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.
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.
I’m so glad I’m retarded. I’m even happier I’m retired.
Don't blame us. President Bush said we should go shopping.
He was also Jimmy Carter's chief speechwriter and a policy hack in the Clinton administration.
'nuff said.
Active Duty/Retiree ping.
I have heard it said by soldiers and sailors in multiple wars, that they wouldn’t, in a million years want their friends, families, or loved ones to have to experience ANY of the boring, uncomfortable, or terrible things they had to endure.
But they invariably want all of them to appreciate and be grateful that they had to.
We LOST because of the LEFTIST infiltration of our armed forces, and our government.
When Dick Cheney said "Help is on the way", I thought the klinton purge was going to be reversed.
Then came the EP-3/Hainan incident. This compASSionate CONservative was going to lead off where is predecessor left off.
By 9/14/01, when Arbusto's government invited a "death to America" imam to speak at the memorial service, I knew the fix was in. Then came "infinite crusade"cluster--k, "Islam is a peaceful religion", the failure to secure the borders, the failure to reform visas...The PC leftist enemy of America was too entrenched in our government, and the goober cowboy disciple of kkkarl rove was too shielded from the conservative culture to understand. I suspect I will have a lot to answer for on Judgment day. I KNOW those in charge then and now will as well, but the charges will be INFINITELY greater and more serious. No matter how much "aw shucks, I love Jeebus, and I love Uh-murrica" horsecrap was thrown around
I predicted to myself how the Iraq war would go--fast initial victory, with eventual PC bullshit weardown of our forces. THAT is why we lost Iraq, Afghanistan, and will lose everything else important in the future...
When enemy prisoners get hot water and 5 star meals while our troops eat MREs and resort to bathing with a garden hose, then we know what the problem is.
When the ENEMY and their BUILDINGS are considered more important than our soldiers, we know the score.
TOTAL annihilation of Iraq would have taken 4 months. NO media embedding, unless we plan on letting a couple meet "accidents"--I have no problem with that. Wholesale public slaughter of men over 18 who are suspected of enemy allegiance. Wood chipper pointing into a pig pen in the center of town. Send a message of brutality, fear and submission to the mooselimb/scuzzlim world. No passing out candy. No god damned schoolbooks and "get jihad jane into class" pc bs, either. No "winning hearts and minds".
It would have cost 1/10th of the money and lasted 1/14th of the time.
Thank GOD we have finally realized that we can never be the “WORLD’S POLICEMEN”. Sorry folks, this just didn’t happen in the last generation. It started right after WW2, when we became the ONLY “SUPER POWER” left in the world. The thinking at that time, was “WE HAD TO MAKE THE WORLD SAFE FOR DEMOCRACY”. Oh, we had the power to stop every tin pot dictator from conquering the world, but we didn’t have the “GUTS” to use that power. Hence, every tin pot dictator knew that all they had to do was “BLEED” us to extinction, which we did. We bled ourselves dry. Now, maybe, we can stop being the “WORLD’S POLICEMAN”, and go back to doing what we do best. Making this country so strong that no one will ever think of attacking us. If if they did, they would become extinct, as a country and as a people. We have finally realized that we cannot people from themselves. If they are unwilling to fight for their freedom, why should we fight for them.
According to the goals set out In Iraq we lost,what we’re the goals? Was one of the goals to win a war and decimate jihadists and countries that harbor them,or to send men and women to die trying to make friends?
We call these actions wars,they are compared to World War 2,that was a war,we had an objective,to get to Germany and Japan by any means necessary,civilians were displaced and slaughtered by the millions.
What we see now is game playing by politicians,shoot and kill in only the situation we tell you or you will be prosecuted,we are there to make friends.
The way the military people are treated is with an attitude of better you than me,you volunteered.
The situation the country is in now I can see how when the crap hits the fan here at home the military will not have any problem shooting their own countrymen,either that or the corrupt elites who handcuffed in them in these conflicts.If fought as a real war,demolishing anyone and anything in our way and getting it over with and coming home after having left a message mess with us and this is what you get,not going,leaving,going back,telegraphing our strategy and handcuffing our side
First, he talks about the draft and how Rangel introduced a bill to reinstate the draft. He speaks of Rangel in terms of a guy who was looking to enable success and bridge the civilian-military divide. What he doesn't mention is that Rangel voted against his own bill to help defeat it. It was simply a political ploy to try to paint Republicans as desperate for more service members and even willing to draft people to do it! Pure posturing that was pathetic then and is pathetic now.
The author also meanders a lot in his criticism of this civilian-military divide, particularly with his bitching about the F35. While it's well-established that the program is basically a disaster, what does that have to do with anything? Congress sets the parameters the military has to work within to acquire equipment. I've seen the broad strokes of the acquisition process. It's unbelievably complex. The Air Force, in particular, has officers who spend their entire careers doing nothing but that job. The Army tosses it out like an extra duty, basically, and the results show. If Congress was serious about shoring up the acquisition process while streamlining it for useful purposes rather than counting pennies while wasting $1000s, they could. But they won't.
Lastly, a big part of the author's complaint seems to hover around an inability to criticize the military and how it does things. I haven't seen any such limitations. The press loves to criticize how we do things. If there's an issue with a lack of knowledge base in the press, how is that the military's problem? Ultimately, this smells like a 1960s/1970s jackass that longs for the days of screaming at and spitting on returning Soldiers.