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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Grim
Published Letters: 7 Editor's Choice: 2
I'm pushing 40, watch The Daily Show, own a business, Served in Iraq, think Al Gore should've been president...So what's the harm laughing at pointless jokes? Sometimes I don't want to laugh at the irony, stupidity, or hopelessness of where we're at. Sometimes I want to laugh with the goofy frat boy on stage. And I do. Rock on Bro! Time to go make a Sangwich....
The truth is that the things democrats stand for are not "cool" in many peoples' minds. Talk, negotiations, the climate, social services are always trumped by "they hit us, now we're going to get 'em" attitude. The average citizen doesn't have the time or willingness to think about things in the long term. They vote on gut instinct and that's why the GOP focuses on the terrorism issue. Nothing stirs up the gut like fear...never mind that global warming is going to kill many more and affect our way of life to a much greater extent than terrorists can ever dream of doing. Kicking ass is cool, saving an ice cap is not.
I'm an army officer, served in Iraq, and we discussed politics over there a lot. Whenever someone blamed Clinton for the mess of too few troops to fight the war because of his down sizing, I tell them that Rumsfeld must agree with Clinton since he's fought congress every time they tried to increase the size of the military. Not even the staunchest Bush supporter had a comeback for that one.
The BS arguement that always comes up is that it's the media's and public's fault that we're not going to have the stomach to win the war. Well if you're planning and executing policy at the strategic level, say while serving as POTUS, you might want to realize that policy does not execute in a vacuum. You do not have an unlimited amount of time to get it right. If things go bad, you have to plan for public opinion going south and what you're going to do about it. The GOP never thought of what to do if Iraq would take more than a few years. You can bitch about public opinion all you want, but you're not going to magically change it, you have to manage it and plan what your successor will have dumped in his lap after the next election.
Yes the guys at the VFW are waking up, but they're still not going to go out and hug a tree, that's just not cool.
I'm certain that once troop and equipment readiness reaches the bottom and everyone finally takes notice, the chickenhawks will blame Clinton's downsizing in the 90's as why we lost this war. They would do well to remember that Rumsfeld has fought congress on proposed increases in total troop levels every time they were brought to the table...ergo, Rumsfeld and Bush must agree with Clinton's reduction in force. One problem though, when Clinton was in office, we weren't up to our necks in deployments. One more mistake to add to the long list. It would also be good to review total expenditures on BS projects like the F-22 or Littoral and compare their cost to what is givin to the men in women actually on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan. Washington places far more value on these pet projects than those of us in uniform. If we're really committed to winning this war on terror, why are we spending most of our $$$ on preparing to go to war against China?
Oh, and as long as I'm typing, will those idiots that keep saying that we had to go into Iraq to save the people from the brutal torture and murder of Saddam's regime shut the hell up! What about Darfur? Why don't we go into there where killing and suffering exists on a much larger scale? Or begin to work the issue of Ethiopia and Somalia's emerging war? I'll tell you why, because those places are not strategically important to the US policy makers....and since they're not strategically important, they don't matter, they don't exist in the eyes of the administration....no matter how much death and misery there is.
Very well written, insightful, courageous, and career ruining. I feel for these NCOs. I served in Iraq, am an army officer, and never agreed with the war or the conduct of it. But whether I, a mid level officer, twenty generals, or one hundred NCOs speak out, it still won't matter. While in Iraq I watched Robert McNamara's autobio called "The Fog of War". If you haven't watched it, shame on you. You want to know why the administration is acting the way it is? Watch the movie. We can debate all day whether Iraq is like Vietnam, one thing is certain, the reason we stay in Iraq is the same as the reason we stayed in Vietnam.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
