I wrote a letter to Senator Boxer expressing my concerns about the way she questioned Condoleezza Rice with regard to not having children. To her credit, Boxer sent me an email response. In it she makes the same statement that she has made to the press about the issue. She explained to me that she was trying to make a point about whom the war affects. I understood quite well what her intent was when she made the statement, but I appreciate her response. I still feel that it was unnecessary and that it was a knock on women who choose not to have children. Like I said before, the war will not affect either woman for the reasons Boxer stated but then again it will not affect anyone who chooses not to join the service. It will not affect any member of Congress because they are all too old to serve (unless they are already a reservist).
Let me say this Ms. Boxer. Please leave the members of the military alone and let them do their jobs. As Liz Cheney pointed out in today's Washington Post, you are making a mistake in interpreting the results of the last election. She indicates that the American people said they wanted change in the direction of the war but they did not say they they wanted to lose or that they wanted to fight the war here. Americans want to win and cutting and running is not winning, regardless of what name you call it. Our men and women in uniform volunteered for service and they are reenlisting to continue to serve. They understand the mission and they do not want politicians trying to undermine them as happened in Vietnam.
Mark my words Ms. Boxer, and you can pass this on, if you hand victory to the enemy and bring our troops home in shame you will likely never get another group of people willing to fight any future battles. Think about how it will feel when a really bad thing happens and no one answers the call to arms. If you and your colleagues allow this to happen I will strongly encourage the thousands of military members I know to end their service when their time is up and I will tell the prospective recruits with whom I speak to consider another profession because our elected leaders do not have the guts to stay in a battle for the long haul and they will make you sacrifice and bring you home in defeat.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - SHARK
Doggie: "...in order to gain the trust of the military the leaders must be trusted."
It was aimed at Babs Boxer -- AND NOT GEORGE W. BUSH.
Irony on a fucking gigantic scale, eh?
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Doggie: "...Would you have felt comfortable knowing that by cutting and running you allowed millions more Jews to be slaughtered? How would you feel knowing that all of Europe was taken over by German and its allies?"
Dog, if you had half a brain, you'd understand HOW FUCKING OFFENSIVE THIS IS. And as far as liberals/Democrats being "appeasers", Neville Chamberlains, and allies of the terrorists -- IT'S BEEN DONE. [see Bush, Rove, GOP, 2001-2007 for more]
Really, pal, this shit puts you on a level that makes some of the other Right-Wing apologists around here sound like Mother Theresas.
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Dog playin' poetic, pedantic, high-school ORATOR: "The death of an American soldier is a tragic thing but the death that soldier suffers when his leaders betray him by raising a white flag is the most painful, vile death that can be imagined. Soldiers who fight for their country and die in battle have died an honorable death. The death by a thousand cuts inflicted by the cut and run policies of inept, self centered leaders is the most despicable, dishonorable way any human being can die."
General question: Why is it that on Blogcritics, every motard with a keyboard and a modem thinks he's Abe Lincoln at Gettysburg?
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Doggie, I don't know where the hell you came from, but I think you're smart enough to be churning out an essay a day for Blogcritics. They're not only illogical and PAINFULLY SIMPLISTIC, but they're all crap.
I'm sure they think you're brilliant down at the local 500 watt AM station, but dude, you sound like a 19 year old kid who just discovered his brain and wants to take it out and play with it in public.
Maybe you should take express your 'art' with a can of spray paint.
2 - S.T.M
"They understand the mission and they do not want politicians trying to undermine them as happened in Vietnam"
Doggy, painful as it might be I think the truth is it was the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong who did most of the undermining ... Congress was just reacting to that.
And while I don't object per se to the right of the US to protect its interests (mostly its people) from idiots by doing whatever is neccessary, I'm not that sure going to war in Iraq was the right idea at that time - or whether the conduct of the war in Iraq has been done that well. It's certainly a case of winning a war and losing a peace.
That I think it's all about oil (surprise, surprise) is probably not that relevent as it's happened now and therefore the US and its allies are stuck with it. And at a time when you'd think better COIN techniques would be the way to go, Bush decides to increase the number of regular troops - just like Vietnam.
Most Iraqis are actually grateful for the removal of the regime amd really want peace and stability, running water and power that doesn't cut out, their own brand of democracy - not America's or Britain's - and opportunities for their kids, just like the rest of us.
Forget McDonald's capitalism: it's all those ordinary things that must be a priority if the US, which is looking to a lot of non-Americans like a bully under Bush (and which must break the hearts of many Americans), to stop the insurgents' call from falling on fertile ground.
I think too you are drawing a very long bow by comparing WWII to this balls-up. People at least knew exactly what they were fighting for. Mate, really, Bush has been the recipient of some shockingly bad advice on this whole thing and it's come back to bite him on the arse.
3 - Arch Conservative
"And as far as liberals/Democrats being "appeasers", Neville Chamberlains, and allies of the terrorists -- IT'S BEEN DONE. [see Bush, Rove, GOP, 2001-2007 for more]"
Shark........how is there any difference in Big Dog calling liberals terrorist appeasers and you calling anyone who disagrees with you on the war an "Iraq apologist." It seems as if you're both just opposite sides of the same coin.
