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Bob, I don't know where to begin.
The foreign fighters who are crossing the border to attack our troops are Saudi. The foreign fighters are OUR troops, US! Illegally, criminally, period. The are getting killed because they were put there by criminals. They'll stop getting killed and maimed when they are withdrawn, although many will still die later from exposure to Depleted Uranium, not to mention a host of other ailments the hell they've gone thru will cause.
But their suffering is nothing compared to that of the Iraqis. Here we speak not in thousands, but hundreds of thousands, and even possibly a million. (A John Hpkins study had it at 660K a year or so ago.) If one goes back to the period of the first Gulf War, it reaches a few million in a country of 22 million or so. And even this does not due justice to the scope of the devastation our gov't has visited.
There have been repeated counter-statements by our own generals to the assertion that the resistance fighters are other than Iraqi, at least for the most part. If someone invades your country, you fight back. That's totally natural and totally justified and totally expected.
As for the fable of the 19 hijackers, read ANY of theologian David Ray Griffin's books on 9-11, or look at videos of his talks, or read what various US Ret. Lt. Cols. in the AF have written -- e.g. Bob Bowman, former Star Wars chief (under Nixon and Ford I believe) -- but there are many others. Oh, you haven't seen this on the MSM? Really? Wonder why. But it's true. You cannot just accept this story without investigation. This is no longer possible. There are too many people you cannot dismiss as kooks who have taken it up. Peak Oil is a matter for investigation. GW is also. So is this issue. Griffin's works are utterly lethal.
We can get hung up in the correct language all we want. I was protesting this damn war for months before the US invaded, even got fired from a crummy job for doing same, you can't talk at work.
But, at this point, Iraq is like the Tar Baby story in the politicially incorrect Uncle Remus tales. The United states is just stuck like Chuck. I'm going to assume that you love the US, even if you think the government is the worst that we've ever had. I know I do. And i've met dozens of Iraq veterans when I was working in El Paso as they were training to go back. They are mostly decent, working class kids with the finest motives-they joined the Army and reserves to get a college education without a monster student debt. They believe in working, they are patriotic and I don't mean jingoist, they are some of the finest elements of American society.
They have been betrayed by the Traitors like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Poindexter, Wolfowitz, Rice. Those monsters are arming their enemies, and the troops shouldn't be there.
But the other side is that now the neocons have totally screwed up everything with an immoral invasion,killing 800,000 Iraqis and torturing god knows how many to death-if the US leaves Iraq, we may never get another barrel of oil out of the mideast. Our currency has fallen rapidly to trash, and no other country in that region will ever allow us to have our troops there again. The export land model is going to look like the kind, easy path down. The economy will collapse and people here will starve.
If you can figure out a way out, please tell me. It is so screwed up I haven't got a clue. I'm a pacifist, I've been anti-war since I turned 15 during Viet Nam.
But the first thing is acknowlege the truth-the Bush family and all their toadies are traitors. And they have been for at least 30 years.
Bob Ebersole
Bob, I agree with you. The biggest mistake was attacking and attempting to occupy Iraq. The second biggest mistake was Bremmers dismissal of the entire Iraqi civil service and military, probably on orders from Bush/Cheney. I too was holding up signs and getting the finger prior to the start of the invasion. I could see a rerun of Nam and now we have it only this time its for that rare commidity...oil. If we lose this one we are screwed, as you pointed out, and I see no way to win it with the morons that are in charge or any of the wannabe morons waiting in the wings.
"If we lose this one..."
If? It seems clearly lost already.
It seems that perhaps we are violent agreement, to put it the way a friend of mine expresses it. Certainly I feel the same way about the soldiers your do. I'm the only male in my family who didn't serve in the military -- my son, my two brothers, my father, my grandfather (maybe not the other one). My son was lucky to have served between the two Gulf Wars. I can't imagine the pain of having had him come back in a box. Sheer luck.