Jim Towey writes:

“Ex-soldiers don’t need to be told they’re a burden to society.”

Veteran’s should be honored, Veteran’s Day should be celebrated nationally with closed government offices, closed businesses, parades, fireworks and gala events. It’s not!

Last year, bureaucrats at the VA’s National Center for Ethics in Health Care advocated a 52-page end-of-life planning document, “Your Life, Your Choices.” It was first published in 1997 and later promoted as the VA’s preferred living will throughout its vast network of hospitals and nursing homes.

The Bush White House took a look at how this document was treating complex health and moral issues, the VA suspended its use. Unfortunately, under Barack Hussein Obama, the VA has now resuscitated “Your Life, Your Choices.”

Dr. Robert Pearlman, chief of ethics evaluation for the center, a man who in 1996 advocated for physician-assisted suicide in Vacco v. Quill before the U.S. Supreme Court and is known for his support of health-care rationing is also the primary author of this workbook.

“Your Life, Your Choices” presents end-of-life choices in a way aimed at steering users toward predetermined conclusions, much like a political “push poll.” For example:

A worksheet on page 21 lists various scenarios and asks users to then decide whether their own life would be “not worth living.”

The circumstances listed include ones common among the elderly and disabled:

Living in a nursing home, being in a wheelchair and not being able to “shake the blues.”

 There is a section which provocatively asks,

“Have you ever heard anyone say, ‘If I’m a vegetable, pull the plug’?”

There also are guilt-inducing scenarios such as,

“I can no longer contribute to my family’s well being,”

“I am a severe financial burden on my family”

and that the vet’s situation “causes severe emotional burden for my family.”

Mr. Towey continues:

I was not surprised to learn that the VA panel of experts that sought to update “Your Life, Your Choices” between 2007-2008 did not include any representatives of faith groups or disability rights advocates. And as you might guess, only one organization was listed in the new version as a resource on advance directives: the Hemlock Society (now euphemistically known as “Compassion and Choices”).

A July 2009 VA directive instructs its primary care physicians to raise advance care planning with all VA patients and to refer them to “Your Life, Your Choices.” Not just those of advanced age and debilitated condition—all patients.

Barack Hussein Obama and his Marxist/Fascist hybrid Liberal ilk should cut costs to American taxpayer’s by referring themselves to “Your Life, Your Choices.” The sooner they take their own advise the better America will be for it. Indeed!

Barack HUSSEIN Obama

Former Community Organizer and Apologist

(Marxist/Fascist Hybrid-IL)

Obama the apologist is back on tour in the Middle East and Europe. From The Heritage Foundation:

10. Apology for Guantanamo in Washington: “There is also no question that Guantanamo set back the moral authority that is America’s strongest currency in the world. … Rather than keeping us safer, the prison at Guantanamo has weakened American national security. It is a rallying cry for our enemies.”

9. Apology for the Mistakes of the CIA: “So don’t be discouraged by what’s happened in the last few weeks. Don’t be discouraged that we have to acknowledge potentially we’ve made some mistakes.”

8. Apology for U.S. Policy toward the Americas: “Too often, the United States has not pursued and sustained engagement with our neighbors. We have been too easily distracted by other priorities, and have failed to see that our own progress is tied directly to progress throughout the Americas.”

7. Apology before the Turkish Parliament: “The United States is still working through some of our own darker periods in our history. … Our country still struggles with the legacies of slavery and segregation, the past treatment of Native Americans.”

6. Apology for Guantanamo in France: “I don’t believe that there is a contradiction between our security and our values. And when you start sacrificing your values, when you lose yourself, then over the long term that will make you less secure.”

5. Apology for the War on Terror: “Unfortunately, faced with an uncertain threat, our government made a series of hasty decisions. … In other words, we went off course.”

4. Apology at the G-20 Summit of World Leaders: “I would like to think that with my election and the early decisions that we’ve made, that you’re starting to see some restoration of America’s standing in the world.”

3. Apology to the Summit of the Americas: “While the United States has done much to promote peace and prosperity in the hemisphere, we have at times been disengaged, and at times we sought to dictate our terms. … So I’m here to launch a new chapter of engagement that will be sustained throughout my administration. The United States will be willing to acknowledge past errors where those errors have been made.”

