Bracelet Wars*

I am from Merrill, I went to school with Ryan and my family knows his. My brother-in-law just had a conversation with Ryan's mom about this yesterday and she said (while giving him an Obama sign from the huge pile in her living room), that she was proud of Obama mentioning Ryan, and that Obama had called her to personally apologize if he had offended her, and she told him he had nothing to apologize for and that he had done well.

Yes, Senator Obama is wearing a HeroBracelet in the name of SGT Jopek. The bracelet was presented to him by his mother.

I am with HeroBracelets and Senator McCain and President Bush have both been presented HeroBracelts by the mothers of fallen soldiers. Recently, other members of the Jopek family have ordered HeroBracelets to "read exactly like the bracelet Senator Obama is wearing."

So, from my direct experience, this is a non-issue. In addition, this is from an AP news story:

"Tracy Jopek of Merrill told The Associated Press on Sunday she was honored that Obama remembered Sgt. Ryan David Jopek, who was killed in 2006 by a roadside bomb. Jopek criticized Internet reports suggesting Obama, D-Ill., exploited her son for political purposes.
"I don't understand how people can take that and turn it into some garbage on the Internet," she said.
Jopek acknowledged e-mailing the Obama campaign in February asking that the presidential candidate not mention her son in speeches or debates. But she said Obama's mention on Friday was appropriate because he was responding after Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee, said a soldier's mother gave him a bracelet."

Thousands are wearing HeroBracelets to honor the memories of soldiers and Marines they have never met and they do so out of respect.

HeroBracelets is a non-political organization that raises money through the bracelet sales for both the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund and the Military Order of The Purple Heart.

Wah! I have a bracelet too, cried Nobama......in the words of his equally unqualified running mate..... "Stand up chuck, let em see ya".

Nobama is a dangerous and thuggish politician.
Nobama made some of the most profit from the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae Scandal which has caused the economic disaster that we are paying for today, and apparently will be paying for, for a long time to come.

Democrats Covering up, blaming the regulator and outright lieing, defending their cash cow back in 2004, when McCain and other Republicans warned of this pending crisis.

Nobama,your hero and beneficiary of the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Scam that caused our Economic Crisis of today………
Now….How do you NObama supporters and other Democrats defend this?…..You Cant!

To Intelligent Voter:

"Greg,
I'm tired of hearing about McCain's service as a war hero. What kind of hero is he to our veterans now? He votes against any kind of bill which benefits vets, medical, education, you name it-McCain is against it."

I agree he's making too much of an issue of his service, although I still find it to be very important considering the situation we are in with regards to the ongoing war. To be honest as a Vet I have more benefits that I know what to do with, so I'm not sure what bills you are referring to. If you are indeed an intelligent voter (and judging by your previous posts, you seem to be just that), but you know as well as I do that as soon as a major bill comes along everyone in congress attachs nearly limitless add-ons and pork-barrel special appropriations to benefit a small group of their voters. It's sad, but many major bills must be defeated not to stop the main bill, but all the attached pork. I fully admit I'm not well versed in every vote McCain has made, and if you can point me to a non-partisan appraisal of his voting record, I'd like to see it.

"There are just as many people out there who believe that the war in Iraq was unjust."

I'm fully aware of that. America is fairly well divided over this issue. I respect your right to think it unjust, I just don't see much evidence to support your opinion. I'm quite happy that a mass murderer on the scale of Stalin and Hitler is dead, his horrific regime is in ruins, and a formerly oppressed people now have a fighting chance at living a life instead of just surviving in the shadows of an evil regime. If you don't think that's worth fighting for, well then that is your opinion. I personally think it is worth the fight.

You talk about 4,000 casualties in 5 years of war, when we lost more men than that in a day on Tarawa, or in an hour at Shiloh. I don't meant to reduce human lives to mere statistics, but the truth is more people have been murdered in Chicago in the past six months than have been killed in Baghdad.

"More frightening--McCain has anger issues, that may be a result of his war history. I think we should have the right to examine his medical records to see what pyschological affect the war had on McCain."

We all have anger issues. It's just a matter of degree. Not sure what you are referring to, but again if you have a credible source, please share the link.

