Americans have always had great confidence in our nation's political clout and great love for our troops.We have more than once used BOTH to great effect in the world.

Americans have always been willing to FIGHT for our freedoms when necessary and even for the freedoms of other countries.

Americans used to respect the judgement of our government as to when the use of our precious military men and women was absolutely necessary.

We no longer do. Your administration has not only overburdened our soldiers and their families with death, and unjutifiable continued abscence from their families. But in over 30,000 cases your administration rewarded tour after tour of service with permanent disability, lousy pay, and poor healthcare.

Your administration has deliberately created an atmosphere of artificial fear and anxiety in the minds and hearts of decent American citizens. And you have fostered that toxic atmosphere in order to push through legislation so abusive of our constitutional rights that we risk becoming a fearful police state held hostage by the twin chains of our fear of your distorted picture of the outside world, and our equal fear of our own government.

How many times has the threat level been "elevated" but no attacks came? How many times have we been told that our troops are winning, but no victory came? How many times have we been told that the lives of our soldiers were spent in liberating a country, and yet been told that there cannot be liberty for either our troops or that country?

Americans, are always willing to fight for what is truly just and to sacrifice for that which is truly important. But the things we will NOT sacrifice are our right to to the truth from our government, and the right to the bravery that naturally lives in every American heart.

Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Whose gonna do it? You Hillary? You Osama Obama? I have more responsibility here than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Saddam, and you curse Carl Rove. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That water-boarding terrorists, while tragic, probably saved lives. And that my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. I know deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties and body-piercing gatherings, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punch line. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a bunch of limped-wristed tree- huggers who rise and sleep under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, and then question the manner in which I provide it. I prefer you said THANK YOU, and went on your delusional kumbaya singing ways, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand to post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think! You friggin' people. You have no idea how to defend a nation. All you did is weaken a country today, that’s all you did. You put people's lives in danger. Sweet dreams, son.

Redwhite&blue,

Please let me complete that movie quotation for you. Doesn't finish good for the person you plagarized.

KAFFEE
Did you order the code red?

JESSEP
(pause)
You're goddamn right I did.

Silence. From everyone. RANDOLPH, ROSS, the M.P.'s, they're
all frozen. JO and SAM are likewise. JESSEP seems
strangely, quietly relieved. KAFFEE simply takes control of
the room now.

KAFFEE
Please the court, I suggest the jury be
dismissed so that we can move to an
immediate Article 39a Session. The
witness has rights.

Silence.

RANDOLPH looks to ROSS.

RANDOLPH
Lt. Ross?

ROSS is frozen. He doesn't know what to do.




KAFFEE
(as a friend)
Jack.

ROSS looks at KAFFEE, then JESSEP, then nods his head "yes"
to RANDOLPH.

RANDOLPH
The Sergeant at Arms will take the jury to
an ante-room where you'll wait until
further instruction.

The SERGEANT AT ARMS begins leading the JURORS out of the
room.

JESSEP
What the hell's going on?

No one will say anything until the jurors are out of the room.

JESSEP
(continuing; to
captain)
Captain, what the hell's going on? I did
my job. I'd do it again. Now I'm getting
on a plane and going back to my base.

RANDOLPH
M.P.'s, guard the prisoner.

The M.P.Is are tentative. They've never heard a marine
colonel referred to as "the prisoner" before. They sure as
hell have never been asked to guard one.

ROSS
Guard the prisoner.

JESSEP
What the hell-

ROSS
Colonel Jessep, you have the right to
remain silent. Any statement you do make
can be used against you in a trial by
court-martial or other judicial or
administrative proceeding. You have the
right ...

ROSS continues reading JESSEP his rights, over--

JESSEP
I'm being charged with a crime? I'm--
that's what this is--









(to Ross)
Marine!
(Ross keeps going)
Marine!!
(Ross is doing his
job.)
I'm being charged with a crime? I'm-
that's what's happening? This--I'm-this
is funny, you know that, this is--

And JESSEP lunges at KAFFEE, and KAFFEE would be dead but for
the three M.P.'s who've leapt in to restrain JESSEP. SAM and
JO have come to their feet and stand behind KAFFEE.

JESSEP
(continuing; to
Kaffee)
I'm gonna tear your eyes right outta your
head and piss in your dead skull. You
fucked with the wrong marine.

ROSS is done reading JESSEP his rights.

ROSS
Colonel Jessep, do you understand those
rights as I have just read then to you?

JESSEP
I saved lives. That boy was--there was
weak link. I saved lives, you hear me?

The courtroom is silent from Jessep's outburst. Jessep shakes
his head.

JESSEP
(continuing)
You fuckin' people.
(beat)
You have no idea how to defend a nation.

JESSEP
(continuing; to
KAFFEE)
All you did was weaken a country today,
Kaffee. That's all you did. You put
people in danger. Sweet dreams, son.

KAFFEE
Don't call me son.
(beat)
I'm a lawyer, and an officer of the United
States Navy. And you're under arrest you
sonofabitch.

LOL!

Did you happen to catch the sequel? A slick trial lawyer with a $1,000 haircut got Jessep off on a technicality!

redwhite&blue, please don't speak for the may honorable men and women who serve in uniform, you embarrass them.

