"Dear Mr. Obama ... Iraq was not a mistake" -- Updated

"The day we lose our will to fight ... is the day we lose our freedom."

UPDATED BACKGROUND ON JOE COOK: Army Specialist Joe Cook was wounded in Iraq. He was the middle son of Bob and Melissa Cook of Wauconda, Illinois. On the front door of the Cook's house is a 3-star flag, for Joe and his older and younger brothers. Their father, Bob Cook, is on the Lake County Republican Central Committee.

Joe and his two brothers enlisted in the Army within 6 months of each other and all volunteered to serve in Iraq. Joe was captain of his high school cross-country team but he now walks and runs with a prosthesis because he lost his leg when the vehicle in which he was riding in Baghdad was hit by a roadside bomb. The blast crushed Joe's left leg below the knee. Five times before, he had felt the concussion of the IEDs, but this time it was more powerful.

The Village of Wauconda, where the Cooks live, has made it a habit to welcome every combat veteran back home - so when Joe returned home, after many months of rehabilitation, the people gave him the hero's welcome he so richly deserved.

It only takes 60 seconds to watch this moving video from Army Specialist Joe Cook, an Iraq war veteran who was wounded in May 2007 by an IED. He lost his left foot and leg six inches below the knee.

Video

Text of Video:

Dear Mr. Obama, having spent 12 months in the Iraq theater, I can promise you, this was not a mistake. I witnessed firsthand the many sacrifices made by the people of Iraq. Those sacrifices were not mistakes. Iraqi people are just like us. They want a chance to live in a secure world, free from tyranny, free from terrorism, free to prosper, free to raise their children and pass on a future. Are they better off today than they were in 2002? You bet. I've seen many men sacrifice their lives for the Iraqi people. They died for a purpose, not a mistake. They died giving hope, they died promoting freedom. Do you rescue a fireman just as he's about to save a child? When you call the Iraqi war a mistake, you disrespect the service and the sacrifice of everyone who has died promoting freedom. Freedom carries with it a price. Because you do not understand, nor appreciate these principles, sir, I am supporting John McCain for president. He, too, made a huge sacrifice promoting freedom, because he understands the fundamental truth, freedom is always worth the price. (playing of God Bless the USA)

H/T Rush Limbaugh

Coulter: "Bush 7, Terrorists 0"

Ann Coulter does it again ... nailing the facts straight out about America under President George W. Bush's leadership and the safety we have enjoyed as a result. She writes:

Morose that there hasn't been another terrorist attack on American soil for seven long years, liberals were ecstatic when Hurricane Gustav was headed toward New Orleans during the Republican National Convention last week. The networks gave the hurricane plenty of breaking-news coverage -- but unfortunately it was Hurricane Katrina from 2005 they were covering.

On Keith Olbermann's Aug. 29 show on MSNBC, Michael Moore said the possibility of a Category 3 hurricane hitting the United States "is proof that there is a God in heaven." Olbermann responded: "A supremely good point."

Actually, Olbermann said that a few minutes later to some other idiotic point Moore had made, but that's how Moore would have edited the interview for one of his "documentaries," so I will, too. I would only add that Michael Moore's morbid obesity is proof that there is a Buddha.

Hurricane Gustav came and went without a hitch. What a difference a Republican governor makes!

As many have pointed out, the reason elected officials tend to neglect infrastructure projects, like reinforcing levees in New Orleans and bridges in Minneapolis, is that there's no glory when a bridge doesn't collapse. There are no round-the-clock news specials when the levees hold. You can't even name an overpass retrofitting project after yourself -- it just looks too silly. But everyone's taxes go up to pay for the reinforcements.

Preventing another terrorist attack is like that. There is no media coverage when another 9/11 doesn't happen. We can thank God that President George Bush didn't care about doing the safe thing for himself; he cared about keeping Americans safe. And he has, for seven years.

If Bush's only concern were about his approval ratings, like a certain impeached president I could name, he would not have fought for the Patriot Act and the war in Iraq. He would not have resisted the howling ninnies demanding that we withdraw from Iraq, year after year. By liberals' own standard, Bush's war on terrorism has been a smashing, unimaginable success.

