Iraqi Freedom

"God will bless you with a great life if you go out and vote. This is your last chance to vote."

These words echoed through the streets of Ramadi, Iraq from a local mosque.

The plea of History…
The plea for peace…
The plea for freedom…
Is within their reach

They came in droves to vote for life
They voted to end the terrorist strife
They have different opinions and different beliefs
But they decided to address them politically

American led
American bled
American Patriots honor their dead
We came to liberate and protect our own
Tyranny has ended
A madman dethroned

Arise New Iraqis!
Arise New Iraq!
Taste and savor the freedom
Three years ago you lacked

The road to freedom’s a long one,
and some areas unpaved
with purple stained fingers to guide you
this is truly your day

The cup of freedom is engraved
With the deeds of brave men
This day will be inscribed
‘The day Iraqi freedom began’

Mike DiBartolo
American Zulu

China: The Red Dragon (Revisited)

After reading a recent report about Chinese police firing on a crowd of protestors and multiple deaths being reported, I couldn’t help but to think of this poem. There are western corporations and governments alike who are so intertwined with Chinese commerce that they are incapable of speaking out against Chinese oppression. As foretold in this piece, the treat to world peace does not lie in the Middle East but with the union of three regions that will become the greatest threat free men have ever seen.

The US is constantly condemned for how it fights a war against tyrants and Islamic Fanatics yet the world community remains relatively silent while regimes like China and Iran reveal their true nature more and more each day. When there are reports that read:

Hundreds of riot police armed with guns and shields surrounded and sealed off a southern Chinese village where authorities shot dead as many as 20 demonstrators this week," villagers said.

One has to take pause and reassess where China is heading with regards to civil rights, foreign trade, treaties, and military build up. China's ally, the Country and government of Iran,who’s President just recently denied the Holocaust and proposed that all of Israel be relocated to Europe and this came after he called for the destruction of Israel. When the residents of one of the most powerful militaries in the world says:

“The riot police are gathered outside our village. We’ve been surrounded,” she said, sobbing. “Most of the police are armed. We dare not to go out of our home.”

And the story ends with the deaths of those same villagers, one has to REALLY look at the threats the free world faces today and what are those threats doing to increase their position against free and democratic societies?

I wonder how the people of England felt back in the late 1930s as they heard the reports of the Nazi army marching under France’s Arch de Triumph? What was going through their minds as they watched a threat grow stronger and stronger and they remained deluded by the notion there was still no direct threat to their nation?

I fear the answer to my questions will be revealed all too soon. The answer will be that it isn’t history that is repeating itself but lessons that are never learned. Just as the same seals go to the same beaches where they are consumed by the same killer whales year in and year out…so too does mankind repeat the same follies, while making the same excuses, while the same type of madmen continue to reek havoc on our planet.

Enjoy the poem…


Red Dragon

You’ve slept long enough
Centuries have passed and your greatness has not been honored
You were once the center of the universe…reclaim your rightful place
Set the square on fire, bring the world under your feet
No wall can contain you, no boundary can restrict you
Even the oceans will appear as ponds when you breath fire across the heavens
The pearl of the orient is but a gem to adorn your feet
Tyrants have massed a million men to fight on your behalf
Awaken! A billion souls cry out for you to AWAKEN!!
They know not that you will destroy them too, they only know that YOU are the Dragon
The center of the Universe.

The Lady of the Island grows weak and is distracted
She will not be able to slay you or return you to your slumber
Her followers have deserted her, her third eye is blind and her sword is dull
Her words will not penetrate your armor, her shield cannot resist your flame
Her demise will be your ascension, fight she will, but your scales are many
Her sword will not harm you.
Awaken Red Dragon, reclaim your rightful place…
Awaken Red Dragon, a new millennium has dawned.
You have been summoned by the ancestors to carve the world in their image,
they have sacrificed their young for you, they have slaughtered their daughters for you.
Awaken Red Dragon…

It is time.

American Zulu

While we remain distracted with the war on terror, a greater threat rises from the east. China, the Red Dragon, is awakening. The development of Chinese long range missiles, submarines, and nuclear technology along with North Korea's 1 Million man army poses a serious threat not only to the region but to the world. We have forgotten that China did not allow democratic reforms... they crushed it under tanks in Tiananmen Square and arrested the students who wanted freedom. Communist China is up to more than just making cheap goods... They have stolen technology, and continue to develop offensive weapons capable of reaching targets thousands of miles away. If China partners with Iran, Russia, and North Korea… we will have a new world order indeed....


