LT Nichols To Congress

For The Record

For The Record

Thursday, May 10, 2007 12:38 PM

AMEN!

FOR THE RECORD

“The American public is not tired of the war; they are tired of believing that they are losing. They are tired of the daily drumbeat of pessimism and defeat promoted daily by our media and by some in our Congress. They don’t understand that building a democracy is a slow process that takes years, that victory in Iraq will be more like the fall of communism than like VE day in 1945. Like it or not, it is incumbent upon us in the military to correct this misrepresentation of our efforts. We have a duty to convince the American public why we must stay and finish the mission. Should we have to? Did we sign up to do that? The answers are no and yes, respectively. No we shouldn’t have to ask to be allowed to win a war, but yes we signed up to complete a mission. No whining allowed… It is not enough that we are making progress here in Iraq. We must make progress at home as well to ensure we are given the funds, support and time needed to finish the job. There is no doubt that we can create a stable democracy in Iraq—if we have courage enough to do so.” —Lt. Jason Nichols, founder of AppealForCourage.org

Appeal For Courage

Appeal For Courage

Appeal For Courage

Wednesday, May 09, 2007 4:24 PM

As in a previous post in reference to Spree’s post from Wake Up Americans, this group is presenting to the mutant CONgress their “grievances” as allowed IAW the UCMJ, and Common Sense, something our CONgress has long tossed aside.

I sent an email to an Fighting Man in Iraq, one of MANY such messages. This one in particular is exactly what we face in this nation. I sent it to multiple members of Appeal For COurage:

Gentleman:

For the record, I wish to apologize for reid and ITS ilk.

We all know that the rhetoric is politically motivated and there are many that feel like he does but they are indeed a minority.

The Silent Majority is silent no more and we are gaining more and more on the Leftinistra.

This is evident over at http://victorycaucus.com/ . There is a specific thread where about 50+ members have joined our blogs together to defeat the Leftinistra via cross-posts and trackbacks. We are having such an affect that the jihadist trolls have shown up over there in a vain attempt to discredit it us but it has backfired.

I may not be an active warrior in uniform but it doesn’t mean I have retired from combat.

The VAST majority of us stateside are with you and are praying for your safety and VICTORY.

God Bless America

mlh

This was the reply:

Mark:

That’s exactly right, the war is being fought on two fronts. Guys like you are as much a part of victory as the marines on the ground, because the main lesson of Vietnam was that a war can be won on the ground and lost at home. I know we’ll win here as a certainty, but now I’m beginning to have more confidence in the victory back home as well. Keep up the good fight.

Jason
LT Jason Nichols, USN

And fighting the good fight here at home is EXACTLY what we WILL do.

War Talk

Spree Says To Pass This Along

Spree Says To Pass This Along

Wednesday, May 09, 2007 3:26 PM

From Spree’s place with permissions granted:

I received an email this morning from SSG Dave Thulm in Al Asad, Iraq, from Appeal for Courage, letting me know that Appeal for Courage will be formally presented to several members of congress today.

Spree-
just a heads up that the Appeal For Courage will be formally presented to several members of Congress this afternoon. Quite a situation when soldiers have to ask to be allowed to stay in the combat zone to finish the job, but we have over 2800 signatures so far asking for just that. Our website is appealforcouarge.org, and we will be rounding up the (sure to be underwhelming) media coverage.

Thanks for your time and your great blog, I read it every day.

SSG Dave Thul
Al Asad, Iraq

Remember these are active military members asking the Congress to show courage in a time of war.

To remind everyone what their message is that they are delivering to members of congress:

It is a sad day when our active members of the military are fighting for us overseas and they feel forced to fight our Democratic Congress and Senate also here in our country, just so they will not have defeat forced down their throats when they can see the success and progress they are making in Iraq. (updated)

Pass this around to anybody and everybody because it is not like our media will be reporting much on it.

To the above messages from David In Iraq and Spree, I add the following from The Patriot Post.

