For THESE Marines, Iraq A Frustrating Fight

[wade]

I think Comrade has lost it!

And once again, I think he proves he does not really understand what it means to be an American.

Wade.

 

[jimnyc]

Because he is with this particular company of soldiers and he is reporting what they are saying. He is not with those 1000's of soldiers you imagine are 100% behind what they are doing.

Are you inferring I imagined all the articles I have read both posted on the internet and played on the TV and radio?

 

[wade]

Are you inferring I imagined all the articles I have read both posted on the internet and played on the TV and radio?

Those are not the topic of this thread.

 

[jimnyc]

Those are not the topic of this thread.

Yeah, keep backpeddaling!!

YOU stated - "He is not with those 1000's of soldiers you imagine are 100% behind what they are doing."

Now you back off like a typical liberal who had his shitty arguments shoved back down his own throat!

 

[wade]

Yeah, keep backpeddaling!!

YOU stated - "He is not with those 1000's of soldiers you imagine are 100% behind what they are doing."

Now you back off like a typical liberal who had his shitty arguments shoved back down his own throat!

No, I point out that the info you are presenting is not relevant to this thread. That's not backing off, you are trying to bring something into this thread that is invalid and I'm not biting.

 

[jimnyc]

No, I point out that the info you are presenting is not relevant to this thread. That's not backing off, you are trying to bring something into this thread that is invalid and I'm not biting.

You inferred that I was imagining the articles. I called you on it. Now you want to make believe what you said is irrelevant. Dumbass.

 

[White knight]

I love these young Marines; they are an example of everything that is good in our society.

I knew shortly after 9-11 that we were headed into war with Iraq, because some of the press statements that were coming out of White House. I began training in preparation and sure enough the following spring, I found my self with a set of orders to go play in Operation Iraq Freedom. I knew from a historical context that there is no way we would be able to maintain any long term presence there before it would turn into a Israel /Palestine occupation thing. Our two cultures don't mix. It’s like throwing water on an Oil Fire. The more water you throw on it, the hire the flames and the more they spread.
Having been involved in operations where the leaders are blundering idiots, I can tell you the troops know when something stinks. The Brass will try to put their best spin on it but when something is really stinking and rotting you can’t mask the smell forever. Eventually the truth comes out and that’s when the heads roll.
Having been in that situation, I can tell you it is a real moral buster; pretty soon everyone stops giving a shit and begins to get sloppy. We lost faith in our NCOs, our NCOs lost faith in their leaders. We only had one Officer who had a backbone and stood up for what was right, eventually he was forced to resign his commission.
I was really hurt by this whole ordeal, How we were let down by our chain of command, How our Service had let us down. This was not the way or values of my service or my country, I was left doing allot of soul searching eventually I got out. Not because I don’t believe in our cause. I know that even the most rotten people can attain positions of power and they do because often their psychotic qualities are mistaken for leadership qualities.
I can relate to the guys talking about Dog-and-Pony-shows, allot of that goes on for the press and even more so for the top Brass.
And this BS about staging and waiting for permission before you can go after insurgents that did a hit and run. Waiting an hour while you try to get a hold of Offa-cur who is probably playing golf at one of the palaces. They need to do better then that, they need a quick reaction force and to be able to make command decisions at the local level.

As far as us taking greater risk and cautions not to hurt civilians, I would say (deep sigh) yeah that’s one of the realities of this conflict. Remember this is a region where if your teen daughter gets knocked up you can kill her. If you mistakenly kill someone’s civilian brother, then it’s “I swear by Hussein I will avenge you”

This conflict can only get worse if we fail to beat back the insurgents. If they become emboldened, then their numbers swell. If they improve their weapon technology or refine their techniques, then yes it will get beyond ugly.
Yeah but these young guys are one of the reason I serve, I can’t find a better group of people I would rather be with then these young service members.

If you know someone who is currently serving overseas and you would like to share their E-mails I think we all would really like to read them. That would be great to be able to get a first hand perspective on how things are going.

 

[nakedemperor]

And I'll take the word of the thousands of soldiers I have read direct feedback from. Picking or choosing a couple who support what your agenda is means nothing to me. No disrespect meant to your friend, but his insight from a couple of soldiers means nothing to me.

If he's unbiased, why isn't he reporting about the thousands of soldiers who are 100% behind what they are doing?

There aren't just 'a couple of soldiers' being refered to in this article-- why are these soldier's opinions invalid? Apparently their sentiment is shared by plenty of marines. I think you have to look at the bad along with the good. We've seen lots of marines saying the war is going splendidly, we're seen lots of marines saying we're making very little progress... the reality is probably somewhere in between.

I also don't think its fair to assume that a reporter has 'an agenda'. You're merely saying this because his article is antithetical to your agenda, which in this case, is to have everyone believe the war is going very well, progress is being made, and we're not stuck in a unilateral quagmire. I don't believe that's the case, but I also don't believe most of what I hear from a president in an election year (month) about the most important election issue.

 

[jimnyc]

There aren't just 'a couple of soldiers' being refered to in this article-- why are these soldier's opinions invalid? Apparently their sentiment is shared by plenty of marines. I think you have to look at the bad along with the good. We've seen lots of marines saying the war is going splendidly, we're seen lots of marines saying we're making very little progress... the reality is probably somewhere in between.

I also don't think its fair to assume that a reporter has 'an agenda'. You're merely saying this because his article is antithetical to your agenda, which in this case, is to have everyone believe the war is going very well, progress is being made, and we're not stuck in a unilateral quagmire. I don't believe that's the case, but I also don't believe most of what I hear from a president in an election year (month) about the most important election issue.

You'd be rather hard pressed to find a quote by me stating these soldiers opinions were invalid. I was merely pointing out that these were a couple of soldiers and that I have personally read written letters and heard letters from literally thousands of soldiers speaking the opposite of what was written here. I agree that there is bad and good coming from the soldiers. But if the reporter didn't have an agenda, he should report both sides.

 

[wade]

You'd be rather hard pressed to find a quote by me stating these soldiers opinions were invalid. I was merely pointing out that these were a couple of soldiers and that I have personally read written letters and heard letters from literally thousands of soldiers speaking the opposite of what was written here. I agree that there is bad and good coming from the soldiers. But if the reporter didn't have an agenda, he should report both sides.

He did. He reported the general feeling in the particular unit to which he was attached.