Say Anything Blog

I’m sure the Iraqis cheered as they left.  Now, if only the rest of the 200,000+- troops would follow them, so the Iraqis could have their country back.  But it ain’t gonna happen.  Not until Bush is out..he already promised us that, didn’t he?

I wonder where the ones with no limbs and burns deboarded?  Perhaps they had already been flown to a military hospital prior?  I know coffins aren’t allowed to be photographed.

We have 2 battalions of PA ANG returning in mid May, and a Marine Reserve unit from east Ohio returning 1 June. Yep, we are all doomed, DOOMED I tells ya!

Our small weekly newspaper always publicizes the return of groups or individuals from Iraq. Usually there is a public welcoming ceremony with accompanying articles in the paper. I have been to a couple of these homecomings, they are nice, the service people appreciate it.

God bless them so much! I am so glad they got a warm welcome. I am sure it must have been devastating for the Viet Nam troops to come home and be spit on and booed…

Jeff, Medcalf, at Caerdroia, notes that whenever he flies he tries to arrange to eat at the airport so he can buy dinner for a GI who happens to be there. More often than not, says Jeff, he runs into others doing the same.

If I have to be at the Atlanta airport, I try to schedule some extra time for much the same reason.  It wasn’t like that for most of us returning from Vietnam.  So it’s important to see to it that this generation of fighting men and women know that their sacrifice and devotion are appreciated and respected. 

If I may break up this touching scene and inject some reality:

Would the group of you like to volunteer to pay the bills of those who come home with no limbs or no eyes or PTS syndrome for the rest of their lives.  A simple ‘thank you’! with tears in your eyes won’t cut it after you faux patriotic hoopla dies down. 

And Zsa, please don’t ask God to bless people’s actions who may have shot an innocent child or splattered their parents’ brains all over her little dress because they didn’t understand English commands.  Please don’t do that, Zsa, as (faux) patriotic as you may be, honey.

God Bless Our Troops...AND, god bless the unpatriotic idiots who continue to display disrespect for this country…

God Bless Our Troops...AND, god bless the unpatriotic idiots who continue to display disrespect for this country…

God blesses things that are in line with His Word, not things that you think are ‘nice’, Zsa.  Dry your eyes and go visit a soldier with no face today.

ZZ.

She ‘s been all over SA today. Don’t know what she is commenting about. I ignore the comments from some people after a period of time. Check the name on the comment, then skip it. I must admit, a lot of people seem to be responding to her.

She ‘s been all over SA today. Don’t know what she is commenting about. I ignore the comments from some people after a period of time. Check the name on the comment, then skip it. I must admit, a lot of people seem to be responding to her.

She is making this site her little charity project for the indeterminate future, as much as some folks would like Rob to ban her.

Yes, alot of people are responding but, the trouble is, they only respond in insults.  I’ve noticed that, when I take the time to post articles that are worth commenting on, no one says a thing.  So I’m just trying to ‘fit in’ by posting mostly worthless stuff, which seems to be the main course here.  I just ‘go with the flow’.

Now, if you’d like to common in the thread about the economy and make some intelligent remarks about the articles I posted, I’ll assume you actually have more in you than one-liners.

Eneils,

Its lack of sleep.  The looney left held an anti-Rush Hate Fest here last night.  I guess some persons just can’t handle the change in their regular schedule with quite the same ease as when they were so much younger. 

ZZ,

My oldest brother came back from Viet Nam in 1970. Don’t remember much about it the way he felt, except he was glad to be back. He moved on, went to college, got a Masters Degree and has been very successful. I know some have had lasting effects from the VN War and their treatment upon returning. As individuals, they deserved better.

Eneils… You are a smart man! Thanks, I’ll do that. Maybe she will go away? I doubt it though.

ZZ,

It may be hard to ignore and tempting to read, but who cares. 

I have a nephew who has been to Iraq twice. He has no regrets about going. Said the Army treats him well while he is over there and has not encountered any negative situations upon his return. 