American Zulu
June 10th, 2005

A Statesman

Some years ago, I listened as a Senator attempted to explain the differences between the US House of Representatives and the US Senate. He stated that the House was, as designed, a direct reflection of the populous and that they embraced the passions and emotions that moved the populous along.

The Senate, however, are statesmen. They have the sometimes daunting task of looking past the passions of the issues and the raw politics of the situations and look at the issue itself to see how America should respond…not just the people of a specific region…but America overall. He viewed the job of Senator as that of a mature American leader who is able to look past the political and emotional fray and see the issues clearly and in the best interest of the American People.

While it’s obvious that many Senators currently seated in Congress missed this poignant definition of a Senator during their orientation, there is one who has decided to embrace the call of Statesman much to the chagrin of the mainstream media. Senator Joe Lieberman has made numerous trips to the Iraqi Front. He as attempted to asses the issues on the ground and deal with them as a statesman should. I am very confident that if Senator Lieberman viewed our efforts in Iraq as futile, he would state it clearly to his constituents and to the American people.

On December 6th, 2005 Senator Lieberman made these remarks at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment Forum on the Next Steps for a Successful Strategy in Iraq. While I am only going to post highlights of his speech, I would encourage you to read it in its entirety by clicking here.

But for the sake of brevity (too late I know), I would like to bring your attention to a few of the views of this Statesman on the war in Iraq and our need for unity if we are to achieve victory.

"The most important debate going on currently here about the war in Iraq is between some people who are focused on withdrawal of our forces regardless of conditions on the ground and the rest of us who believe that our goal in Iraq is not to withdraw but to win, so we can leave with the mission accomplished.

This is a serious and significant debate and in the vitality and health of our democracy will continue to go on. I hope it goes on with a recognition that there are Republicans and Democrats on both sides and that it should be conducted in a spirit of mutual respect and national interest.

…“The war (in Iraq), which arguably began as a “war of choice” has become a “war of necessity” we cannot afford to lose. The costs of victory in Iraq will be large for the U.S. But the costs of defeat would be disastrous for the U.S., Iraq, the Middle East, and most of the world.

The costs of victory will be high in American lives lost and American money spent. But the costs of defeat would be disastrous – they include the collapse of the new Iraqi regime, civil war, regional war, a victory for Zarqawi and Al Qaeda, which will embolden them to attack both other Arab countries and our American homeland, the rollback of democracy in the region, and the painful realization that the lives of American soldiers who have died in Iraq were given in vain. (emphasis mine)

We are there not just to defeat the terrorists – not even mostly to defeat the terrorists – we are there to provide the security for a self-government by the Iraqis where the creation of a modern, open, thriving state in this historic center of the Arab and Islamic worlds. If we accept defeat in Iraq we will have lost the opportunity to create within this great nation a larger victory in the so-called war “for the hearts and minds” of people in the Islamic world and that lost opportunity would be a large cost and a disaster.

Last Wednesday, the President laid out his strategy for victory in Iraq in a speech at the Naval Academy and accompanying 35-page white paper. It described a plan that has developed over the last two and half years since Saddam Hussein was overthrown. It is a plan that has resulted from trial and yes, many errors. It describes the strategy, the tactics, that I saw in Iraq two weeks ago and that I believe are creating progress there.

The President’s description of our “clear, hold, and build” strategy for victory in Iraq and the tactical response of most Democrats suggests that there may be more agreement here than meets the eye and ear in the dueling partisan press conferences that characterize public discourse in Washington today. What I am suggesting here, as I listen and read the statements made, is that there is broad bipartisan agreement on the goals, on the strategic interest we have in the successful completion of our mission in Iraq; there are disagreements about tactics. Accepting this reality and the urgency of the moment in Iraq calls us, I believe, to remember the famous counsel of Senator Arthur Vandenberg, Republican of Michigan that “Politics must stop at the water’s edge.”

…(Vandenburg's statement) that politics must stop at the water’s edge, is altogether relevant to our current circumstances:

“To me, bipartisan foreign policy means a mutual effort under our indispensable two-party system, to unite our official voice at the water’s edge so that America speaks with maximum authority against those who would divide and conquer us and the free world.”

Those last words of Vandenberg’s exactly describe the goals and methods of the Islamist terrorists who attacked us on 9-11-01 and fight us in Iraq today. They aim to “divide and conquer us and the free world.” Vandenburg’s preceding words defining a bipartisan foreign policy should remind us of how much stronger we would be in this critical fight if we “seek national security ahead of partisan advantage.”

