RJ Harris - "Depart from Valley Forge"

RJ Harris his profile is approaching that of Adam Kokesh and they both should win....but we need to get others elected too - Jake Towne dr Vasovski John Dennis Debra Medina....and we need more candidates to Clean the House in 2010.
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Daily Paul Family Christmas Day Dec 17th
http://www.dailypaul.com/node/118367
Merry Christmas Patriots*))

That was a rousing speech denying responsibility. So who have you blamed to justify your going to do what you are proud to have done? Good ole deflection; point the finger at someone else. So you say, the politicians are at fault for their mistake in ordering you to go (the just following orders defense), then I am to blame for daring to suggest that you have responsibility (I did not blame the courage, honor or valor of veterans, for it was not their courage, honor or valor that did the killing, it was they, but cool use of patriotic words), then you say that those in the military cannot make a choice of whether to follow orders or stand up and refuse because this is not a military dictatorship (you mean none of you have minds to think of these things and consider if taking part in killing in carrying out an illegal invasion is the right thing to do), and then I am a racist defaming Jews (can't quite figure out your logic on that one). What a good job of deflection away from yourself. And the use of the reference to mirrors is almost poetic since the whole thrust of your essay is to not look at you, but to look in the mirror instead. Cool. I almost now believe it was I who did not bother to examine the morality of my actions and went to kill people in an unprovoked invasion of a sovereign nation.

Then you got around to the poor me defense. You were just a poor unknown student father of five who believed in what he was doing like all the rest of your fellows then believed and still now believe. (I was just doing what everyone else was doing.)

How did that part about Congresses violating the law and turning soldiers into the evil we were fighting against creep into you writing? Are you not doing what you accuse me of doing, pointing a finger at the soldiers who you say became the evil we were fighting against in the first place?

And then I really like the part where, after you deny responsibility for you actions, point the finger at We the people for failure to stand up to the tyrants in DC. So why didn't you stand up to these tyrants and refuse to go do killing for them? Is that what is called talking out of both sides of your mouth at once?

You did have a choice of whether to go do the killing for these politicians or to refuse. I see on a concurrent thread on this site that at least some soldiers are considering their complicity, "Veteran Group Calls on Soldiers to Refuse Orders to Deploy to Afghanistan and Iraq"

http://www.dailypaul.com/node/119226

Oh, and please explain to me how fighting in Iraq was for our freedom and liberty. That one I bet will be really rousing since just the phrase, "fighting for our freedom and liberty" makes me want to go buy a big flag and wrap it around me.

I think perhaps you were in your video attempting to pander to the patriotic feelings of some people toward those in military by pointing out your two tours in Iraq and claiming to have proudly served. I notice that this is what most politicians like to point out, since it sounds so patriotic. I think a much better approach for a candidate advocating liberty, and who purportedly now realizes the evil of illegal invasions, would have been to just admit that you were young and stupid to have not examined the morality and the legality of going to Iraq to kill for the politicians in DC, but now you have grown in your political awareness and realize that it was not the right thing to have blindly obeyed orders. We all progress in the development of our thoughts and our morals; we aren't just born knowing right from wrong. Claiming pride in what you did after you supposedly realize the illegality of that war looks foolish and hypocritical; shame and remorse I think would be more in line with a realization of what was done to the people of Iraq was illegal, immoral and just plain evil.

As an aside, for those of you who have wondered if US troops would ever turn their guns on US citizens if ordered to do so, I think this discussion should answer your question. Of course they will, simply because for the majority, it is not part of their mindsets to consider not obeying. After all, they now take an oath to follow the orders of the President.

RJ,
Ignore them.. Unfortunetly, Ron Pauls ideals attract liberals who are a 1 issue voter type.. they have tunnel vision and can not see the forest for the trees.. Most of them are young kids who have not had to work, pay bills, run businesses or raise children.. Henry is a half bubble off.. why the fool would come to this web site to trash the Constitution is beyond me. Treetop, well who knows.. maybe she/he needs a case of exlax...
don't ya just love the armchair quarterbacks telling you what you should have done..

I live north of Tulsa and am backing you... your reply to Henry deepens my resolve.

I am a vet as well and have taken a long hard look at how the Ron Paul movement is going lately, especially in thier attitudes of military service.

After careful thought I have decided to leave the (I) party and become a Republican. Not because of thier hawkish attitude (I'm anti-war) but because I think that the independents are swinging too far left in thier rhetoric. I am alienated by the very people I feel I have served.... so be it.

I honestly believe that the R party can be rebuilt as a conservative base. I think at this point that trying to built an independent conservative base is impossible. There are too many independents that espouse either straight anarchy ( a nice fantasy, but at the end of the day exactly that) or some odd alternate world where not having a military will make us the bastion of the free world (a nice fantasy, but at the end of the day exactly that). I simply cannot suspend disbelief long enough to espouse either ideal.

I digress, however. I wish you luck in your run for office.. remember the Native Americans in your campaign. Turns out they are starting to feel a little less complacent, especially with the latest settlement attempt by the government. There may even be a tribe or two in Oklahoma that are looking to get behind a candidate such as yourself....

:)

'I said in the video that I have fought for our freedom and liberty twice and I stand by those words today.'

Bullshit, you went to the other side of the world, into somebody's own backyard, and killed them, period. Those Iraqis you killed were no threat to 'our freedom and liberty'.

If you TRULY believe in this fake 'war on terror' that you are so eager to promote, then you need to go back and kill more people and let someone else go to Congress and get the paperwork in order to your satisfaction.

There are plenty of patriotic warmongers willing to sit in Congress and send you, along with anyone else, off to these foreign countries and kill for 'our freedom and liberty'.