EB...I think many of the individuals against the war in Iraq have a desire to live out the 60’s protest hippie thing? The Bush bashers litter their liberal garbage until they actually have people swallowing it. The Michael Moore’s and Cindy Sheehan’s of the world get away with spreading their lies because people actually believe it! Sometimes it is hard to ignore the ignorance and hatred. Patriotism is dead in people like that and it is a shame! I am thankful your brother came home and did well. So many had such disrespect. The flag burners and draft dodgers of today don’t have the luxury of blaming the draft! BUT, sometimes they act like it anyway!…

ZZ,

Yes, Iraq is a whole different matter. The left wants to follow the script employed against VN.

To believe what a lot of them believe, you have to assume that Islamnic terrorism did not start till Bush was in office. The attack of 9/11 was a singular event, not involving anyone but OBL and his immediate pack of animals. Capturing OBL would have ended all threats to this country. George Bush as an individual will be respnsible for all future Islamnic terrorism.

It falls apart quickly, if you take the emotional partianship out of the equation. 

Eneils… You are correct on all points. I would be more than happy for you to speak on my behalf!

"The flag burners and draft dodgers of today don’t have the luxury of blaming the draft! BUT, sometimes they act like it anyway!..."

Zsa Zsa,

A very astute point.  These are the very same folks who spent much of the last presidential election braying about "nuance" and yet they are themselves so intellectually clumsy as to not realize their own inability to distinguish today’s reality from yesterday’s self-serving fantasy. 

Bat One...Fantasy is agreat description! You too may feel free to speak on my behalf. Sometimes hearing and seeing what the loud mouthed liberals are blabbing, it is easy to forget that there are actually people who are true to their own country.

DFW is a huge airport and connects flights from everywhere. I would imagine most of the troops will come through DFW??? That is really great that people are taking the time to greet them with a warm reception. Doc, you are really sweet to take part in welcoming them home!

Doc Dave,

Thank you for being a part.  If nothing else, I know that one of the truly good things to come out of the horror of 9-11 is our nation’s renewed respect for the extraordinary men and women that serve in our military.  We haven’t had that for a long, long time.

They are our very best.  To treat them with anything less than the very highest regard is to validate the hypocrisy Zsa Zsa noted above.  After all, it is because of their service that we do not have a draft.  No service man or woman should ever come home to anything less than the humble gratitude of those whose freedom he has secured.

Zsa Zsa,

I would not presume to speak for others, as I often have more than enough difficulty with my own thoughts.  But thank you for the kind thoughts all the same. 

Eneils,

Its lack of sleep.  The looney left held an anti-Rush Hate Fest here last night.  I guess some persons just can’t handle the change in their regular schedule with quite the same ease as when they were so much younger. 

Yes, children, I don’t get the benefits of naptime with a cookie and juice these days like you do.  But it’s my duty to stay up until at least 1 a.m. most nights lately because the job here just requires it.

Just look at the Viet Nam vets and you’ll get a fairly decent idea of what your nephew will be facing, eneils.  And don’t bother mentioning the more successful ones like McCain, whose best performances are on Saturday Night Live.

Zsa, I think it’s an excellent idea to let the boys do your talking.  That way you can shine their boots and wash their pickups while they attempt to explain things.

an anti-Rush Hate Fest

No, ‘the looney’ (who happens NOT to be addicted to drugs) just spoke the truth and that’s a dangerous thing to do on this ‘blog’.

Why, again, are we not doing this for cab drivers and postal workers?

Dave,

I’ve actually driven in NYC, Chicago, Dallas, LA, and a bunch of other cities. So I can certainly appreciate the skill, and daring it takes to be a cab driver.  I’d probably be a bit more appreciative though, if they understood English better, and actrually knew where they were going.  Perhaps they should get hazardous duty pay?

I know nothing about postal workers… other than the fact that about twice a year one of them goes off the deep end, and takes a bunch of others with him. 

I know nothing about postal workers… other than the fact that about twice a year one of them goes off the deep end, and takes a bunch of others with him. 

I’ll speak for Bobby108 here:

I’d like to see solid proof of that.  Numbers.  Links to numbers. 

And, he said it in his best grown-up wannabe-economist tone.  LOL

GM is being ruined by those poor old grey-beards who want their pensions, doggone it anyhoot.  They’re the ruination of Amurka!!!

Or as Bush might say "I don’t understand poor people."

Tried to post this under the ‘General’s thread but couldn’t.

