Energy Independence Must Be The Path For America

Since the 1970s, Americans and their elected representatives have failed to make the United States energy independent.  That includes every president from Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama. Yet all of us are equally responsible, including the members of Congress who looked the other way.

After the energy crisis during Jimmy Carter’s administration, American citizens listened to scores of candidates call for energy independence, but we never forced them to keep their promises.

Every time gas prices dropped again, the sense of urgency vanished. We returned to our spoiled lives, our big cars, and our fancy televisions. After all - we would whisper to ourselves - this is America. Surely everything will work out just fine. Now all of us are guilty of “energy negligence.”

Barack Obama has lofty ideals for “green energy” which one might expect from a college professor with limited real world experience. Yet his dream for an energy-perfect world filled with unicorns is unrealistic for now. Instead of waiting for business to develop new technology that is commercially viable, the president chooses to force feed his policies on America. He forgets that we are a nation of average people who don’t really want – and can’t afford - $30,000 electric cars that only go a short distance before needing hours of charging.

The United States has the resources in oil, natural gas, and coal, to be energy independent. We shouldn’t have to bow to foreign dictators in order to feed our energy machine. It’s true that such energy independence won’t happen overnight. But in the meantime, we could create millions of energy-related jobs. We need new oil fields, refineries, pipelines, offshore drilling, coal mines and more federal land open to energy exploration. Yes, the environment is important, but not at the expense of American independence.

Current and past presidents - and the members of Congress who served alongside them - should be ashamed for allowing us to end up in the position we are today. And all of us who failed to hold them accountable should also be ashamed. After all, we’re the ones who sent them to Washington.

Our president after November, 2012, must move our nation toward energy independence – no matter how long it takes. And we must elect members of Congress who will do so as well. I don’t think Barack Obama is the man with the vision to do what needs to be done. I believe he should be replaced, but I am still deciding who I feel that replacement should be.

The final decision is yours, America. Make the right choice or you will only have yourselves to blame…..again….

Charles M. Grist

www.MyLastWar.com

In His Own Words: Ronald Reagan On Socialism

When you listen to the video below, relate Ronald Reagan's words to what is happening in America today under Barack Obama. Socialist health care, big government intrusion into every aspect of our lives (energy, food, etc.), encroachment on the rights of the individual, suppressing business opportunity, and threatening our right to determine our own destiny.

I listened today to interviews with some of our young supposedly educated kids. The question was which war gained us our independence. These morons said Civil War, Korean War, British war (whatever that is), and only one said Revolutionary War. Our schools are failing our nation by not teaching our children where their freedom came from and by not defining the kind of people who would like to take that freedom away.

I'm sure these same brilliant young people would have no problem telling you who won American idol or what their favorite brainless TV or movie star did last week.

Ask yourselves: Do you really want the government to do everything for you and make all your decisions for you, or do you simply want the opportunity to work hard and achieve your dreams?

Once you see this, perhaps you will see how important it will be to VOTE REPUBLICAN in 2012:



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Charles M. Grist
www.MyLastWar.com

Google Begins Censorship of Blogger Blogs

Here we go. Google will now censor blogs like "American Ranger", forwarding the web address to local blogs in some other countries. Call it what you like; censorship is censorship and removing access to MY blog by sending it to some local blog in another country is NOT promoting free expression.

I am afraid I may have to seek another domain location for this blog. I receive comments and emails from readers in other countries. I also value my ability to spread the message of our troops and our American values to other nations.

Sadly, this may mean changes regarding my gmail account and other resources I use from Google.

I will not be censored....

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Google to allow censorship of Blogger content

By Brendan Sasso - 02/01/12 03:21 PM ET

The Hill

The change will allow Google to comply with censorship requests on a "per country basis."

"Migrating to localized domains will allow us to continue promoting free expression and responsible publishing while providing greater flexibility in complying with valid removal requests pursuant to local law," Google wrote. Google quietly revealed earlier this month it will allow censorship in some countries of content on its Blogger service.

The move came shortly before Twitter announced it will allow foreign governments to censor specific Tweets.

On Jan. 9, Google said that users in some countries accessing the Blogger platform will be redirected to a country-specific Web addresses.

