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This "Letter of Apology" was written by Lieutenant General Chuck Pitman, US Marine Corps, Retired

For good and ill, the Iraqi prisoner abuse mess will remain an issue. On the one hand, right thinking Americans will abhor the stupidity of the actions while, on the other hand, political glee will take control and fashion this minor event into some modern day massacre.

I humbly offer my opinion here:

I am sorry that the last seven times we Americans took up arms and sacrificed the blood of our youth, it was in the defense of Muslims ( Bosnia , Kosovo, Gulf War 1, Kuwait , etc.)
I am sorry that no such call for an apology upon the extremists came after 9/11.
I am sorry that all of the murderers on 9/11 were Islamic Arabs.
I am sorry that most Arabs and Muslims have to live in squalor under savage dictatorships.
I am sorry that their leaders squander their wealth.
I am sorry that their governments breed hate for the U.S. in their religious schools, mosques, and government-controlled media.
I am sorry that Yassar Arafat was kicked out of every Arab country and high-jacked the Palestinian "cause."
I am sorry that no other Arab country will take in or offer more than a token amount of financial help to those same Palestinians.
I am sorry that the U.S.A. has to step in and be the biggest financial supporter of poverty stricken Arabs while the insanely wealthy Arabs blame the U.S.A. for all their problems.
I am sorry that our own left wing, our media, and our own brainwashed masses do not understand any of this (from the misleading vocal elements of our society like radical professors, CNN and the NY  TIMES).
I am sorry the United Nations scammed the poor people of Iraq out of the "food for oil" money so they could get rich while the common folk suffered.
I am sorry that some Arab governments pay the families of homicide bombers upon their death.
I am sorry that those same bombers are brainwashed thinking they will receive 72 virgins in "paradise."
I am sorry that the homicide bombers think pregnant women, babies, children, the elderly and other non-combatant civilians are legitimate targets.
I am sorry that our troops die to free more Arabs from the gang rape rooms and the filling of mass graves of dissidents of their own making.
I am sorry that Muslim extremists have killed more Arabs than any other group.
I am sorry that foreign trained terrorists are trying to seize control of Iraq and return it to a terrorist state.
I am sorry we don't drop a few dozen daisy-cutters on Fallujah.
I am sorry every time terrorists hide, they find a convenient "Holy Site."
I am sorry they didn't apologize for driving a jet into the World Trade Center that collapsed and severely damaged Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church - one of our Holy Sites.
I am sorry they didn't apologize for Flights 93 and 175, the USS Cole, the embassy bombings, the murders and beheadings of Nick Berg and Daniel Pearl, etc, etc!
I am sorry Michael Moore is American; he could feed a medium-sized village in Africa.

America will get past this latest absurdity. We will punish those responsible because that is what we do.

We hang out our dirty laundry for the entire world to see. We move on. That's one of the reasons we are hated so much. We don't hide this stuff like all those Arab countries that are now demanding an apology.

Deep down inside, when most Americans saw this reported in the news, we were like - so what? We lost hundreds and made fun of a few prisoners. Sure, it was wrong; sure, it dramatically hurts our cause; but, until captured, we were trying to kill these same prisoners. Now we're supposed to wring our hands because a few were humiliated?

Our compassion is tempered with the vivid memories of our own people killed, mutilated and burned amongst a joyous crowd of celebrating Fallujahans.

If you want an apology from this American, you're going to have a long wait! You have a better chance of finding those seventy-two virgins.

Chuck Pitman
Lieutenant General, USMC
Pass this on to your friends if you agree.
If not, I am sorry I offended you by passing on the facts..

Forest Road Closure Symptom of a Larger Problem

By Sylvia Allen

A recent Saturday I was able to go on a hike with three of my grandsons. The day was a perfect day.  Just warm enough so that it was comfortable. On the way up we played our “rock game.”   If you found a rock you really liked you pick it up and carry it until you find another rock you like then you must choose between the two.  You can only go home with one.  It’s fun to watch them agonize over which one to end up with. My front porch has special rock mementoes from pass hikes.

When we reached the top it seemed like you could see forever. The White Mountain Range spread out to the Southeast was breath taking. My Joseph spread out his arms and said, “Grandma what a beautiful world.” I smiled as I remembered his Dad doing the same thing years ago on top of Microwave Hill, looking down on the Phoenix Valley.

I grew up loving this State. Our family vacations were mostly spent in Alpine, where my Dad was born.  I have fond memories of hiking up Gobbler’s Peak or to Chalk Ridge.
 
When I had children after Saturday chores were done we would load into our old pickup and head for the desert.  We loved four wheeling behind Saguaro Lake and along the ridges.
Family vacations were spent in the White Mountains, from Alpine to Heber. One favorite activity was driving the back roads looking for elk. It was a thrill when one of our five children saw one.

We never had to worry if we were on a closed road or if we need to have a day permit.  It was our land and freedom of movement was one of America’s choicest liberties, envied by the people who lived in the Soviet Block, and other suppressed countries.

