Gonna be rather skimpy on News & Views for the next couple of days, as I’m still in our nation’s capital with wall-to-wall meetings and briefings, but wanted to at least let you how I spent Veterans Day and with whom. It was truly an honor.
As you know I left Nevada last Saturday morning, starting the trip off with crack government agents (as opposed to government agents on crack) of the TSA confiscating my Arrid Extra Dry in Reno before I could do any serious damage to the passengers and crew of Southwest flight 1021 to Chicago, or the connecting flight from there to Ft. Lauderdale.
That’s right. I didn’t come straight to DC. I took a side trip to Florida’s 22nd congressional district where I made a surprise visit to Lt. Col. Allen West, who had just returned stateside after a two-year stint as an adviser to the Afghan army. Col. West was a speaker at the Boynton Beach Veterans Day ceremony on Sunday and the guest-of-honor at a “Welcome Home” reception afterwards at the local VFW hall which, not surprisingly, was crammed full with veterans. A very fitting way to celebrate an important day.
Now that he’s home, Col. West will begin in earnest his congressional campaign against incumbent Democrat Rep. Ron Klein - who was supposed to speak at the Veterans Day ceremony at Boynton Beach but either had something “better” to do or was afraid to show up at a veterans event where, well, veterans were hanging out. Klein himself - who has called for the U.S. to cut-and-run in Iraq - is not a veteran.
Maybe he just stayed home to watch the Dolphins game. Priorities, you know.
But this isn’t about Ron Klein; this is about Allen West, a man I knew only from newspaper stories and emails until three days ago. But as it turns out, he’s exactly how I thought he’d be. Not an ounce of pretentiousness on him. He’s the embodiment of the great spinach-eating philosopher Popeye who says, “I y’am what I y’am.”
In addition to serving in the military for 22 years - including time in Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan - Col. West also has not one, but two masters degrees and, as Sen. Joe Biden would say, is quite articulate. Then again, it’s a lot easier to be articulate when you know what you believe and aren’t afraid to say it flat out without attempting to parse words or be politically correct. I’ll give you an example.
Col. West and I flew to Washington, DC, Monday afternoon. But before we left, the local NBC news station arrived at the airport to do a Veterans Day interview with him. In response to a question about whether or not Rep. “Cut-and-Run” Klein was aiding our enemies by calling for a withdrawal from Iraq, Col. West responded simply and plainly, “Yes.”
You don’t get much more articulate than that.
Col. West then went on to explain exactly how Democrats such as Rep. Klein are helping our enemies, from the perspective of someone who has actually been there. I think that’s referred to as having “moral authority.”
Oh, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Col. West’s family - his wife Angela and two daughters, Aubrey and Austen - two of the nicest, most polite young folks you’ll ever want to meet. Some people you just take an immediate liking to, and that describes the entire West family to a T. Indeed, it turns out 14-year-old Aubrey and I are kindred spirits; she likes “Family Guy” and Led Zeppelin, so you know she’s been brought up right!
Anyway, I was invited to join the West family at a friend’s house for dinner, and we spent several hours just talking about politics, religion and life in general, especially the challenges of raising kids these days. And especially if you don’t buy the absurd notion that it takes a “village to raise a child.” No, it takes parents. And Aubrey and Austen are fortunate to have two great ones.
Back to politics. In the time we spent together, I found that Col. West is our kind of conservative; a devout Christian who supports gun rights and opposes taxes. I think they call that “hitting the trifecta.” And he’s running in a district which, until last year, had been represented by a Republican for 26 years straight. This is undoubtedly a winnable district for the GOP, and West, with sufficient funds to show voters the clear difference between he and the incumbent, could absolutely win this race. I’ll be helping him, and I hope you will, too. More to come in the days and weeks ahead.
In addition, Col. West is going to help me on an issue of growing importance - the need to fix the rules of engagement our troops are being forced to fight under in Iraq and Afghanistan; rules which are literally getting our troops killed unnecessarily. I’ll also have a lot more about this issue in the days and weeks to come, but let me suggest for now that each of you go out today and pick up a copy of Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell’s book, “Lone Survivor.” I finished it on Veterans Day, and it is an absolutely unbelievable story, a story EVERY American should read.
I’ll wrap up now pretty much where I started: ridiculing the TSA.
It’s one thing for these crack government security agents to confiscate my deodorant, but it’s another thing altogether when they confiscate the shaving gel of a man who has spent the better part of the last five years in combat, fighting terrorism in both Iraq and Afghanistan. When they do stuff like that to someone like me, it’s just stupid and embarrassing. But when they do it to an American combat veteran like Lt. Col. Allen West, it’s downright insulting.
Maybe he’ll be able to do something about the TSA once he gets elected to Congress next year.
Posted on November 15th, 2007 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: National
From the AllenWestForCongress website: “We should be providing an external cordon of Iraq, as well as Afghanistan, and let their security forces handle internal strife. If they seek to kill each other it is not our problem. We are focused on islamic terrorist incursion, external state actors. This is all about using our operational mobility and maneuver capability, not being tied down in neighborhood watches. We must force the security forces and the people of Iraq and Afghanistan to take a lead role in their future, as we set the conditions for their success. Their future cannot and will never be determined by America, only by themselves. If it is a future of savage barbarism then they will evidence to the world that a 7th century belief will not coexist in modernity. We will take this horse to the water, but not force it to drink. It is for them to decide; however, a clock is ticking and we shall move on and leave them to their decided fate.”
“We should be providing an external cordon of Iraq, as well as Afghanistan, and let their security forces handle internal strife.” Would it be correct to interpret this statement to mean that LTC West would have have been opposed to “the surge” of additional troops that were sent to Iraq earlier this year to stabilize Baghdad?
LTC West had no role in the decision making process that led to the invasion of Iraq. However, if he thinks that “If they seek to kill each other it is not our problem,” should we interpret that to mean that the invasion was wrong? After all, one of the justifications for the invasion was Saddam Hussein’s human rights record. Why did we topple that regime so we could stand aside and allow a civil war to develop?
“Klein himself - who has called for the U.S. to cut-and-run in Iraq - is not a veteran.”
Are you a veteran, Chuck?
Sorry, John. You and Southy know the rule. Unless you come out from behind your hidden blogger identity and let us all know who you really are, I won’t even consider getting into these kinds of discussions with you. As I’ve always said, you absolutely have the right to continue hiding your identity and posting anonymously. But I’m not going to respond to people who cower behind pseudonyms. I’m not afraid to put my real name to my opinions. What are you so scared of?
Thanks for the response, Chuck. I’ll take that as a “no.”
Take it any way you want it. Fact is, you often make very reasonable and intellectually valid points. As does Southy. But I won’t get into serious discussions with folks who are afraid to stand behind their opinions by publicly disclosing their true identities.