'Unit's' military expert has fighting words for Bush

Los Angles Daily News ^ | 03/26/06 | David Kronke

[usflagwaver]

I think the show is kind of stupid. Like all the wives would hang out together all the time just because their husbands work together. Who does that?

[joesnuffy]

Anyone who was in Vietnam and in the delta same time as Kerry
and supported that SOB or rubber stamped his out right lies...

Well there is something basically wrong with that person...

I do know former combat vets who do not support Bush or the present war in Iraq and also those felt it should have been conducted with air power and risked no American lives...

While I do not necessarily agree with their opinions..they sure as hell earned the right to have them...

Though one would think that after a tour or two in Vietnam and remembering how we were treated here at home and what that did to morale and how low morale (imo) got some of our people killed..that alone would cause them to keep their opinions down at the legion or VFW hall...or to mostly to themselves....

I dont think a military in the entire history of the USA has conducted itself as morally as this one has...I am for the most part humbled by the guys and gals I read about in this war....

And that is all I have to say about that.. imo

[montag813]

"The Unit" is very dull, which is surprising given Shawn (The Shield) Ryan's co-producer role. Dennis Haysbert is a particular disappointment. His lines are read in a wooden fashion, as if he is reciting holy words in a religious B-movie. Perhaps he's trying to hard to be Jack Bauer.

[BlueNgold]

Command Sgt Major or not, he's operating above his pay grade when he presupposes to speak to the motives, intentions, or conversations of the Good General and his CinC.

[PeteB570]

I'll pass with just this

There's one in every crowd.

[TheOracleAtLilac]

The only reason anyone tortures is because they like to do it. It's about vengeance, it's about revenge, or it's about cover-up. You don't gain intelligence that way.

IF this is common knowledge in "the community", why does the practice persist ?

[travlnmn41]

Surprise, surprise, he donated to Kerry, who lied about his military service. Haney has no cred.

[saminfl]

He has those RAT talking points down to an art form.

Ditto

[marron]

I'm sorry, this guy is an idiot.

We have fomented civil war in Iraq. We have probably fomented internecine war in the Muslim world between the Shias and the Sunnis, and I think Bush may well have started the third world war, all for their own personal policies.

There are a half million people in mass graves all over Iraq. The civil war took place before we got there. Hundreds of thousands of Kurds were killed; hundreds of thousands of Shias were killed, and the swamp arabs uprooted and dispersed.

That predates our arrival.

As for the war between the Shia and the Sunni, that started before we got there. Again, hundreds of thousands of shia are in unmarked graves. Another million Iranian Shia are buried on the other side of the border.

His remarks about "torture" are just silly. Americans don't torture people. Those soldiers who have stepped over the line, not into "torture" but into strictly defined cases of abuse of prisoners, are now serving hard time. He ought to know that. You have to wonder who his audience is.

His most offensive comments, though, are the ones where he says that we don't care about Iraqi deaths. The facts are completely to the contrary. We have ended a slaughter that went on for decades. The fact that the dead-enders keep killing Iraqis should tell you what we've stepped into; they manage to kill a few Americans each month but their primary targets are other Iraqis, who they continue to kill by the hundreds. Secretaries machine-gunned on their way home from work. Kids blown to pieces as they board school buses. Worshipers at prayer slaughtered.

Mention the mass graves, mention the meat-grinders, mention the slaughter of Iraqis that is going on as we speak, and you'll find that it is the anti-war crowd who cares nothing for Iraqi lives.

As for Haney, he is probably bad news in a close-quarters brawl, I wouldn't want to mess with him. But he is no einstein.

[Trajan88]

hmmm... wonder who he voted for in '00?

[harpu]

Your link goes nowhere...is this just another bull$hit post from another antiBush moron?

If you, FO, and go away, PLEASE!

[Cecily]

Didn't someone prove that more Iraqis are alive since the war than typically would have been because Saddam & Gang's average number of murders per year was so high?

Haney is a dope.