The proposed “New” Modified Travel Management Plan is a symptom of a larger problem that has been building for the last 30 years when the first environmental policy act, FLPMA was passed in 1977.

The “Greening” of America has been the goal of many and we are now reaping the rewards or consequences of this movement that has been responsible for socialist principles being introduced over our Constitutional form of government.

Former Vice President Al Gore in his book Earth in the Balance said, “America in particular – needs to redefine its relationship with the Earth.  Specifically, the growth of the human population must be reduced, severe controls must be placed upon industry, and a global government must impose a single shared goal as the central organizing principle for every institution in society.  That shared goal is to be saving the global environment.”

These policies are being drive globally through the United Nations. Maurice Strong from Canada is an official of the United Nations he said, “We may get to the point where the only way of saving the world’s environment will be for industrial civilization to collapse and the total introduction of Socialism.”

The United Nations Global Biodiversity Treaty, which the United States signed, in Article 8a-e of the convention provides the framework for the Wildlands Project.

This is a plan for putting most of rural America back wild.  The plan calls for 23.4% of the land to be put into wilderness and 26.2% into corridors and human buffer zones.  No more than .5 miles of road per square mile of land.  You can go to the Wildlands Project website and read all about their plans.

In 1993 when I first became aware of the Wildlands Project I thought is was something out of the “Twilight Zone” Americans would never go for this.  But certainly over time the Green movement has been able to persuade Americans that the environment is an issue that they need to be willing to give up their freedoms for.

Certainly, these environmental philosophies have made their way into our agencies policies and our mainstream media.   Hollywood loves to argue over who is more “green” and who is working harder to “save the earth.”

Ed Collins, District Ranger at Lakeside, spoke before the Navajo County Board of Supervisors (03/22/08).  I happened to be attending that day and so got to hear his presentation on the “New” Modified Travel Management Plan.  It still is not clear how it has been modified because the same components remain.

Mr. Collins started by saying that former Chief Bosworth sent down a directive to all 177 Forest Distinct in the country, and said that the Districts needed to address “unmanaged recreation.”  There was damaged being done to the “Eco-System.”   This did not come from our elected representatives.

So the Travel Management Plan is to manage you and me, where we drive, camp, hunt, fish, get firewood etc.  We shouldn’t be allowed to just go where we want.

What is clear is that the Forest Service has switched the focus to ATV users and the damage they say the ATV’s are doing to the forest.  At the Open House in Heber on March 6th the displays were all about the damage being done with pictures of torn up roads and forest land.  

They even had a quote about ATV’s causing threatened and endangered species.  Please, show me the study!  To try and claim that ATV’s are causing endangered species is faulty science.  Kind of like, “logging hurts birds,” and other such propaganda that proved the end of the timber industry.

Mr. Collins when referring to starting over with the process said, “We made a huge mistake.  We didn’t look at those first comments sent in.  That was a mistake, now we start again and it will take a while to regain the trust of the citizens.” 

They didn’t read them? Why don’t they just read them now or did they throw them away?  I personally believe the Forest Service is starting over with this process because the vast majority of the first comments said “no action.”    So how do you go forward with a plan when no one wants you to take any action? 

Supervisor Tenney, asked some pointed questions.  “If this is an ATV problem then why are we closing access to all vehicles?”  This question was side stepped.

Mr. Collins said that the percentage of roads being closed is not as high as the public is being told.  “Because Level 1 roads in their inventory are already close so they don’t count them as roads they are closing.” (Confusing I know!)

Supervisor Tenney remarked. “These Level One roads, are roads that are open, but you say they are closed, but they are still very much opened and used by our citizens everyday and in their minds they are open they did not know you had closed them. So when you put those roads with roads you are closing it does impact access to the forest.”

The burden of knowing if we are on an open road will be up to the citizens. We will need to have a map that will be provided by the Forest Service. It seems the Forest Service has no money for signs, but they will have money for law enforcement.

This whole plan is so confusing.  To educate every citizen about what the Forest Service is proposing is impossible because I have attend many meetings and heard this explained by different Forest Service personal and each time it is different. Know this access to the forest is going to be curtailed.  For one thing you can never go cross country again. That means get off the road.  Yes, there are some exceptions, but they are few.

Thirty years later is America better off?  Is our forest healthier because logging is gone?  Are you willing to pay more and more for your energy needs because America is no longer producing and all in the name of “saving the environment?”

Am I offended by pictures of torn up dirt and ruts? No, I live in rural Arizona many of us live on dirt roads, I live on a dirt road and drive through ruts everyday. It’s not pretty I admit but “the eco-system” is not being destroyed.

This earth was made to walk and ride on, to dig and plant in etc. We have been doing it for over 6000 years and the earth is still here and will be long after you and I are dead.
But I’m not so sure that our freedoms will last. Our economy is in a mess and putting America back to work is the only thing that will bring it around.

What America needs is a new environmental policy one based on hope instead of fear,
sound science instead of emotion. A belief in the ability of mankind to solve any true environmental problem without excessive regulations, laws and taxes that suppress and destroy freedom and the human spirit. 

For a free people do not exhaust resources they create them!

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