I thought we did?
Posted on 05/27/2007 4:23:04 PM PDT by james500
Staff Sgt. David Safstrom does not regret his previous tours in Iraq, not even a difficult second stint when two comrades were killed while trying to capture insurgents.
“In Mosul, in 2003, it felt like we were making the city a better place,” he said. “There was no sectarian violence, Saddam was gone, we were tracking down the bad guys. It felt awesome.”
But now on his third deployment in Iraq, he is no longer a believer in the mission. The pivotal moment came, he says, this past February when soldiers killed a man setting a roadside bomb. When they searched the bomber’s body, they found identification showing him to be a sergeant in the Iraqi Army.
“I thought, ‘What are we doing here? Why are we still here?’ ” said Sergeant Safstrom, a member of Delta Company of the First Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry, 82nd Airborne Division. “We’re helping guys that are trying to kill us. We help them in the day. They turn around at night and try to kill us.”
His views are echoed by most of his fellow soldiers in Delta Company, renowned for its aggressiveness.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
If our soldiers come home without a victory, it'll be the third time after Vietnam and Iran/Lebanon. For one half of a century we have not won a war (I don't count Grenada). That is why these wars continue and now came to our soil.
It is certainly not our heroes who lost those wars but the public that did not support them properly; and the politicians who, pandering to the public, undermined the soldiers. We have not let our military to fight in Vietnam, and we are not letting them to do their job in Iraq.
Instead of bringing them home, we should allow them to fight rather than be nannies. They will easily have victory and can SAFELY come home without a need to return.
This country will not allow them to do so until Los Angeles becomes uninhabitable due to a nuclear blast.
I doubt that. I send a lot of care packages and I've got a thick folder of thank-you notes from troops. Of those that express any sentiment yea or nay about the fight in Iraq all but one are firmly 'pro'. This is just more NYT moonshine.
“Today, it is time for our heroes to come home.”
And fight the war where? Your back yard?
Just because the idiots in charge decided to not let the military kill people and break things in a BIG way, (the only thing Haji understands) doesn’t mean that we are not in a war of survival.
Listen to what Haji says and tell me, honestly, that we can dare walk away.
So the scum sucking socialist maggots at the NYT think they can demoralize our troops.
Why should you help them?
Think this through man, there is no alternative. Unless you like your old lady dressed head to toe in black, growing a mandated beard, and kneeling on the ground five times a day.
If that’s the case, I hope that boot heel rests easy on your neck.
As for me, I’d rather die.
is this Michael Kamber related to Vic Kamber, the Clinton toady (who reputedly once dated one of the Nixon girl, then after being uneremoniously dumped switched to the left?)
But the point is that there will always be “bad” stories. You fix the problems - you don’t bail out.
Stand on your principles and be strong... if you were for the war there must have been a reason. That reason is still true - no matter what.
I thought we did?
Forget the notion that we are freeing an oppressed people...that we may do in the North...but it will take years before the people of the ME can think in terms of Democracy as Americans “expect” it.
The reason we are in Iraq is that if we keep the “Rag Head Idiots” busy there....we have a better chance of keeping them out of America...Pure and simple.
Please someone help me with something I can’t understand....the bad guys can kill at will...anyone...blow up mosques....but we are reluctant to return the action in kind. That fat faced punk al sadr...sneaking back into Iraq and spouting BS.. Come on Mr. President....put 500 lbs of truth on his sorry a$$. Mr. President I would volunteer to do the job!!
Really Senator Reid? To who? What will that organization do when we leave? I thought only liberals were single layer thinkers?
Yes, you are mistaken. Losers and their attitudes are not welcome in my locker room...........Don't like it then go over to DU......
I concur wholeheartedly. This isn't a war. This is a battle in a long protracted war that will go on for many of many years. If we lose heart and quit now, we're going to pay a price that most foolish Americans can't even fathom. Pay the price now, or pay an inconceivable price later. May this foolish and distracted country make the right choice.
If they are tired of war and want to come home... what an indictment;
"What did you do in the war, Mommy? I was tired and I went home."
But I don't think that's true. Our men and women are better than this writer implies. God bless them.
I was sent to Central America and spent 26 months there.....
You have a locker room? You should have a rubber room.
I would hope you understand that we did win......big time.....but of course how would you know setting on a ship...far from harms way!!
April 23, 1971: Oval Office meeting with Haldeman, Kissinger
President: Apparently, this fellow, uh, that they put in the front row, is that what you say, the front [unintelligible] the real stars? Kerry.
Haldeman: Kerry. He is, he did a hell of a great job on the, uh —
President: He was extremely effective.
Haldeman: [Unintelligible] he did a superb job on it at Foreign Relations Committee yesterday. A Kennedy-type guy - he looks like a Kennedy and he, and he talks exactly like a Kennedy.
