My repug in-laws emailed us this poem about soldiers...

[flygal]

any suggestions on how to respond. My first thought was - you voted for the man who killed these men, and.. funny, I don't remember seeing any pictures of coffins with flags on them, they must have censored those!


-------Original Message-------

From:
Date: 11/15/04 20:12:47
Subject: FW: Fw: Thanks]

I watched the flag pass by one day,
It fluttered in the breeze.
A young Marine saluted it,
And then he stood at ease..

I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud,
With hair cut square and eyes alert
He'd stand out in any crowd.

I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil
How many mothers' tears?

How many pilots' planes shot down?
How many died at sea
How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?
No, freedom isn't free.

I heard the sound of Taps one night,
When everything was still,
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.


I wondered just how many times
That Taps had meant "Amen,"
When a flag had draped a coffin.
Of a brother or a friend.

I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.

I thought about a graveyard
At the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington.
No, freedom isn't free.


Enjoy Your Freedom & God Bless Our Troops
Show Your Support Send This Page Along Today

[wtmusic]

1. Say what a nice poem

and what the hell does the Iraq war have to do with 'freedom'?

[NVMojo]

2. my thoughts, exactly!!!

[scarface2004]

5. yeah...war is sooooooo patriotic!!

[bloodyjack]

3. Respond with this--skilfully written AND appropriate

Dulce Et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.

GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

- Wilfred Owen

[BREMPRO]

4. i dont know...

how do you respond to people that believe we are in Iraq to defend "freedom"? Most wouldn't accept the truth, even if you pointed out the facts that contradicted their faith. I believe that most people in the country are funamentally decent, and believe their political leaders and their motive are too. To imagine that we are there on false pretenses and intend to create permanent bases and privatize their country for selfish corporate interests- and agressively kill "insurgents" and a hundred thousand civilians, women and childred who get in our way, is unthinkable, because that would mean admitting they were both ignorant, and accomplices in theft and genocide. The patriotic emotion is powerful, and is cynically used by this administration to win popular support. Cracking the egg without breaking it takes very careful tapping, slow, steady, but i would say important to try...

[progressoid]

6. "Freedom isn't free" Gotta love that one

I feel for ya. I used to get those ridiculous emails (especially after 9/11) about patriotism, god, America - love it or leave it, etc. It's awfully difficult to prove a point with some of these people since they don't seem to live in the world of reason.

I was working on a lengthy rebuttal to a particularly absurd email from an old high school classmate when I got fed up and just sent some B**h jokes back to her. I Never heard from her again! I don't have the jokes anymore but the first one was...

Q: What did George W Bush get on his SATs?
A: Drool

[BikeWriter]

8. Q: What did George W Bush get on his SATs?

>>>Q: What did George W Bush get on his SATs?
A: Drool<<<

Way cool, thanks.

[BikeWriter]

7. Ask them if they've ever stood downwind of a pile of bodybags

Ask them if they've ever stood downwind of a pile of bodybags with their Friends in them in the heat of the day. If not, they don't know Jack Shit about war.

[flygal]

9. That's perfect - graphic, but perfect!..

My mil was so smug about the prison abuse - well they deserve it for what they did. She has no clue - no fucking clue!!

[BikeWriter]

10. She has no clue - no fucking clue!!

Most people don't, Flygal. It's not that I wish more people were combat vets. It's just that people shouldn't be so Gd willing to sacrifice our lives!

[Qanisqineq]

11. I want to throw up every time I see

"Freedom isn't Free". It has nothing to do with this war! Saddam was not going to take away our freedoms, nor was he even capable of it had he wanted to! I live on a military post and see these damn signs on people's houses. I want to wake them the fuck up to reality.

[fknobbit]

12. Ask them what they have done to relieve the Disabled Veterans lack

of medical care due to Bush's lack of funding for the V.A. hospitals. waving flags and ribbons do little to heal their wounds. They have voted to screw the Vets and now want to talk patriotism, Bull shit.

[huellewig]

13. Bounce to Sender!

They might want to piss you off. Ignore it. Nothing pisses off people more then ignoring them. The best way to get rid of a troll is to cut off the fuel. I bet they click away hoping for a nasty e-mail. Don't give them the satisfaction.