Speech By Retired Usmc General Hawley

[thedrifter]

Speech by former ACC commander Gen Hawley

Since the attack, I have seen, heard, and read thoughts of such
surpassing stupidity that they must be addressed. You've heard
them too. Here they are:

1) "We're not good, they're not evil, everything is relative."
Listen carefully: We're good, they're evil, nothing is relative.
Say it with me now and free yourselves. You see, folks, saying
"We're good" doesn't mean, "We're perfect." Okay? The only
perfect being is the bearded guy on the ceiling of the Sistine
Chapel. The plain fact is that our country has, with all our
mistakes and blunders, always been and always will be, the
greatest beacon of freedom, charity, opportunity, and affection
in history. If you need proof, open all the borders on Earth and
see what happens. In about half a day, the entire world would be
a ghost town, and the United States would look like one giant
line to see "The Producers."

2) "Violence only leads to more violence." This one is so stupid
you usually have to be the president of an Ivy League university
to say it. Here's the truth, which you know in your heads and
hearts already: Ineffective, unfocused violence leads to more
violence. Limp, panicky, half-measures lead to more violence.
However, complete, fully-thought-through, professional,
well-executed violence never leads to more violence because, you
see, afterwards, the other guys are all dead. That's right,
dead. Not "on trial," not "reeducated," not "nurtured back into
the bosom of love." Dead. D-E-Well, you get the idea.

3) "The CIA and the rest of our intelligence community has
failed us." For 25 years we have chained our spies like dogs to
a stake in the ground, and now that the house has been robbed,
we yell at them for not protecting us. Starting in the late
seventies, under Carter appointee Stansfield Turner, the giant
brains who get these giant ideas decided that the best way to
gather international intelligence was to use spy satellites.
"After all," they reasoned, "you can see a license plate from
200 miles away." This is very helpful if you've been attacked by
a license plate. Unfortunately, we were attacked by humans.
Finding humans is not possible with satellites. You have to use
other humans. When we bought all our satellites, we fired all
our humans, and here's the really stupid part. It takes years,
decades to infiltrate new humans into the worst places of the
world. You can't just have a guy who looks like Gary Busey in a
Spring Break '93 sweatshirt plop himself down in a coffee shop
in Kabul and say "Hi ya, boys. Gee, I sure would like to meet
that bin Laden fella." Well, you can, but all you'd be doing is
giving the bad guys a story they'll be telling for years.

4) "These people are poor and helpless, and that's why they're
angry at us." Uh-huh, and Jeffrey Dahmer's frozen head
collection was just a desperate cry for help. The terrorists and
their backers are richer than Elton John and, ironically, a good
deal less annoying. The poor helpless people, you see, are the
villagers they tortured and murdered to stay in power. Mohamed
Atta, one of the evil scumbags who steered those planes into the
killing grounds (I'm sorry, one of the "alleged hijackers,"
according to CNN. They stopped using the word "terrorist," you
know), is the son of a Cairo surgeon. But you knew this, too. In
the sixties and seventies, all the pinheads marching against the
war were upper-middle-class college kids who grabbed any cause
they could think of to get out of their final papers and spend
more time drinking. At least, that was my excuse. It's the same
today. Take the Anti-Global-Warm-ing (or is it World Trade?
Oh-who-knows-what-the-hell-they-want demonstrators). They all
charged their black outfits and plane tickets on dad's credit
card(!) before driving to the airport in their SUV's.

5) "Any profiling is racial profiling." Who's killing us here,
the Norwegians? Just days after the attack, the New York Times
had an article saying dozens of extended members of the
gazillionaire bin Laden family living in America were afraid of
reprisals and left in a huff, never to return to studying at
Harvard and using too much Drakkar. I'm crushed. I think we're
all crushed. Please come back. With a cherry on top? Why don't
they just change their names, anyway? It's happened in the past.
Think about it. How many Adolfs do you run into these days?
Shortly after that, I remember watching TV with my jaw on the
floor as a government official actually said, "That little old
grandmother from Sioux city could be carrying something." Okay,
how about this: No, she couldn't. It would never be the
grandmother from Sioux City. Is it even possible? What are the
odds? Winning a hundred Powerball lotteries in a row? A
thousand? A million? And now a Secret Service guy has been
tossed off a plane and we're all supposed to cry about it
because he's an Arab? Didn't it have the tiniest bit to do with
the fact that he filled out his forms incorrectly three times?
And then left an Arab history book on his seat as he strolled
off the plane? And came back? Armed? Let's please all stop
singing "We Are the World" for a minute and think practically. I
don't want to be sitting on the floor in the back of a plane
four seconds away from hitting Mt. Rushmore and turn, grinning,
to the guy next to me to say, "Well, at least we didn't offend
them."

SO HERE'S what I resolve for the New Year: Never to forget our
murdered brothers and sisters. Never to let the relativists get
away with their immoral thinking. After all, no matter what your
daughter's political science professor says,we didn't start
this. Have you seen that bumper sticker that says, "No More
Hiroshimas"? I wish I had one that says, "You First. No More
Pearl Harbors."

Semper Fi!

Sempers,

Roger

[Golf 6]

Sir,

I've seen this a number of places. It is a GREAT speech, however, we should give credit where credit is due. My information is that Gen Hawley is a retired Air Force general.

With that, I suspect most every military person agrees with what he has to say, Marines included.

Golf 6

[thedrifter]

Hi Golf 6,

Thank you for bring it to my attention. The original e-mail I received stated he was a retired Marine General. Made the change and want to give credit where credit is due. Thank you again.

Sempers,

Roger

[Golf 6]

None of my business really, however, just curious? Sounds like you had sixteen years service. Is that accurate? Of course, you've no obligation to share ANYTHING that is NOT my business...so don't if you don't want to.

What unit(s) were you in in RVN? What was your MOS?

Semper Fidelis et Legio Patria Nostra

Golf 6

[SEATJERKER]

...He's USAF, or USMC...just about everything I saw there said it all...
...When are we gonna reel "tin head", and all the rest of the croonies in...
...

[thedrifter]

Hi,

Yes, I did spend 16 years in the Marine Corps...

My MOS were 2811 telephone/teletype tech

Dong Ha 68/69 FLSG-B....

Sempers,

Roger

[Golf 6]

My MOS was 0311 and later, 0369. Later still 0302.

F/2/26 and CAP Hotel-3. Fox was all over I Corps, put CAP Hotel-3 was 8 miles south of Phu Bai at the Troui river bridge.

1 November 66 - 22 November 67

Semper Fidelis et Legio Patria Nostra

Golf 6