Memorial Day
Here's a guy in the Des Moines Register that got a “letter from a solider” that excoriated the media and liberals as the enemy of all they are doing:
His greatest frustration? The performance of the people who deliver the news to the American people.I'll let him say it, in his own words, in the letter, which found its way to me:"Hello media, do you know you indirectly kill American soldiers every day? You inspire and report the enemy's objective every day. You are the enemy's greatest weapon. The enemy cannot beat us on the battlefield so all he does is try to wreak enough havoc and have you report it every day. With you and the enemy using each other, you continually break the will of the American public and American government."We go out daily and bust and kill the enemy, uncover and destroy huge weapons caches and continue to establish infrastructure. So daily we put a whoopin on the enemy, but all the enemy has to do is turn on the TV and get re-inspired. He gets to see his daily roadside bomb, truck bomb, suicide bomber or mortar attack. He doesn't see any accomplishments of the U.S. military (FOX, you're not exempt, you suck also).
First, I respect their service, I admire their drive and determination to do their job well. I understand their obsession with winning the battle. It's what they are there to do for God Sakes! I most admire that they risk their lives. I have no doubt that each one of them has noble intentions. I am not of the opinion that this whole quagmire of failure has anything to do with them. As a matter of fact they won some time ago, but the Commander And Chief keeps changing the mission and unendingly raising the bar making success a distant and impossible mission.
All that said, let's take a sober rational look at this. Under the Constitution it is not up to the soldiers or the military whether we continue in a war or not. It is, through indirect Democracy, up to the people of the United States. That absolutely includes the troops but is largely up to the civilians who are not as emotionally invested to make a rational decision. We owe the solider the support in college, medical care and all the things that are promised to them. If we don't uphold our promises to them...well, I can't think of a more dishonorable thing to do to our troops.
It is quite possible that the media is not showing our bombing or machine gunning down of the enemy. It is quite possible that they aren't giving the count of how many we have killed. That may be to the advantage of our soldiers. If the enemy were seeing how many of them were dying everyday I think that may embolden them even more.
I am sure the soldiers feel a sense of pride when they destroy a huge weapons cache and attempt to put the infrastructure back on track. They are certainly doing what they have been asked to do and doing it well. I think the overwhelming number of Americans know this. Unfortunately they have done all they can do. The bringing peace side hasn't kept up with the winning the war side. That is hurting the winning the war side. The ultimate victory is peace. We can not get there by military alone. They only have a part and it is done. It is easy to make a huge list of things the bungled Cheney plan has done to embolden the enemy. If anybody doubts just ask. I think most people reading this blog know a number of them.
Finally, I again see in this article another attempt to turn other Americans into the enemy or enemy sympathizers. I am so tired of this. It is time to end it and I am never going to let it ' just pass' again. Since terrorism is now far worse than it was after 2001. Since more soldiers are now dying; since the American people have held with this longer than we took to win WW2, I think it would be a crime if there was no one criticizing this terrorism fighting plan. It's not the soldiers plan, they are doing what they are told. Don't dare equate me with an enemy sympathizer though. Troop or not I will immediately dismiss you . Ron's not EVEN playin dat. When you get back to the planet of common sense we can talk.
Finally, I again see in this article another attempt to turn other Americans into the enemy or enemy sympathizers. I am so tired of this. It is time to end it and I am never going to let it ' just pass' again. Since terrorism is now far worse than it was after 2001. Since more soldiers are now dying; since the American people have held with this longer than we took to win WW2, I think it would be a crime if there was no one criticizing this terrorism fighting plan. It's not the soldiers plan, they are doing what they are told. Don't dare equate me with an enemy sympathizer though. Troop or not I will immediately dismiss you . Ron's not EVEN playin dat. When you get back to the planet of common sense we can talk.
God Bless America and all the wonderful things in it's potential to represent.
posted by Ron at 11:36 AM
5 Comments:
First of all, I agree with you on all or most of this.
Even though his letter was well written, I had to laugh when I saw the word "whoopin'" (Oh, Lord, a Southern redneck who just couldn't wait to get to Iraq and shoot off his gun instead of his mouth!)
I support the TROOPS, but not necessarily everything they do. I certainly don't support killing and raping innocent civilians or torturing prisoners and I think that orders to do some of this come down from superior officers.
I DON't support the war. This isn't WW II, for goodness sake, where we're fighting a maniac like Hitler who wants to take over the world. We have our own Hitler instead and thank you very much for saying CHENEY's plan. I think many of the guys and women who enlisted have been fooled into thinking they were going over there to fight for OUR freedom (what a lie), to bring democracy to Iraq, and against terrorism. They were further indocrinated in basic training to kill kill kill. Many many of the troops are National Guardsmen and women. I doubt that many of them or the regular military personel actually expected to be fighting in a war. They were in it to get their schooling and to have a job.
