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A Message from Colonel Riley

January 8th, 2008 · 7 Comments

Friends,

Due to the publicized potential pull out of ANSWER and Code Pink, there is some uncertainty as to which groups will be actively supporting a D.C. Eagle action in March. Please let me assure all of you that Eagles UP remains steadfast with our plans to be in Washington, D.C in opposition to Iraq Veterans Against War (IVAW) Winter Soldiers, and any other rabble that shows up.

The genesis of the Eagles March action was not based on ANSWER or Code Pink activity but on IVAW plans to conduct another Winter Soldiers Testimony. The ANSWER/Code Pink activity came about following the IVAW announcement of the Winter Soldiers event and was billed as a supporting action to IVAW.

For those that don’t remember….Winter Soldiers Testimony of 1971, orchestrated by now Senator John Kerry, was the catalyst, along with Jane Fonda and other rabble, that spurred on American “surrender” in Viet Nam by our Congress, emboldened North Viet Nam leaders, was a direct betrayal, distortion, and false representation of our warriors, and a deceitful, lying, despicable testimony of what was going on in Viet Nam.

Now, IVAW is attempting to again falsely paint our warriors as less than human, killers of innocents, wanton murderers, and all the rest as they did in 1971. We won’t allow this to go unchallenged as it did in 1971………the blood, body parts, lost lives, family pain will be redeemed from the lying, anti-America, Winter Soldiers meeting….the sacrifices by our warriors and families will not be allowed to be massaged into the muck, mire, and dirty lies of the Winter Soldier crowd.

The Winter Soldiers gathering is a major event and must be acknowledged and opposed. The potential harm this group can cause should not be under estimated…..we simply cannot take a chance of ignoring their diabolical mission or giving any false, malicious findings a foothold in the insatiable press who gobbles up any kind of tainted garbage.

We will expose the Winter Soldier Testimony lies, distortions, fabrications, and anti-America testimony for what it is…….a direct attack on dishonoring our warriors and ultimately, the destruction of America.

The event in April has merit, although I think General Petraeus record of success in Iraq has already drowned out the nay sayers………be that as it may, before April is March and Eagles Up will mount an effort to challenge the IVAW as originally planned.

Others have suggested the Eagles population in DC in March should be heavily supported by veterans and family members of the war in Iraq…….the hundreds of thousands that have served honorably, witnessed the bravery, compassion, and general human kindness of American warriors…mistakes are made in every war, but to falsely broad brush our brave men and women as blood thirsty, uncaring tyrants as the Winter Soldiers Testimony is poised to report, will simply not be tolerated.

We will keep you informed as planning progresses……..please visit Eagles Up frequently, register and participate in Eagles Up forum….we value you input, suggestions, and support for our nation, our troops, and honoring our fallen and families.

I would urge you to re-read Eagles Up mission/principles statement………Winter Soldiers Event is a direct attack on our troops…….we won’t allow it to go unchallenged.

Harry Riley, COL, USA, Ret

Eagles Up – Where there is no offense, there is no effect.

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.
(Isaiah 40:31)

Tags: Gathering of Eagles · National Security · Supporting the Troops

7 responses so far ↓

  • 1 scrappy // Jan 9, 2008 at 4:12 pm

    thank you colonel riley. don’t let this happen again to our soldiers. we all have to stand up for them.

  • 2 Dissenting Patriot // Jan 14, 2008 at 11:43 pm

    Colonel Riley,

    Sir, the purpose of the Winter Soldier project is not to broad brush our military members as brutal or to in any way diminish the humanity they have exemplified in such a stressful and morally ambiguous environment. It is intended to provide the American public an uncensored view of what is happening in Iraq and Afghanistan. All perspectives are limited and cannot offer a complete view of reality, which is why it is important to take in the widest spectrum of views in order to come to more precise conclusions and make constructive decisions based on them.

    Making choices in war can be difficult. Lives are at stake. There is a great deal of personal emotional investment at stake. But I believe our moral courage and intellectual honesty compels us to examine the validity of all views in order to make forward progress. This is often painful, but it is necessary. It is also essential to a healthy, genuine democracy.

    I think we must ask ourselves what it is to be American and what it is to be anti-American. Is it American to unconditionally support the decisions of our political leaders? Is it anti-American to question and dissent under the sincere belief that certain policies are hurting our country and are a departure from our values? I think these are legimitate questions we must ask ourselves, for the sake of our country.

