Anti-War 100,000 - Pro-War 400

Post links to what? Why is it that every time I speak my opinion you guys start asking for links?

Opinions do not require links as long as you state is as just that, an opinion.

The difference is I express my opinions based on what I hear from people I personally know, believe, and trust. You are all mostly posting opinions which you pretend is fact based on something you "read".

Sad really.

We can only wish. Look at most lefties on capital hill. Always yelling and screaming about something yet they never provide an alternative. No answers, no ideas, nothing.

I have heard very similar from my little sis. She just signed up for another 4 years.

Yeah and dont forget that someone planted bombs in the levy.

 

While I don't believe we should be there either, I do believe that now that we are we have to stick it out and finish the job, leaving now would just create a power vacuum and that is the last thing they need. It was ignorant for us to go in the first place and I have lost two people I know to that crap, but, I don't believe everything I read and/or hear because the news is biased either left or right and they like to report whats bad and none of whats good . It's sickening but, it's true, when was the last time you read a really good story from Iraq, something like the U.S. Troops and a group of iraqi's rebuilding a school or a hospital. They won't print it because scandal sells papers.

 

It was the Japanese after the sent the hurricane over!

I guess you're the only one allowed to do that, huh?

 

I don't care what links anyone wants. That's what Google is for.

Here's a link I want to post: Shocking photos from Iraq.

 

Not at all. If you say your post is based on opinion why would I ask for links? How can you link to an opinion?

 

I've seen that reasoning quoted all over the place and it seems like one of those things that people just don't question because you can almost follow the logic. What sort of a power vaccum? Does that mean that the people that we are putting in power now are too weak to control their country? When are they going to be powerful enough to maintain peace and order on their own?

It seems to me that at this point, key strategies in regards to planning should be public. We will not leave that country within a year of announcing that we intend to leave - so when will that be? Another year from now? Two years? It's not nice to keep the taxpayers in the dark when you are spending hundreds of millions of dollars monthly and putting their children in harms way.

It's absurd to me that in a country that we took over a year ago, we still have problems almost daily with guerillas. Didn't we move in on the ground this time to get things done quicker and more effectively? Seems to me the only difference is that the body count is a lot higher.

 

Do you even think about what you post?
Do you think that opinions don't need to have any facts or source or logic as long as you have heard it from someone you know?

According to you,The only people who can post an opinion are the one who have talked to someone that they personally know and was there. Does this mean that doctors can not talk a virus because they have only read about it and not talked with some one who knows a virus, or a chemist can not talk about hydrogen because he has not seen it or historian can not talk about Roman empire because he hasn't talked with anybody that was there.

May be you think Universities, literacy, intellect and books are the cause of all evils but it won't hurt if once in a while you try to read all the facts that are available about these subjects.

 

Some senator was on Charlie Rose a few weeks ago and he said that we spend $1B per day!

 

What do we expect when our leader appointed his old blow buddies to top office. Why are we suprised?

The american people at least should get a reach around, maybe a little lube. Is that to much to ask???

 

Do you think your posts make any sense and have anything to do with the topic?

By the way, for all the viewers...

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=30149&page=30

Post number 296 ended with:

So I could be wrong but it appears that gworld wants to claim that Americans are there murdering Iraqis, but will not say the same about terrorists in Iraq.

So I ask you again gworld, do you think our families and friends who are in the military are murderers?

 

When their infrastructure is at 100%, their security forces are a small percentage of what they should be. If we are having problems maintaining order with the insurgents, what hope does a force tiny in comparison have? But, then again, if we leave the insurgency could stop or it could get worse.

Your absolutely right but if I drop you in dead center baghdad and ask you to point out the insurgents, who you gonna point to? Guerilla warfare is extremely hard because the indigenous fighters have a way of melting into the population.

 

And that problem isnt going away.

 

what exactly is the goal in iraq now?

We have to stay until they have an army or police force right?

Didn't they have an army, already ?

Why did we disband their army?

Wouldn't the iraqi army have fought the foreign insurgents? The vast majority are probably just regular soldiers, they fight and do military stuff for a living.

If we had given them paycheck, wouldn't they have fought the al queda people? They are already trained, and expereinced.

 

Our "precision" guided bombs killed 15,000+ CIVILIANS.

That's more than 9/11 and all the suicide bombings in iraq combined. So who are the real murderers and the real opressors? It's not a solid white line.. everyone is killing everyone and the ones getting screwed the most are the civilian people.

We all have blood on our hands.. our tax dollars paid for those bombs. You can deny or ignore it all you like, but the truth is the truth.

And 5-10 years from now when an orphaned iraqi child becomes a man and comes over to the U.S. to kill our people to avenge his dead family that our troops murdered, you can call him an unreasonable mindless al quada terrorist too...

