what does this post have to do with vets?

• Chris Matthews on Hillary Clinton - EyesWideOpen
  • last line of Matthews piece cut off in error. 1 line sm - EyesWideOpen
  • not pertinent to anything - sim
    • what does this post have to do with vets? - sam
      • Sorry...Barack. God forbid I misspell his name. (nm) - sam

The messages you are viewing are archived/old.
To view latest messages and participate in discussions, select the boards given in left menu

right-wing extremists, KKK, skinheads, etc. would try to target returning veterans because of their knowledge of and possible access to weapons. (Remember Timothy McVeigh, a decorated Army veteran and American terrorist who killed 168 people and injuring hundreds?)  No doubt that thousands of returning vets are suffering from PTSD or other emotional/mental problems caused when GW Bush forced them to remain in combat for repeated tours without even giving them the break that they were supposed to get. 

But telling the truth makes Obama look better so I guess we'll go with your inaccurate story instead, right?

Here's one of them, Daniel Goetz.  There are others there, as well.  I'm sure most of you know this site exists.  I've added it to my Favorites.  I'd also recommend reading Daniel Goetz' blog, as well.

Seven months ago, my service in the army was to have terminated. Instead, I am in Iraq for the second time. I sit next to a DOD contractor whose job is identical to mine. Except he makes $120,000 more, works four hours less, and visits home four times more often than I do. Daniel Goetz is currently serving in Samarra, Iraq.  Read his blog here. I am not alone in my anger and humiliation. When we were here in 2003, there was anger, but there is a difference between anger and bitter hatred. The atmosphere of discontent is thick and contagious. Even soldiers not stop-lossed feel The Betrayal. They know it might be them next time. Dissent will not change anything for us now because our voices are muted. Still, there is hope. It is that in twenty years, it will be these men and women in office. Perhaps, that alone should make me feel better. I don't think it is enough, though, for our wounded and fallen. I can't speak for them, of course. Not yet, at least.   I joined the army soon after I finished college; the decision was an amalgamation of desire to serve, to belong, and to repay student loans. I wanted the challenge to see if I really could be all I could be. Our country was a vastly different place then; one in which policemen, firemen, and servicemembers were no different than any other American. I had almost completed my two years of training to become an Arabic linguist when September Eleventh dramatically changed the nation's climate. I knew my own role would be pivotal, and was eager to see our country avenged on the battlefield. Until then, I had a rather dim view of the army. Their promise to repay my college loans turned out to be false, and I was left to shoulder the massive burden of debt alone. My dismay melted away in the patriotic euphoria that enveloped the country in the run-up to our invasion of Iraq. Like the rest of the America, I clung fervently to the justifications for it. The underlying righteousness was my source of motivation when we crossed the Kuwait-Iraq border in March of 2003. In the months that were to follow, those justifications collapsed - and with them, my confidence in a nation. In those days, my colleagues and I would often patrol the streets of Baghdad with the infantry in a bid to quell boredom. We were also looking for hope among the Iraqi people; we could live vicariously through their optimism, and perhaps therein find meaning for our occupation. But hope betrayed us as the insurgency swelled. It was when the fighting began again in earnest that we left Iraq. By the end of August, I was back in The United States, free to pretend Iraq never happened. But it had. And nothing could wrench the darkest memories from repression like the knowledge that we were to return. Worse, our year in America was wasted. Almost every week, CSPAN would feature one committee or another complaining that our armed forces hadn't enough servicemembers in critical jobs like intelligence and military police. I wanted them to know how poorly we were thought of in our own units, and how little job-specific training we received before we left. At one point, we were told to study Arabic only on our own time. That was hardly possible when we were kept late every night, sometimes doing only menial tasks like weapons-cleaning until three in the morning.   The last straw was stop loss. My enlistment contract ended in March of this year. It is seven months hence, and I am still in Iraq. I propose that, in order for me to respect my commitment, the army ought to respect the contract we agreed upon. It was for five years, not six. Proponents of this form of conscription argue that I signed it nonetheless, fully aware of possible outcomes. True, I ought to have prepared myself better. But to remain bound to an expired commitment - exposed to prolonged peril in support of an unjustifiable cause - was beyond my expectations. Today, I find the greatest challenge of the army is to find honor in service. I don't ever regret having joined because I've learned so much about myself and about America. I have faith in both, but yearn for hope to become reality. I want to go home as badly as I want to be proud of my country again.

WASHINGTON - Lawyer Patrick Murphy and five other veterans of the Given their experience in Iraq, the six Democrats in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Maryland and Virginia say they are eminently qualified to pose the tough questions. Their reservations mirror public opinion, with an increasing number of Americans expressing concern about the mission and favoring a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops.

The most recent Associated Press-Ipsos poll showed only 37 percent of Americans approve of Bush's handling of Iraq, with 62 percent disapproving.

