That is a good post Rob. I believe that this will never be really picked up by the MSM. I would imagine the reporter that reported this story will be slapped and told to go out and find something more negative to report.

Woof, is your post a satirical one? The poem of course refers to the shambolic and tragic farce in October 1854, which arose from muddled orders from an incompetent upper-class elite, and resulted in the pointless deaths of 157 unquestioning soldiers, who knew what was going on but were bound to silence.

If I had protested that war and successfully campaigned for their return home before that event took place, would I have been said to be supporting the troops or not, in wishing their lives to be spared? Surely the answer is Yes. Hence the banner slogan we see today: “Support the Troops: bring them home”.

As the poem itself points out, soldiers cannot pick and choose which cause to follow: they follow orders, end of story. But this is not true of civilians, who are free, and some would say duty-bound, to let their voice, positive or negative, be heard.

Most of you think this war a moral one. What if the US engaged in a conflict you deemed immoral? What would you do then? Would you not say: “Support the Troops: Bring them home”?

About the bias of the media,there should be more reports on successes that occur there too. And American soldiers should not be criticised en masse -I’m sure that most of the bad stuff that’s happening there has nothing to do with their conduct. But no-one should be guilt-tripped into supporting a war against their conscience, in order to boost morale.

puzzle, more and more troops are becoming angrier and angrier. Know who they are angry with? Ain’t Bush.

Liar, Liar, Pants on Motherfuckin’ Fire

Puzzle,

Your in a lose-lose situation. If you admit defeat and resign, you’re following your own demands. If you don’t you’re a hypocrite that doesn’t deserve to be heard.

follow up: Don’t you liberals think it is time you end your war against the war since you have clearly lost (21,500 troop increase)? Isn’t it time to bring your anti-war troops in from the battlefield? Come on, take your own advice ye hypocrites.

Sorry, HG, we’re not gonna shut up either

Puzzle,

When faced with such a lose-lose situation, you can admit you’ve lost, acknowledge your mistakes, get on the right side of the issue, and support our nations military and their efforts, or, you can pretend the situation doesn’t exist and slowly fade into obscurity. If you are going to remain a liberal, please choose the latter as the prior will only lend you some level of credibility.

As far as credibility goes, not even the republicans are going to back the pres on his surge. The prez and people like you have put our soldiers in harms way in a civil war when we should be fighting Al qaeda. But you keep thinking the 6th surge is going to work when this is a war for the Iraqis. They need to determine whether they are going to be one Iraq or a religios theocracy. We can’t make them which is what the prez and you warmongers are trying to do.

…not even the republicans are going to back the pres on his surge.

This is part of the lefties’ Leninist divide and conquer strategy; they want to divide the American people from our President, by telling lies like “Bush’s War” and relentlessly attacking him, even for doing what they called for a few months ago.
The lefties can never win in a straight up fight, and so they have to rely on lies, half-truths and fabrication.

No really, just reading this blog you pick up all kinds of names. Wow, you really want me to leave this blog.

Oh, oh pick me 2Hotel9, its the troops that are upset with the protesters. I pissed at them too for briging out these stupid hollywood leftiest like Hanoi Jane.

Wow, I feel like I’m on American Idol. Do I get to go to Hollywood guys? I love you all too!

Puzzlefeet spews, I learned the namecalling from people like you.

Redistributing blame! I see that you never stray far from your liberal sensibilities.

In any regard Puzzlefeet – you learned the namecalling all by yourself and I never stoop as low as you do.

Case in point. There is a comment from you going on about the size of someone’s “pee-pee”. You said that before I ever talked with you, so you can take your comment and shove it right back up the ignorant mouth it came out of.

I learned the namecalling from people like you.
Does anybody here believe that? Puz, if you truly believe that you would have vacated this blog long ago, but of course, this is just another of your lies.

HA! That was a great post, HG!

And I, for one, don’t want Puzzle to leave. She is an aggravatingly blinkered partisan, but she does keep me on my toes.

Not only that, but she’s fun to play with, she doesn’t chew on shoes or the furniture, and she appears to be housebroken, too.

the interesting thing about the Iraq debate is it is far from partisan now. When the Ds and Rs are agreeing on the resolution, it’s now more than political as you all believe. It’s not about getting the Prez, which you all believe. The vote will be bipartisan. I hardly think that Sen. John Warner is a RINO or a traitor or is emboldening the enemy. I believe that they are doing their jobs as an equal branch of the government.

And Lik, I don’t mind the challenge, it’s not that much of a challenge with you; really even with your namecalling.

Puzzlefeet asked, So Rob, when do we get to discuss what is happening in Iraq? When does the Congress get to review what is happening in Iraq? When do the American people get to ask questions about what is happening in Iraq?

Where have you been? That has been going on for the last four years.

And why the hell do we care what the terrorists think about our discussions here in this country? All this screaming about “emboldening” the enemy is bunk.

Is that why they’ve been quoting and supporting the election of Democrats?