Kissinger : [Unintelligible].
President: Where did he serve?
Haldeman: He was a Navy lieutenant, jg., on a gunboat.
Haldeman: He was only over there for, I thinks it’s four months or five months.
President: Bob, the Navy didnÂ’t have any casualties in Vietnam except in the air.
Haldeman: Well, this guy got a Purple Heart with two clusters and the Navy Star. He’s got a hell of a bundle of lettuce up here.
Kissinger: Well, it, it’s an outrage —
Haldeman: No, but he’s said some good things.
Kissinger: — that eight hundred veterans —
President: Yeah.
Kissinger: — of whom IÂ’m sure a significant percentage
are phonies —
President: Yeah.
Kissinger: — get five minutes on national television every —
President: [Unintelligible].
Kissinger: — night.
Haldeman: Well, they’ve got about six paraplegics up there with the whole bunch and that’s, God, everything ya read would make ya think all those guys out there had no legs.
Haldeman: I think you’ll find Kerry running for political office. I think you’re exactly right, he’s building himself –
Nixon: Is he from Massachusetts?
Haldeman: I donÂ’t know.
April 28, 1971: EOB phone conversation with Charles Colson
Colson: This fellow Kerry that they had on last week —
President: Yeah.
Colson: — hell, he turns out to be, uh, really quite a phony. You know, we —.
President: Yeah, I know.
Colson: That story we’re getting out, that, uh, —
President: Are ya?
Colson: —[Newspaper columnist Jerald] TerHorst is writing that for —
President: Good.
Colson: — North American Newspaper Alliance.
President: Well, he is sort of a phony, isn’t he?
Colson: Well, he stayed, when he was here —
President: Stayed out in Georgetown, yeah.
Colson: — he stayed in Georgetown with, uh, one of the old-line Washington socialites, Elsie Leiter*, and, uh, was out at the best restaurants every night and, uh —
President: Sure.
Colson: — you know, he’s just, the complete opportunist.
President: A racket, sure.
Colson: He was in Vietnam a total of four months. Uh, he’s, he’s politically ambitious and just, uh, looking for an issue.
President: Yeah.
Colson: He came back a hawk and became a dove when he saw the political opportunities.
President: Sure, well, anyway, keep the faith.
Colson: WeÂ’ll keep hitting him, Mr. President.
Presdent: Bye.
Colson: Yes, sir.
*Note: Kerry says that while he visited the home of TK, he spent every night on the Mall with the other veterans
June 2, 1971: Oval Office meeting with Bob Haldeman
Haldeman: We got these guys now forming this Veterans for a – Peace with Justice, or uh – the veterans –
Nixon: They came in to see me? Are they here?
Haldeman: No we don’t want them to be able to see you yet. We don’t want to –
Nixon: Who are they?
Haldeman: Well, itÂ’s this guy, uh, heÂ’s got a beard, one of ‘em, and thereÂ’s this Navy officer [John O’Neill], just got out yesterday –
President: Yeah.
Haldeman: — crew cut, real sharp looking guy who is more articulate than Kerry. HeÂ’s not as eloquent; he isnÂ’t the ham that Kerry is. But heÂ’s more believable.
Haldeman: Colson put this together.
Haldeman: This guy now [OÂ’Neill], is gonna, heÂ’s gonna move on Kerry. HeÂ’s gonna move around the country.
June 16, 1971: Oval Office meeting with John OÂ’Neill
Nixon: I really feel that what you’re doing, you’ll take brickbats, you go on some of these TV shows like the Cavett thing, you’re gonna get banged, but – you’ll get terribly discouraged and say the whole country’s – and so forth. But I think ya gotta remember, uh, you have to remember, that uh, that uh, now {unintelligible] in Vietnam should be enough, that now you would have the [unint] to get back and reassure people that those few that come back – like Kerry and the rest – don’t speak for all.
Nixon: That’s great. Give it to him, give it to him. And you can do it, because you have a pleasant manner, too, because you’ve got – and I think it’s a great service to the country.
[edit]
Nixon: You fellows have been out there. You’ve got to know, seeing the barbarians that we’re up against, you’ve got to know what we’re doing in that horrible swamp that North Vietnam is. 33:40 You’ve got to know from all our faults of what we have in this country that, that what we’re doing is right. You’ve got to know too, people are critics. Critics of the war, critics of [unint], run America down. Those that are, uh – well in every respect, either get out of Vietnam, get out of [unint], get out of the world, etcetera etcetera. You’ve gotta know that you’re on the winning s—that, that you’re on the right side.
I’m ashamed that I was in the same Army as you.
Heh..Lead...obviously we can't choose who we served with....(grins)...=s=
I see the handwriting on the wall.
The NYT is trying to prop up support for the VAIW.
http://www.vaiw.org/vet/index.php
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