How the government does NOT support the troops

Parent Cafe
21

<p>I don’t think there is any question at all that everyone in Congress (or the needed majority) will support funding for the troop surge.</p>

<p>The little non-binding resolutions are hand slaps…nothing more. Despite the $300B spent already, there <em>still</em> isn’t enough money for proper equipment, protection or veteran’s health care. It is highly doubtful that anyone will cut off funding. Don’t see it happening.</p>

22

<p>

</p>

<p>And that’s a good thing. The people are supposed to be able to hold their leaders accountable, and if they don’t go on the record, you can’t do that.</p>

23

<p>From the Christian Science Monitor:</p>

<p>"For example, buoyed by hope that he could return home after being forced out by Sunni insurgents, Moayad entered his street Saturday behind Iraqi commandos backed by Americans. </p>

<p>The carpenter and 50 other Shiite residents were pleased to see a dozen insurgents arrested, cuffed, and blindfolded.</p>

<p>But as they picked through their trashed houses in the religiously mixed Al Amel neighborhood, their sense of safety was short-lived. “When [the Iraqi commandos] finished, an American officer came and said to release [the insurgents],” says Moayad and other witnesses. “Even the Iraqi officers were very angry, and went back to their base.” </p>

<p>While inexplicable, that decision drew angry reactions from Shiites there that wanted to return home – and highlights the colliding sectarian interests at play as US and Iraqi forces seek to impose order. </p>

<p>When those Sunnis who had occupied their houses were released in Al Amel – two of whom had attempted to kill him one month ago, he says – Moayad and other Shiite returnees had no choice but to depart again. </p>

<p>“I think the Americans want the security plan to fail,” he asserts. “I was very hopeful [when it was announced]. But today, after the Americans released these insurgents, I will never respect US troops again.”</p>

24

<p>conyat - maybe I should have used the word ‘entrap’ instead of entice…lol! But hey, I’m for responsibility. I just don’t want to hear a Democrat (or Republican) congressman who voted for the war ‘lecturing’ on the issue. And I don’t want to see anyone being left off the hook because they voted for some penny-ante resolution. If feet are gonna be held to the fire, I want to see some roasted toes from both sides of the aisle.</p>

25

<p>mini - it’s no secret that the Iraqi Shi’ites are not the ‘preferred ones’. Face it, both the Sunnis and Shi’ites in Iraq hate the US. But we are talking about the difference between blowing up buses or nuking nations. So I don’t doubt Mr. Moayad’s words for a second. Most definitely there is a lot of ‘for show’ activity going on there.</p>

26

<p>John Murtha proposed something that made good sense: Don’t let the troops go unless they’re ready (that is, they’re properly equipped, and trained on the equipment). To me this seems like basic common sense, from a person who has been in their shoes and knows what they need.</p>

<p>Serving in Iraq is more dangerous than working in a refinery, and they don’t let you walk into a refinery unless you have your PPE (personal protective equipment) and your OSHA card showing you’ve been trained. </p>

<p>But the right wing is howling that Murtha’s senile, a traitor, trying to “slow bleed” our troops, etc. And their base doesn’t think criticially about those kind of smears. This has crippled the right wing’s ability to govern no end: their base is perfectly content with incompetence, even corruption, so long as there’s a scapegoat.</p>

27

<p>Face it - they ALL hate the U.S., and want to kill Americans. And the longer the tv shows the U.S. killing Arabs (for any reason), and the longer pro-Western secular intelligentsia are forced into exile so that they and their children will hate America until their dying breath, the longer it will take the United States, that no longer has ANY credibility anywhere in the world outside of its military strength, to recover. The Secretary of State, with her “no renditions anywhere” is a laughingstock, no one takes her seriously. No one believes anything that comes out of the Green Zone pork munchers.</p>

<p>If the surge strategy “works”, a pro-Iranian, anti-U.S. party, backed by Shiite militias, will control the Iraqi oilfields for decades to come.</p>

28

<p>What gets me is how Bush loves to go to Walter Reed for photo ops in the remodled/state-of-the-art inpatient area with wounded troops. </p>

<p>How come the shrub never gets his picture taken with the wounded in the rat/mold infested outpatient area? All for show.</p>

29

<p>mini - ‘pork munchers’? lol!</p>

30

<p>

</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/18/AR2007021801335_5.html[/url]”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/18/AR2007021801335_5.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>

</p>

31

<p>Not joking about the “pork munchers”. Rajiv Chandrasekharan (“Life in the Imperial City”) shows how the contractors in the Green Zone are importing and serving pork literally three meals a day in the cafeteria, a cafeteria where Muslims working for the occupiers are forced to eat because they are not allowed to leave the Green Zone during working hours.</p>

<p>It’s called “winning hearts and minds”.</p>

32

<p>Hmmm…turns out there is a surplus of mental health services for our returning vets. Go figure!</p>

<p>

</p>