From the Washington Post :
PRATTVILLE, Ala. -- There is no antiwar movement in this small Southern city -- in fact, locals boast, just the opposite.
But what was the headline? Losses Color a Patriotic Town's View of the Iraq War.
Just read the whole thing. Yes there are doubters in Prattville, as in every town in the country. But it is one thing to have doubts, it's another to display outright hatred for our troops and our country. I thank God I don't have that hatred. I
know it isn't just a Southern thing, there are patriots in every state
in the country and they outnumber the haters in all of them. But there's just something about Southerners, the patriotism, the love of God and Country.....it's just special. But the South is not immune from attacks on our Military (via Michelle):
Vandals staged attacks early Wednesday on the buildings used by the Reserve Officers' Training Corps at N.C. State University and UNC-Chapel Hill, echoing similar assaults on three Triangle recruiting stations last month.
As before, vandals sprayed anti-war slogans and profanity, splashed red paint and claimed responsibility with a mass e-mail message to area media outlets.
Lt. Col. Carol Ann Redfield of the Army ROTC program at N.C. State was caught off guard. "This is the first time I know of that anything like this has happened here," she said. "I certainly appreciate that people have different opinions, and they should be able to express them, but I have a problem when they damage property."
The e-mail, from someone calling himself "celest ialbeing" said, "Stop these recruitment centers that target poor people and people of color to fight to maintain the power structure that (literally and figuratively) imprisons us daily."
The vandals sprayed slogans at the base of an entrance to Reynolds Coliseum, which holds the Department of Military Science, and tossed paint onto an ROTC sign above the entrance.
Investigators had good leads, said Sgt. Jon Barnwell of the N.C. State Police Department.
At UNC-Chapel Hill, campus police spokesman Randy Young said investigators were aware of the e-mail and the link with the attack at N.C. State. "We're certainly looking into that," he said. Investigators think the UNC Naval Armory was attacked between 4 and 5:30 a.m.
As Michelle said (April 27, 2006) "This has got to stop". But it hasn't.
Boise, Idaho -- Police arrested 24-year old Michael Burkett of Boise early Sunday morning after officers with Capitol Mall Security reported spotting him vandalizing two flag polls on the grounds of the Idaho Statehouse.
The flags are memorials to soldiers who lost their lives in the war on terror.
....
"For someone to desecrate a flag, I mean that's not only is it dishonorable, it's downright ignorant," said Tom Titus, whose son Brandon was killed in Iraq two years ago.
The flagpole with Brandon's name on it was bent so badly that police say the flag was laying on the ground.
"It hurts knowing that a flag was taken down with my son's name on it. And I hurt for the other families whose flags were desecrated," Titus said.
The decorated Vietnam vet says he's no stranger to this kind of vandalism. In fact Titus says someone ripped up a flag from a pole in his front yard. The flag was hand delivered to him by U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo's office the same week his son died.
"They were the only (elected officials) that visited me after Brandon died," Titus said. "You can't put a price on that flag."
....The other flag that was pulled out of the ground has also been replaced. It had Army Spec. Carrie French's name on it.
Michelle was right:
I wrote last week that we'd see more outbreaks of anti-military vandalism leading up to Election Day. In upstate New York on Halloween eve, "(expletive) Bush" and a depiction of a penis were scrawled on the 20-by-40-foot flag and similar pictures in the same shade of green were painted on the American Legion Mohawk Post.
"It
hurts knowing that a flag was taken down with my son's name on it.
And I hurt for the other families whose flags were desecrated," Titus
said.
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