Big Dogs Weblog

Gathering of Eagles the Day After

by Big Dog on Mar 18, 2007 at 16:46 Uncategorized

As many of you know, I attended the Gathering of Eagles yesterday. I enjoyed the event and I think a lot came out of it. On Friday evening I met Kit and Heidi from Euphoric Reality and I was really impressed with how committed and genuine they are. So often you meet a fellow blogger and they turn out completely different than what you expected but these two are class acts. No doubt they were disappointed by meeting the Dog because I probably turned out exactly as they expected, much to their horror. I met Bushwack from American and Proud. I also met his wife and son and they are genuinely nice, patriotic, and decent folks. I am really fortunate to have these kinds of friends. I was unable to meet Always on Watch from the web site of the same name but was able to speak to her on Friday evening via cell phone. It would have been great to meet her. I was also unable to meet Justin from Right on the Right. I look forward to meeting these friends the next time. There were also many friends there in spirit and I hope to meet them in the future as well.

The GOE allowed a group of people who are seldom heard from to let America know that we are here and we are here in numbers. The GOE website is reporting an unofficial number of 30,000 veterans and their supporters. This is a group of people who have been silent for decades while carrying out the work required to keep this country safe and free. While we remained silent and did our jobs the America hating anti war crowd grew stronger and became emboldened because for way too long their voices were the only ones being heard. I am sure they were quite surprised at our turn out and now the President and Congress know we are here and we will remain silent no longer. Like children who have always gotten their way, the anti war crowd seemed indignant that we would dare to invade their space. They would do well to remember they have space because we fought to keep it.

I believe the Park Police and the other police agencies did a great job of keeping order. I also believe that they were quite a bit apprehensive about this particular gathering because this is the first time anyone knows of that so many veterans got together to demonstrate in favor of America and in direct contrast to the kind of people John Kerry associated with. The police knew that veterans are disciplined and will follow orders but they also knew that anti war protesters get violent and an act of aggression toward a group of veterans might turn into a bloodbath that the police would be powerless to control. The group of veterans featured people highly trained to fight and to win and we could have removed quite a bit of vermin from our society in a matter of minutes. But, true to our training and in concert with our belief that we defend the Constitution, we expressed pride that the anti war protesters were able to say what they wanted because that means we did our jobs and we did them well. We do not agree with what they had to say but we would fight to our deaths protecting their right to say it. The names on that Wall are the names of people who did just that and we honor their memory by ensuring people are free to speak. We vowed that this would remain the case so long as the anti war crowd did not threaten us or attempt to harm us. It would seem that those people had enough sense to leave us alone.

I saw a sea of red, white, and blue on our side and aside from a passing flag here and there saw non of the same in their camp. They had a sea of yellow signs (an appropriate color for them) criticizing every thing that America stands for. Fine, that is their right but they also learned a very valuable lesson yesterday. The silent majority is silent no more and the anti war crowd is no longer the only game in town. It must have made the President feel good when Marine 1 flew over that sea of American Flags, I know it made me feel good to be in that sea.

The American left has learned that there is a new sheriff in town and we will no longer accept their cowardice. We will not allow the appeasers in Congress who snatched defeat from victory in Vietnam to do the same to our troops who are fighting the war on terror.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Eagles have landed.

Don’t forget to Digg this post.

UPDATE: Maverick News Media has a great post about the day.
Justin at Right on the Right almost converts an anti war protester
Speed of Thought tells us about Tuscon
A Soldier’s Perspective talks about the GOE
Old War Dogs has their round-up
Captain’s Quarters Chimes in

Click on a thumbnail to view the photos. You can open them one at a time or click through them once the first one is opened.

Tags: Commentary