2. Apology to the Muslim World: “We sometimes make mistakes. We have not been perfect.”

1. Apology to France and Europe: “Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive.”

Heading to Normany what will Obama apologize for? To set the record straight here is what the great Ronald Reagan said at Normandy in 1984

On the 40th Anniversary of D-Day, President Ronald Reagan addressed a group of World War II Veterans at Pointe du Hoc, France.

June 6, 1984
Remarks to Veterans at U.S. Ranger Monument below:

********************

We’re here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For four long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved, and the world prayed for its rescue. here in Normandy the rescue began. Here the Allies stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history.

We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France. The air is soft, but forty years ago at this moment, the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon. At dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June 1944, 225 Rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs. Their mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the invasion: to climb these sheer and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns. The Allies had been told that some of the mightiest of these guns were here and they would be trained on the beaches to stop the Allied advance.

The Rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers on the edge of the cliffs shooting down at them with machine guns and throwing grenades. And the American Rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred and twenty-five came here. After two days of fighting only ninety could still bear arms.

Behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them there.

These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.

Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the words of Stephen Spender’s poem. You are men who in your “lives fought for life…and left the vivid air signed with your honor.”

I think I know what you may be thinking right now–thinking “we were just part of a bigger effort; everyone was brave that day.” Well, everyone was. Do you remember the story of Bill Millin of the 51st Highlanders? Forty years ago today, British troops were pinned down near a bridge, waiting desperately for help. Suddenly, they heard the sound of bagpipes, and some thought they were dreaming. Well, they weren’t. They looked up and saw Bill Millin with his bagpipes, leading the reinforcements and ignoring the smack of the bullets into the ground around him.

Lord Lovat was with him–Lord Lovat of Scotland, who calmly announced when he got to the bridge, “Sorry I’m a few minutes late,” as if he’d been delayed by a traffic jam, when in truth he’d just come from the bloody fighting on Sword Beach, which he and his men had just taken.

There was the impossible valor of the Poles who threw themselves between the enemy and the rest of Europe as the invasion took hold, and the unsurpassed courage of the canadians who had already seen the horrors of war on this coast. They knew what awaited them there, but they would not be deterred. And once they hit Juno Beach, they never looked back.

All of these men were part of a roll call of honor with names that spoke of a pride as bright as the colors they bore: the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, Poland’s 24th Lancers, the Royal Scots Fusiliers, the Screaming Eagles, the Yeomen of England’s armored divisions, the forces of Free France, the Coast Guard’s “Matchbox Fleet” and you, the American Rangers.

Forty summers have passed since the battle that you fought here. You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet you risked everything here. Why? Why did you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith, and belief; it was loyalty and love.

The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was the deep knowledge — and pray God we have not lost it — that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt.

You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One’s country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it’s the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you. people of your countries were behind you.

The Americans who fought here that morning knew word of the invasion was spreading through the darkness back home. They thought–or felt in their hearts, though they couldn’t know in fact, that in Georgia they were filling the churches at 4 a.m., in Kansas they were kneeling on their porches and praying, and in Philadelphia they were ringing the Liberty Bell.

Something else helped the men of D-Day: their rock hard belief that Providence would have a great hand in the events that would unfold here; that God was an ally in this great cause. And so, the night before the invasion, when Colonel Wolverton asked his parachute troops to kneel with him in prayer he told them: Do not bow your heads, but look up so you can see God and ask His blessing in what we’re about to do. Also that night, General matthew Ridgway on his cot, listening in the darkness for the promise God made to Joshua: “I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.”

These are the things that impelled them; these are the things that shaped the unity of the Allies.

When the war was over, there were lives to be rebuilt and governments to be returned to the people. There were nations to be reborn. Above all, there was a new peace to be assured. These were huge and daunting tasks. But the Allies summoned strength from the faith, belief, loyalty, and love of those who fell here. They rebuilt a new Europe together.

There was first a great reconciliation among those who had been enemies, all of whom had suffered so greatly. The United States did its part, creating the Marshall plan to help rebuild our allies and our former enemies. The marshall plan led to the Atlantic alliance–a great alliance that serves to this day as our shield for freedom, for prosperity, and for peace.