In closing I'd like to say that none of this is personal, I think it's important that we all talk about these issues and not bottle them up. So please do not take anything I have said as an insult, I just don't agree with you.

Concerned in OH, WRONG!!!!!!! the mother asked Obama not to use it in his stump speeches and was honored when he came back at McCain but with a different twist, he told how the mother did not want other mothers to bare the burden of losing their child in the Iraq War.

So Obama was so touched by the fallen
soldier's mother, he had to look down
to read the name of her son during a debate on foreign policy. Since everyone knows McCain wear a bracelet, the topic was bound to arise. His handlers should do a better job of preparing his props because that is exactly how it looked to the voters in the 57 states watching tv during the great depression...

The new President should wear every single day a new bracelet of a fallen soldier so he is reminded every single day that war is the very last option a country should take to settle political differences.

Concerned in Ohio....why don't you read everything before you comment? The Mother of the soldier said she was estatic that Obama brought up the bracelet during the debate. And, there are two sides to every war, and Obama was pointing that out, after McCain played the "hero" card again.

Greg,
I'm tired of hearing about McCain's service as a war hero. What kind of hero is he to our veterans now? He votes against any kind of bill which benefits vets, medical, education, you name it-McCain is against it. There are just as many people out there who believe that the war in Iraq was unjust..it started with a lie and has killed over 4000 Americans, hundreds of thousands of Iraq citizens, and cost this counrty billions. It's not honorable, it's not just, it's tragic. McCain pulls the "war hero" jargon out when he doesn't have anything else to say---it's a political talking point with him. More frightening--McCain has anger issues, that may be a result of his war history. I think we should have the right to examine his medical records to see what pyschological affect the war had on McCain.

To be honest, I feel that there is information missing from this article that is not depicting a true picture of the whole event. Ex-husband, of course he is going to say she didn't want this especially if they are two different sides of the fence. We as a country are now about information not who looks good. That was the old way, let's continue on in the 20th Century.

Sandra

The war in Iraq IS and always has been an unjust war. Saddam Hussein was accused of having weapons of mass destruction - which he did not have and SAID he did not have. He was accused of being allied with Osama Bin Laden and participating in some never mentioned way in the attack on 9/11, but he did not. Al Quaida wasn't even IN Iraq before we shoved our unwanted guns and troops down Iraq's throat. The 1991 war against Iraq - Desert Storm - WAS justified, because Iraq had invaded Kuwait and didn't think we'd do anything about it. He was wrong, but then-president Bush was right in not going all the way to Baghdad and trying to depose him. We shouldn't have done that; there's no excuse for us to have done that; and President Bush lied to us about it. He lied again and got Congress to enact the Patriot Act. Now he's trying to shove another "crisis" down our throats, and I hope Congress has enough sense to say "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, try to fool me a third time, and you'll get knocked back on your .... haunches.

to chattyway...

Sorry to disappoint you, but you need to re-read my comments. I am CONDEMNING as absurd the implication that this is an unjust war. Quite the contrary, it is equally as justified as any war the US has fought since its inception as a nation.

The real question is why didn't we start "regime change" on this continent, ie Mexico. It has an equally horrid record with regards to human rights as did the former regime in Iraq, and has a much more significant impact on the US economy.

The world is a better place for having removed Saddam and his sadistic offspring from the gene pool, so please tell me why this war was "unjust" compared to any other in recent history. Was it more "just" to allow the genocide in Rwanda with no action? Is it more "just" to allow FARC rebels in Columbia to kidnap Americans at will?

I'm really just dying to hear what you call a just war vs. an unjust one. By all means, please enlighten me.

Anybody who has intelligence can really afford Palin as VP or Potential POTUS?

How About the judgment of Maccain who pick this woman without serious consideration of this country?

I really don't believe his slogan.
It should be changed into this.

Maccain First, Country Last.

Are you still having your bracelets war? Can't believe it, the country is going down with a big bang, and you are still in this? Well, I guess similar discussions were held on the Titanic...we'll never know because these folks are dead....

To Haley:

"Greg, just because McCain faught in the war back in the 1600's does not mean that he will make a good president."