THE FOUNDATION: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Close to home — Fort Dix, New Jersey was a jihadi target

“War, like most other things, is a science to be acquired and perfected by diligence, by perserverance, by time, and by practice.” —Alexander Hamilton

UPRIGHT

“Listening to the messages of al-Qa’ida’s leaders, you understand that they see their old defeats in very personal and contemporary terms. They are in a ‘long war’ against us, even if we don’t know it. And they’re committed to winning it.” —former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson ++ “The hard truth is that progress in Iraq (and there has been some since the surge began) is painstakingly slow. It will require patience and grit to prevail. But to suggest that diplomacy can solve this problem now is pure fantasy.” —Mona Charen

The Leftinistra have been eerily silent. Any guesses as to why?

Latest updates from Spree and a host of others!!

Patrick Ruffini, also from the We Win They Lose effort, ( see petition at the top of the page) has also picked up on this issue over at Townhall!!!!!!

Others are talking about the Appeal for Courage being formally presented to members of Congress today:

Army Times, Michelle Malkin, Power Line, Political Punch, Foriegn and Domestic (Thanks for the mention!!!!)

Thanks to Foreign and Domestic we have the official release on this:

Here is the official press release:To Reporters/Editors, please note the following item from the Daybook:

2:30 p.m. GOP-IRAQ SUPPORT _ Senators Lindsey Graham and Saxby Chambliss , House Republican Leader John Boehner, Republican Whip Roy Blunt and Chief Deputy Whip Eric Cantor will accept a petition - the Appeal for Courage - signed by more than 2,700 U.S. service members urging Congress to support the mission in Iraq .

Location: Lobby Entrance, Veterans of Foreign Wars Headquarters, 200 Maryland Ave. NE.

Our active military members should not have to do this, but they are, just like they don’t have to fight for our freedoms and to protect us, yet they do.

Bless them and THANKS!!!!

From the Army Times article:“

No one knows the stakes in this war better than the men and women who face, and have faced, our enemies on the front lines,” Boehner said. “They understand that the security of current and future generations of Americans may be dictated by the actions Congress takes today, and I commend them both for their service and for going above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that their mission is given chance to succeed.”

Boehner said he is “honored to accept these petitions and share the story of the Appeal for Courage with my colleagues. This could not have come at a more important time.”

Many view Appeal for Courage as a response to a group calling itself Appeal for Redress, which in January turned over a petition signed by about 1,000 service members calling for Congress to cut off funding for the Iraq combat mission. The number of signatures on that petition has grown to about 1,900.

About 60 percent of the 2,700 signatures on the Appeal For Courage petition come from service members who are serving or have served in Iraq, with about two-thirds enlisted members and one-third officers. The signatures were gathered over about a month.

The petition states: “As an American currently serving my nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to fully support our mission in Iraq and halt any calls for retreat. I also respectfully urge my political leaders to actively oppose media efforts which embolden my enemy while demoralizing American support at home. The War in Iraq is a necessary and just effort to bring freedom to the Middle East and protect America from further attack.”

On Tuesday, Boehner, who has called the withdrawal timetable for Iraq a plan for surrender, said he was no more pleased with a new Democratic plan that would provide only a couple of months of funding for Iraq combat operations while lawmakers continue to debate strategy.

Boehner said Democratic leaders “should not treat our men and women in uniform like they are children who are getting a monthly allowance. Republicans will not support rationing funds for our troops in harm’s way and neither will the American people.”

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Boehner!!!!!!!!!!

Appeal For Courage

Appeal For Courage

Appeal For Courage

Tuesday, April 24, 2007 12:24 AM

A Freind Of Mine Is Interviewed Here

“…As of this writing, AppealforCourage.org, has received 2,172 signatures. AppealforRedress.org, has received 1,855. It’s not a lot of signatures for either group relative to the size of the U.S. armed forces. But as Nichols explains, “Appeal for Redress has received quite a bit more media exposure than Appeal for Courage, and we’ve exceeded their number of signatures in a third of the time it took them to collect theirs.”…”

Now, WHY IS THAT, PRAY TELL?

