To Our Americans Serving in Iraq

[irishunclebill]

Will someone in the media please tell me?

A brilliant & timely 9 minute video commentary on YouTube.

Warning: Those of you who are not willing to listen to the truth, please do not click on this link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9Yc3wYJOtI&eurl=

 

[Freeman Ara]

Wow signs of intelligent thinking and common sense about the situation in Iraq do exist...oh wait its because its not the mainstream media so I guess I that makes sense. Excellent link. Thanks IUB.

 

[dudexcore]

great find, IUB.

 

[stonebreakerwasgod]

Sweet man. Thanks for the heads up. It always makes me laugh to hear how those on the left 'support the troops' by: sabotaging the morale, give us artificial timetables, suggest redeployment (withdrawal), and wish to defund the troops and disrupt operations. WAY TO SUPPORT THE TROOPS!

PS..If the liberals wanted to help the enemy, would they do anything differently?

 

[IRISHDODGER]

Great link. It's a shame that this will never see the light of day in the mainstream media. Good job IUB.

 

[ACamp1900]

Sweet man. Thanks for the heads up. It always makes me laugh to hear how those on the left 'support the troops' by: sabotaging the morale, give us artificial timetables, suggest redeployment (withdrawal), and wish to defund the troops and disrupt operations. WAY TO SUPPORT THE TROOPS!

PS..If the liberals wanted to help the enemy, would they do anything differently?

Somewhere a Satan's Little Helper is crying

 

[LOVEMYIRISH]

Will someone in the media please tell me?

A brilliant & timely 9 minute video commentary on YouTube.

Warning: Those of you who are not willing to listen to the truth, please do not click on this link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9Yc3wYJOtI&eurl=

Brilliant?

...the dude is a headcase...

Body Count = score? Please...

58,000 American men dead in Vietnam
2,000,000 Vietnamese killed

Sure...I see the correlation.

 

[LOVEMYIRISH]

Sweet man. Thanks for the heads up. It always makes me laugh to hear how those on the left 'support the troops' by: sabotaging the morale, give us artificial timetables, suggest redeployment (withdrawal), and wish to defund the troops and disrupt operations. WAY TO SUPPORT THE TROOPS!

PS..If the liberals wanted to help the enemy, would they do anything differently?

People want timetables (which suck, btw)...because the Commander in Chief can't even begin to tell them what victory looks like.

Stay the course!

What course are we on? If going in circles is a course, yeah, we are on course.

 

[notredomer23]

great find IUB. I wish the liberals of America would relize the truth of whats going on there.

 

[TexasDomer]

While I support the war, I agree with LMI about the body count thing. War, as Clausewitz told us, "is a continuation of politics by other means." The issue is whether we have stabilized the political and social situation in Iraq.

I'm not ready to call it a Vietnam situation yet, but it is entirely possible to win most major military engagements and lose a war.

 

[TexasDomer]

I will say that I love the fact this guy hoists the left with their own petard, using their own quotes against them when Clinton happened to be President.

Where you stand depends on where you sit, and who is in the WH, I guess.

 

[stonebreakerwasgod]

People want timetables (which suck, btw)...because the Commander in Chief can't even begin to tell them what victory looks like.

Stay the course!

What course are we on? If going in circles is a course, yeah, we are on course.

Dude, we aren't staying the course. What is going on now is working. Strategy has changed alot. I'm not sure what else to say. BTW- The generals in charge do share some of the blame. I think Patraeus has the confidence of a whole lot of people out there, give him some time before we start thinking about withdrawing.

BTW- The only time you withdraw in war is:

1) The objective is achieved
2) It is understood that the objective can not be achieved. (and we aint there just yet!)

 

[Junkhead]

deleted. I swore to stay out of political threads.

 

[stonebreakerwasgod]

Thanks for agreeing with me junkhead, before you edited.

 

[ShivaIrish]

Body Count = score? Please...

58,000 American men dead in Vietnam
2,000,000 Vietnamese killed

Sure...I see the correlation.

I have to agree, but then again, there are people who want to hide behind the banner of partiotism in order to squash any disagreement, or even debate about the actual validity of a war.

Body Count=score.

Ho Chi Minh once pointed out that "You can kill ten of my men for every one I kill of yours. But even at those odds, you will lose and we will win." As LMI, points out above, he appears to have been correct.

Total allied military deaths of WWI: 5,152,115. Total Central Powers: 3,386,200 (according to the study by Vincent J. Esposito, Colonel, US Military Academy.