This summer, Democrat Paul Hackett, an Iraq war veteran, nearly defeated Republican Jean Schmidt in a special election in an Ohio district considered a GOP stronghold. Hackett focused on his wartime experience and his opposition to Bush's policies.

On Monday, with support from Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and other party leaders, Hackett decided to seek a higher office, the Senate seat now held by two-term Republican Mike DeWine, said spokesman David Woodruff.

Some guys don't think it's time to question our government, but the fact is I love my country, said Murphy, 31, who fought with the 82nd Airborne Division. We need to have an exit strategy now.

While fighting in Iraq, a private asked then-Capt. Murphy why U.S. forces were in the Persian Gulf nation and was told it didn't matter; there was a job to do and just try to return home safely.

That wasn't the time to question our government, Murphy recalled.

Murphy is challenging first-term Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, a Republican in the northern Philadelphia suburbs of the 8th District.

Another Iraq war veteran, Texas Republican Van Taylor, is also running for a House seat, but he backs President Bush.

In 1974, public outrage over the Watergate scandal and Republican President Richard M. Nixon's administration swept a class of reform-minded Democrats into office. It's too soon to measure the impact of the war on the 2006 elections, but the handful of veterans pursuing seats in the House is an early indicator.

The Democratic veterans walk a fine line as they reach out to voters who may question Bush's handling of the conflict. The task is to challenge the administration while still being seen as patriotic.

David Ashe, who spent most of 2003 working as a Marine judge advocate general in Iraq, chooses his words carefully when asked whether the United States should have invaded.

There's no reason to Monday morning quarterback the decision, said Ashe, 36, who is trying to unseat first-term Republican Rep. Thelma Drake in Virginia's 2nd District. I would say we're in the right position to succeed. Whether or not we're going to get that success remains to be seen.

Although they often talk tough about the Bush administration, some of the candidates don't fit the typical anti-war image, said Charles Sheehan-Miles, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense.

They really want to help the Iraqi people and see the mission through, and they think we're losing because of stupid mistakes made at the senior leadership level, Sheehan-Miles said.

Historically, war experience has added to a candidate's credibility. As many as 70 percent of lawmakers in the 1950s were war veterans, but only about 40 percent of the members of Congress today have military experience.

During the Vietnam War, there was such a collective funk that veterans felt free to criticize, said John Johannes, a political science professor at Villanova University. A few, like Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., got their political start as anti-war activists.

Veterans today have an advantage because Americans have a positive feeling about soldiers, said John Allen Williams, a political scientist at Loyola University in Chicago.

Unlike Vietnam, people who do not like the war are not blaming the veterans, Williams said.

But that will not guarantee success, contends Ed Patru, deputy communications director for the National Republican Congressional Committee. Democratic war veterans who are seen as liberal on other issues aren't going to be popular with voters, he said.

I think a lot of Democrats are looking at what happened in Ohio and trying to duplicate that around the country, Patru said.

Taylor, 33, a Republican businessman from West Texas, supports Bush's policies. He is a major in the Marines reserves, and, like the Democrats, cites his war experience.

The war on terror is going to be with us for a long time and Congress is going to grapple with the war on terror, Taylor said. We need policy-makers who know what it means to make war.

Bryan Lentz, 41, an attorney from Swarthmore, Pa., volunteered to go to Iraq at age 39 with a civil affairs unit. The Army reserves major was so disillusioned by the lack of a plan in Iraq that he decided while he was in Iraq to run for Congress.

He is trying to unseat 10-term GOP Rep. Curt Weldon (news, bio, voting record), who is vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

I'm not anti-war, I'm anti-failure, Lentz said. We need to define what victory is and we need to set a plan to get there. You cannot stay the course if you do not set a course.

Reprinted in Boston Globe.  Sorry!

objective views. This is a one-sided publication that asks for donations to keep it going. Nothing I read in there posts anything against any democrats, just republicans. It is not a fair-minded reporting.

I like to read both sides of the aisle but this publication spews hatred for anything not democratic in order to sell books.  To those who can't see both sides, this blog, or publication as they like to state, is just up their aisle. I shake my head at one-sided news. Taken from their web site:

"Indeed, a founding idea of the Consortium for Independent Journalism was that a major investment was needed in journalistic endeavors committed to honestly informing the American people about important events, no matter what the political and economic pressures.

Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His new book, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq, can be ordered at secrecyandprivilege.com. It's also available at Amazon.com, as is his 1999 book, Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth.' "

article.

And thanks for pointing out all the other "results" of his administration that, as you say, benefit nobody but the rich and/or the corporations or, as he himself once publicly bragged, "his base."

I know for a fact that when he ran for President in 2000, I told every single person I knew that if he becomes President, we're going to go to war with Iraq.  (Nobody's gonna treat his daddy like Saddam did and get away with it.)

