On Tuesday March 6, 2018, by a vote of 6,482 to 5,237 the citizens of Burlington Vermont voted to take a pass in the fight against ISIS.
Even though they had not been asked to sacrifice anything, 6,482 voters put their “me first” cowardice on display for all Americans in a very smug and ultimately hollow moral stand.
If the anti-military element in American society wants to keep their free ride by insulting their protectors that right is embedded in our 1st Amendment.
But no more, not ever again, should they be allowed any moral high ground.
The real world consequences of horror and death by ISIS are what they have voted to allow.
If anyone wants to stop a war, fine, elect different leaders and get the majorly on one’s side.
But the smarmy “list of horribles” in the Save Our Sky mission statement cannot be allowed to stand because the cliché that “jet noise is the sound of freedom” is very true.
Channeling the great legacy of Ethan Allen, and his Green Mountain Boys, the Vermont Air National Guard stood tall and defiant.
In a statement, Vt. National Guard 1st Lt. Mike Arcovitch said, “Transparency and communication with the public are critical for our success, and we will continue to update Vermonters as our progress continues with our transition to the F35.
“There is a lot of work to be done, and rest assured the Vermont Air National Guard will be ready when the F35 arrives in the fall of 2019.
“We are proud to serve Vermonters and excited to receive the F35.”
Message sent– we stand as tough and unmoving as the beautiful Mountains of Vermont.
This is not an abstract concept for my family.
My mother who was NYC raised and her brother, who I am named after, spent their idyllic pre-WWII days on their Aunt’s farm in Vermont.
Her brother, my only uncle, was killed on Iwo Jima and why I can hold those 6,482 voters in pure contempt.
Why would they insult their fellow citizens who wear our nations uniform and are prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice in war or flying at home in America?
Being a fighter pilot is a dangerous business but courage is inside all American fighter pilots. In a time of testing for a Vermont Guard pilot he demonstrated one of the most impressive examples of the “Right Stuff” ever seen in this amazing story:
Lieutenant Colonel Scott Baldwin found himself faced with an in-flight emergency one evening while participating in night flying exercises.
Rather than abandon the aircraft when the throttle assembly broke loose, LTC Baldwin remained with the aircraft until he could run it out of fuel.
He dumped the external tanks into Lake Champlain when they ran dry and then coasted onto the airfield at Burlington completely unpowered.
He landed in a shower of sparks from the dropped tail hook dragging on the runway but landed the aircraft safely and with minimal damage.
So if the anti-military left want to make support of our troops a national campaign issue in the 2018 and 2020 elections bring it on.
But be on notice that fight means there are now only two sides, pro-military anti-ISIS or anti-military, pro-ISIS. That is the hard truth of a world at war against pure evil.
That would be an interesting national campaign issue.
I doubt that the sane leaders of the Democrat Party would have the courage to try and put such a platform beyond just their minority of smarmy enclaves populated by many very selfish and arrogant people.
But today, right now, I will sadly make a bet that deep in the Democrat Party Platform for the 2020 Presidential Election there will be a whiff of anti-military bias, or more.
That is now in their evolving nature, which is so far away from our courageous New England born and raised Democrat President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy
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