Posted on 12/31/2014 7:28:09 PM PST by US Navy Vet
The American public and its political leadership will do anything for the military except take it seriously. The result is a chickenhawk nation in which careless spending and strategic folly combine to lure America into endless wars it can’t win. In mid-September, while President Obama was fending off complaints that he should have done more, done less, or done something different about the overlapping crises in Iraq and Syria, he traveled to Central Command headquarters, at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. There he addressed some of the men and women who would implement whatever the U.S. military strategy turned out to be.
The part of the speech intended to get coverage was Obama’s rationale for reengaging the United States in Iraq, more than a decade after it first invaded and following the long and painful effort to extricate itself. This was big enough news that many cable channels covered the speech live. I watched it on an overhead TV while I sat waiting for a flight at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. When Obama got to the section of his speech announcing whether he planned to commit U.S. troops in Iraq (at the time, he didn’t), I noticed that many people in the terminal shifted their attention briefly to the TV. As soon as that was over, they went back to their smartphones and their laptops and their Cinnabons as the president droned on.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Fallows gets it wrong. We won Iraq. Obama and Hillary didn’t sign the Status of Forces Agreement that was ready to be signed. We controlled all 12 of their bases.
No sale.
Japan? Yes. Germany? Yes.
Iraq? If that's winning, I would hate to lose.
I agree.
Everyone else can KMA. The people who complain the loudest and the longest are the very same people who would have complained loudest and longest had we done nothing.
We did the right thing in both places. I am sick of the “We should have turned the desert to glass” people.
Our military did an unbelievably good job under difficult circumstances in both Afghanistan and Iraq, with not only some liberals carping on them the entire time, but also some “conservatives”.
How many Americans died defeating Japan versus defeating Saddam Hussein?
We still have large forces in Japan and Germany, 70 years later.
I think that our country should have Military Funeral Duty for our citizens. It would be like jury duty. Thirty American citizens are selected to attend every military funeral. Let them look into the eyes of a Mother who has lost a child to war. They can tell her that the Defense Budget is too big.
How many Americans who died in the war with Japan died for nothing = 0.
How many Americans who died in Iraq died for nothing = 100%.
Yes we do.
I’m so glad I’m retarded. I’m even happier I’m retired.
Over 100,000 Americans died in vanquishing the Japanese Empire from the South Pacific and the face of the earth. An estimated 50-60 thousand are still listed as missing in action there. This month, the the remains of 8 of a 10 man B24 bomber missing 70 years were brought home from the jungle of a South Pacific Island and interred at Arlington National Cemetery.
Finally, your complaint about the war being fought for nothing is really a complaint against Obama having unilaterally pulled American troops from Iraq. So in reality, the complaint isn't against the war but against the way Obama abandoned American gains in the war.
Really?
Are you ready to tell the mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers of these American patriots that they died for NOTHING?
Really?
All Americans who died in Service for their Country died for EVERYTHING and EVERYONE!
I served in a Vietnam war we didn't "win", but my dead Brothers-in Arms who didn't make it home died for All Americans!
Kiss my ass!
Well said.
Secondly, advances in military technology have changed the face of military campaigns completely. During World War II the U.S. had 12 million people serving in the military. That was about 10% of the U.S. population. That would be the equivalent of having about 31 million military personnel today -- at a time when having even 5 million would bankrupt this country.
Also well said. Even some people here just don’t effing understand. Sigh.
Japan and Germany were thoroughly defeated by the time World War II ended. It looks to me like the enemy in Iraq (whoever that might be) was just getting started after the U.S. left.
Dittos! Thank you.
Amen - no-one dies in vain. The office of a soldier is to protect those he loves for the sake of their freedom. America lost the will to finish the job. Our soldiers died to ensure our freedom and I am forever grateful.
“We still have large forces in Japan and Germany, 70 years later.”
You seem to want us to take a point from your statement. Your point is.....
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