“…“They’ve also received quite a bit of funding,” says Nichols. “They’ve hired a professional advertising group. They’ve appeared in a bunch of newspapers, and were featured on 60 Minutes.”

He adds, “Redress is also paying for about four different caravans that drive around to bases, park outside, and get people to sign.”

Not so for Appeal for Courage. “We’re just word of mouth,” says Nichols. “Most people in the military haven’t heard of us.”

Nichols’s motivations to launch Appeal for Courage were based on five factors, the first of which was the existence of Appeal for Redress…”

LT Nichols To Reid

An Open Letter To reid

An Open Letter To reid

Friday, April 20, 2007 9:52 PM

In case you are wondering, reid is not capitalized because he doesn’t deserve the respect…

Click here to read the site and for links to other letters to reid-the-moron:

Casey:

Thanks for the email. I was pretty upset about Reid’s words, I saw it on Michelle Malkin, she asked soldiers to repy. I calmed down and sent him a fairly rational email on his website and sent it to Michelle, she put it on her site with a bunch of others. I’ve also gotten an email from someone describing a new term, Iraqnophobia: the pathological fear and loathing of victory in Iraq.

http://takeourcountryback.townhall.com/g/04760218-7487-46e4-bd7e-e5aeeb35fea4

Here is my letter to Senator Reid feel free to quote if you like. I’m no writer, so it’s fairly straightforward.

An Open Letter to Senator Reid on his declaration of Defeat:
Senator Reid:

When you say we’ve lost in Iraq, I don’t think you understand the effect of your words. The Iraqis I speak with are the good guys here, fighting to build a stable government. They hear what you say, but they don’t understand it. They don’t know about the political game, they don’t know about a Presidential veto, and they don’t know about party politics.

But they do know that if they help us, they are noticed by terrorists and extremists. They decide to help us if they think we can protect them from those terrorists. They tell us where caches of weapons are hidden. They call and report small groups of men who are strangers to the neighborhood, men that look the same to us, but are obvious to them as a foreign suicide cell.

To be brief, your words are killing us. Your statements make the Iraqis afraid to help us for fear we’ll leave them unprotected in the future. They don’t report a cache, and its weapons blow up my friends in a convoy. They don’t report a foreign fighter, and that fighter sends a mortar onto my base. Your statements are noticed, and they have an effect.

Finally, you are mistaken when you say we are losing. We are winning, I see it every day. However, we will win with fewer casualties if you help us. Will you?

Respectfully,
LT Jason Nichols, USN
MNF-I, Baghdad

I look forward to hearing the audio, thanks again.

Jason

Appeal For Courage

Appeal For Courage
Appeal For Courage
Thursday, March 15, 2007 1:17 PM

We have received permissions to send the following letter to all news outlets in all forms…GO FOR IT fellow bloggers…HOOAH!!

Sir/Madam:

I am a Navy Lieutenant currently serving in Baghdad, Iraq. I’d like to submit the opinion below for publication in your 19 Mar edition marking the 4th anniversary of the Iraq war. SGT Thul and myself are heading the effort for currently serving military to submit a message to Congress at AppealForCourage.org.

Respectfully,
LT Nichols

An opinion of calls for withdrawal on the fourth anniversary of the war.

Do calls for retreat back home harm the troops here in Iraq?

Of course they do. The enemy, particularly Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), see these calls as proof their strategy is working and increase their attacks. Iraqis who would otherwise help us hear these calls and choose to stay in the background, fearing that they will be targets if we withdraw prematurely. And yes, we believe it affects our morale. The perception of a lack of support for our mission by members of our own government has created a sense of frustration for many soldiers.