    I must say I find your language disturbing. Are we supposed anti-Americans truly an “insurgency at home” in your eyes? I think if you were to sit and talk with some of us you will find that despite our differences we share many of the same core values, and that like you, we are struggling to understand the problems our country faces and to find solutions to those problems. Some have a perhaps naive faith in peace; some are perhaps too burdened with a sense of national guilt to appreciate the complexities of political decision-making. On the other hand, it is important to be self-reflective as a nation and not delude ourselves into a poisonous sense of self-righteousness. In any case, in my opinion we should not be so quick to jump to conclusions about each other. Let there be no broad-brushing against any side of such an important and necessary national debate.

    I hope you will excuse my intrusion onto your site. I wish you good health and look forward to your response.

    Sincerely,

    Dissenting Patriot

  • 3 rochester_veteran // Jan 15, 2008 at 6:21 pm

    Dissenting Patriot,

    I emailed Colonel Riley and let him know of your comment to his call to action. He’s a busy guy (aren’t most Colonels!), so I’m not sure when he’ll get back to us, but he’s a straight shooter and he will respond to your post.

    I’m a Vietnam Era veteran and I had to live with the fallout of the original “Winter Soldier” defamation and let me tell you, I’ll never forget how badly my fellow GI’s and I were treated by our own peer group as a result of the lies that were propagated by Winter Soldier!

    What’s your purpose in this “testimony”? Is it to paint your fellow veterans as baby killers, as the first “Winter Soldier” painted us? Just by the fact that you call your movement the same name of Kerry’s and Fonda’s group foretells where your motives lie.

    I’ll be in Washington DC standing shoulder to shoulder with Colonel Riley and the other veterans of EaglesUp to confront those of you in Winter Soldier.

    Never again shall one generation of veterans abandon another.

  • 4 Harry Riley // Jan 15, 2008 at 7:45 pm

    To Dissenting Patriot,

    My first question is “what is Winter Soldier II all about? Exactly what is your view? You think my language is disturbing? I wish you had been with me in my fox-hole in 1969 and you would really understand something disturbing.

    This is not about agreeing or disagreeing with policy of the US government, it is about defeating a ruthless, barbaric, murdering bunch of hate-filled Islamic killers.

    Whether the war is right or not, we’re in it and to surrender would only embolden the enemy as it did in Viet Nam and hasten the destruction of America.

    Is Winter Soldier Testimony giving any consideration to gathering evidence on the atrocities of these Islamic killers? Are you going to be fair and balanced and show pictures of the desecrated bodies of all the women, children, helpless and innocent bystanders that have been blown to bits bycar bombs, IED devices in Iraq and Afghanistan? Not to mention what has been done to American warriors and civilians.

    Don’t you realize the Islamic radicals have been hitting America for decades? They have been killing our troops in their barracks, bombing our embassies, blowing up our planes, attacking our ships…..you want an event that will dwarf 9-11? Get weak knees and watch a major city disintegrate taking millions of lives….is there any doubt in your mind the Islamic butchers won’t do it if we show weakness?

    Would a nuclear detonation in one of our cities be enough to convince you the enemy is real and it’s not America? Or would you be one of the arm-chair quarterbacks and complain the leadership should have taken pre-emptive action?

    Are you sympathetic to the Taliban and al Qaeda butchers?

    Have you forgotten these killers flew our own passenger planes into the twin towers in New York city, the Pentagon, and would have hit the US Capitol or White House had it not been for Americans willing to lay down their lives and cause the fourth plane to crash?

    Given what I have experienced by the so-called anti-war movement (and let me ensure you understand that as a warrior, I speak for 99% of all warriors… we are more anti-war than anyone) nothing good will likely come from the planned Winter Soldier II event in Washington DC in March.

    The hand-writing is on the wall…WSII is looking for anyone that will confess to any type war-crime whether true or false….mistakes have been made, I recognize that and it happens in all wars…..the WS in 1971 was filled with testimony that was totally false, full of fabrications, distortions, and much from people who had never served in the military.

    John Kerry and Jane Fonda should have faced prosecution and still be in prison…my friend served almost six years in the Hanoi Hilton and was aware of Jane Fonda’s presence nearby…Kerry and Fonda and other of the “anti-war” movement through their despicable lies were able to convince gutless politicians to surrender the war in Viet Nam that our American warriors had won.