A more reasonable person would say that there is a certain element on the right who will agree with everything Bush says and does regarding the Iraq war despite all of the evidence to the contrary of the possibility of our success at this point but that not all Republicans and conservatives fall into this camp. Conversely there is an element of America-hating, scumbag, moonbat, commies on the left that call the islamic terrorists freedom fighters, side adore Hezbollah and Hammass, and rail on about the evils of American global imperialism.......but the sensible person knows that not all liberals and Dems are like this.
4 - zingzing
oh, big dog. even the military knows that iraq is a failure. we've already lost. there is nothing to win here. maybe we can get out without completely destroying the country... all we're fighting for now is to make sure it doesn't become total civil war.
congress won't let the military fight? since when did congress have anything to do with it? it seems that no matter what they say, the administration just does what it wants to, and what the administration has done has really, really sucked. the whole war/country is a disaster.
congress is just yelling "ABORT! ABORT!" while the president says, "full steam ahead! CHARGE!" and the military does what it is told.
and if radical islam is "hellbent" on destroying our country... why do we need to give them more reason?
5 - D'oh
Well, it directly effects the senator who gave the Democratic response to the SOTU, his son is a marine in Iraq. Also, in context with Boxer's original statement that BD here has gotten his panties in a twist about, it would also effect any parent or grandparent in the House and Senate...most of them, that is, because they ARE parents.
So the ten million dollars an hour of debt being racked up by Iraq will have to be paid for by those kids...that's a pretty hefty effect.
BD, all the bombast and shrill partisan shilling of Bambenek, without the sense of embracing shamelessness.
the Tao of D'oh.
6 - Dave Nalle
And D'Oh, don't forget that it will also impact those of us who have kids who will be of draftable age in the next two decades if the war on terror continues and the democrats decide to use it as a pretext for a draft.
Dave
7 - Big Dog
The law will not allow them to go to 55, you have to be able to hit certain age milestones and be able to retire. There are many rules and they are spelled out in the law. A law they will never change if it will affect them.
Dave is correct, the only people calling for a draft are the donks.
Also, the only way families are affected is if they have children who volunteer to serve. The government only affects them if the draft is reinstated, otherwise it is a personal decision that involves personal responsibility, something libs have a hard time wrapping their arms around.
The donks will not be able to easily get a draft now. They have been crying like the litte babies they are that we need to come home and we can't increase troop strength. How can they justify a draft that will increase troop strength? They screwed themselves into a corner.
The fact is, the war only affects people who WANT to be in the military. Screw Senator Webb. No one twisted his kid's arm and made him join the Marines. He did so willingly. If Senator Webb thinks it is so awful to be at war then why did he let his kid join? He knows what war is about, he served in Vietnam. You would think Webb might actually understand what cutting and running is all about since he was affected when Congress did that back then. I am thankful for his son's service but no one drafted him, he joined on his own.
Once again, take responsibility for your own actions. No one drafted me. I went in of my own free will, just like all these kids today so don't spew this mindless prattle about who it affects because it only affects those who have taken a conscious decision to serve.
8 - D'oh
Any vet will tell you, BD, that there is a huge difference between a service member willing to serve, and those ordered to go into a situation that was FUBAR from day one.
Nobody argued about going into Afghanistan, it was the correct thing to do. Unfortunately the money said go small, and has left everything unfinished as resources were diverted to Iraq, so last year Afghanistan produced about 95% of the world's opium crop, and the billions made are being used to fund the Taliban and al Qaeda...you know, the fucking bad guys.
But as I surmised earlier, BD's use of "donk" and his statement of "Screw Senator Webb." Nice way to talk about a Nam vet.
And either you deliberately misunderstood, or are just trying to be cute...but I mentioned Webb in reference to the assertion that "no one in Congress is effected". You do also recall that Webb served a GOP administration previously, don't you?
As for the 2004 call for 40 thousand troops, it was a lot better, strategically speaking, then as opposed to the situation now, but there is also the absolute truth that even that number would probably be inadequate under the circumstances.
Should have been 100 thousand more the day of the invasion, you would need at least that many to clean up the mess now.
So much for small government believers who disavow the practice of nation building while spending 10 million an hour of debt and the largest growth of government ever, in the last 4 years.
This much irony and hypocrisy makes the baby jesus cry.
9 - zingzing
a draft means that the military is ready for whatever it is needed for.
"They have been crying like the litte babies they are that we need to come home and we can't increase troop strength. How can they justify a draft that will increase troop strength?"
let's see... the dems are against the war. they want to leave. why? because the fucking thing's a mess! we didn't have the military that was needed to handle a situation like this, because bush threw them in there like so much meat in a lion's den.
not that i support a draft, but a draft does mean that there is a standing army, one that is trained and ready.
basically, i think the dems are trying to call bush out. either he wants to win this war or he wants it to continue indefinitely.
if he wants to win it, he'll kill his political career, call a draft and win the war. if he follows his current path, ie-political survival and chummy contracting, then he won't call the draft. why would he? the longer this war continues, the more money all his friends make.
so what does bush want, really? victory/peace or power/money?
he created this unending war... "the war on terror"... give me a break. how do you fight a war that can never possibly end, that actually creates exponential violence, without a standing army? how can you really fight it at all?
do you think that terrorism has gone down since 2003? or do you think more people die because of terrorist activities now? we are losing this war, and we don't have the slightest hope of winning it this way.
you don't fight ideology with bullets, you fight it with ideology. we need to talk and listen to each other, not kill each other. what do they want? what do we want? can we compromise?
most people are reasonable. but not when you point a gun at them.