The guy does raise a good point about the lack of media coverage dealing with positives. But personally, I don't think deaths on either side is a positive. Additionally, it is hard to cover positives, where it then can become a target for those forces fighting against the U.S. What do you do then?

 

[stonebreakerwasgod]

I did not agree with what the guy on the video said about body count. I do believe he was making a larger point about the media and its fascination with American body count only, and not comparing to the enemy that is dead. Whether it is 3,000 or 15,000, one is too many. I think it's just one way for the media to paint the war is a debacle without stating such.

I think some people are blind patriots, no doubt. I think there is a big difference between wanting the US to win, as opposed to those who want the US to lose. It saddens me to see the media and the dems actually believe that they are better off with the military losing, than America as a whole being victorious (If you don't buy into that, look at the number of stories about Abu Graib and Gitmo). America being weakened, either externally or internally, is never a good thing.

 

[cuss444]

Being a Soldier myself I will chime in...Having been to both Iraq and Afghanistan and now sitting in the Pentagon I can honestly say that the democrats would rather see every Soldier die during this war because of there own dislike to Bush43 then to put forward ay effort to support the President and the War.

The Military will not lose this war, but the weak hearted Americans, Media and Congress will. I love this country and have served under Bush41 &43 along with Clinton. Pres Clinton did great things for the economy but weakend the military to the state that it is today. We have yet to recover from this, Somolia and Kosovo were just small examples of his inability to phathom what it takes to be a Commander and Chief. Bush43 has done the best he can, maybe the plan was ill advised and maybe the stability and reconstruction planning were not up to par, but from all the INTEL given during the begining of the War no one really question it. Now of course all the monday morning Soldiers are questioning it with the "If I knew then what I know now attitude"...Or the "The President dupped me"....Great everyone says Bush43 isn't smart.....well if he dupped you, just ask yourself this question....How stupid are you ????? If you can be dupped by your own President, how easily do you think you can be dupped by another countries president, like Iran ????

As for the Congress, I know that most of them mean well but 85% of them have zero knowledge of what goes on with the military. Some say they don't need to know what really goes on, because they have already made the decision to cut and run that is fine. I have flown some 2,000 times on aricraft, but it doesn't mean I can fly a plane......There are some 130,000 troops on the ground that the Congress "knows" about, but it doesn't mean they know how to "Soldier".

I'm very greatful to hear all the support given to the troops on this site. I love to read how patriotic everyone is. Believe me, it's okay to be critical of the President and the policies that come out of the White House and Capitol Hill, if you didn't you wouldn't be an American. I'm always open to debate, just remember I'm the one with the Top Secret-SCI clearance.

See you guys at the spring game !!!!

 

[gallup21]

heres what a 14-year old thinks of all this. Support the troops = yes, because theyre serving this country to help keep freedom.

support the president = No, because he's Bush and ive got a 100page book of all the dumb things hes said/done in the first term alone.

 

[Freeman Ara]

heres what a 14-year old thinks of all this. Support the troops = yes, because theyre serving this country to help keep freedom.

support the president = No, because he's Bush and ive got a 100page book of all the dumb things hes said/done in the first term alone.

Please tell me Micheal Moore isn't writing books now.

 

[stonebreakerwasgod]

Hey gallup, I appreciate your opinion. I think do think tho, the only reason there is a 100 page book on all the dumb things Bush has done, is due to the liberal media and interest groups who like to paint him with that brush. He is far from perfect, but I fail to recall the vitriole from the media when writing about Carter (big mistakes) and Clinton (bigger mistakes). Also, those presidents I just mentioned were very risk-averse. This president takes action, thus opening himself up to make mistakes. I prefer the latter.

 

[tgolden]

never mind, i don't want to get involved in this.

 

[irishunclebill]

Brilliant?

...the dude is a headcase...

Body Count = score? Please...

58,000 American men dead in Vietnam
2,000,000 Vietnamese killed

Sure...I see the correlation.

LMI- Brilliance is in the eye of the beholder. I gave fair warning as to the content of the video, no one forced you to watch it. He was only over the top in the head count discussion if you take it out of the context of what he was commenting about. The brilliance was in the presentation of the argument, whether you agree with his viewpoint or not does not detract from that.

Headcase!! Is he a headcase because you find what he had to say not to your liking. He presented his argument in a clear, concise, and calm manner, and presented on the record facts to support his opinion and his arguments. That hardly meets the definition of a headcase, and I'm surprised that you would resort to such hyperbole.

