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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: geode00 who wrote (176593)	11/30/2005 6:44:04 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 281500

If the President of the US of A cannot get a sufficiently large force to prosecute an illegal war of choice based on his pack of lies, then he should not be in that war. That's his choice and it was a very bad one. That was Tommy Franks' decision. He made the call about the force levels versus possessing the element of surprise as to the actual date of the attack. Not Bush.. And Franks was correct. The Iraqi Army dissolved in the face of that relatively small force. But obviously there were some miscalculations on our part about whether the civil service (police) would remain intact and functional in the aftermath. Certainly disbanding the Iraqi Army without detaining them all and forcing them to give up their weapons was a mistake. It created instant unemployment amongst a force of humiliated, and heavily armed, soldiers. I don't know why you are so against the peace dividend. Hello!!?? You're talking out of both sides of your @ss.. If you don't authorize the kind of force structure we possessed during Desert Storm, then you have to hire "war profiteers" like me to fill the gaps and provide the services normally provided by soldiers. Are you so frickin' dense that this is not obvious to you?? Now that recruitment for the Army is such a problem, Actually, there's a very good reason for poor Army recruitment that, aside from Iraq, should also be factored in. Whenever the US economy is booming and unemployment is low, the military has difficulty meeting its recruiting numbers. With current unemployment in the US running at 5%, is it any wonder that young people are making a choice of having a safe civilian job? That's what makes our current military servicemen so very special. They KNOW they could make more money on the outside, if they chose. But they are choosing to stay in, some of them after having been previously (and often grievously) wounded in combat. They are a really special bunch of people, especially the guys and gals I work with. The Selective Service says it can be up and running with a draft in 6 weeks. This war has been going on for over 2 and a half years. That was plenty of time to up the force numbers. Why don't I up you one and call for mandatory service for every able bodied man and woman?? It doesn't even have to be military service, but medical students working off their service in low-income communities, or in the Peace Corps (which should be increased in size). Build them for our own troops? What about ditching room internet access and big screen TVs for UNIFORMS AND PLUMBING AND VEHICLES AND RADIOS Geezus.. you're such a moron and worse, you refuse to listen and understand when someone WHO'S BEEN THERE explains it to you. The only big screen TV's I've seen purchased by the Military (outside of official tactical purposes) are one or two in each Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) facilities set up for community use by soldiers who are off-duty. If a soldier has a big-screen TV in his personal quarters, he's either stolen it, or purchased it for himself. Now you want to talk about Internet? NO ONE that I know of EVER had government provided internet access in their personal quarters. Some have NIPR access (unclassified) on their desktops because they need it for their jobs. But the only government provided internet access for the average soldier consists of MWR Internet access which are almost ALWAYS crowded and consist of 30 minute time limts and 45 minute to an hour waits. I personally had to suffer from this lack of access.. And it made it very difficult to keep in contact with worried relatives and friends. Obviously you really don't understand the morale lifting boost receiving an email from family, or "significant others" can be for a soldier deployed in Iraq. Which is further reason that people like yourself, you have no personal military experience, should walk VERY lightly before criticizing soldiers. One of the men who disarms bombs in Baghdad was interviewed going on the job armed with nothing but a leatherman. He has a fancy US purchased bomb suit but it's too hot for the climate. He also has a fancy bomb removal robot but the truck to haul it around in doesn't have working brakes and he can't get the government to give him $600 to repair them. Once again, you show what how ignorant you are about what's really going on in Iraq. What do you think an EOD guy SHOULD have?? Believe me, these guys are well equipped. And if they aren't it's not because stuff doesn't exist in the supply chain for them, but because there has been a human failure (or obstinence) somewhere in the supply system. Hell, I have two guys who have been fighting for weeks to get a couple of Motorola walkie talkies sent to us from the US. But some idiot back there keeps trying to make the fill out request form after request form to justify why they need it. I offered to give them the two radios I purchased prior to my deploying to Iraq. Frankly, given the state of the Constitution, the level of corruption, the level of violence and the level of fundamentalist claptrap, I don't know what can make Iraq better. Well there you have it.. You're racist self has finally presented itself for all of us to see. You're a racist because you consider Iraqis to be "sub-human" and not worthy of being helped. You think they are all a waste of time and money and who can never improve themselves or become a contributing members of the international community.. And they certainly are not (from my impression of your words) worth a drop of American blood. Why didn't you just come out and say that in the first place?? It would have saved us a lot of time trying to figure out your TRUE agenda. Hawk