Think about that, our enemy supports your positions and quotes those positions to bolster support. Of course you would think that that is not important, for it makes you look bad.

No, HG, it’s not time!

HG spake thus:

Don’t you liberals think it is time you end your war against the war…?

Point of order. ‘Liberals’ as they have been so charitably labelled (by themselves), and who are in reality, domestic versions of socialists or communists, DON’T wage war against ALL wars the US fights… only the ones that are in our national interest.

Recall under the Klinton administration (history’s most highly placed spy and turncoat) nearly bled the US armed forces white, between massive defense cuts, matched with more meals-on-wheels deployments in his time than all the presidents in the preceding 30 years.

Under the cover of MSM darkness, Klinton broke all precedents and attacked Serbia, who was not a member of Nato, was not attacking a member of Nato and whose actions were in no manner threatening US or allied interests. Through unchecked immigration, Muslim Albanians had swamped the historically-Serb province of Kosovo and and were using terrorism to lay their claim to the area. Their terrorist organization UCK, known to the western press as KLA, had ties to Al-Quaeda and Bin Laden. Klinton came down heavily on the side of the Muslim terrorists in that war, that the MSM championed by heavily skewing press coverage on events in that area.

In contrast, Saddam’s plan to to oust the USA from the region, terrorizing the local oil producers to kow-tow to his will and align the Middle East against the West, using the twin weapons of oil-denial and WMDs (and believe me, he was busily arming himself to the teeth and had already used ChemWar against the Kurds and Iranians). Going into Iraq was not just protecting a vital US interest, it was in the interest of the entire region AND the Western world. Only it turns out, as is often the case, that the heavy lifting was left to the US and some coalition troops, while the Rooskies, French and Germans were doing their level best to screw up US plans.

I can only conclude that the function of the US-based Left is to carry out the National Interests of some foreign country — because they sure as hell are bent at snatching defeat from the jaws of any American victory.

Rob, you feel free to link back to my comment as long as you post the entire comment. I was for putting in a final group, going in for one last cleanup of Bagdhad and then we’re outta there. I think I also said we’d need a large force.

As to the question asked by B1: Is a radical Iranian takeover of Iraq, and the inevitable slaughter of the Sunni and/or Kurdish population, an acceptable outcome to you? Of Course not is my answer.

My question to you: When will the Iraqi people stand up as a united people, those Iraqis that held up their purple fingers more than a year ago, not as religious sects and how long should the American people wait for that to occur?

Tennyson: Charge of the Light Brigade

Was there a man dismay’d ?
Not tho’ the soldier knew
Some one had blunder’d:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do & die,
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Kipling: The Last of the Light Brigade

There were thirty million English who talked of England’s might,
There were twenty broken troopers who lacked a bed for the night.
They had neither food nor money, they had neither service nor trade;
They were only shiftless soldiers, the last of the Light Brigade.

They felt that life was fleeting; they knew not that art was long,
That though they were dying of famine, they lived in deathless song.
They asked for a little money to keep the wolf from the door;
And the thirty million English sent twenty pounds and four!

Puzzle, am I going to have to link back the comment where you yourself called for an increase in the number of troops deployed to Iraq?

So Rob, when do we get to discuss what is happening in Iraq? When does the Congress get to review what is happening in Iraq? When do the American people get to ask questions about what is happening in Iraq?

Those things aren’t happening now?

I suspect your real question is “When can we declare Bush’s new policy in Iraq a failure?” And the answer is, you’re going to have to at least wait until after it’s been implemented. At least to be taken seriously anyway.

But don’t let that stop you.

And why the hell do we care what the terrorists think about our discussions here in this country? All this screaming about “emboldening” the enemy is bunk.

It is? Puzzle, do you listen to what our enemies say when they talk? Do you know that they consider us “paper tigers” without the will to finish out a campaign against them? Do you know that after our cut-and-run from Somalia after we suffered some much-hyped troop casualties (but tactically won the conflict) Osama bin Laden pointed to it as an example of how the U.S. could be embarrassed, thus giving the extremists a victory?

If you think fighting the enemy emboldens them, you’re dead wrong. It may have a flypaper effect of attracting more zealots to the conflict, but what’s wrong with that? Fewer zealots to crash planes into buildings here in the U.S.

That you don’t get this things is astonishing, but I suspect you do get them and are ignoring these points becuase it helps your side of the political aisle if you do.

Which goes beyond astonishing to disgusting.

I was for putting in a final group, going in for one last cleanup of Bagdhad and then we’re outta there. I think I also said we’d need a large force.

Right, and now that that is what the President is doing, you’re against it.

Typical liberal. Who cares about sound foreign policy? Just be against whatever the President is for.

I’ll agree with Puzzle. There’s a lot of name-calling on this blog. Some people do it just to annoy, others do it because they lose their cool.

I’m guilty of the latter.

And I, for one, don’t want Puzzle to leave. She is an aggravatingly blinkered partisan, but she does keep me on my toes.