That said, they are risking their lives and safety and their families are sacrificing much and certainly living in fear of them not returning home. Some of them, at least, are trying to help the Iraqis. They are loyal to their fellow soldiers. I can respect all that. However, many of them are being deployed over and over again. Our government says it is dealing with the combat fatigue and PTSD-yeah, by doling out anti-depressants and other psychiatric medications. Many of them are coming back with psychiatric illnesses they may never get over because of the things they have seen or done. Other than the anti-social types who enlist in the military, there are others who commit crimes against civilians because they have gone crazy due to the stress. On top of it all, the military turns them into killing machines, then brings them home, does nothing to deprogram them, and sets them free into American society so we get our own American terrorists like Timothy McVeigh.
The mainstream American media is complicit in all of this. It is conservative not Liberal and it suppresses the real war news just as it doesn't show the war protests all over the world and country and doesn't show the wounded soldiers on the stretchers being loaded into the choppers and God forbid it would show the flag draped coffins arriving in the States. Just compare it to the media coverage during The Vietnam War, for goodness sake. Another thing the media doesn't want to do is to interview the soldiers who are coming home and saying that once they get over there they realize that they have been lied into the war and talking about the horrors they have witnessed. Thank God, for Cindy Sheehan, one of the few military moms out there who is managing to get media attention.
I pray for the troops. I pray for their families.
However, I, also, pray for peace, for Cindy and for all who work for peace, and for the innocent civilians who are suffering, too. I am angry because our troops are being sacrificed, the innocent are dying, and our tax dollars are going to pay for all of this while our deficit skyrockets. So, I guess that by that (in my opinion) war criminal Dick Cheney's opinion and other like minded sheep I am a traitor cuz 2007=1984
where War is Peace and
Stupidity is Patriotism.
The cons spend a lot of time dissing libs and talking about how stupid WE are. They need Rush Limbaugh to incorrectly define the word for them, for God's sake. How stupid can any one get to listen to that big fat idiot and believe anything he says? Instead Liberals are the smart ones, the intellectuals, the ones not trapped in the rigid black and white thinking mode of the Christian fundamentalists and the neo-cons, and the real patriots who admire our forefathers' ideals and want to have a real democracy instead of the fascism of the neo-cons.
Libby
I have talked to quite a few soldiers. It seems to me that the ones who were over there in the early days were really inspired and thought they were doing good. That was before the occupation was so mishandled (read "Imperial Life in the Emerald City.) I just read the comment of one of them who is now there on his 3rd tour. He said his first tour felt great, he was all for it. He believed in it. But now he sees people they have signed up for the Iraqi Army setting off roadside bombs and he wonders what the hell they are doing there. He says 95% of his buddies feel the same way.
I heard a colonel the other day in a rare moment of honesty (on MSNBC yet) say that the time when more troops would have done any good or that we might actually "win" the war is long since passed.
Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul was one of only two Republicans who voted against the war funding. The Democratic heros you would expect to vote against it dd, and Hillary did because she wants to score points with the antiwar contingent of the Democratic party.
Iraq has to give our oil companies 20 to 30 year leases on 83% of the oil fields now in production and ALL future oil fields or we will not give them reconstruction money to fix what we broke. No other Middle East country has privatized their oil fields, and their leases are only for a couple of years.
But this war was not about oil and NOT to benefit the oil companies.
Lonna
Lee Iacocca gave us all the definitive response to the "we are not patriots" nonsense in his book and the synopsis of it you can get on line when he wrote 'If you are not outraged, you are not a patriot!'
To read it, do a search for "Where Have all the Leaders Gone" and Lee Iacocca. ONE of the versions is saltier than the others. That is the one to read.
I will probably be back in Roswell late this week. Am revamping my truck.
Lonna
'If you are not outraged, you are not a patriot!'
I like that. I wonder if they have that on a T-shirt. Also, wonder if there is a bumper sticker that says:
DON'T Keep on Truckin'!
With gas prices so high why are so many of these selfish people who don't care about the troops dying in Cheney's oil war or global warming or our environment still driving huge 4 door pickups, Hummers, etc.? I think there should be a special tax added to their gasoline bills since they refuse to conserve on fuel.
Libby
Cindy has given up her positition and will be doing no more national protesting. Sad, but I can understand why in many ways. Use this for search term or go to her site to read her letter.
Daily Kos:"Good Riddance Attention Whore"
I wish the Dems would STOP blaming the Dems who voted for that supplementary bill. Are we supposed to stop funding the troops just because we can´t get a bill through with a timetable? I can see we have no real power as long as we can´t get those 14 GOP Senators and Reps to join us. What kind of power does Cheney have over them that they will NOT represent even the Republican constituents who want out of this war? Many Repubs will not vote in ´08 because they are sick of Bush, but if the Dems desert their Party it will make no difference. Julianni, or McCain or some other Republican will be elected and the GOP may take back the House and Senate, too. Where are these people´s heads at?
Other news-The VA has suddenly begun trying to collect on unpaid GI loans even in cases where student loans were cancelled by the Dept. of Education. Some of the GI loans were to disabled vets and may be 20-30 yrs. old. Big corporations get huge subsidies and declare bankrupcy and are bailed out by our federal government constantly. And yet, this is how veterans are repaid by the country they served whether in WW II, Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait, or in Iraq/Afghanistan. And this Administration talks about how it is Christian and how it supports the troops and veterans. Yeah, like sure!
Libby
Post a Comment
<< Home