Thevail: You wrote:

"How many times has the threat level been "elevated" but no attacks came? How many times have we been told that our troops are winning, but no victory came? How many times have we been told that the lives of our soldiers were spent in liberating a country, and yet been told that there cannot be liberty for either our troops or that country?"

Just so there are no misunderstandings. Are you advocating that we do away with the threat level or not advise the public of the possibility of an attack? Would you be proactive and take precautions or be reactive and clean up after an attack we possible could have either prevented or reduced the loss of lives by elevating the threat level. I personally do not like living in fear any more than anyone else, but I like even less not being notified of a possible threat in my area and having something happen to me. my family or friends that could have been prevented by advanced warning. As for our troops being told they are winning, I would suspect that is a matter of prospective and changes from day to day. The rest of your post I have no real problems with although I doubt if you look closely you'll find most POTUS's with a much better record that GWB. Some perhaps, most I don't think so. The real problem here is that we a privy to much more information that we had in the past, not that the POTUS is really doing things all that much different.

Thevail:

Your administration has deliberately created an atmosphere of artificial fear and anxiety in the minds and hearts of decent American citizens. And you have fostered that toxic atmosphere in order to push through legislation so abusive of our constitutional rights that we risk becoming a fearful police state held hostage by the twin chains of our fear of your distorted picture of the outside world, and our equal fear of our own government.

Artificial fear? OMG! You mean the terrorists attacks never happened!??

How many times has the threat level been "elevated" but no attacks came?

And just why do you suppose THAT happened? Duh? Does the security level and threat level run parallel? Ya think?

How many times have we been told that our troops are winning, but no victory came? How many times have we been told that the lives of our soldiers were spent in liberating a country, and yet been told that there cannot be liberty for either our troops or that country?

You're a mushroom.

@ moneysaver:

Here is a copy of the actual memo George W. Bush received in 2001 August 6 warning of an attack on the United States by Bin Laden.

<link>

The memo speaks for itself. No comment is necessary.

Obama 08!

We've all seen the memo a dozen times. Don't read the comment then. Your choice.

• specific buildings were unknown
• specific dates were unknown
• specific airlines, flights, or planes were unknown
• the World Trade Center was mentioned in the context of following a 1993 example, not as a definite future target
• plane hijacking was mentioned in the context of freeing Shaykh Rahman, implying a hostage situation, not using the planes themselves as missiles.
• the Bin Laden supporters in the U.S. were thought to be planning attacks with explosives, as in all previous bombings by Al-Qaida
• the use of planes as missiles, while discussed before, had not been attempted by Al-Qaida
• the memo did not give any new information about the threat that would warrant taking additional measures, since the fact that Bin Laden and other terrorists had wanted to strike inside the United States had been well-known for over 20 years.

I myself have no problem with being warned that there is a threat to America, but if it's real, by all means, why not TELL US WHAT THE THREAT IS?

Will that too EMBOLDEN, our enemies. I really don't see how it would, do you? Heck it might make them less effective don't you think? Many eyes being overall better to watch for terror than just a few.

But isn't it amazingly convenient that the government can just declare today "orange", scare the living crud out of everyone, and pass the patriot act or renew it? Or decide to wire tap someone's phone? Or engage in a little light Geneva Convention flouting? No details necessary, no questions asked, no evidence provided.

Living in fear when you are under attack is justified. Living in nebulous, never ending fear of some impossible to track or identify shadowy enemy who may or may not be there at all is not.

Terrorists decided to attack us, and it was a horrible thing. Many lives were lost in a tragedy no one anticipated. Did we need to review national security, yes. Should we have let it turn America into a country of people so frightened that we allow the likes of GWB to subjugate us, unquestioning, to his will? NO.

You cannot be totally safe in a free country, and you can never be free in a totally safe country either. It's a choice.

That's exactly the relevance of the "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US" memo to Bush. If, as moneysaver suggests, there was nothing Bush could do about the memo, then what are citizens supposed to do about a stupid color coded alert system that tells us even less than Bush's memo?

Obama 08!

I guess that's my real point. There are only two things that anyone can do in response to the color coded terror alert.

1.) Be frightened

or

2.) Ignore it

Neither one is helpful in any way.

I could pretty much see omething like that for military, fire,and police personell. I mean they should probably be alerted even if nothing else is known. Because THEY might have something they could usefully do about it. Like be extra vigilant, or make sure to clean their guns or gurneys or refill their med kits or something.

The only possible response of the public to those ultra vague, non location specific color coded terror alerts is...terror.

Which begs the question...why is the government doing them at all?

It's a lose-lose here. You contradict yourself. If a strike were to occur today, you'd stamp your feet, wave your fist in the air exclaiming "Why weren't we alerted?!" If an alert is at hand and NO strike occurs you'd pout that you shouldn't have been 'terrorized' by our own government.

Look. There's a difference between being 'alerted' and being 'terrorized.'

"Why weren't we alerted?!"

Well, let's take a scenario out of "24". The government knows that a weapon of mass destruction is somewhere in a known American city. What does the government do?

1) Raise the alert color code to red and let the citizens guess the nature and location of the threat?

2) Alert the citizens of the city to evacuate.

This extreme example serves to highlight the absurdity of the current system. And Thevail is correct about the current system being politicized as some studies have suggested.

Obama 08!

Is primarily designed to alert local authorities and agencies, not the general public. But if an alert level were :posted" and the general public not notified there would be hell to pay - especially if something happened.

Ron