In spite of our great efforts and successes, not all that followed the end of the war was happy or planned. Some liberated countries were lost. The great sadness of this loss echoes down to our own time in the streets of Warsaw, Prague, and East Berlin. Soviet troops that came to the center of this continent did not leave when peace came. They’re still there, uninvited, unwanted, unyielding, almost forty years after the war. Because of this, allied forces still stand on this continent. Today, as forty years ago, our armies are here for only one purpose–to protect and defend democracy. The only territories we hold are memorials like this one and graveyards where our heroes rest.

We in America have learned bitter lessons from two World Wars: It is better to be here ready to protect the peace, than to take blind shelter across the sea, rushing to respond only after freedom is lost. We’ve learned that isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments with an expansionist intent.

But we try always to be prepared for peace; prepared to deter aggression; prepared to negotiate the reduction of arms; and, yes, prepared to reach out again in the spirit of reconciliation. In truth, there is no reconciliation we would welcome more than a reconciliation with the Soviet Union, so, together, we can lessen the risks of war, now and forever.

It is fitting to remember here the great losses also suffered by the Russian people during World War II: twenty million perished, a terrible price that testifies to all the world the necessity of ending war. I tell you from my heart that we in the united States do not want war. We want to wipe from the face of the Earth the terrible weapons that man now has in his hands. And I tell you, we are ready to seize that beachhead. We look for some sign from the Soviet Union that they are willing to move forward, that they share our desire and love for peace, and that they will give up the ways of conquest. There must be a changing there that will allow us to turn our hope into action.

We will pray forever that some day that changing will come. But for now, particularly today, it is good and fitting to renew our commitment to each other, to our freedom, and to the alliance that protects it.

We are bound today by what bound us forty years ago, the same loyalties, traditions, and beliefs. We are bound by reality. The strength of America’s allies is vital to the United States, and the American security guarantee is essential to the continued freedom of Europe’s democracies. We were with you then; we are with you now. Your hopes are our hopes, and your destiny is our destiny.

Here, in this place where the West held together, let us make a vow to our dead. Let us show them by our actions that we understand what they died for. Let our actions say to them the words for which Matthew Ridgway listened: “I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.”

Strengthened by their courage, heartened by their valor, and borne by their memory, let us continue to stand for the ideals for which they lived and died.

Thank you very much, and God bless you all.

********************

We miss you Mr. Reagan. The person now occupying the White House is the opposite of you. He is a Marxist/Fascist hybrid who hates America and wishes to change the good this country has done for the world and will do in the future providing his “change” does not take root. He wishes to take control of private business and the all things we enjoy. He apologizes for America to our enemies and to the “allies” who are jealous of America.

We hope you are watching over us Mr. Reagan, we embrace your principles of Conservatism and will do our best to wake the sleeping citizens of this great country to stand up for liberty, freedom and individualism.  We miss your leadership for we have none. We miss your voice for we have none. We miss you Ronald Reagan. Pray for us, indeed!

Moonbat is a special feature of Liberally Conservative and posted each Saturday. For previous awards visit Moonbat Awards.

One of John Kerry’s (D-MA) biggest defenders for Swift Boat delusions guilty in December to possession of child pornography, was sentenced Monday. Wade Sanders was given a very light sentence since prosecutions asked for 63 months, the maximum is 10-years and Judge Thomas Whelan left Sanders off with 37-months.

Sanders had argued that he deserved only probation, claiming that what the paper calls “his compulsion to research the world of child pornography” was “a symptom of his post-traumatic stress disorder that stemmed from his combat service”–that is, he was depraved on account of he was deployed.

The San Diego Union-Tribune describes Sanders as a “war hero,” but he is best known for his service to John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee. Kerry’s central campaign claim was that he deserved to be president because his so-called band of brothers, veterans who had served alongside him on Navy Swift boats in Vietnam, vouched for his heroism and his impeccable character. (Emphasis LCs)

We would think military service is to your country not to an individual. Kerry had begun his political career by slandering fellow veterans as war criminals. They also claimed that he had exaggerated his own heroism and acquired some of his medals fraudulently. Kerry also claimed to have spent Christmas in Cambodia while Nixon was President. Both claims were false.