[Theophilus]

I don't know/agree about/with most of Haney's comments. I've seen "The Unit" and I think it really stinks. However, I think I agree with him on this point:

The reasons of this administration for taking this nation to war were not what they stated.

I think our administration has spent too much time worrying about what the coalition, our allies, the UN or the rest of the world thinks when the only thing that matters is God and the American public.

My fantasy Declaration Of War: "We have been at war with Radical Islam since the sanctity of our embassy in Iran was violated. Now that our homeland has been attacked, and our citizens slaughtered, our enemy has taken this war to another level. We will ruthlessly attack him and whoever supports him wherever they may be found. Saddam Hussein, after invading two countries, lost the first Gulf War. At the surrender, Iraq agreed to terms, all of which have been violated. He has flagrantly supported the families of suicide terrorists. Therefore, we will depose Saddam and invade and divide Iraq. We will establish and maintain permanent bases there to establish security in the region and to support future offensive operations when needed. The future security, prosperity and freedom of the people of the former Iraq is in their hands and they are in the hands of God. May he bless them in their new countries, as he has blessed The United States of America."

[familyop]

"Eric Haney, a retired command sergeant major of the U.S. Army,..."

Who, from his Era, doesn't have the common sense that our Greatest Generation had. I hope that late 1980s changes in initial training (to use WWII Era wisdoms) for selected combat specialties will be propagated to all parts of the Army and will finally take us away from Nikita's exported indoctrinations of US hippies.

[LibLieSlayer]

I have General Tommy Franks, General Norman Schwarzkopf, General Casey, Colonel Oliver North, and then we have this scumbag POS dim satanist. Oh yea, I'm really going to believe a baby-killer dim retiree.

haney??? Isn't he that sleeze-bag shyster POS on Green Acres!

LLS

[LS]

I would hope not, but you look at McCaffrey and this guy and you have to wonder.

[RetSignman]

"The Unit" is one show I watched, just because it was in HDTV, now that I know this moron is involved with this production...I'm not going to watch it again, it wasn't that well made anyhow.

[DTogo]

Disagrees. Yeah, there were a lot of cluster f*cks and FUBARs here and there, but overall he believes in what we are bringing to those people. While perhaps not all of them appreciate it, many do - immensely.

[TalBlack]

"...and I think Bush may well have started the third world war, all for their own personal policies."

Wow. Pretty F*&#ing stupid.

This guy likes to hear himself talk but apparently only up to the point that he actually says anything. For instance he forgot to mention all the proper things he thinks we should have done in the WOT.

I gotta wonder if this piece is for real?

[robowombat]

I keep seeing statements of this ilk "Our military is completely consumed, so were there a real threat - thankfully, there is no real threat to the U.S. in the world, but were there one, we couldn't confront it. "

Either those making them are ignorant of the facts or are deliberately lying.

At the end of FY 04 the total regular forces only were about 1.4 Million adding in Guard and Reserve was about another 300K. Total US forces at peak deployment in 04 were about 150K, with Afghanistan consuming perhaps another 30K.
Today total deployed is about 130K in Iraq and 20K plus in Afghanistan against a total force strength of about 1.6 M.
Iraq currently absorbs about the equivalent of about two Army divisions + and a Marine Division with Afghanistan absorbing about another division equivalent composed of Army and Marine personnel. Air assets tied to these two regions represent somewhat less of a slice of tactical air than was devoted to enforcing the embargo regime on Iraq before 2003. The significant logistics shortages and dislocations of the first two years of operations are now history and Southwest Asia is now a matured theater with a well articulated supply and support structure providing timely logistics support to the deployed forces. Indeed the Army is in the middle of a massive restructure of its organization known as 'resetting the force' that is, among other things, pushing large quantities of heavy equipment back to the states to be reshuffled among Army units world wide or be used to reestablish prepositioning stockpiles within theater.

This man has enough contacts inside the armed forces that he has access to the same information on a more detailed level that i have just discussed. He is either being willfully ignorant or deliberately misrepresenting conditions out of partisan political venom. In either case what he is saying has zero credible basis and should be confronted in the media.