    We were spit on, hit with tomatoes, ridiculed, called baby killers, simply because we honored our oath and performed our duty. Did we want to be in South East Asia………no, but America called, we went.

    Winter Soldier has a reputation void of truth and we who hold a different view of America and what she’s about will not allow Winter Soldier, ANSWER, Code Pink, CAIR, or any other movement to subject this generation of warriors to the same dishonorable accusations, false testimony, anti-troop bigotry, that destroys the morale, their fighting spirit and puts the security of America in jeopardy.

    No one had my back when I and millions more served in Viet Nam…no one spoke up for us…the anti-war movement had free reign of the streets with their despicable messages of surrender, no one challenged the unfounded lies, but no more.

    Eagles are soaring and will descend on Washington DC again March 15 by the tens of thousands…we will counter WSII, ANSWER, Code Pink, CAIR, with a message that America is worth fighting for…just for the record, I’d go to Iraq in a minute if called.

    I’ve had enough of the whining, shrill surrender message and so has the majority of America…it’s too bad the majority are too damn lazy to get off their ass and standup for their nation.

    God bless our troops and their families.

    Harry Riley, COL, USA, Ret

  • 5 EagleII // Jan 15, 2008 at 8:25 pm

    Hello Dissenting Patriot,

    I believe in calling an Ace and Ace. Your diatribe mixes apples and oranges, no more than a clever attempt to mask the goals of IVAW, a group full of wannabe’s who never served, much like Kerry’s Fairy band of brothers, or REMFS. Granted there may be a few combat vets who were sucked in, but truly a minority.

    Lets look at just one of your ilk.. Jesse “Ass Clown” MacBeth, you remeber Jesse though I bet you’d like to forget he was “BUSTED”..
    He stole a page from Kerry Fairy’s Winter Soldier BS.. but this time the lie was, thankfully short lived.

    Jesse MacBeth, the lying scumbag who became a hero of the left when he claimed to be an Army Ranger and alleged that the US military was routinely murdering Iraqi civilians, has been sentenced to 5 months in prison. ( I think it should have been years – he’s lucky I was not the prosecutor/Judge )

    MacBeth claimed that he was an Army ranger who killed more than 200 people, many at close range, including some as they prayed in a mosque. He spoke at an anti-war rally in Tacoma and appeared in a 20-minute anti-war video that circulated widely on the Internet.

    In reality, MacBeth made it through only six weeks of Army basic training and never set foot in Iraq.

    PepperSpray Productions in Seattle produced the video titled “Jesse MacBeth: An Iraq Veteran Speaks Out.” In the film, MacBeth told nuanced tales of brutal killings he carried out at the behest of his commanding officers.

    “They would actually feel the hot muzzle of my rifle on their forehead,” he reportedly said on the video, which is no longer in circulation.

    No need to reply Dissenting Patriot ( of what country I might ask?) If you do I will print it out and stock my bathroom with sheets of BS toiletpaper.

    and thats the way it is.. as you sell out brothers in arms for a moment of what you now perceive as glory. Kerry got his payback to some extent in 2004 as pledged by many, the same pledge that will apply to you and your ilk, your Anti-Troop andti-US stances will never be forgotten and one day they will catch up to you and bite you in the arse.

    ain’t that the truth..

    http://www.soft-vision.com/warriors ( Catch The Spirit )
    They are in the thick of it for YOU, can you make the trip
    with just a support sign for them?
    http://www.eaglesup.us (Become part of the Solution.. back to back with those in harms way )

  • 6 DanNY // Jan 28, 2008 at 1:06 am

    Hey, Dissenting Patriot, here’s a post on another blog that you should read. Your name is on it and I think they do a fair analysis of your history and that of your buddies in treason.

    I just got back from po’ing some of your buds in Massachusetts, more traitorous skank wannabes.

    Go join your ex-bud Jesse Macbeth when he gets out of prison, faker.

    Dan Maloney
    NY State Coordinator
    Gathering of Eagles

  • 7 DanNY // Jan 28, 2008 at 1:10 am

    The link to the other post is here:

    http://3-116thsniper.blogspot.com/2007/10/meet-heroes-of-iraq-veterans-against.html

    Dan

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