So, this is the next best place:

Reviving this thread with another article:

tp://www.suntimes.com/output/greeley/cst-edt-greel28.html

***********************************************************************

May military officers for reason of conscience criticize the political leadership of the armed forces, even after they’ve retired, on the grounds that the behavior of the leadership is immoral? As Marine Gen. Gregory Newbold said, the "decision to invade Iraq was done with a casualness and swagger that are the special province of those who never had to execute these missions or bury the results." This judgment does not differ from that of George Packer, an early supporter of the war in his extraordinary book, The Assassin’s Gate. Two men with different backgrounds and perspectives come to exactly the same judgment and use the same word, "casual."

One may be prepared to agree that the protesting generals should have resigned from the services if they thought that the war was being run by civilian cowboys. But, should they not, like Colin Powell, have maintained a stoic silence about their discontent? One hears two arguments in favor of this position: regard for the morale of the troops and respect for the American tradition of civilian control of the military.

It seems to me that if an officer is convinced his civilian leadership is reckless with his soldiers’ lives, then he must resign and speak out. Otherwise he is cooperating in evil and is as much a war criminal as the "casual, swaggering civilian leadership."

The "support our troops" theory is a much weaker one. If "our troops" are in an impossible situation, devised by arrogant, incompetent leadership, the best support is to demand they be removed from the situation into which folly has placed them. Taken literally, ‘’support our troops’’ means the same thing as ‘’our country, right or wrong.’’

The issue becomes not whether it is right to criticize the leadership but whether the criticism is valid. If it is, then there should be a resignation, but of the president instead of the secretary of defense. Another book on the war—Cobra II by military historians Michael Gordon and Bernard Trainor—addresses the same issue. Their craft requires a careful and detailed description of the battles, major and minor, of a campaign that future generations of cadets will study in the service academies. Such men have no particular ideological bias. They are diagnosticians whose duty it is to describe what worked and what didn’t work.

There can be no doubt after reading the 500 pages of battlefield reconstructions in Cobra II that American soldiers and Marines fought with tenacity and courage and that their noncommissioned officers and lower level commissioned officers were resilient and ingenious, even up to regimental, brigade and divisional commands, as they always have been in American military history. The problems were at the very highest level—Franks, Sanchez, Bremer, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolfowitz.

Gordon and Trainor sum up their work at the beginning: "The Iraq War is a story of hubris and heroism, of high-technology wizardry and cultural ignorance. The bitter insurgency American and British forces confront today was not pre-ordained. There were lost opportunities, military and political, along the way. The commanders and troops who fought the war explained them to us. A journey through the war’s hidden history, demonstrates why American and allied forces are still at risk in a war the president declared all but won on May 1, 2003."

The hubris and devotion to high technology and total ignorance of the enemy are not the problems of the officer corps or the troops. They are problems at the very top level of the country, from the president on down. Why have the generals spoken out now? Doubtless because they see the same group that created the mess in Iraq preparing to incite a war against Iran, using the same techniques of stirring up fear and pseudo-patriotism. They actually seem to believe they can carry it off again, despite their failures in Iraq. It is almost as though there is a Karl Rove scenario. As part of the War on Terrorism we begin to create shock and awe in Iran during October. The Republicans are the party of victory and patriotism. We must keep them in power to support our brave troops and our brave president, and to avenge the heroes of 9/11.

As Vice President Dick Cheney is alleged to have argued to the president, "If we don’t finish Iran now, no future administration will be able to finish them."

Posting whole articles is stretching "fair use" just a bit. Stop doing it.

Well, since you asked so politely.

I’ve actually driven in NYC, Chicago, Dallas, LA, and a bunch of other cities. So I can certainly appreciate the skill, and daring it takes to be a cab driver.  I’d probably be a bit more appreciative though, if they understood English better, and actrually knew where they were going.  Perhaps they should get hazardous duty pay?

I would bet pretty good money that the death rate for New York cab drivers is higher than the death rate of American soldiers in Iraq. So why doesn’t Budweiser do commercials for them? They’re all government employees.

Because soldiers aren’t cab drivers.

The war against illegal plunder has been fought since the beginning of the world. But how is… legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime. Then abolish this law without delay … If such a law is not abolished immediately it will spread, multiply and develop into a system.

Frédéric Bastiat, The Law

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