Before his sentencing, Sanders filed a “personal statement” with the court. It is a remarkable document:

Both the US. Attorney and the Probation Officer have been unable to understand combat stress (PTSD) and how it contributed to my current circumstance. That is a huge challenge for anyone who hasn’t been in sustained and intense combat. However, my concern is that if the Federal criminal justice fails to do so, the same disgraceful abandonment of those who have returned from other wars will continue and affect the thousands of afflicted men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sanders also had, as James Taranto noted in December, “computer files containing 600 images of minors, including a 21-minute video that depicted girls engaging in sex acts with an adult man.”

Mr. Taranto points out that after page after page of war stories and personal tales of woe, Sanders links his use of child pornography to the Kerry campaign. It is worth quoting at length this passage, which begins on page 9 of the statement, page 10 of the PDF:

I continued to find escape by obsessively playing video games. I had no successful relationships, only the games and my work. Then came 2004, and the presidential campaign of John Kerry.

As a supporter of Senator Kerry, I was identified by the so-called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth as a target. Like Senator Kerry, I was investigated by a retired FBI agent partly financed by T. Boone Pickens. Naturally nothing negative was discovered, but it infuriated me. I had a hard time believing that fellow combat veterans could put be [sic] so politically motivated to attack fellow Swift Boat veterans.

That experience caused a serious resurgence of the PTSD symptoms and for the next few years, I lived with increased levels of rage and personal pain. To attack a veterans [sic] service record, especially his military decorations is to go to the heart of his honor. To have this done by so-called friends was even more painful.

From 2004 through most of 2007, I recovered from that episode of PTSD, although I still had interior negative feelings which I had to deal with on a daily basis. I worked hard at getting all of them back into their little box. Although I don’t recall exactly, it was about this time that I discovered the distraction and escape available through obsessive surfing of the internet. The fateful link was Limewire, a legal peer to peer file sharing program which my nephew introduced for downloading music and comedy videos. This gradually replaced my compulsive playing of video games.

Limeware [sic] was the vehicle that first exposed me to child pornography. I encountered it while accidentally downloading what I thought was a comedy video. The sight of the abused children angered me and triggered the memory of a brief I received during a government visit to the former Yugoslavia. I was briefed by the United Nations Force Commander on a number of subjects, including the exploitation of children in war zones and other devastated areas.

I am an established and fairly well known writer and commentator on contemporary social issues so I decided to research the material to write either an extended article or a book. How my PTSD played into this has been explained to me through testing and therapy. The gist of it is that my PTSD related obsessive-compulsive driven need for information and distraction from my pain and anger was triggered by the images I encountered. According to the therapists I have an overprotective nature towards children, especially young girls.

In any event, I was on another mission. Whenever I discovered a video that appeared to originate from an area of war, and many appeared to from [sic] the former Soviet Union or the former Yugoslavia, I studied it and searched for indications of location, signs of malnutrition, physical abuse, and drug or alcohol involvement. I found all of these things and I took notes. What I saw angered, sickened, and saddened me and I saw it as extension of a relatively recent trend: using children as soldiers. Through therapy I have learned that my need to protect children also fueled my research and my mission.

Since Limeware was a legal process and I was not aware what I was doing was illegal, I began my research. It was only after I began that the statute I violated came into effect but I did not notice it. I continued my mission.

Mr. Taranto did some research of his own and found that Sanders chronology of events is tainted:

We phoned prosecutor Alessandra Serano and asked her about Sanders’s statement that “it was only after I began that the statute I violated came into effect.” She told us that Congress enacted the statute in 1978, although it was amended in 2006 to increase the penalties. Possession of child pornography is also a crime in California and every other state. When Sanders, self-described as “an established and fairly well known writer and commentator on contemporary social issues,” claims he was unaware that what he was doing was illegal, this does not pass the laugh test.

Sanders’s chronology, in which his crimes resulted from mental sickness triggered by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth’s criticism of Kerry, elides a crucial fact: He downloaded his first known kid-porn image in November 2003. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth did not exist until May 2004.