I didn't have a crystal ball.  I had common sense and a good memory from the Gulf War when his father was President and how he didn't "finish the job." Seems a lot of other Americans forgot about that.

I really enjoyed reading your post and all the facts you raised that I failed to raise in mine.  Thanks for the mention of the LA Times article.  I'm going to try to look that up on the web.

From your post:

"Did you read Mein Kampf?  Would that be good enough evidence for you, because he wrote about it in there."

Wrote about what?  That the Jews were socialists?

I'm actually feeling sad for you right now gt.  You obviously don't know what Christianity is about.  Pat Robertson does not speak for me, and I don't endorse what he said.  I'm sorry you are so bitter and hate filled that you would wish anyone to burn in hell.  There are some evil people in this world but my first wish for them is that they find Christ and turn from their evil ways with His help.  I too hope one day you find Christ, gt, and quit letting misguided Christians and Christian leaders keep you from HIM.  Their blunders are not worth your eternal soul.

You think there is only one patriot here?  Get a trip on your sour shrivled heart and try not to speak.

Whoops! I made a mistake.  My bad.

This is the post where the NEOCON tells the LIBERAL not to speak ON HER OWN BOARD!

They can't show a post of a liberal telling Army Mom not to speak because it doesn't exist. 

I agree with every single word you said.  America is becoming a very scary place indeed.  I believe, as you do, that there are people who are eagerly awaiting the *Rapture* and indeed believe they have the *inside track* to heaven.  Unfortunately, it look as if this country might actually suffer from their self-fulfilled prophecy if it continues going backwards in time under Bush's completely inept leadership.

Please keep posting.  I really enjoy reading your posts. 

It makes me feel a lot better to hear someone say they're against this.  When express outrage at my posting about the issue, instead of expressing outrage about the issue itself, it truly makes me wonder.

I honestly do not recall any threads on the conservative board about this issue.  All I recall is total silence (or attacks) when the issue is mentioned.

I also wasn't trying to imply that the crime of child molestation is more prevalent in one political party or another.  Obviously, that's irrelevant, and I have a hard time even associating a criminal like that with any political views one way or the other.

It's just that this seems to be a no-brainer, an issue on which virtually everyone can agree, yet the right seems to be eerily quiet when this topic comes up.

You wrote:

That is what America does.  We point at what we believe to be wrong and say so.  At least we used to. 

I beg to differ somewhat on your view of our historical treatment of the Native Americans, being an amateur historian of the settlement of the West.  The Native Americans alternately were glorified or vilified by the white culture.  Had they not been portrayed as subhumans by our government at one time in the history of the West they would not have been exterminated so carelessly at times.  As well, our history of race relations with blacks in the south is certainly nothing to be proud of.  Perhaps another country should have come along in both instances and pointed at us, or we should have perhaps pointed at ourselves. 

IF these posters want to continue to bury their heads in the sands, so be it.

and to FACT FINDER:  You're gosh darn right - I'M scared of ALL of them - they all have an AGENDA...(members of the CFR/New World order/New American Century) -

How dare you be condescending and patroning to me or any poster and tell me to *run along* - I'm probably old enough to be your mother, or grandmother.

and remember, it's my generation that has the MOST number of voters today...those from 50-75 - we WILL make a big impact......

and no matter what I posted about Barack - I was not rude, patronizing, and condescending to any poster, as a few of you were. 

We can all agree to disagree, now can't we? 

Just as an aside, I was evacuated on 9/11/01 from Newark Airport trying to get home (was in the financial district on 9/10/01) and it took me an extra week to get home....

so perhaps I'm more paranoid than most - and then you'll all have to forgive me because while we all changed that day, I never recouped from the incident nor will I ever.  Yeah, it's my problem - but it's also EVERYBODY's problem.

And while I have Muslim friends - I also married French......and have watched France's Islamic population grow in leaps and bounds the past 30 years, coming close now to 30 percent of the country (60 million people in France, well over 25 percent are Muslim).......and I don't want that happening here.  I want freedom for EVERYBODY - not people planning to take us down.....there are far too many extremist Muslims who want to do America harm (remember *Death To America* you hear chanted....remember so many of them dancing in the streets once 9/11 happened - Americans have short memories and forget far too quickly in my opinion).

I did read yesterday from some political blogger that down the road here in America, we should expect bombings in the street, car bombings - and when I spoke to my neighbors about this, they said *We are surprised it hasn't happened here yet* -

It's a very scary world today....so forgive me for my own paranoia - paranoia in this case being a heightened sense of reality.

Have a nice day!!  

about Clinton being "blown to bits."  Your response - Freudian slip? What are volunteering for? Retort to.  Take it as you will through your personal filter. 

so others can chuckle at you.