via What our sons can teach America – USATODAY.com.
By Melvin Bledsoe, and Daris Long
This spring, the Obama administration threatened to veto the 2013 Defense Authorization Act. Of all the reasons given for the threat, the objection to granting the Purple Heart to Pvt. Andy Long stands out as strange. That is, unless you know the story.
On June 1, 2009, Pvt. Long was killed outside an Army recruiting office in Little Rock by Carlos Bledsoe, who had become Abdul Hakim Mohammed after converting to Islam. Since then, we, the fathers of Carlos and Andy, have been trying to tell our story so that other parents do not experience our tragedy.
Carlos grew up in a loving, church-going family. There’s a picture of Carlos at his high school graduation with a huge smile on his face, ready to go off to Tennessee State University for college. He looked forward to becoming a businessman and joining the family owned tour company in Memphis.
But he did not get the education everyone expected. Instead, he became interested in Islamic extremism. At TSU, preachers from a radical Nashville mosque led courses in Islam. Eventually, Carlos began frequenting this mosque, converted, and took the name of the mosque’s imam. This imam taught worshipers that America “is the worst country on earth,” that the Christian faith is “the greatest lie ever told,” that this worldly life “is trash,” and that Muslims must seek death and the afterlife.
Carlos began to change his behavior: He abandoned his dog in the woods because he was told Muslims shouldn’t have dogs. He took Martin Luther King‘s picture off his bedroom wall. He was sent by another Nashville imam to a school in Yemen, which turned out to be an al-Qaeda front. Carlos then returned to America and planned his own jihad.
Andy grew up in a military family and decided to follow in his parents’ footsteps. He found out he was good at it; he enjoyed it. Before being deployed to South Korea, he volunteered to work as a recruiter in Little Rock near our home. His mother, Janet, went to visit him there on June 1, 2009.
That was the day Carlos decided to kill a soldier. He had already firebombed a rabbi’s house in Nashville and shot up another rabbi’s house in Little Rock. That morning, he fired three bullets at Andy. Quinton Ezeagwula, another soldier, was also shot but survived. Carlos eventually pleaded guilty to killing Andy, and was sentenced to life in prison without chance for parole.
Since that tragic day, we have been speaking out about the dangers of homegrown terrorists. We testified to Congress, with mixed results. Some congressmen dismissed us for not being experts. Nevertheless, following our testimony, Congress passed a provision, as part of the defense bill, to give the Purple Heart to Andy and the victims of a similar 2009 attack at Fort Hood, Texas. Now the administration is threatening to deny it.
The president, we believe, doesn’t want to admit the first successful al-Qaeda murder on U.S. soil since 9/11 happened on his watch or to acknowledge the problem of homegrown Islamic radicalization. This indirectly provides cover to extremists at the expense of moderate Muslims. To withhold the Purple Heart from U.S. soldiers for political reasons is to dishonor those who risk everything to protect us all.
We have pledged to our families and to ourselves that we will not be silent until America knows what happened to our sons. On June 1, 2009, it happened to Andy and Carlos. Tomorrow, it could be your children.
Melvin Bledsoe is the father of Carlos, who fatally shot Pvt. Andy Long, son of Daris Long. They have cooperated in producing a documentary that can be viewed at losingoursons.com.
Replies
To dishonor our soldiers is to dishonor America...This should be printed everywhere, again and again again. Never forget.
The truth is out there about Islam and their mosques so why do we allow it to continue? We are letting them to build more of them under the cover of freedom of religion all the while knowing that they use them for cover of terrorist training and taking our sons and daughters for their cause. Sickening.
Johnny I realize your question is a rhetorical question but I think it needs answered. The reason we allow this sort of thing to happen is because we have two classes of politicians in this country. The first are those who have absolutely no spine. For the most part they are the Republicans. The other class are those who have sold their soul to the devil (and I mean that quite literally) for political advantage. Obviously this latter class consists of mostly Democrats with a few Republicans thrown into the mix. The only way anything is going to change with the present crop of politicians is if this sort of thing happens to one of their own. That most likely will never happen because for the most part I suspect they live in a very sheltered cocoon. Not only can they not relate to us "common folks" but they have no desire to do so. Relating to us or even caring about what happens to us is beneath their dignity. They only care about us when it comes time for us to cast our ballots. It is amazing how some of the founding fathers so accurately predicted what would happen to us if we ever, as a nation, lost our religion. Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson all said that our Constitution would only work for a religious (read that as Judeo-Christian) country. What we see now are the results of having lost our religion.
This what happens when you have a President that's ether muslim or one that has a love for Islam. They deserve the purple heart, they shed blood for their country. Time is close that we will be fighting them every day right here in the USA!
Jerk Face is a muslim and will give them anything they want!!!!!!!!!! Jerk face is not my president and I would NEVER call him that he is just a plain JERK and wants us to be under his control which is not ever going to happen on my watch!!!! The Jerk will be defeated in November!!!!!!! It is time to get rid of all muslims in our country send them back to their home, or anywhere else but get them out of the USA!!!!!!!!!!!!! If we do not we will be in hand to hand combat with them in a short time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It does not matter male, female, children they are all being taught to kill americans!!!!!!!!!!!!
The real question is why is obummer not in prison.
The answer to that million dollar question is simple. Because the ones who are responsible for taking that action are either afraid to do anything or are in on the scheme themselves.
The DISHONOR OF OUR SOLDIERS HAS GONE ON by the American pepole and THANKS to our political leaderes since VIETNAM, No disrespect to these two because I AGREE these political figures are the scum that is allowing the disintegration of our Country by judical authority allowing the moral fiber of our Nation to be walked all over in the name of SIN,GREED,CORRUPTION.