In addition, Sanders expects us to believe that he thought that first image was actually a “comedy video,” that his obsessive acquisition of child pornography reflected his “overprotective nature towards children,” and that all of this was done in the interest of “research”–a bizarrely frequent (and seldom successful) defense for child pornography defendants.

Kerry’s own testimony, after Sanders pleaded guilty, defends the obsessed child pornographer:

I’ve known Wade since we were young officers in the Navy and never once–not in any fashion–have I ever witnessed or had any intimation of any proclivity towards the behavior of which he’s accused. It is a complete aberration in forty three years of public service and public concern for veterans and veteran-related issues. I’ve seen Wade in his relationships with friends and his own significant others and am completely baffled by the circumstances which lead [sic] to this difficult day of sentencing. . . .

The Wade Sanders I know is someone who has always put love of country first. He’s been an advocate for his friends, his fellow veterans, his state and his country. I know you will measure the facts of this case against Wade’s lifetime of service, respect for the law, and devotion to his community and fellow veterans.

Service to country does not alter the fact that Sanders committed a crime and got off easy. Kerry vouches for Sanders and vice versa.

Somewhere in the middle are two individuals with a history of terrible lies. Indeed!

I placed a newswire story (see below this post) on a meeting Barack Hussein Obama had with a group including the commander of the America Legion. Below is a reprint from The Wall Street Journal by Mr. Rehbein, a former U.S. Army sergeant of the Vietnam War era, national commander of the 2.6 million-member American Legion, the nation’s largest wartime veterans organization.

***************

‘If you were injured in Iraq or Afghanistan and you have not paid your co-pay, please press 1. If you were injured during military training and you have not yet reached your deductible, please press 2. If your family has reached its maximum insurance benefit, please call back after you have purchased additional coverage. Thank you for your service.”

Before the leaders of other veteran’s groups and I met with President Barack Obama at the White House on Monday, I believed a phone call like the one described above unimaginable. Now it seems all too possible.

President Obama made clear during our discussion that he intends to force private insurance companies to pay for the treatment of military veterans with service-connected disabilities. He is trying to unfairly generate $540 million on the backs of veterans.

The proposed requirement for private companies to reimburse the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) would not only be unfair, but would have an adverse impact on service-connected disabled veterans and their families. Depending on the severity of the medical conditions involved, maximum insurance coverage limits could be reached through treatment of the veteran’s condition alone. That would leave the rest of the family without health-care benefits.

Currently, when veterans go to a VA hospital or related health-care facility for treatment of a service-connected disability, they receive the care without any billing to the veterans or the veterans’ insurance. (On the other hand, those veterans who choose the VA for the treatment of nonservice-connected disabilities pay a co-pay, and the VA bills private insurance companies reasonable charges.)

Perhaps nobody would be hit harder by the Obama administration’s proposal than the thousands of veterans who own small businesses. Not only will their private insurance premiums be drastically elevated to cover service-connected disabilities, but many will be forced to cut staff as a result. The unemployment rate for veterans may climb even higher, as businesses avoid hiring these heroes for fear of the impact they would have on insurance rates.

This plan is as unfair as it is unnecessary. According to the U.S. Constitution, it is the president and Congress who send troops in harm’s way, not the CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield.

As head of the nation’s largest veterans organization, I was startled by this radical shift of position the president has taken. Last October, candidate Obama listed several proposals he had for the VA and none of them included billing veterans’ insurance providers.

In fact, when asked how he would improve the funding formula for the VA’s health-care system, then-Sen. Obama told the American Legion Magazine, “It starts with the president saying that if I’m budgeting for war, then I am also budgeting for VA. If I’ve got a half-a-trillion-dollar Pentagon budget, then I’d better make sure that I make some of those billions of dollars available to care for the soldiers once they come home. It should be a non-negotiable proposition that people are receiving the services that they need. This is the reason I joined the Veterans Affairs Committee — because I believe deeply in that principle.”

So I ask President Obama now, for all America’s veterans, where is that principled stance today? By abandoning its responsibilities to the heroic men and women who answered our nation’s call, the federal government is breaking a sacred promise. Moreover, it is unnecessary.