"For example, if you're in Australia and viewing [blogname].blogspot.com, you might be redirected [blogname].blogspot.com.au," Google explained.

The censored content will still be accessible from other countries.

The policy change went mostly unnoticed until TechDows and Wired reported on it Tuesday.

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Charles M. Grist

www.MyLastWar.com

Obama In His Own Words On His Energy Policy

"Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket." Barack Obama, January 2008

It's hard to believe, but there are people out there who never heard Obama say this. (You can watch him in the video below.) I urge you to remind yourselves of the energy policy (or lack of one) that he implementing - and PASS THIS ON TO YOUR UNINFORMED FRIENDS.

Remember that Obama gave Brazil a couple of billion dollars for oil exploration, asking them to sell it to us. They  just announced they are going to sell it to China.

Obama won't let us drill in the Gulf, open new oil fields, or build new refineries. In fact, some of those Gulf oil rigs have left. Where did they go? Brazil.

The Keystone Pipeline would reduce our dependency on foreign oil by 8%, and we would buy oil from Canada, one of our best friends. Obama won't approve it, so where might the Canadians sell it? China, of course.

We have enough energy resources (oil, natural gas, coal, etc.) to make us energy independent for generations. Obama is doing everything he can to prevent Americans from accessing their own resources.

You'd almost think he was intentionally trying to destroy us....

Here is his cap and trade statement on video. Pass it on:



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Vote Republican in November as if your life depended on it - because it does.

Charles M. Grist
www.MyLastWar.com

Remembering The Past - And Learning From It

Lieutenant Chuck Grist - Vietnam

I returned from Vietnam on August 8, 1971. A week or so later, I received a phone call from Charlie Wadsworth, a columnist with the Orlando Sentinel. Since I was a “hometown boy” back from the war, he asked me to come down to his office for a brief interview, which I agreed to do. At the time I was a twenty-two year old Army first lieutenant with fresh memories of dead friends, dead enemy soldiers, the smell of the jungle, and a country that didn't care where I had been.

To put the following column in context, the war was winding down, and the “Vietnamization” of that war was in full swing. In the last years of the war, those of us in combat became the victims of the drawdown in the sense that supplies were reduced, artillery rounds were saved, and other cost-saving measures were implemented.

These money-saving measures put us at grave risk, and we became bitter about it. Since America had decided to pull out of Vietnam short of victory, the most frequent comment in my unit was that none of us wanted to be the last soldier to die in Vietnam.

By the way, as I made my way home on August 8, I was spat on in the San Francisco airport by a group of "hippies" and called a murderer by a faceless coward in an Atlanta airport crowd. My family was glad to see me, but I took my uniform off that night and didn't wear it again for almost ten years.

Charlie Wadsworth was a legendary reporter in Orlando. His “Hush Puppies” column appeared daily:

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HUSH PUPPIES

Orlando Sentinel

August 17, 1971

By Charlie Wadsworth, Columnist

Another young Orlandoan is freshly and safely home from a year in Vietnam.

Here are some excerpts from an absorbing conversation with Lt. Charles M. ‘Chuck’ Grist, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Grist:

“…I sincerely believe the reasons we went into Vietnam were good but I don’t like the way it is winding down. Support is harder to get, and in my opinion it is time to leave Vietnam altogether.

“…If after a decade that we have been there the South Vietnamese can’t do it now they won’t ever do it.

“…When you come home it hits you immediately. The people in the U.S. seem to be oblivious to what happens outside of the U.S. I think the people are concerned about Vietnam, but can’t comprehend what has gone on over there and what is going on now.

“…The war stinks, it really does.’

Lt. Grist was with the 1^st Cavalry Division in the flatland regions some 60 miles northeast of Saigon. He was a platoon leader for seven months.

He talked about the narcotics question, and his answers may be different from some of the reports you have been reading of late.

“We never had a problem with it (drugs) in the field in any way in my platoon.  When I became executive officer, I found some problems – some severe – in the rear areas.

“I found it restricted to the rear of both company and battalion, some bad heroin addiction.

“The thing I found is the people in the field won’t allow it. Every now and then someone would try it but his buddies squared him away in a hurry.

“We got some replacements once. A sergeant found one of the replacements on some stuff. He said he had found the man and straightened him out, and he also told me that it would not happen again.