Just ask yourself if your entire family was blown up and slaughtered how forgiving would you be? Would you welcome those same troops to come bring you food and occupy your country or would you despise them and want to kill them?

Zman is obviously 100% biased because his family is there, don't expect any kind of open mind from you... I suppose you think all the people with murdered families and children from OUR BOMBS should just forgive us and be happy we came to save the day ?

 

Hence my post, until after the first gulf war Iraq actually did very well with schools and educating woman, yes this was taken away but to 'appease the shia' who are now in power, what do you think is going to happen if these other groups get their way, history and their beliefs show it could be much worse than before we got there. Your stories you show also depends on what part of Iraq you are in, some are thankful some are not. Of course the ones not in power who are now put in power are going to be happy as hell.

 

Michael Yon's blog is a good source for news from the front lines in Iraq.

 

A Soldier Speaks: Zechariah

Zechariah, 25, of Lynnwood, Washington, enlisted in the Army when he was 21, and was deployed to Iraq from March 2003 to January 2004 with the 173rd Airborne Brigade as a medic.

Zechariah grew up in a military family; both his mother and father were medics in the Army. Zechariah wanted to work in the medical field as a nurse, but couldn't afford school. So he signed up to be a parachute infantry medic for the job experience, money for school, and a little adventure.

..........................

Bush had said this war wasn't about oil, but there I was defending oil fields at all costs in the middle of Iraq. A lot of the piping and workings of the fields had been destroyed by the fleeing army and before we even started to help the people by fixing the power or water supplies, they had construction crews trying to get everything up and running on the oil fields.

They say this war isn't about oil. How about they go and trade places with one of the soldiers that would love to come home, and see what's going on around the oil refineries and see how much work is being put into them and how little is being put into restoring power and water. My brother just got back [from Iraq] and said they still only have power and water for maybe five to six hours out of the day.

I also worked with a lot of the local hospitals. The whole time we were there, the hospitals kept getting worse and worse. They never had any supplies or new machines installed. Even some of the more simple machinery, like X-ray machines, were never replaced. Every time I went into one of the hospitals I almost emptied my aid bag so they could have sterile catheters and needles. I couldn't believe my eyes to see that they were having to reuse these supplies because they couldn't get replacement equipment. They didn't even have soap.

..........................

After six months of being there, I knew that we were fighting a people that would never give up and we could never beat. I didn't blame them either. One of the Turks put it into perspective for me. What if one day, here in Seattle, I looked up and there were Iraqis falling out of the sky in chutes invading the U.S. He asked what I'd do. I thought about it and I'd be doing exactly what they were doing to us over there.

........................

How do you feel about the need for an exit strategy now?

I still feel just as strong about the need for an exit strategy as before. We are not going to win this war. The longer we are there, the more people are going to join the fight against us. We asked detainees why? Most said because they had lost a family member. So, if we figure that most families are three to four people and every time we kill one insurgent, they recruit two to three new members that may have not hated the U.S. until they lost a family member by their hands. It's the same as if they invaded here. Most households have a weapon in the house. That's millions and millions of weapons and people that are willing to protect their family and country from foreign invaders. They won't give up until we are all gone off of their soil.

Do you remember your feelings on your last day of active duty?

Yes. I still feel them every time the topic of Iraq comes up, or it pops into my mind. I felt elated to have survived, but then I felt guilty for surviving when so many in our unit hadn't made it home. Three of these were personal friends. I sat on the flight out of Iraq and asked why was I chosen to make it and why were these guys not allowed to go home. I thought before I went to Iraq that I would come home feeling like a hero. All I felt on that flight home was shame, guilt, and sadness. I still feel the same a year later.

What do you think about Secretary Rumsfeld's projection that we could be in Iraq for another 12 years?

I think he needs to spend some time over there and see how out of control it has gotten in just two to three years. If he thinks that we are going to somehow magically regain control of that country, he really has no idea as to the severity of the situation over there.

Also, within two to fours years they won't have a large enough army to fight anything with the enlistment and re-enlistment rates that I'm hearing. I got out and I will never go back there. My brother is getting out also because of the mess over there. I took an oath to defend my country when I enlisted. Iraq has nothing to do with defending my country. I didn't sign up to defend someone's personal interests, whatever it may be.

A Soldier Speaks: Zechariah

 

These people would sure like it to go away:

http://www.blackfive.net/main/2005/07/iraqis_march_ag.html

Why some don't want these people to have freedom is beyond me. I'm sure there's some valid reason in their logical thinking

 

Almost 100% agree with this post

 

g, you must have missed it so I'll help out.

POST #330

I love it! Thanks for that GTech.