Soldiers ripe to resist?

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | Monday, October 20, 2003 | Ruth Rosen

[presidio9]

PRESIDENT BUSH is busily trying to convince Americans that the war in Iraq is a phenomenal success. Meanwhile, a recent survey conducted by the military newspaper Stars and Stripes found that half of the troops described their unit's morale as low and a third complained that their mission had little or no value. Many viewed themselves as sitting ducks, rather than soldiers engaged in war.

[My2Cents]

PRESIDENT BUSH is busily trying to convince Americans that the war in Iraq is a phenomenal success.

Meanwhile, the newsmedia, including the SF Chron., is busily trying to convince Americans that the war in Iraq is a colossal failure.

[pabianice]

Sorry, Ruth. There's more gumption and spirit in the average E-2 than you have in your entire, pitiful, sorry-ass, bile-filled body. The average soldier would rather vote for Dean than ever think of shirking his duty. Go peddle your crap in Cuba.

[Grampa Dave]

More Drugged out Drumbeat . . . from the failure brigade!



http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1004536/posts

Drumbeat . . . from the failure brigade
The Washington Times ^ | 10/20/2003 | Mona Charen


Posted on 10/20/2003 11:32 AM PDT by avalon


Drumbeat . . . from the failure brigade

By Mona Charen

There is a marked tendency among those on the left to believe the worst about the United States. This is particularly true when it comes to military action.

Before the war in Afghanistan, the failure chorus warned that Afghan fighters had withstood the mighty British and Soviet empires, that the winter weather would paralyze our troops and that the Taliban could count on the aid of Islamists worldwide.

Before the Iraq war, the negativity brigade warned darkly that our troops would be subject to poison gas or chemical attack (yes, the same people who are now loudly proclaiming that Iraq never possessed those weapons); that the Israelis would be drawn into the conflict thus igniting a larger regional war; that Muslims worldwide would unite against us; that the price of oil would skyrocket; that Iraq's oil fields would burn out of control creating an environmental catastrophe; and that patriotic feeling would cause the Iraqis to fight to the death against us just as the Russians had fought the Nazis at Stalingrad.

Once the war began, many in the press declared we had become bogged down in a quagmire after only a few days of fighting. When the Iraqi armed forces capitulated in the south, we were told this was a clever way to draw us into a sustained "house to house" battle in Baghdad that would take months or years to win, if we won at all.

When Baghdad fell just three weeks after the war had begun, we were told that not since Nebuchadnezzar's time had Baghdad experienced such a terrible spate of looting and crime. The United States and Britain had just demonstrated that an enlightened coalition could liberate a nation enslaved by a tyrant in three weeks with very few civilian casualties, very little damage to the nation's infrastructure and extremely low casualties for the coalition itself. But the news media in Britain and the United States were singing lamentations.

Where oh where were the precious antiquities from the Iraqi Museum? (They were all fine, it turns out.) Why is the electricity still not functioning properly? Why are there shortages of water? What about the street crime?

Once each problem is solved, a new lament is discovered. I must say I predicted this back in February. It was just after Baghdad fell, and there was rejoicing in the streets. I was giving a talk at the local Barnes & Noble bookstore (it was on C-SPAN) and was asked, "What will the liberals say now?" I responded, "Well, in about a month they'll be complaining that Iraq is not yet a functioning democracy."

Does this drumbeat of negativity have any effects? I think it does. The first baleful effect is the press is failing in its duty to provide the news straight. Yes, there are ambushes on our soldiers and bombings of embassies, and these must be covered. And there is a certain amount of lawlessness, and that, too, should be reported. But there are a great many aspects of the rebuilding of Iraq the press is failing to convey.

More than 45 countries have offered military assistance in rebuilding Iraq, and that number now rises with last week's Security Council resolution pledging more aid. Thirty thousand Iraqis have traveled to Hungary for military and police training. The United States is training thousands of Iraqi police, with 34,000 already on the job. It isn't quick or easy to find suitable police in a country where, for 30 years, eligibility was determined by family or political connections — to say nothing of a willingness to commit any human-rights abuse in the name of the regime.

U.S. and international efforts are also rebuilding sports stadiums, schools, hospitals and power grids. They are doing so in the face of sabotage and murder. A little appreciation from home could go a long way.

Moreover, the Saddamists and Islamists who have gathered in Iraq to defeat us are not acting irrationally. They have historical reasons to believe that if they can inflict enough casualties on the United States, we will run. They cite Somalia, Lebanon and Vietnam.

What we are doing in Iraq is right morally and strategically. And it is succeeding on the ground. But the press has the power to distort reality. By presenting an overly bleak picture of the challenges we face, they can demoralize us.

[Southflanknorthpawsis]

LOL!!!! Could there be any more references to peacenik groups in this article? Big surprise here, huh? Sheeeeeeesh !!!!!

[OldFriend]

If anyone has ever read the stateside Stars & Stripes they know full well that this is a leftist publication that continues to revere X42.

[Broadside Joe]

I have only two words to say to this "lady".


*** YOU WISH ***

[gaspar]

Ruth Rosen is an ultra-Left feminist and professor of History at the U. of California, Davis. Born a Jew, she is as anti-Likud as she is anti-Bush, and the destruction of the United States or Israel would not really bother her one bit.

[r9etb]

It may not be long before GIs refuse to follow orders or ask for discharges based on their conscientious objection to the occupation.

One imagines dear Ruth squirming in orgasmic glee as she writes this.

[facedown]

Last year, I heard a historian describe the Iraq war as Vietnam on crack cocaine.

Howard Zinn?

[Egon]

If true, this only points back to the old axiom: "If you tell a big enough lie, often enough, it'll become true." -- a variation on another axiom.

If false... Well, it just means that they're in the middle of the first axiom.

[Old Sarge]

Fitfy-five gallon drum of hot steaming BS PING.

MY troops in my company are like hounds in the slips, asking me every time we meet, "When's OUR turn, Sarge?"

I'm one of the lucky ones: there's four of us on full activation, round the clock and 2-hour recall. The rest of the kids have to stand and wait.

And I know none of them pay any attention to steaming BS like this.

[Lucy Lake]

Meanwhile, the newsmedia, including the SF Chron., is busily trying to convince Americans that the war in Iraq is a colossal failure.

What you said.

[spectre]

"Soldiers ripe to resist?"

In Ms Rosen's America - hating dreams.

[TADSLOS]

This woman is delusional from California blackout syndrome.

[alloysteel]

If you wish it ferverntly enough, it shall be so.

Strike the heels of the ruby slippers together three times, and you shall be home again, safe with Aunt Em.

Or maybe you shall simply fall down the rabbit hole.

[Modernman]

I think this woman doesn't really get soldiers. Soldiers have been complaining about the food, their officers, their mission, their posting, their weapons, their shoes, their uniforms, the weather etc. etc. since at least the siege of Troy. Griping is a crucial part of soldiering.

To take the fact that soldiers are complaining and then come to the conclusion that this complaining means they don't want to fight shows her ignorance on the subject.

[boxerblues]

What a load of BS.

[At _War_With_Liberals]

The left predicted total failure, 1000's of casualties, door to door fighting for a year, etc, etc.

Their definition of total failure will constantly change to include every positive event.

They pull the same crap domestically. Their whole political strategy is to paint everything Republican idea a failure.