinitely denied power in this 7^th century Islamic culture;

2) that Afghanistan can be lifted from tribal warlordism to a representative democracy;

3) that corrupt Afghani warlords can honestly and successfully administer a regime of law and order that will ensure the loyalty of a very ethnically diverse population;

4) that any Afghani military and police forces we can develop will be sufficient to maintain law and order in a forbidding land consisting of 251,772 square miles of mountains and deserts (about the size of Texas) with a population of 33 million; and

5) that the geographically adjacent corrupt Pak government can prevail over the primal Islamic forces embodied in the Taliban and al Qaeda that are demanding Shariah "justice" for Pakistan.

The tactical objectives are obviously impossibilities. Those things which are necessary can not be accomplished. Col. Snodgrass adds that a successful counterinsurgency would require seven to ten years, which, in the current political climate, are not available.

Having opened that can of worms, Col. Snodgrass dives into the issue of our relationships with Islamic regimes. What he finds at the bottom is unpleasant indeed.

So how does this reality factor into the military strategic equation? Primarily it means that no Islamic government can ever be truly counted on to affirmatively eradicate Jihadist violence against US interests. This in and of itself suggests at the very least that the objective of nation-building in Afghanistan is a fool's errand simply or so remote as to make it foolish. It also means that the likelihood that any Islamic government would be prepared to reject Shariah and embrace Western values is suspect at best.

It distills down to this.

Our emphasis must be on kinetic operations to destroy this generation of Jihadists and on psycho-social operations that intensify kinetic results.

Unfortunately, HellFire launches from drones are becoming increasingly unpopular in the region. "Civilians" are being hurt and killed because the Mujahideen do not separate themselves from them, preferring to use them as human shields. Add th that the lack of will to confront Islam ideologically & psychologically.

The bottom line:

We are just going to have to "shoot the closest bear" one at a time and reconcile our thinking that Jihad will reappear periodically like Haley's Comet.

Col. Snodgrass may be able to accept that, but I can't. One WTC attack was enough. Two were a million too many. One Beslan was enough. One London attack was enough. One Madrid attack was enough. One Mumbai attack was enough. Enough already! Lets put a permanent end to the Jihad. One year before I was born, the "greatest generation" showed Japan what we could do. Can we still do that? Do we have the SISU, the stuffing to tell the lilly livered misfits of the world who disapprove of a single, permanent solution that they can have a piece of the action if they don't like it?

Is there a divine right to wage war against us, rape our widows, enslave our orphans and seize our real and personal property ? Or do we have a divine right to live unmolested, free from the threat and actuality of attack, secure in our lives & property? The two can not coexist. Why the Hell do we maintain the Declaration of Independence if we are not willing to actualize it ? Do we really hold those truths to be self evident, or have we forgotten them? Did we waste the blood of thousands fighting Hitler & Tojo only to submit and surrender to Usama? Is there any desecration more terrible than wasting the blood of those heroes who fought and died to preserve our liberty?

Everything that Col. Snodgrass outlined for us in his excellent essay was entirely predictable eight years ago. We could have and should have nuked Afghanistan off the face of the earth. The invasion is a fool's errand. Allowing reversion to status quo anti is unacceptable.

If we are going to shoot the target of the moment, why are there still terrorist training camps and staging areas in Iran, Syria & Pakistan? Why does any sanctuary for terrorists exist? Why are the Iranian factories that manufacture EFPs still standing? The answer is that this nation has been and is governed by cowards & traitors, not statesman for too many decades.

It should be obvious to anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear that either Islam will become extinct or liberty will. If we will not make Islam extinct, we will not maintain our liberty. The Kemalist experiment proves that no compromise is possible, Islam must be eliminated.

If we are not willing to nuke the enemy, then we must use our second best weapon: the fact bomb. We must bombard the Muslims with facts, beginning with the truth about their Prophet, who was a pederast, lecher, pirate and murderer. What God would select such a man as his ultimate messenger? What God promises victory and delivers five successive defeats from an outnumbered and out gunned adversary? Islam's canon of scripture & tradition contains the ammunition we need to shake the faith of any rational Muslim who retains even a scintilla of morality.

If we were led by statesmen instead of traitors, we would begin by creating and distributing a full length feature film documenting the doctrines & misadventures of Muhammad. If we were led by statesmen instead of traitors, we would hear the truth about Islam, that it is a vicious predatory war cult, not a "great religion of peace".

What's that, you say? Islam is a religion; Muslims have a right to believe and practice as they choose? Yeah, right. Muslims have a right to believe that we are rebels against their god who must be killed or enslaved at any cost, that we may be killed, our widows raped and our children sold on the slave market with full impunity. If you believe that, then you might as well commit suicide now rather than wait for them to come for you. We don't need your kind, we need rational people who can think straight.

