Scott, when Hackworth says how the men feel and what's really going on there, you can take it to the bank. He was a warrior, not a political soldier. He made his bones fighting WITH his men, not behind them. Soldiers know that and they trust him. He knows soldiers and he cares about them. Like a lot of REAL SOLDIERS he KNEW there wasn't going to be flowers and open arms and that people of all faiths, cultures and nationalities cannot be controlled like herd animals.
And like a lot of experienced soldiers, he knows that the political spin machines care more about appearances than publicly facing the truth, even when the truth is that things are clusterscrewed and our troops will be dying because of poor planning or ill-considered strategies. As I've said before, when we send our young to bleed out their lives in faraway lands, we should examine everything our government tells us like the skeptics from hell, not like nodding-head, true believers.
All of the "traitor" labelers from the right are getting tiresome. Those among us who say they know it's true "because Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney etc. said it," are the ones that truly are NOT supporting our troops. Maybe they should think about that the next time they call someone treasonous and maintain that they are "supporting the enemy" when they've questioned the wisdom, logic and probable success of Bush policies.
For the several posters that have made that claim today, I wonder, are you going to back up your talk by claiming that Hackworth is a traitor? Too funny when the real world smacks your tooth fairy view of "GOOD VS EVIL" right in the mouth and all you're left with is taking some refuge behind a vague reference to Clinton or attacking the character of the poster. |