You are right, but it will make him qualified to be commander in chief, which is really what the office is about in the first place. Also this ancient war of which you speak is similar to our current situation in many respects, so his experience is highly relevant. The office of the president is an executive position. It is up to the congress to pass statutory law and present the president with a budget. He does not have the powers of emperator as you seem to indicate.

"If this is the case then are you saying anybody that soldier could make it as President?"

No, it does not mean that at all. There are many that spent a couple of yearas in the service that turned out to be dirtbags. But McCain spent over 20 years in the military rising to the rank of Captain (equivalent to a Colonel in the Army), and was a squadron commander which gave him valuable executive experience, something which Obama doesn't have in any form.

"The war is just a small issue in this campaign." Not really. It centers around the region from which we get most of our imported energy, which is crucial to the economy and world stability. Secondly, the entire muslim world is watching how we play our end-game in Iraq. If we don't do it just right, we condemn the world to another generation of religiously fueled terror.

"The biggest issue is the economy which McCain knows absolutely nothing about."

Really? So when he introduced legislation to institute regulations on an out of control lending market, and was blocked by none other than Barney Franks, he showed no knowledge of the coming economic doom? The real truth this current economic situation was created in the 1990's by the Clinton administration and it's policy to force lending institutions to "abandon" such criteria as credit history, income, and ability to repay loans when considering the mortgage applications of minority and low-income applicants. This policy continued into the new century and John McCain, as stated above, had attempted to rein in the dangerously overextended market but was defeated by Senate democrats.

"And congress supported the war because the reason they were told they were going to war, which later turned out to be a lie."

Really? A bi-partisan committee report exonerated Bush and found no evidence that he in any way influenced the content of the intelligence reports, and even Hillary Clinton claimed to have seen the same intelligence at the time and fully supported President Bush. Furthermore this issue predates the Bush presidency. In 1998 numerous politicians, including Hillary Clinton, Harry Reid, and several other high ranking democrats declared Saddam Hussein a threat, that he had WMD and had used them on numerous occasions, and that there was a legitimate concern that he might allow those weapons to fall into the hands of terrorists. This was all stated by then President, Bill Clinton.

Back to the bracelet issue, I don't think McCain should have brought it up, but since he has seen war, been injured, tortured and seen his friends die, I'd say he has the right to speak about our fallen if he chooses. Obama just looked silly, just like he always does when he has to deviate from his script.

Of course he should wear it. Gotcha John, I too have a bracelet. So don't use that "sentimental" gimmick again!

Mother is estatic. So, why the queation?

Greg - I totally agree with you. The Iraq war is an unjust war and McCain needs to shut up about his stupid bracelet.

I heard a lot of stuttering and stammering from Obama, and a whole lot of irritated facial switches. Why can't he answer a question directly? He talks in circles. I never heard him say anything but he plans to raise taxes.

READ....... S L O W L Y
however, the notion that Obama is wearing the hero bracelet against the wishes of the family -- or more specifically, the mother, who gave him the bracelet -- is more complicated that it first seemed. She did ask Obama to stop mentioning her son on the stump, ************************ but she approved of the way Obama invoked her son in the debate **********

First off, I know the Jopek's, and have many friends that still have and wear the bracelet with Ryan's name on it. Tracy gave Obama the bracelet for a reason. She wanted him to wear it. She never asked him not to. Why would she have givin it to him just to later tell him not to wear it? She asked him not to use it in the campaign to make an issue out of it, and he hasn't. He used it as a response, to show McCain that not every family that has lost somebody in the war supports it and wants them to stay there. She supported him in his response, and was happy that he did it in this way. It was not just because he remembered him that she was happy, it was the way he handled it. It was Brian, a McCain supporter, that did not want Obama to wear the bracelet so he is making it look like Obama disrespected her wishes, which he did not. Just because he doesn't want Obama to wear it because he is a McCain supporter, is he not supposed to?

Greg, just because McCain faught in the war back in the 1600's does not mean that he will make a good president. If this is the case then are you saying anybody that soldier could make it as President? I don't think so. The war is just a small issue in this campaign. The biggest issue is the economy which McCain knows absolutely nothing about. And congress supported the war because the reason they were told they were going to war, which later turned out to be a lie. Bush wanted a war, and he got it. He invaded a country that had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11, and now the issue is how to get out of it.