…That is why I feel so strongly that it is time for us to set aside for now the arguments about why we got into Iraq so that we can work together on how we can get out best in victory and honor with the job done.

…It is time that America’s leaders, in the White House and Congress, Republicans and Democrats, who agree on our goals in Iraq but disagree on tactics to start trusting each other again so that we can work together again. The distrust is deep and I know it will be difficult to overcome, but history will judge us harshly if we do not stretch across the divide of distrust and join together to complete our mission successfully in Iraq.

It is time for Democrats who distrust President Bush to acknowledge that he will be Commander-in-Chief for three more critical years, and that in matters of war we undermine Presidential credibility at our nation’s peril.

It is time for Republicans in the White House and Congress who distrust Democrats to acknowledge that greater Democratic involvement and support in the war in Iraq is critical to rebuilding the support of the American people that is essential to our success in that war.

… I propose that the President and the leadership of Congress establish a bipartisan Victory in Iraq Working Group, composed of members of both parties in Congress and high ranking national security officials of the Bush Administration. … It would carry forward the cooperative spirit of the Warner-Levin amendment which recently passed the Senate. In our form of government, it would be one of the closet structures we could create to replicate a unity government or a war cabinet that exists in other democratic systems.

I know that some will say that proposing a forum for bipartisan cooperation on the war is, in the current intensely partisan environment in Washington, naïve and impractical. Perhaps they are right. But what is not naïve or impractical is my conclusion that the return of such bipartisanship in the conduct of this war would raise popular support at home, encourage our brave troops in the field, discourage our vicious enemies, and strengthen the resolve of the Iraqi people and the hundreds of millions of others in the Islamic world who want a better way forward than the hatred and death Al Qaeda offers.

In 1941, Winston Churchill came to Rochester, New York and said:

“When great causes are on the move in the world… we learn that we are spirits, not animals, and that something is going on in space and time which, whether we like it or not, spells duty.”

My friends, great causes are clearly on the move in the world today. We were attacked by Islamist terrorists – attacked here at home. The centers of American power, our great cities, were attacked. The main battleground in this war is now Iraq. So I would say, in Churchill’s phrase, that duty calls us now to take ourselves above the ordinary partisan debates of this capital city, to unite for victory, to walk the course together until our mission is completed, our security is protected, and the forces of freedom have once more emerged triumphant from the battlefields of power and of principle."

Let us see if our media will join Senator Lieberman in his move to bring America together in this war on terror. Let us chronicle the behavior and statements of the Bush critics and record their responses to the call of this Statesman to unite in war less we never know peace again.

Well said Senator, well said indeed.

Mike DiBartolo
American Zulu

‘We’re not retreating, we’re advancing in the other direction.’

This is the so called logic that the Democrats are using in their argument against having our troops on the ground in Iraq. They are so desperate to convey a losing effort in Iraq that they have evoked the spirit of the Vietnam War in order to justify their fears and to solidify their opposition. There’s nothing like the taste of defeat to get the pallet prepared for news about the war on terror. Reminiscing about the Fall of Saigon and troops being spit upon while being called ‘baby killers’ just makes you feel all warm and fuzzy when talking about our current war on terror.

When the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee says,

"the idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong,"

then a true patriot must ask themselves if this Party is committed to the success of US foreign policy or is the acquisition of power more important than Victory in the war on terror, positive moral in our military, and the national pride of our country?

When a leading Democratic Congressman says that our Army is “broken, worn out" and is “living hand to mouth” one can only assume that the Democratic Party’s new platform is that of defeatist and they will do and say whatever it takes to paint our current actions in the war on terror as wrong and a failed policy.

I can’t help but to wonder how would these courageous Democratic Party Leaders, who believe that dissent…especially public dissent strengthens the US war effort and helps elevate the overall moral of our troops would have reacted during the Battle of the Bulge. Here’s a few stats to consider:

BATTLE FACTS
• Over a million men, 600,000 Germans, 500,000 Americans (more than fought at Gettysburg) and 55,000 British.
• 3 German armies, 10 corps, the equivalent of 29 divisions.
• 3 American armies, 6 corps, the equivalent of 31 divisions.
• The equivalent of 3 British divisions as well as contingents of Belgian, Canadian and French troops.
• 100,000 German casualties, killed, wounded or captured.
• 81,000 American casualties, including 23,554 captured and 19,000 killed.
• 1,400 British casualties 200 killed.
• 700 tanks lost on each side, 1,000 German aircraft.
• The Malmedy Massacre, where 86 American soldiers were murdered, was the worst atrocity committed against American troops during the course of the war in Europe.
• The 106th Infantry Division, suffered 564 killed in action, 1,246 wounded and 7,001 missing in action at the end of the offensive. Most of these casualties occurred within the first three days of battle, when two of the division’s three regiments was forced to surrender.
• In it's entirety, the “Battle of the Bulge,” was the worst battles- in terms of losses - to the American Forces in WWII.