 

[IRISHDODGER]

I think LMI took the body count comparison a little too literally. The guy was trying to make a point, b/c the liberals & the media are obviously trying to depress us w/ the body counts of our own. His point is that if body count is how you judge the war as being a failure or success, then let's see what the enemy body count looks like.

 

[LOVEMYIRISH]

Dude, we aren't staying the course. What is going on now is working. Strategy has changed alot. I'm not sure what else to say. BTW- The generals in charge do share some of the blame. I think Patraeus has the confidence of a whole lot of people out there, give him some time before we start thinking about withdrawing.

BTW- The only time you withdraw in war is:

1) The objective is achieved
2) It is understood that the objective can not be achieved. (and we aint there just yet!)

I agree things look better.

Tell me: WHAT IS THE OBJECTIVE?

At this point, I don't think the American public has any idea what it is. Yesterday I asked people around the office...most of whom support the war in general...not one could tell me what success would be. Not ONE could say "If we achieve X we can leave"

That's a problem.

 

[stonebreakerwasgod]

Everyone knows Bush has a difficult time in 'selling himself' and the war. I think that he should have a prime time news conference soon and lay out exactly what we are doing, what the plan is, and what the future holds.

To me, the objective is to get the Iraqis to be able to handle security so that we can get most of our troops the hell out of there. Today I heard that Sunnis are volunteering in MUCH bigger numbers to the army and police. This is a very positive sign that even they are tiring of the continuing violence and outside interference. A little more time is needed.

 

[dyrtdogg]

All I'm probably going to accomplish here is get myself worked up, but I'll throw in my two cents:

I'll preface this by saying that i was someone who was on the fence before we went in (very slightly leaning towards not going in, but that is a luxury I am afforded as someone who is not in a position of power. Real leaders are called upon to be decisive, not torn and unsure like me. This, I believe, was the major failing of our last CIC in his defense policy. A lot of military decisions seemed to be compromises with himself on what to do.)

1. I wish that the commentator would not have used the body count reference. I don't think that it is a very accurate gauge of success in wartime, as pointed out above.

2. It does seem as though every opportunity is taken by the media to portray events in a negative light. What successes we have seem to be given short shrift.

3. I have a real problem with all of the people who like to say that Bush lied to the public in order to get us involved in this situation. I don't believe that most are stupid enough to be misusing the word "lie" the way that they do without ulterior motive. I'll agree that it looks as though the information we were given is not borne out. However, getting bad intel and/or misinterpreting solid intel is not a problem that has started with nor will end with this administration. But, saying Bush lied is so much more powerful than saying Bush was mistaken, that I think people opposed to him cannot resist characterizing his actions in the most vilifying way possible. You might say that this is simply semantics, and not particularly important given the overall situation, but I would reply that if it is semantical and so unimportant, why do so many doggedly keep saying the same untrue thing.

Not a particularly cohesive or comprehensive view of current events, but these are my opinions, nonetheless.

 

[ShivaIrish]

3. I have a real problem with all of the people who like to say that Bush lied to the public in order to get us involved in this situation. I don't believe that most are stupid enough to be misusing the word "lie" the way that they do without ulterior motive. I'll agree that it looks as though the information we were given is not borne out. However, getting bad intel and/or misinterpreting solid intel is not a problem that has started with nor will end with this administration. But, saying Bush lied is so much more powerful than saying Bush was mistaken, that I think people opposed to him cannot resist characterizing his actions in the most vilifying way possible. You might say that this is simply semantics, and not particularly important given the overall situation, but I would reply that if it is semantical and so unimportant, why do so many doggedly keep saying the same untrue thing.

Not a particularly cohesive or comprehensive view of current events, but these are my opinions, nonetheless.

Seems to make sense to me. I'm not sure if he lied--is anybody? I think there is more worrisome points that shed Cheney and Rumsfeld in a negative light. I actually have a bigger concern about people pulling the wool over Bush's eyes, and misleading him. Bottom line: incompetance and lying both can bring about a world of hurt.

 

[ACamp1900]

I will say this... I loved his last comment... That IS the way it should be... sadly for half of our country, politically, that is not the case

 

[stonebreakerwasgod]

People hate Bush for both elections that he won. The war just gives them an excuse to either bash him, or gain political power. All those people said the same stuff about Saddam and his weapons that Bush said, are now voting to defund the troops and saying Bush lied. It's all a game to them, I would not let yourself be pulled into their B.S.

 

[ACamp1900]

who me?? lol... I think you're good with that Stone