war in iraq

[Hodag]

I'm tired of body counts and 2-3 dying per day.My tiny home town has given 3 brave soldiers already, how many more?
Kick it to the doghouse, I've said my peace.

[snoone]

I'm with you. Its time for the President to come up with a realistic exit strategy to present to the American people.

[boofer]

Considering that the military fully expected to lose 10,000 during the initial combat phase, and then STILL faced this. Better to have the military face them there than to have them comming over here.

That said, I do feel the pain of each and every loss!

Tim

( what bothers me most is; why are there military "regulars" posted in Japan, Germany, Korea, etc., and the reserves and guard get sent to the front?) :stick

[BubbaZanetti]

not a single one of these deaths was ever necessary

[username]

I'm with you. Its time for the President to come up with a realistic exit strategy to present to the American people.

i have to side with bush on this one. he never provided a legitimate entrance strategy, so i think it is unfair to expect him to have the ability to provide a legitimate exit strategy. you're being unreasonable.

you people should not be worrying about the war, by the way. you are supposed to be out there shopping. sitting around whining about the war means the insurgents have already won, and we can't have people like you undermining the sacrifice our troops are making. you people are unpatriotic. i think some of you are even communists.

and if youre going to mention that the other two nations in the axis of evil are nucular capable, or about to be so, and we don't seem to be interested in sowing the seeds of democracy in those nations, well, i think you should just quit it, troublemaker.

how was that? did it sound convincing?

:D ;)

here is a link (http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/images/war.315.gif) that will make you feel better. warning: it has the f-word on it.

[lkchris]

Gee, sometimes 5000/day died in WW2.

80,000 USA soldiers died at the Battle of the Bulge.

Today's "reporting" is nothing but antiwar and knee-jerk liberal. Despite it all, Kerry lost big.

Do your own thinking.

[Hodag]

80,000 USA soldiers died at the Battle of the Bulge.
Do your own thinking.

wrong, wrong, wrong
Battle of the Bulge "FACT"
81,000 American casualties, including 23,554 captured and 19,000 killed.

Do your own fact checking neo-con sheep, and don't ever compare this "war??" to WWII.

Of a town of 15,000, 3 are dead "FOR WHAT", a lie.

[SNC1923]

Gee, sometimes 5000/day died in WW2.
.....
Today's "reporting" is nothing but antiwar and knee-jerk liberal. Despite it all, Kerry lost big. ....

Can't compare WWII to Iraq. Not the same thing, at all.

The only "knee jerk" reaction was Bush's attack on Iraq. We have no business over there. We are there under false pretenses. Yes Saddam is a bad guy and yes, his regime was oppressive, but he was and is no threat to us. Why not North Korea? Syria? Iran?

Kerry didn't lose big. This was one of the closest presidential elections in history. That's why the country is so divided.

To close, please don't read this is an anti-military diatribe. I admire, respect and support those serving in the military. It's their chief that has me worried.

[1flyer]

Did it ever occur to you that maybe, just maybe, those three brave individuals made a thoughtful choice and felt that freedom and democracy were important enough issues that they were willing to fight for, defend, and insure them across the world to an oppressed people.

Perhaps you need to realize that they just may have done their own thinking and decided the issues they fought for were far more important than yours.

[dano]

Without getting into politics, I tend to agree with some, that we have no business what-so-ever in Iraq.

I couldn't give a rat's ass if they are a free society or not.

We have enough problems at home to work on.............

[Grey Matter]

You are all welcome to your opinions on this very tuff issue. My step brother ARMY First Sergeant George A. Nelson has been in Iraq for over a year. He has been shot twice (thank God for the best body armor money can buy). He will be coming home on or about the 28th. This is only 3 days away & I can’t wait. Suffice to say I have a great deal at stake in this war. George is not only my step brother he is the best friend I have in this world.

As far as I am concerned I am super proud of what our fellow Americans are doing in Iraq & Afghanistan for that matter. Ultimately time will tell if it was “worth it” or not. It could be that in 10 years Iraq is a full fledged democracy with liberty & justice for all. I think we will need to ask the free citizens of a free Iraq if it was/is worth is or not. On the other hand the risk that this could all be for naught is real & ever present.

I hear what you guys are saying. If my brother was killed I would be bitter & angry no doubt about it. What I do know is that he felt the cause is & was worth dying for. To me that is the opinion that matters most.

Below is an e-mail George sent me after the Iraq elections.

Quote form an e-mail George sent me after the Iraq elections:
Hey bro the elections went off pretty much without a hitch. We were up all night in full battle rattle getting ready for the worst. I may be on TV I was caught on camera for a few minutes. Let me know if you see me.

Like I said we were ready for the worst, the CP was moved into the field for the first time since we have been in Iraq, I heard that surgeons & medical staff were moved to forward positions as well.

My guys did great they sucked it up & did there jobs. We only had a few incidents & the turn out was top notch. It was an exiting day all in all & we did well. I leave for Kuwait in a couple weeks to start prepping our vehicles to come home. If all goes well I should be home before Easter. Talk to Joan about the exact time & date she will know the latest. It would be great to see you at Ft Lewis if you can make it.

Take care bro,

-G
This is George last year around Thanksgiving, before he was promoted to First Sergeant.
http://grey-matter.smugmug.com/photos/16479865-M.jpg

The bottom line to me is this: Please support the troops in all the services no matter what your position on the war is. As much as you may not want them there, they don’t want to be there either. But I think they all feel a great sense of duty & feel they are involved in a worthwhile endeavor.

