Take care, Jimmy, come home safe.

Two American hero's. Who both serve our country.

I still am going, would anyone be interested in joining me and getting a crowd together?

Thanks Lowell.. and GO JIM WEBB!

Our hero, and future senator.

My thoughts and prayers are with the entire Webb family.

Before the plane left, Dad took me to have a drink.  As he rarely drank, I was shocked, but I realize now, he wanted to have man to man moment with me and like a lot of us, he really didn't no what to say, and I see now, he probably needed to have that drink.  We drank our drinks and when I got ready to go, he shook my hand for the first time ever and said, "Be careful." Dad didn't have any advice and I imagine even now, I wouldn't either. But the silence and the fear coming off my Dad said everything I needed to know.

Now, I understand exactly how Jim feels.  My children are grown and are more precious to me every day.  I'm betting Jim rather suit up and go over there himself than see his son go off to fight.  It's the true measure of a young man, who, knowing what we all know, will volunteer to go fight in a unpopular war.  I believe they are the very best of us.  Thank God for all the good soldiers, sailor, airmen and especially the Marines, who have always put honor, duty and country before personal or political opinions.  They are our national treasure. 

Jimmy Webb goes up on the Stump family prayer list tonight and will stay there until he's home. God bless him and all of our sons and daughters who are willing to serve no matter what.  My heart and prayers go out to them and all their families and especially to Jim and his family who have to endure this painful moment in the spotlight. 

Times like this stand outside of politics, but I wish every person, Democrat or Republican, who voted for this war or pushed for it with their tough talk would have to send a son or daughter to this war.  Maybe if they had one of their own on the line, they'd think twice about beating the war drum every time they needed to win an election.

thank you for sharing this. i encourage you to send this to the editor of your local paper and to post it on other sites. 

All during that war year, Mom had the same recurrent nightmare where she saw me being shot down over Laos. She was back in that church every night.  She told me when I came back, the church had prayed me back home, and the whole time I was in SEA, they had kept me surrouded by angels. As I had made it back without a scratch--who was I to disagree. 

Mom never made it back to Methodism, but stayed with the church that saved her son's life. Mom passed three years ago. I sure do miss her and her prayers. 

Mary Lee and Andy

Make as much of these events about young Jimmy as possible.  Remind the public where Jim is this weekend so the despicable Republispins are forced to eat it.

James Webb is more than Senator George “Macaca” Allen’s opponent. At a now infamous campaign stop in Virginia, Senator George Allen twice addressed S.R. Siddarth as “macaca” and welcomed him to Virginia and America, even though Siddarth is an American citizen and a native Virginian. Siddarth could rightly say, “Welcome to Virgnia, Senator.”

Macaca refers to a genus of monkey and is a racial slur in the same European cultures in which Senator Allen’s mother was raised.

By contrast, James Webb’s book, Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America, discusses how Scots-Irish culture embraces members of other ethnic groups. The following passages are from page 38:

The “Celtic tie of kinship”… helps explain why such a high percentage of American combat units in today’s volunteer military are from Scots-Irish and Irish Catholic backgrounds. From the earliest known history of the Celts, military service was viewed not simply as an obligation, but as a high honor. Fighting for – and alongside – the tribal leader … or, as now, one’s branch of military service brought one into the family. And at this level – the willingness to face danger collectively – every family member was equal regardless of rank or wealth.
Another aspect of this notion of extended kinship is that it tended to embrace members of other ethnic groups rather than to demean them. …in the Celtic societies, if one stepped forward to serve, he was ‘of the kin’ so long as he accepted the values and mores of the extended family.

I identify with Webb’s description of the “Celtic tie of kinship” based upon military service for personal reasons. My father is Indonesian and my mother is German, but I was born in San Francisco. My father left when I was 4, and my Godparents, a Retired Air Force Colonel and his wife, helped my mother to raise my sister and me. From my Godparents, I learned to admire the military. I applied for the US Naval Academy while I was in high school. I read James Webb’s novel, A Sense of Honor. Though I did not attend the Naval Academy, I did follow Webb’s example in boxing in college, in serving in the US Marine Corps, and in attending law school after my military service. I wrote my college senior thesis on another of James Webb’s books, Fields of Fire. I’ve read his other 4 novels, and his non-fiction book, Born Fighting. Born Fighting describes the Scots-Irish culture of the Jesuit College Prep which I attended (I had a Murphy as a teacher or coach in 7 of 8 semesters), and it describes the culture of the US Marine Corps.