“You had to have utmost cooperation in the field, and people who would not cooperate were kicked out. You make good friends out there. That’s where you make the real friendships, and a man will cooperate and straighten up rather than risk losing the friends he has made, or adding additional risk to the job they’re doing.

“With the units pulling out as they are, it is hard for units to get support, to get things like clothes, for example. Flying time of helicopters has been cut back. That is why in my opinion it is time to leave Vietnam altogether.

“…I think I accomplished what I wanted, to go out there and find out what it really is all about. I want to know what I’m talking about, not just someone shooting off at the mouth. It was the single greatest experience of my life,” he added.

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That last sentence may seem unusual, but for a young man who had given so much, I guess I was attempting to justify that the scars on my body and soul were somehow worth it all.

Following this interview, I began a two year decline from the happy-go-lucky Airborne Ranger I had been before my tour in Vietnam, to a guy who saw only darkness, who drank himself into oblivion on a regular basis, who tried college but dropped out after only two weeks, and who partied like there was no tomorrow.

If not for the timely arrival of the woman who would become my wife, who knows what ditch I would have ended up in. Debbie inspired me to put the past behind me and move on.

We are now in the midst of a drawdown in Afghanistan. As we slowly withdraw our brave warriors, surely some of them must be asking themselves, “Will I be the last G.I. to die in Afghanistan?”

We must not allow the political desire to leave Afghanistan to permit a lack of support for our troops. No shortcuts, no lack of supplies, no lack of artillery or air support, and please continue to welcome them home – not like you welcomed me home from Vietnam – but just like you welcomed me home from Iraq…..

Charles M. Grist

www.MyLastWar.com

Act of Valor - The Movie To See In 2012

The following movie trailer is awesome. Real Navy SEALs were used in the filming of this action movie.

Enjoy the trailer and pass it on; this is a movie for real Americans who want to see real good guys in action - without the typical Hollywood gratuitous bull:



Charles M. Grist
Author of the award-winning book My Last War: A Vietnam Veteran's Tour in Iraq

Victory In Iraq - Now It's Up To The Iraqis

Me at Baghdad's Camp Victory in early 2004 

I'm a Vietnam veteran as well as a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, so I know a little about guerrilla wars. Sometimes they end well, and sometimes they don't.

You see, I remember what it felt like to sit in my living room in April, 1975, staring at the television while enemy tanks rolled into Saigon. Only then did I have the painful realization that my fellow soldiers and I had fought and bled for a lost cause.

I'm not ashamed to say I cried that day. I remembered the hardships of my own months in Vietnam's jungles, and I saw the faces of my lost friends in the dark corners of my mind. To be honest, I still see them almost every day. You know - those couple of hours in the middle of the night when sleep won't come and the mind refuses to rest. Such is the legacy of Vietnam.

Although the losses are just as painful, the story in Iraq is a different one. When our last soldiers arrive home before Christmas and Iraq's security rests in its own hands, we can honestly say we have been victorious.

There are now over thirty million people living in Iraq. Because of the sacrifice of America and its coalition partners, there is a democratic government elected by the people. Is everything perfect? Of course not. But the problems that remain can only be solved by Iraqis. Whether it is sectarian differences or problems caused by foreign terrorists, it is time for Iraq to take care of itself.

What do I fear most now that we have pulled our soldiers out of Iraq? I fear the influence of Iran, a Shiite country that provides training and equipment to radical Shiites in Iraq like Muqtada al Sadr and the Mahdi Army.

But Americans cannot stay in Iraq forever. The truth is that wherever we go, we become a lightning rod for those with ancient reasons for hating foreign intervention. It was this way in Vietnam, in Iraq, and it is also the same in Afghanistan.

We must welcome our troops home from Iraq as the victorious warriors they are. We shall help them recover both physically and mentally, and they should be proud of all they accomplished.

We shall also continue to extend the hand of friendship to the Iraqi people. While many fundamentalist Iraqis will always hate us, there are a lot of Iraqis who will never forget the generosity of America or our sacrifices on their behalf. We have done all we can to give them a chance for a free and prosperous future.

The rest is up to them...

Charles M. Grist
Author of the award-winning book My Last War: A Vietnam Veteran's Tour in Iraq