[Gizmo]

I'm with you. Its time for the President to come up with a realistic exit strategy to present to the American people.

Considering the fact that this president is intellectually bankrupt, lacks vision and the ability to reason, a realistic exit strategy is not likely to happen anytime soon...unfortunately. It is indeed sad to see so many loosing their lives and being scarred for life because we were sold a bill of goods that has proven to be propaganda and because this president and his cronies lacked the vision and understaning that might have prevented the mess we are in now.

[BubbaZanetti]

what was this war about again?

[username]

what was this war about again?

easy: freedom and democracy. everyone loves freedom. don't get off-message bubba! if you start saying, 'oh well it was supposed to be about weapons of mass destruction' that's a real slippery slope. pretty soon people start talking about bush's comments during the '00 campaign about how he isnt interested in nation building, and then people start posting pictures like the one below. you gotta stay on message buddy, or your mind gets messed up.

remember, we hit the trifecta - a recession, a national emergency, and deficit spending - so we had to have a war. the president was very clear about this.

:D

[BubbaZanetti]

sorry username, i've been a liittle dazed since i was blined by the refleciton off a yellow ribbon sticker on the car in front me this morning :brow

[username]

sorry username, i've been a liittle dazed since i was blined by the refleciton off a yellow ribbon sticker on the car in front me this morning :brow

totally understandable. don't listen to NPR either, it'll mess you up. i tried it the other day, and they had robert siegel interviewing some palestinians who sounded totally rational and wanted peace and a secular government. this obviously clashes with my preferred stereotypes, so i had to purge it from my consciousness, which i did by re-reading one of ann coulter's books. i feel better now, and the steel-like grip that the possibility of two partially valid sides to any argument had on me was hammered away by the shrill, vitriolic passages in her book. i swear, i feel like i took a valium.

also, instead of using something like google news (http://news.google.com/news?ned=tus) which presents information grouped by topic from several news sources, thus allowing varied viewpoints and editorial bias to be factored in, i recommend that you get your news from one, or at most two news outlets. in case you were wondering, AM talk radio is a perfectly acceptable source for all of your news needs. if you're listening to that a few hours a day, you're getting more than enough knowledge and are ahead of the rest of us.

youre young, but there is hope for you.

[kbasa]

Supporting the soldierrs. They have an amazing job to do and they do it with dignity and grace. I watched that show on Frontline the other night and it became apparent that they're professionals and committed to performing their duties.

Not so keen on W, however. I voted for him in 2K, but couldn't bring myself to the last time.

Too bad, so sad. Some day the Republican party will return to being the party I loved.

But say a little prayer for the boys over there. They need it.

[Visian]

http://hrw.org/photos/2003/iraq/images/13.jpg

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ccba/cear/issues/fall97/graphics/forum/jacobs/hungry_kids20.jpg

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/265000/images/_269799_women300.jpg

http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/dprk/longrange.GIF

http://www.pauliland.ch/magazin/WTC/Terror/WTC-Einsturz2.jpg

[BradfordBenn]

But say a little prayer for the boys over there. They need it.

I am going to include the girls over there as well. Plus the civilians caught in the cross fire.

[Bob_M]

Often I am glib, but America is engaged in 2 wars and war is nothing to take lightly. The Afgan campain, which was a direct response to the attacks of 9/11 have purged the Taliban and Al Quadea.Good things (except for leaving Osama), but we did nothing to rebuild thc country and now people in tent cities are dying of cold. The life expectancy is less than 40 years of age for the people we rescued from a represive theocracy. The soldiers did good, the adminsitration all but abandoned the Afgan theater.
The Soldiers in Iraq are doing their best to make the best of a bad situation. They are to be honored. They have an untenable job, fighting and some dying, but they do their job, most with no complaint. But what are they fighting for. The whole wepons of mass destruction thing was a highly publicised mirage. Sadam was a meglomaniacle ass, but not the only one in a seat of power. Sadam was way to much of a control freak to allow Osama Bin Laden to swing his influence around in Iraq, and no ties to Al Quaeda were substianted until after our war there was under way.
During the initial phase of the war, after chaos and riots of looters were running rampant, the refineries and oil infastructure was heavily guarded, but the warehouse where 400 tons of plastic explosive was held was watched by to few G.Is who were over run by looters. That explains the priorities of the administration. Even with that priority Gasoline was $1.65 in 2000. Now regular is $2.13 here. (remember when $2.00 a gallon was big news?) One would think that going to war to secure oil reserves would lower the price of fuel. Not in Bushzarro world. Oil companies (and the Saudi royal family) are now making huge profits.
The elections in Iraq had a higher turn out than those in America (according to Fox news) I hope that they are successful in redefining their government into something noble. The deliverance of Democracy to Iraq is a good thing, but it is not why we went to Iraq, It is the 3rd (or 4th) reason that the administration has used to justify the invasion of the country. Yellow magnetic stickers on HumVees do nothing to support the troops. Bringing them home alive, soon, would be a great way to show our support.

[Hodag]

Just bring them all back safe. There is no such thing as a good war.

[Grey Matter]

Just bring them all back safe. There is no such thing as a good war.
Amen to that!

[kbasa]

Just bring them all back safe. There is no such thing as a good war.

:thumb