A year after the 9/11 attack, The New York Times' Frank Rich was carping about Bush's national security plans, saying we could judge Bush's war on terror by whether there was a major al-Qaida attack in 2003, which -- according to Rich -- would have been on al-Qaida's normal schedule.

Rich wrote: "Since major al-Qaida attacks are planned well in advance and have historically been separated by intervals of 12 to 24 months, we will find out how much we've been distracted soon enough." ("Never Forget What?" New York Times, Sept. 14, 2002.)

There wasn't a major al-Qaida attack in 2003. Nor in 2004, 2005, 2006 or 2007. Manifestly, liberals thought there would be: They announced a standard of success that they expected Bush to fail.

As Bush has said, we have to be right 100 percent of the time, the terrorists only have to be right one time. Bush has been right 100 percent of the time for seven years -- so much so that Americans have completely forgotten about the threat of Islamic terrorism.

For his thanks, President Bush has been the target of almost unimaginable calumnies -- the sort of invective liberals usually reserve for seniors who don't separate their recyclables properly. Compared to liberals' anger at Bush, there has always been something vaguely impersonal about their "anger" toward the terrorists.

By my count, roughly one in four books in print in the world at this very moment have the words "Bush" and "Lie" in their title. Barnes & Noble has been forced to add an "I Hate Bush" section. I don't believe there are as many anti-Hitler books.

Read the entire column here. Thank you, President Bush. You will go down as one of the greatest presidents in history.

H/T GOP Girl

President Bush observed 9/11 with moment of silence....

President George W. Bush observed the seventh anniversary of 9/11 this morning at the White House with a moment of silence as he has each year since the attacks on America:

The moment of silence at the White House [occurred] at 8:46 a.m. -- the exact time that terrorists slammed the first of two jetliners into the World Trade Center. The Pentagon was struck about an hour later. Joining the president [was] First Lady Laura Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne, members of Congress, Cabinet members, military officials and about 3,000 White House employees and guests.

The Pentagon ceremony will include a wreath laying, music and a reading of the names of the 184 who died on Flight 77 and inside the building. The Pentagon Memorial was built at a cost of $22 million on a 1.9-acre parcel of land adjacent to the Pentagon and within view of the crash site.

"The president thinks about 9/11 every single day when he wakes up and before he goes to bed," White House press secretary Dana Perino said Wednesday. "This is what he's concerned about. He's always been concerned about another attack on our country. Thankfully, we haven't had one."

No additional terrorism attacks have occurred on America under the leadership of President Bush. For that, we are thankful to him and to our military who fight to keep us safe. May God bless America.

9/11/01 ... Thank you, NYPD

In Memory and in Gratitude to New York City's Finest

On September 11, 2001, the New York City Police Department lost more officers in a single day than in any year previously. Twenty-three officers died in the smoldering collapse of the World Trade Center ... died saving hundreds of people from a burning inferno. Their sacrifice is not forgotten.

This one's for you, Yankee Philip....

The 23 NYPD officers lost on 9/11:

JOHN G COUGHLIN, Sergeant
MICHAEL CURTIN, Sergeant
JOHN D'ALLARA, Police Officer
VINCENT G DANZ, Police Officer
JEROME M DOMINGUEZ, Police Officer
STEPHEN P DRISCOLL, Police Officer
MARK ELLIS, Police Officer
ROBERT FAZIO, Police Officer
RODNEY C GILLIS, Sergeant
RONALD KLOEPFER, Police Officer
THOMAS LANGONE, Police Officer
JAMES LEAHY, Police Officer
BRIAN G McDONNELL, Police Officer
JOHN WILLIAM PERRY, Police Officer
GLEN PETTIT, Police Officer
CLAUDE RICHARDS, Detective
TIMOTHY ROY, Sergeant
MOIRA SMITH, Police Officer
RAMON SUAREZ, Police Officer
PAUL TALTY, Police Officer
SANTOS VALENTIN Jr, Police Officer
JOSEPH VINCENT VIGIANO, Detective
WALTER WEAVER, Police Officer

We will not forget.

Heroes of Flight 93 ... "Let's roll!"