The 2.6 million member American Legion has long advocated for Medicare to reimburse the VA for its treatment of Medicare-eligible veterans. Veterans pay into the Medicare-system, yet they are unable to use Medicare benefits in the VA health system, which was created specifically for them. The Indian Health Service is successfully billing and collecting needed revenue for both Medicare and Medicaid. We also believe that direct billing between two federal agencies will reduce the opportunities for waste, fraud and abuse that tend to occur when for-profit corporations enter the mix.

Our military veterans have already served this country. They have given us their blood, sweat and devotion. Under President Obama’s proposal, the most severely wounded veterans could easily exceed their maximum insurance benefit, leaving their family without any additional coverage. This is hardly the thanks of a grateful nation.

***************

PLEASE STAND UP FOR OUR VETERAN’S AND HONOR THEM WITH YOUR SUPPORT!

 Write your Representatives and Senators in Washington D.C. Tell them you back Veterans and not Barack Obama’s proposal to do away with their health benefits and that of their families.

STOP THIS MADNESS NOW! THIS IS WAR OBAMA, THIS IS WAR, INDEED!

UPDATED!! NOW 12 MILLION HITS 

John McCain’s most powerful ad — an open letter to Barack Obama in which an Iraq War veteran criticizes his stand on the war — didn’t cost the Republican candidate a dime. (See Ad above in header or click link at the bottom of this post)

In “Dear Mr. Obama,” army veteran Joe Cook stands in front of the camera and scolds the Democratic presidential candidate for calling the Iraq war a mistake. The two-minute video, which was posted on YouTube,  has gotten more than 12 million hits and is the most popular election video on the site.

In the video, Cook tells Obama why he disagrees with his Iraq war policies and says he’s supporting McCain. At the end, he walks away from the camera, revealing that he has a prosthetic leg.

Cook, 23, was wounded in Iraq in June and returned home to Wauconda, Ill., to recover. He said he enlisted three years ago because of his family’s dedication to serving their country. His parents were both Marines, and he has two brothers in the military.

Now that he’s back from Iraq, Cook continues to help his fellow service members, running a business with a neighbor that provides valet parking services at veterans’ hospitals and working on the campaign of Dan Duffy, a Republican running for state senate. 

“When I first got back it was all about the recovery and everything like that, but as the race starting going on, I got more involved,” he said, explaining why he made the video.

“I started reading about McCain and stuff. He’s a leader. I can really respect him, seeing as he’s a vet as well.”

Cook told FOX News’ Shepard Smith that Obama’s calling the war in Iraq a mistake is “a slap in the face” in an interview Friday. 

“A lot of people forget that Saddam Hussein broke a lot of international treaties before we even went to attack. Bush gave him a lot of opportunities to fix what he was doing and he didn’t, so going in was not a mistake. We got rid of a dictatorship that was torturing its people. You can’t have that happen,” he said. 

Cook said he has already cast his ballot in Illinois early voting.

Video director Michael Brown, who teamed up with Cook to create the video, said he was inspired to make the video because he wanted to share the experiences of soldiers that aren’t reported in the media and to lend support to McCain for his position on the war.

“Obama has been squealing since 2002 that Iraq is a mistake,” Brown said.

“He’s using the military as pawns, he has not brought our troops home and he has not done any good. When he says it’s a mistake, he’s disrespecting our guys.”

“I’m not connected with any campaign,” Brown said. “In fact, what’s interesting is, before this the only thing I’ve ever done politically is put a sign in my yard.”

Brown said he contacted Cook about making the video after meeting him at a parade the town held in Cook’s honor in July. He said he thinks the video’s effectiveness comes from its simplicity.

“Joe collaborated on the script to ensure its authenticity and truthfulness, which was important,” he said. “That’s what works so well.”

Both Cook and Brown are surprised by the popularity of the video.

“Obviously we didn’t think it was going to get up to 11 million hits,” Cook said. “It’s a little crazy, but anything I can do to help. I think it’s a good way to express what I felt and I thought it was good. I thought Mike Brown did a phenomenal job.”

Click here to see the video.

Thank you for your service Mr. Cook and your continued patriotism. Indeed!