It is time for the few remaining intelligent, clear thinking people to unite and rise up as one, demanding rational & effective action from the government we ordained to protect us. Begin by signing these petitions and sending them to your family, friends and associates with an exhortation to endorse and forward them. Then send them to your Representative & Senators.

• International Qur'an Petition
• Congress Debate Qur'an Petition
• Outlaw Islam!

Those petitions contain the minimal information required to understand the truth about Islam, with links to the source documents for further exploration. They offer a quick and easy means to spread accurate information about the enemy which attacked us eight years ago. If you need more, such as fliers you can print and distribute and Powerpoint presentations you can attach to emails, you can find them at http://www.crusadersarmory.co.cc/ .

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Interview With the Parents of Tom Burnett Jr.

Burnett radio interview about 9/11 and the Flight 93 memorial Tom Burnett Sr. and his wife Beverly did some 9/11 interviews the last couple of days, remembering their son Tom Jr., who was murdered by Islamic terrorists aboard Flight 93. Mr. Burnett has been trying for several years to stop the Park Service from planting a giant Islamic-shaped crescent on the Flight 93 crash site. In their interview with WSAU radio in Wisconsin, the Burnetts were joined half-way through the hour by Alec Rawls (the author of this blogburst post), who has written a book about the terrorist memorializing Crescent of Embrace design. Mr. Burnett's words are always heartfelt, yet marked by a constant scrupulousness. Emotion never carries him to utter a word beyond what he actually has grounds to assert. Highly recommended listening, perhaps especially for those who are better at judging people than facts. Let's face it, show some people the Mecca-orientation of the giant crescent, and they just aren't sure what they are looking at. Point out that the central feature of every mosque is a Mecca-direction indicator, and somehow the pieces don't fall together in their brains: What is that? Just a mysterious diagram to some. Yet these folks can still be good judges of character. So judge the Burnetts. The WSAU interview begins with host Pat Snyder asking Mr. Burnett if America is doing enough as a nation to remember 9/11. Most of us, on being asked any question, will try to answer it, but Mr. Burnett immediately defers, and in the most polite way:

Well, I'm not a very good judge of that. We are tucked away here in the southeast corner of Minnesota...

But if he isn't interested in passing judgment on how much America should do to remember 9/11, he is very concerned that we don't honor the wrong people, and starts right in on the Flight 93 memorial (which Mr. Snyder puts off to later). Both the Burnetts have a sophisticated understanding of American liberty. Talking about the generosity of Americans towards each other and the world, Beverly notes the change that has taken place in her lifetime, where assistance used to be all private, but now the government has gotten involved. She passes no explicit judgment on this development, but just notes what should remain constant (at 17:22):

I think about all the programs we have in the government. I come from a different generation, and my mother and father, and Tom's, that we never really looked to the government all the time. We looked to our neighbors and churches and friends for things. But our government should be there to make sure we're SAFE.

Instead, as Tom and Bev both note, our elites don't even want to acknowledge that it was Muslim terrorists who attacked us on 9/11. It is these same elites who don't want to acknowledge the Islamic symbol-shapes in the Flight 93 memorial. To witness this symbolism would be to tie Islam to 9/11, which to these people is some unconscionable bigotry, regardless of the truth. There is the rub. As Mr. Burnett put it (at 25:16):

All we want--Alec, and the thousands of Americans who back us--we want the truth. What happened? [How did we end up with an Islamist design?] And we want to honor the 40 people. I don't want anything to do with the Islamic fanatics, anything at all.

Mr. and Mrs. Burnett are very thoughtful, careful, rational people. So who is it who is "too far out"? People like the Burnetts, who are skeptical that the architect of a memorial to Flight 93 could plant a giant crescent and star flag on the crash site by mistake? Or is it the people who somehow convince themselves that a crescent and star flag is just fine, so long as we can't prove that it is intentional? Actually, we CAN prove that the Islamic symbolism is intentional. Architect Paul Murdoch does not want history to be able to deny his achievement, so he included extensive redundant proofs of intent, such as the following. Murdoch says the crescent comes from the terror attacks breaking the circle (leaving only the giant Islamic-shaped crescent still standing, hmmm). Remove the parts of the crescent that stick out past the point where the flight path (coming down from the upper left) symbolically breaks the circle, and what symbolically remains standing is a giant Islamic-shaped crescent pointing EXACTLY at Mecca. The full Crescent of Embrace points 1.8° north of Mecca ± 0.1°. Remove the parts of the Entry Portal walls that extend past the flight path at the upper crescent tip and the remaining “true” or thematic crescent points exactly at Mecca, ± 0.1°. All the supposed redesign did was add an extra arc of trees that explicitly represents a broken off part of the circle, leaving Murdoch’s circle-breaking crescent-creating theme completely intact. The unbroken part of the circle, what symbolically remains standing in the wake of 9/11, is still a precisely Mecca-oriented crescent, the centerpiece for the world’s largest mosque. To join our blogbursts, just send your blog's url.
A few sentences need more emphasis.

