Marines kicked out of Toledo, Oh. by the Democrat Mayor!

MAcciard said...

Publius, please accept this as an article submission.

Marines kicked out of Toledo, Oh. by the Democrat Mayor!

I heard this story reported to day, and it sums up so much that is wrong with my Country.

When I served and traveled in uniform noone noticed. Today there are many people like myself, who will take the time to go over and introduce ourselves to a uniformed soldier, sailor, marine, airman that we see in public. I usually will go over and greet them by name and rank, introduce myself, and say, simply thank you, no matter what you may read in the papers, you and your service are appreciated.

But I read today, that the mayor of Toledo, Oh. managed to accomplish, in AMERICA, what Al Queda has not been able to accomplish in Iraq, that is to run the U.S. Marines out of town!

OK, so 200 Marines stationed in Grand Rapids, Michigan, piled on to five buses and came to Toledo, Ohio, yesterday to practice some urban patrol exercises. The Toledo police knew about the request for the three-day exercise well in advance, but somehow Mayor Carty Finkbeiner didn’t see the memo requesting permission for the event. So when when the first bus arrives at 3:20 p.m. and Staff Sergeant Andre Davis steps off, he is greeted by a city employee and told that the mayor wanted him and his soldiers out of town by 6 p.m. “I wish,” Sgt Davis drily remarked, “they would have told us this four hours ago.” [Update: a reader points out that it is incorrect to refer to Marines as “soldiers”: soldiers serve in the army, not the Marines. I regret the mistake. I further regret referring to SSgt Davis incorrectly as “Sergeant”!]

Indeed.

I gather that Mayor Finkbeiner (a Democrat, readers will be surprised to learn), like the folks in Berkeley, California, can’t think of the United States Marines without having the first lines of “The Destruction of Sennacherib” float through his head (“The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold …”) “The mayor asked them to leave because they frighten people,” said Brian Schwartz, the mayor’s spokesman.

Gee, isn’t that a shame?

Lance Corporal Brandon Bukrey-McCarty recalled how useful such training was when he had been deployed in Fallujah in 2006-2007. The training, he said, “got me used to looking up on rooftops, looking around every alley, every open door.”

Too bad, Brandon! Carty Finkbeiner thinks having U.S. soldiers in town will frighten the voters, so your comrades will just have to do without that training.

The company’s commanding officer, Major Jeffrey O’Neill, was disappointed by Carty Finkbeiner’s cold shoulder—it would, he noted, be difficult to find a suitable alternative venue for the exercise—but “we’re Marines,” he said, “We’ll adapt and overcome.”

I have no doubt about that. I hope part of the adaptation will be to present the City of Toledo—or maybe Carty Finkbeiner himself—with the $10,000 tab that the aborted exercise cost the Marines.

Mayor Finkbeiner can boast on his official website that Tony Packos Restaurant in Toledo was “made famous on the television show M*A*S*H.” But when he has an opportunity to help the men and women who in real life protect this country, including the City of Toledo, he refuses to grant them the sort of permit he would routinely give to a bunch of anti-American activists who wanted to organize a protest march down Main Street.

I am having trouble believing that I am now living in a world where in the United States of America, the UNITED STATES MARINES, the greatest fighting force on earth, are routinely ridiculed by the Majority political party in the land!

I am appalled everytime I hear Hillary talk about the military when her treatment of the military members she came into contact with during her husbands term, are well documented.

These are the people that wish to serve as commander in chief of the military, yet they dont respect them enough to let them train for the ordeals they will be facing in a foreign land.

You can debate all you want about whether or not we should have gone in there in the first place, but the fact is we are there now, and to leave will merely create a vacuum in the second largest oil supply on earth. Do you really want Al Queda controlling that kind of wealth?

The issue here is that the United States Marines coordinated a training exercise with local police, and first responders, and the MAYOR decided they were "too scary" to be within the city limits.

Also note that the city of Berkeley, CA. is currently trying to evict the armed forces recruiting offices from within the city limits.

People, we are now in a time of WAR! Our sons and daughters are now IN HARM'S WAY! Politics should STOP AT THE WATER'S EDGE and you should do everything within your power to support and help these fine young people.

For those of you who do not know any military people these people by and large represent the very best among us! They understand fully the principles this country was founded upon, and they have sworn an oath to defend it.

Maybe we can deport the mayors of Toledo and Berkeley to Cuba or Venezuela, and see how they like it there.