AppealForCourage.org is a means for those soldiers to send a message to Congress that they want to stay in Iraq until the mission is complete. With no formal advertising it has already garnered over 1,500 signatures in less than a month, over half from troops who have served in theater. These currently serving military members want victory in Iraq and are respectfully asking Congress to halt calls for retreat that hurt their mission and increase the risk they face. This large response in such a short time indicates that opponents of the war do not represent the majority of the military actually fighting it.

Opponents of the war are being intellectually dishonest because they say they want to withdraw our troops but refuse to acknowledge the consequences. It is widely acknowledged that a premature withdrawal will mean an Iraq returned to dictatorial rule-after much more horrific violence than what we’ve seen- as a puppet state of either Al-Qaeda or Shiite extremists. Extremists will have access to wealth and a stable base to expand their power. It is highly naïve to assume they wouldn’t use this power to attack the democracies which threaten their way of life, particularly America. No one is pro-war, but we should be pro-victory. There is a difference between ending the war now by abandoning our Iraqi allies, suffering a humiliating defeat that will encourage future attacks on the American people we’ve sworn to protect, and ending it gradually with a stable democracy capable of defending itself.

What will victory be like? Iraq will not be a serene la-la land with children skipping down the street. It may be just as violent as today, though that’s unlikely. Victory is when the fight is led by the Iraqi military and police, not by the Coalition. Once the Iraqis are able to do the job we are currently doing, we can leave with honor, knowing we’ve helped bring freedom not just to one country, but an entire region.

We don’t all have the ‘big-picture’ of what victory will be like, but we see the progress all around us. We hear that we’re losing the war, or the somewhat bizarre claims we’ve already lost it, and we look around us and say “What are you talking about?” We’re working to build up the Iraqi army, convincing opposition tribes to join us, building up the Iraqi police, clearing caches. Creating a professional army and a police force takes time, but the Iraqis continue to make steady progress. They have created the foundation of manpower and are now developing logistics and learning command and control. It seems like claims we’ve already lost get more frantically insistent the more progress we make. To say we are losing and should leave is as wrong as saying we’ve finished our mission and should leave.

The service members who have signed AppealForCourage.org are saying we want victory in Iraq. Yes, there is violence happening every day, and there will be many bad days ahead, but we will win this, given time. We will win because we have a plan for victory, and the enemy does not, short of hoping that we leave. We are saying we would rather go home later with victory than today in defeat. We are saying we want the war to be run by the military commanders on the ground.

Finally, we are respectfully asking Congress to support our mission. For the sake of all who have worked and sacrificed to get us this far, we hope they will listen.

Signed,
LT Jason Nichols, Baghdad, Iraq
SGT Dave Thul, Al Asad, Iraq
AppealForCourage.org

Appeal For Courage

Redress…
Redress…
Saturday, February 24, 2007 11:32 AM
GET THE WORD OUT>>>>>>>>>>>>NOW!!!

Appeal for Redress

Sign this Appeal.

This site is an Appeal For Redress in support of our mission in Iraq.

An Appeal For Redress is an authorized means for active duty military to submit a grievance to Congress. It can be signed by Active Duty, Reserve, or National Guard military personnel.

It is authorized by DoD Directive 1325.6 and DoD Directive 7050.6.

The wording of the Appeal for Redress is:

As an American currently serving my nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to fully support our mission in Iraq and halt any calls for retreat. I also respectfully urge my political leaders to actively oppose media efforts which embolden my enemy while demoralizing American support at home. The War in Iraq is a necessary and just effort to bring freedom to the Middle East and protect America from further attack.

If you are active duty, reservist or national guard, please Sign this Appeal.

Most service members fully support the war in Iraq and feel calls to retreat by Congress and attacks by our media on our conduct and mission act to motivate our enemy while demoralizing our support at home, directly increasing the threat we face and resulting in greater American casualties. This Appeal for Redress provides a way in which individual service members can appeal to Congress to fully support us and actively oppose media attacks on our mission and our morale.

This Appeal will be delivered to members of Congress.

Active Duty Members go here: GO FOR IT DO THE RIGHT THING

All others go here: DO THE RIGHT THING HERE!!