...our elites don't even want to acknowledge that it was Muslim terrorists who attacked us on 9/11. It is these same elites who don't want to acknowledge the Islamic symbol-shapes in the Flight 93 memorial. To witness this symbolism would be to tie Islam to 9/11, which to these people is some unconscionable bigotry, regardless of the truth.

So who is it who is "too far out"? People like the Burnetts, who are skeptical that the architect of a memorial to Flight 93 could plant a giant crescent and star flag on the crash site by mistake? Or is it the people who somehow convince themselves that a crescent and star flag is just fine, so long as we can't prove that it is intentional?

Why should a memorial to the innocent victims of terrorism celebrate the war cult in whose service they were murdered? The faces of the terrorists should be printed on dart boards and toilet paper, along with the book which commands them to make war on us. Their names, their faces and the symbols of their war cult should have no place in any memorial to their victims.

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Keith G. Fairben: Still riding

Think of Keith, and by all accounts from those who know and love him, laughter is the first thing that comes to mind. Laughter, loyalty to family and friends, service to his community. These attributes are what continue to define Keith: beloved son, cherished friend, respected EMS professional, and of course, 9/11 hero.


Keith Fairben was 24 years old on September 11, 2001. The only child of Ken and Diane, Keith grew up knowing that service to others matters.


Diane was a school teacher and father Ken was a funeral director, who was (and is still) also active in the local volunteer Fire Dept.

From the NY Times following 9/11:


Keith Fairben: Big, Fast and Reassuring
Published: Friday, December 7, 2001

Keith Fairben was the adrenaline kid, always on the run, said his mother, Diane. He would get home from his job as a paramedic for New York Presbyterian Hospital, get on the cellphone, the home phone and his e- mail all at once, and then field calls from all his friends as they decided what movie to see that night or where to have dinner. Sometimes, to assuage the tension of his job, Mr. Fairben, 24, and his fellow paramedics would play practical jokes on their supervisor, Jack Delaney, one time smearing grease on his office doorknob so he couldn't get in.

But when Mr. Fairben was on the job he was in command, big and reassuring. And he was fast. Records of the Fire Department's Emergency Medical Service show that he and his partner, Mario Santoro, arrived at the World Trade Center within minutes after the first plane hit. They immediately got to work tending to the injured, running in and out of the building....(go here for more of their write up.)

Keith looked to his dad as his role model as he was growing up. Diane says that Ken "is a funny guy," and it is obvious that Keith takes after him. Always with a smile, ready for a good laugh, Keith was always there for his friends, ready to help anyone. Says Diane: Any friend of Keith's knew that his door was always open for them. From his dad Keith also got his finely tuned sense of justice; like his dad, INjustice made Keith very angry.


A 'middle of the road' student according to his mother, making people laugh was what Keith was really good at. This child, born two weeks overdue, according to Diane: "... was all boy. Into boy stuff..." to the 6'4" gentle giant; there was nobody who met Keith who will ever forget him...


There is much more about this amazing young man, over at Assoluta Tranquillita here.

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The eagle still soars

September 11, 2001. I awoke that day in a different time zone - hours after the attacks that shocked us all. The magnitude of the devastation was overwhelming.. As I watched from a distance throughout that day, what also overwhelmed me were the phenomenal acts of individual heroism. In the midst of the horrors, I was awestruck by the courage of my American 'family' as America showed the world - friend and foe alike - just what she is made of.

As I sat here, helpless, I saw Americans come together, refusing to be helpless, in support of each other. From the frantic parent looking for their child; the office worker helping a colleague; stranger reaching out to another; EMTs, paramedics, fire departments and the police, who raced into the furnace, right on up to the President of the United States, there was a groundswell of pride and determination as America again gave notice that she would never bow on bended knee to any terrorist. Within the maelstrom of destruction, quiet moments of grace and dignity. I was a priviledged witness that day.

Today? I am humbled on a daily basis by the unbreakable spirit that is at the core of America.

The eagle still soars, strong and proud.

God bless the USA.

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