BLACKFIVE: Raging Debate in Colorado

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Raging Debate in Colorado

Posted By Mr Wolf

My vote for Quote of the Week-

"There are worse things than war. This is one of them."

Quincy Ryan, during testimony on the measure

Mr. Ryan was speaking in front of the Colorado Senate, on a non-binding resolution that would oppose President Bush's surge of troops and oppose the war in general. For those that are not familiar with Colorado, we have a fully Democrat-controlled legislature and executive branch for the first time in decades. It is becoming apparent that we are in for a tough time here in Colorado.

After the jump, some excellent links about the debate...

I am wishing fervently that I was back in Colorado at the moment (I am in the Middle East on business) both so I could attend my daughters birthday and testify in front of the legislature on this bill. One of my close acquaintances in government is a state senator, and I have testified on other bills. I did let her know about the 'non-support' aspect of this bill on overall troop morale.

There is an excellent audio slide show you should see HERE.

Links to the local news articles HERE and HERE.

Had I been home at the time, I can assure you my testimony would have gone something like this (and I did send this to my reps from here in the Middle East):

Ladies and Gentlemen of the committee, thank you for letting me speak today. I appear here today, in uniform, representing my brothers and sisters who cannot be here to speak on this issue because they are busy fighting evil for others.
I appear here also to ask you to look and see who, and what, you are voting against. There are no others in uniform here. There are veterans, there are those who serve, but I wanted you to see, for yourselves, and face that constituency you wish to undermine. Voting, as you may, against the President is your right, but in doing so you also vote against me, for he is my Commander-in-chief. As a citizen, as a soldier, I follow my orders, and do so in this case very willingly.
Ladies and gentlemen, we truly fight evil there. As someone who served 22 straight months there early on, I can assure you that the evil we face, the horrendous treatment of ordinary citizens by crazed zealots cannot be imagined; it must be experienced to believe it. You cannot fully understand it, even when you are there.
Tell me you don't believe me. Vote for this, and you call me untruthful...

Thankfully, there were those there who served, who continue to serve, and their families who so graciously support them.

This quote puts a lot of it in perspective:

"It's a city issue. It's a personal issue. It's a state issue. We are talking about federal funding being cut in all of our social programs in the next few years because of this war."

T.J. Bowen, a Regis University student

Take a read folks- I'm also curious if other states have put forth such garbage...

Wolf

PS- In an aside, my travels here have given me some insight I didn't have before. I'm fairly shocked in how very very few senior-level soldiers don't fully understand the debate, nor know about the blogs let alone read them. The troops, they do. They read, they see, when they get a chance. But the others, nearly 5-to-1, tell me ''I don't understand all that blogging nonsense or how that works. What is it?'' - W