Would like your opinions on this article.

[MarineAO]

Got this off another site and posted it here wanting you guys opinions on this situation.



The antiwar unwelcome on campus.

By Wynton C. Hall & Peter Schweizer

As college students hit campuses across the nation this week, a new generation of young veterans will step off the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan and onto the ideological battlefield of our university campuses. For those on the frontline in the war on terror, the antiwar hostility of liberal professors and campus activists will assuredly prove unsettling.

Just ask Marine sergeant Marco Martinez, a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and a full-time psychology major at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, Calif.

A woman on campus had apparently learned I might be a Marine. When I told her I was, she said, You ' re a disgusting human being, and I hope you rot in hell!

Indeed, Martinez, who will be the first male in his family to receive a college diploma, says he is receiving more of an education than he bargained for . There are a lot of people who don ' t appreciate military service in college . Martinez said, someone asks me about it, and I think that they ' re not too liberal, I might tell them I was in Iraq. But I don' t tell them the full extent of it or anything about the Navy Cross.

The Navy Cross as in second only to the Congressional Medal of Honor. Martinez, formerly of 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, is a bona-fide American hero and the first Hispanic American since Vietnam to receive the Navy Cross. During the Battle of At Tarmiya, one of Sergeant Martinez ' s fellow marines had been hit in the legs and left for dead by five terrorists holed up in an adobe garden shed. That ' s when Martinez used his body to shield the dying marine from the terrorist before mounting a 20-meter frontal charge at the bunker with nothing but a depleted rifle and a grenade. With enemy bullets pinging off his gear, Martinez unpinned the grenade, slammed his body into the adobe building, and lobbed the device into the window of the structure, killing all the terrorists inside.

But as liberal professors and antiwar activists continue to wage a nationwide campaign to rid university campuses of military recruiters , in some cases going so far as to throw water bottles and scream epithets at them , it is easy to see why Sergeant Martinez would remain tight-lipped about being one of the nation ' s most decorated heroes.

Indeed, as one campus newspaper reported, the rift between young veteran college students and their civilian classmates has left those who have served feeling isolated from campus life, shunned because of their service.

Just ask Armand McCormick, 23, a student at the University of Northern Iowa.

While walking to class one day, McCormick stopped to listen to a speaker during an antiwar student rally. When he challenged the protestor' s arguments, the peace activist sneered, The Iraqis don' t want us there. If you think the war is okay, then why don' t you go and serve!

There was an obvious problem with the protestor' s retort: He had no clue who he was talking to -Silver Star recipient Marine corporal Armand McCormick.

I' ve had a few conversations about [the War on Terror] in the liberal classrooms I go to everyday, said McCormick. A lot of the time I just look at them and tell them that they don' t have any clue what they're talking about, because all they do is listen to liberal news. I always tell them, If you don't experience something, how in the hell can you say what will happen?

As Corporal McCormick rightly points out, his classmates reliance upon the elite mainstream media all but ensures that they are unfamiliar with the jaw-dropping acts of heroism he performed on March 25, 2003, in Ad Diwuniyah, Iraq. Far removed from the breezy comforts of a college campus, it was there, inside an enemy trench, that McCormick, along with his two fellow Marines, captain Brian Chontosh and corporal Robert Robbie Kerman, was swarmed by what officials estimate was a company-sized element of between 150 to 200 Iraqi fighters. When the smoke cleared, the three marines had not only survived, they had eliminated scores of enemy fighters and regained key territory. It's the sort of incident the campus Left should think about the next time it proclaims how courageous it is in protesting the war.

The Left has adopted the mantra that it opposes the war but supports our soldiers. Those veterans visiting campuses tell a different story; the early fault lines forming on our nation's campuses do not portend hopeful signs.

For those who profess to embrace diversity and champion allowing marginalized voices to be heard, perhaps liberal professors, administrators, and students might learn something were they open-minded enough to listen to the heroes in their midst. Then, and only then, will they correct the tragic mistakes of the Vietnam era that valued politics more than patriots.

Wynton Hall is currently co-writing (with Caspar Weinberger) Home of the Brave: Heroes in the War on Terrorism. Peter Schweizer is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and author of The Bushes: Portrait of a Dynasty and Reagan's War.

[sn-e3]

Kind of reminds me of Da ja vu all over again flash back 38 years and go to any U.S. campus. somethings just don't change news reporting and college teachers

[Keith_Hixson]

Idealism wants a world without hatred and war.
But, reality tells us that there is a world full of folks desiring to ruin the United States and destroy the freedom of freedom loving people everywhere. I appreciate their idealism but they live in a world far from reality.

However, when I see violence in protesting against violence I begin to think. ?Their violence is okay and justified but violence that protects the rights of others is wrong? They have lost me.

Keith

[Andy]

When I went ?back? to college in ?71 I was a Vietnam Vet and a full time cop, police weren?t real popular on campus back then. Telling a female professor she was totally wrong regarding her perception of Vietnam caused a lot of tension and I sure got a lot of silent treatment from frllow students. Yeah, things haven?t changed much and I wouldn?t expect it to. Most professors are former anti-war protesters.

I?d say to most new vets, suck it up and stand your ground, unless your more interested in doing a lot of dating. In that case, don?t lie but never bring up the past.

Stay healthy,
Andy

[Jerry D]

Different war same protesters, SOS all them liberal profs wanting to relive their protest days ,I say we invite them to go to Bagdad and Teach at the New American University give them a new outlook on life

Nope nothing changes. Notice all this come from people who have never worn the uniform, or know what combat is like. Remember for those who have fought for it, freedom has price the protected will never know.

[Stick]

The protestor looks at the war and thinks that the ones that are in that war must be the cause of that war.
The soldier looks at what his country ask and thinks, hey, I can do that!
The protestor is whipped because he ain't willing to stand.
The soldier ain't beat because he is proud to stand.
Problem is that the soldier can't say what he feels because some protestor feels the first syllable in the word freedom is free and all the protestor need to add is lip service. His blood is worth more than those soldiers isn't it? "Hey troop, go bleed for me! I'll give you back some "Free" speech when and if you come back. BTW I don't give a damn if you come back because you might infringe on my freedom to enjoy my freedom. Now, just shut up and get out of my sight. Oh yeh, how many babies did you kill?"

[BLUEHAWK]

Even in 1967, as a Freshman, there was not a word I could get in edgewise in any class discussion that touched on the war or military service... "leper" is a word that comes to mind.

So, a couple of Vets and I decided to run as write-in candidates for Student Senate officers. We won the election, handily. On the day it came time for us to take our seats, the outgoing Senate officers refused us on the grounds that there were no provisions in their By-Laws for write-in campaigns. Not one person, on faculty or in the student body present in that room that day, would stand up for our victory.

In this day and time, the only thing I can hope for is that resistance to certain ideologies on college campuses will be found to be far stronger than the opposition, still living in the fantasyland of 1968-75, could have ever dreamt possible.

[splummer]

I had gotton an early out to go to school. The second day in one of the classes they went around the room and asked people why they were taking this course. I just said, to get out of the Army. Dead silence, and no one ever talked to me again. It was june 1969. I never mentioned Vietnam but I'm sure they could tell by my dirt tan.

[b3196]

A quote from General Hal Moore
"You can hate the war, but love the warrior" I personally believe thats all were asking for.
Bob K