I don’t really think of myself as a “person of color.” But I am half Indonesian and I have a darker complexion than the majority of Caucasians. Personally, I took great offense to Senator Allen’s “macaca” comments. I felt bad for the Country and for Virginia, where I spent a total of a year between 1988 and 1992 when I was going through Marine Officer training. According to Goldman Sachs, the so-called BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China) are the rapidly growing countries which will shape the coming decades. In such a future, George Allen simply has no place as a leader in America.

At another point in his now infamous comments, Senator Allen states that Jim Webb is “with a bunch of Hollywood movie moguls… we care about fact not fiction.”

This reference to “Hollywood Movie Moguls” plays on a stereotype of left leaning, liberal, Hollywood movie producers. However, if we take a close look at the one movie that Jim Webb wrote and produced, we find that it contains many factual warnings of the challenges the country would face in 9-11 and beyond.

James Webb was the co-producer and writer of the screenplay for Rules of Engagement, starring Samuel Jackson and Tommy Lee Jones. In that movie, a Marine Expeditionary Unit reinforces an American Embassy in Yemen, which is near Iraq and Saudi Arabia, under attack from a hostile Islamic crowd. The Marines fire into a crowd which had been firing weapons at the Marines. Although the videotape evidence of the weapons in the crowd has been destroyed by corrupt policy makers, the defense attorney does find audio tape evidence which he presents at the trial. The audio tapes contain recordings of Osama Bin Laden inciting Muslims to anti-American violence. In the commentary by the director of the film, we learn that the tape is an actual recording by Osama Bin Laden. The defense attorney finds the Bin Laden tapes in the ruined American embassy, in the police station, and in the hospital where the injured are being treated.

The movie was released in 2000, a year before 9/11.

So much for Senator Allen’s attack on James Webb as consorting with “Hollywood movie moguls” who are out of touch with fact.

James Webb’s novels, his screen play for Rules of Engagement, his Emmy Award winning reporting from Beirut just weeks before Hezbollah killed 242 Marines, his article on Marines in Afghanistan – all together show that Webb has a detailed grasp of national security issues far beyond that of Senator Allen. In an age where an action by a Marine junior officer or non commissioned officer can have immediate, global consequences, we need elected officials like James Webb, who never forgot his roots as a highly decorated junior officer in the Marine Corps. During the same period in his life, George Allen declined to serve in uniform.

Senator Allen’s campaign will try to paint James Webb as a liberal who is aligned with Senator’s Clinton and Kerry. While this may be accurate with respect to some domestic issues, on foreign policy issues, Webb is closer to President Bush – George H.W. Bush. In September 2002, Webb wrote a criticism of the pending invasion of Iraq which was very similar to criticisms made by Brent Scowcroft, the National Security Adviser to President George H. W. Bush, and by Colin Powell, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs under President George H. W. Bush. In this regard, James Webb, who served as Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of the Navy, should be classified as a foreign policy realist. As Webb told Inside the Navy in January 2003, "I am not against fighting when fighting is necessary… What I am for is making sure you are fighting the right war."

Janar Joseph Wasito is a former Marine Officer who lives in San Diego, California.
Email: janarw@gmail.com

Anyone know who the women in the picture are?

Jim Webb spoke at our Virginia Partisan's BBQ with Governor Warner receiving an award for his leadership.  A fun time by all, and now this sad but honorable news of a young patriot going off to war. 

Please introduce yourself.  Do you live in the area?  I just might be able to hook you up with a Webb T-shirt :-)

I plan to be at all Webb Campaign events this weekend with my wife. We are going to pick up signs and webb gear to bring to events this weekend.

I think it would be better if we were organized this weekend so please call me.

Thanks.

--Dave Montoya

7 months, 8 days! 

And by then we will have Dad in his new job putting an end to this Iraq adventure. Of course we have plan B, but that won't be necessary as long as everyone does their job on our end. Wish us luck, we do you.