In just over a month of warfare the Germans managed to slow the progress of the Allied advance and cause a significant number of Allied casualties.

What would Congressman Murtha say to this? How would Howard Dean respond? What would Nancy Pelosi say after becoming informed of these statistics?

Would they have called for the immediate “redeployment of American Troops”? Would they state that it is time that the French and Belgians take on the Germans and the US assume a supportive role from a friendly neighboring country, oh say like….England where strike teams could be used?

With a few exceptions the only time I hear the Democratic Party Leaders even speak on a war footage is when they are speaking about President Bush and fighting against anything he may be for. As a whole they are in denial about the war we are currently facing and they are undermining our nations resolve with their seditious words and leaks of US policy in order to gain any ground possible in the war of ‘Opinion Polls’.

Our current political system in disarray and in desperate need of a fresh infusion of ideas and backbone. A Third Party needs to rise from the two major parties dominating the American Political Discussion and a new voice must be heard in the halls of Congress if our way of life is to be preserved for the next generation.

Mike DiBartolo
American Zulu

“If you're reading this, then I've died in Iraq”

On November 30th, President Bush addressed the faculty and midshipmen of Annapolis Naval Academy. In the President’s speech he laid out the progress we have made thus far in our war on terror in particular, the Iraqi Front. The President made it clear that we are winning this war and that our resolve must remain steadfast if we are to see this war to completion with a victory. Towards the end of the Presidents speech he read a portion of a letter written by a Marine who faught and died in Ramadi. This Marine, Corporal Jeff Starr, left these words on his laptop computer…

"If you're reading this, then I've died in Iraq. I don't regret going. Everybody dies but a few get to do it for something as important as freedom.

"It may seem confusing why we're in Iraq; it's not to me. I'm here helping these people so they can live the way we live, not to have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators.

Others have died for my freedom; now this is my mark."

Cpl Jeff Starr

The President ended the reading of Corporal Starr’s letter with these words,

“There's only one way to honor the sacrifice of Corporal Starr (ph) and his fallen comrades. And that is to take up their mantle, carry on the fight and complete their mission.

We will take the fight to the terrorists. We will help the Iraqi people lay the foundations of a strong democracy that can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself. And by laying the foundations of freedom in Iraq, we will lay the foundation of peace for generations to come.

You all are the ones who will help accomplish all this. Our freedom and our way of life are in your hands, and they're in the best of hands.

I want to thank you for your service to the cause of freedom. I want to thank you for wearing the uniform. May God bless you all, and may God continue to bless the United States of America.”

President G.W. Bush

Many try to change or water down the reasons why we are in Iraq. Some even paint the US as the evil aggressor and the terrorist as freedom fighters but reading Cpl. Starr's comments brings our mission into perspective. America is fighting that others may be free and in doing so, this strengthens American Freedom. We are not an Imperialist Nation hell bent on ruling the world or the worlds oil supply. We are Americans and fighting for freedom is what we do.

Thank you, Cpl.Starr for your service and ultimate sacrifice. Thank you for understanding what so many seem to doubt...You are all heroes and you are fighting for the freedom we all cherish.

Mike DiBartolo
American Zulu

Support our Troops this Christmas Season

“Most of my soldiers are very young; this is their first deployment and first time away from home during the holidays. Anything that you would like to send would be great since we really do not have anything.”

CPT Robin-Desty Husted
Commander

Soldiers' Angels, an all-volunteer non-profit organization that provides support to deployed soldiers and wounded soldiers as well as their families, is hard at work on their annual Holidays For Heroes stocking/gift box drive, where gift boxes (stockings) are stuffed with small but welcomed items which are then sent to soldiers who are deployed in the Middle East combat areas and hospital units.

Please support our troops this Holiday Season. If you would like more information click here

Merry Christmas!

American Zulu