The heroes of Flight 93 were ordinary Americans who reacted to extraordinary times. On a hijacked plane heading toward Washington, D.C. and possibly the White House or the Capitol building, and with the knowledge of what had already occurred that morning with the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, the passengers took matters into their own hands.

Ordinary Americans became heroes in their attempt to overtake the Muselim terrorists who had pirated the plane, causing it to crash into the countryside of Pennsylvania.

Flight 93 had heroes on board that day....

Todd Beamer - "Let's roll!"
The 32-year-old Oracle Corp. account manager from Cranbury, N.J., was believed to have helped lead a passenger attack on Flight 93 hijackers that prevented the jet from reaching its target, possibly the White House. Beamer spoke to a GTE operator on the plane's phone. His final words -- "Are you guys ready? Let's roll!" -- have become a rallying cry for the war against terrorism. Beamer and his wife, Lisa, had two sons. His daughter, Morgan, was born in January of 2002. Beamer played baseball and basketball in college and loved coaching youth sports. President Bush, in an address to the nation, praised Beamer as "an exceptional man." Today, the Todd M. Beamer Foundation aims to help kids deal with trauma and learn how to make choices.

Thomas E. Burnett Jr.
Burnett called his wife, Deena, to tell her about the Flight 93 hijacking and said he and other passengers were "going to do something about it." Burnett, 38, of San Ramon, Calif., was senior vice president and chief operating officer of Thoratec Corp., a medical research and development company. His wife and three daughters moved to Arkansas afterwards to be closer to her parents. The new Thomas Burnett Family Foundation plans to provide endowments for children's bereavement camps and leadership scholarships at selected universities.

Jeremy Glick
Glick called his wife, Lyz, after terrorists took over Flight 93. She patched the call to a 911 dispatcher, who told Glick about earlier attacks in New York. Glick told his wife some passengers had taken a vote, and "We're going to rush the hijackers." Glick, 31, of West Milford, N.J., had been a collegiate judo champion at the University of Rochester. His older sister, Jennifer, is president of Jeremy's Heroes foundation which is devoted to helping people build character through sports. The foundation has supplied sneakers to kids in Chicago and paid for 20 children in Washington to attend a soccer camp.

"There but by the grace of God go I...."

We will never forget.

Originally published 2007.

Cross-posted at SixtyFour81.com

British Muslim terrorists' 2006 airline bombings would have affected flights to U.S.

Photo from London Daily Mail

Soft drink bottles and batteries ... these are the everyday items British Muslim terrorists planned to use to bring down seven transatlantic airplanes enroute to the U.S. and Canada between August and October of 2006, which would have resulted in the death of thousands of innocent civilians. As reported by the London DailyMail:

A hypodermic syringe would be inserted into the base to draw out the drink and the bomb mixture would be injected in its place.

A homemade detonator called hexamethylene triperoxide and also known as HMTD would be made from a mixture of household and commercial ingredients and disguised in AA batteries. Bulbs and wires would connect the bomb mixture with disposable cameras to trigger a charge to set it off.

What could have been the biggest terrorist attack since 9/11 was averted when alert British authorities began rounding up 18 suspects after months-long surveillance revealed their plot.

The arrests led to a ban on many liquid containers at airports worldwide.

What was even more chilling was the unknown possibility of whether terrorists would have blown up the airliners over land causing infinitely more damage and toll of human lives in the carnage.

The alleged plot was foiled on August 9, 2006 when two of the key gang members - Abdulla Ahmed Ali and Assad Sarwar - were arrested by police in a town hall car park in Walthamstow, East London, following several months of surveillance.
...
Police found a USB computer memory stick in Ali's pocket which held information on flight timetables and security advice on restricted items for hand luggage and other information about Heathrow Airport.

To avoid looking like Muslim extremists at the airport check-in, the suspects planned to include pornographic magazines and condoms in their carry-on luggage.

Read the Daily Mail article for indepth details of how terrorists plot and plan to kill thousands of innocents right down to the last tiny detail. It will turn your stomach but the question is ... will it reinforce the liberals' backbones to stand and fight against radical Muslim terrorists?