Posted on 03/12/2006 7:36:24 PM PST by gleeaikin
Irreguardless of who he is or his motives...some of his points have merit. Sure some of his points sound sketch, but some of the others I have personally heard from many a man (and woman) in the military.
I have no doubt the dems are using this to their advantage, which is disgusting. But whether we like it or not there is a growing concern over the situation over there. We don't doubt the mission or the works we've done, but we do question where it will go...especially when we aren't there to watch over them.
I promised to see if I could find information on how many Congresspeople had members of the immediate family in the service. I refined the criteria to those who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan since 2001.
The Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee (R) has a child who has served in Iraq. I have phone messages in to the Senate ASC. No one can give me exact figures so far, and I was told they may not exist. One suggested I research Congressional Quarterly. I have not had time to do that. I know that about 10 years ago when I was helping to organize a local Veterans' Day parade, a significant number, I think at least 1/3 of Congresspeople had served in the military.
BUMP
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The assertion that more troops could have made any significant difference is not established fact. That is an irrefutable statement.
What is certain is that domestic politics would have been much less antagonistic toward the war if the traitors in the mainstream press had been publicly identified and unable to put out biased and even fraudulent reports.
I see no evidence for any worthwhile “vision” in the comments of this post; they could have been uttered by anyone who has been listening to Cindy Sheehan or Howard Dean.
Bush waited forever to take out Saddam. The problem with giving Saddam a year and a half, after Bush's proclamation that we would come after all terrorists or state sponsors of terrorism--meaning Saddam, was that Saddam had time to hide the WMD and to seed Iraq with more terrorists.
Any unpreparedness on the part of our military in March 2003 was Clinton's fault for intentionally gutting the military as much as possible during those 8 tragic years.
Dear friends of our troops:
A number of you made interesting comments on the original FR post of 3/12/06 entitled "Front Line Views on Iraq/Afghanistan War Situation". The rest of you have made informed comments on other military threads I have followed.
Therefore, you might like to look at "Front Line Views on Iraq/Afghanistan War Situation, No. 2" which I posted today. If anyone here is in a position to encourage better shooting skills development in the field, that seems to be a really important need.
That comment of yours tells me all I need to know about where you are comming from.
I'm not going to get in a back and forth with you - But with all du respect your above comments are complete BS! - Those foreigners coming in from Syria have been reduced to hardly nill! - Furthermore there has never been that large (in numbers) of people from outside of Iraq that we are fighting.
The vast majority of people we've had a fight with have been Sunni Iraqi's and other dead-ender types (that are Iraqis). While yes, there has been a smaller sized and violent element that has come in from outside Iraq....but those numbers are vastly shrinking as well.
Iraq is not lost at all either - That is so far from reality I almost didn't bother replying. The reality is we are in a war (a world war in which the major fighting currently is taking place in Iraq)...but we are winning and doing so clearly.
The values of freedom and self-worth are spreading. This cannot be denied by anyone who is at least "willing" to be intellectually honest on the subject. These values are our biggest allies in this WOT.
Since Sept 11th, our enemies have suffered one strategic defeat after another...we have not suffered one.
As for the soldier in Stan right now who's comments this thread is regarding - He makes sense in a number of spots ....but he also has a serious martyr syndrome going on in which it is keeping him from intellectually understanding the world is bigger then himself and he needs to get off his cross. He does not speak for most in the military whatsoever. This I am certain of (of course there is always the hanging on the cross types...but they are not the majority).
You have it exactly right - There is no question we are winning the WOT / Iraq - None, from anyone who is willing to be intellectually honest about the subject.
"It is diffidult for me to see the wars in Afgh. and Iraq as anything short of monumental successes."
While I am extremely happy that Uday and Qusay will never plague us, and that the Taliban were kicked out of Afg., this does not keep me from being worried that things are not going as well as one might like. To mention 3 specific things in Afgh. (and these threads are more about Afg. than Iraq) we have the major production and export of heroin, the threat to kill a muslim who converted to Christianity, and the questionable death of Tillman. The first two point to the major problem that long range change has to occur in the heads of the Afghanis. The Tillman death may relate to the problem pointed out in "Front Line View on Iraq/Afghanistan War Situation, No. 2" in which the lack of attention to actual military skills as opposed to good appearance is highlighted.
What about Congress voting for more funds for the military and less for pork back home? Soldier here buys the fall acy that more taxes would mean more funds for the war.
Welcome to the world of colonial war. The British Army had to put up with this sort of crap for the whole of their whole empire.
First off we have a major problem with drugs right here in good ole USA - So to suggest that we have fixed the heroin situation out of Stan in and of itself isn't any criteria on which to judge if the WOT (within Stan) has been a success. It most certainly has.
Additionally the heroin trade is a huge / sole segment of money for large segments within Stan - Ending that is going to be a decade in the making process (and it will never be completely ended....that is the reality of the real world).
As for some within Stan wanting to kill a Muslim for converting to Christianity....again, that is not even in the realm of how to judge the progress in Stan. It is simply one negative instance in the grand picture of thousands of positives.
Regarding Rgr. Tillman. Again, that a terribly unfortunate friendly fire accident took place shows absolutely nothing in terms of the big picture. Not a thing. Those soldiers that acted terribly unprofessional with that unit have since been removed - Their reckless actions did cost the life of Rgr Tillman but that is nothing new to this war whatsoever.
As I said earlier, without question the WOT is a success. We are systematically and deliberately destroying our enemies. They have suffered one strategic defeat after another. We have not suffered one.
Do the rats at State and the JAGs screw things up for our guys in the field. Without question. But, so goes life.
As I mentioned above, the person to whom you speak with that is based in Stan makes several good observations....but he needs to take himself down off that cross and leave the martyr role alone. His comments on Stan do not reflect the majority of soldiers there.
Best regards,
This is the third time I have tried to post this comment. I hope it is not being zotted by someone who doesn't like the president.
"What about Congress voting for more funds for the military and less for pork back home?"
There was recently a proposal that the President be given a line item send-back authority. This would require our Congresspeople to actually be recorded on specific spending projects, rather than being able to sneak them in at the last minute at the end of very big bills where people don't have the time to see them and object.
Every American should have full auto option available on his rifle. When they took that away from the M16 they put our troops at a disadvantage.
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