10 - Big Dog
Funny, I am any vet and I speak with hundreds of them a month and they don't tell me this.
I said from the beginning we needed a half million troops to handle the mess afterwards. We had enough for the initial battle but after we defeated Iraq's army we needed to handle the animalistic behavior of the people who still live in the past.
You said that Bush started this war and you are wrong. This war was started decades ago and came to roost on 9/11. We would not be in a war right now if they had not attacked us. As for Iraq, we went in based on our intelligence and it was the same intelligence that members of Congress used to assess Iraq as a threat a few years before Bush took office. Hussein had the WMD and they were shipped out, they are in Syria.
You can doubt this if you wish and that is fine but he had them and he used them. Regardless of whether we should have gone in or not, and people are free to debate this, we are there and winning is the only option.
You mentioned more terror. No act of terror has occurred here since 9/11. Bin Laden said he wanted to do something to draw us into a conflict so if we had not responded he would have done something else. The Iranian President is making plans to conduct nuclear weapons tests and has vowed that America will be destroyed.
I only hope that if we cut and run that we are not attacked but if we are it would be ironic indeed if the attack was in an area full of people who supported that move.
I think Congress would be singing a different tune if one of those planes had hit the Capitol.
11 - SHARk
BigDog: "The fact is, the war only affects people who WANT to be in the military."
oh.
~sigh...
Pooch, no shit, you ain't too bright. You are one simple-minded little canine. You should stop writing, sit back -- and listen to the larger intellects that have come here to enlighten you. [D'oh, with the patience of Job, bless 'is heart]
It's actually kinda pathetic watching your wee-tiny brain trying to form thoughts and sentences that make sense. You're just a big, goofy windbag who has more typing skills than ideas.
Seriously. I'm starting to think of having some mercy on ya.
Either that, or I'm gonna have to avert my eyes.
Seriously.
12 - Big Dog
Well then maybe you folks should stop trying to tell everyone how it affects everyone under the sun.
If you are counting people who are writing here as intellects then you don't have very high standards. Your sentences are rife with insults and little thought.
Let me say it this way, unless you are serving, have served, or speak to military members every day, avoid telling people what the military should do or what the members think. You can certainly have an opinion but avoid speaking as if you are an expert. If you fit one of the categories then let people know that so they might understand what experience you bring to the table.
My wee tiny brain. Now that is a good one. If only you could muster as much. Aren't you supposed to be turning burgers right now?
13 - Big Dog
I got it....
Just helping out
14 - zingzing
big dog: "Funny, I am any vet and I speak with hundreds of them a month and they don't tell me this."
tell you what?
"I said from the beginning we needed a half million troops to handle the mess afterwards. We had enough for the initial battle but after we defeated Iraq's army we needed to handle the animalistic behavior of the people who still live in the past."
congrats. can the army find that number? are there that many volunteers?
"You said that Bush started this war and you are wrong."
the war on terror is bush's creation. he could have gone about it much differently if he wanted to attack just those truly responsible.
"Hussein had the WMD and they were shipped out, they are in Syria."
ok.
"You can doubt this if you wish and that is fine but he had them and he used them."
ok.
"Regardless of whether we should have gone in or not, and people are free to debate this, we are there and winning is the only option."
yeah, but how? we certainly aren't now, and it doesn't look like our current tactics are going to do any better. we need to change our approach, obviously.
"You mentioned more terror. No act of terror has occurred here since 9/11."
it's a big world, silly man. you wanna say the same about those places outside your back yard? and i wonder... i wonder if things that happen in the rest of the world have consequences here in america?
"Bin Laden said he wanted to do something to draw us into a conflict so if we had not responded he would have done something else. The Iranian President is making plans to conduct nuclear weapons tests and has vowed that America will be destroyed."
well, we fell into bin laden's little trap, didn't we? cycle of violence, anyone? anyone? i thought iran wanted to destroy israel. meh. same difference, isn't it?
"I only hope that if we cut and run that we are not attacked but if we are it would be ironic indeed if the attack was in an area full of people who supported that move."
and i only hope that by wandering willy-nilly over the earth, destroying nations and creating general havoc, we don't push those who would attack us to the point that they actually feel they have no other choice... and it would be ironic indeed if the attack was in an area full of people who supported the things we are doing.
"I think Congress would be singing a different tune if one of those planes had hit the Capitol."
the acoustics might be different. a lot of them might be dead. in the aftermath of such a thing, a lot of hawkish people would have been elected into office. so, you are probably right. who knows... if we had not thought it was going to be so easy, maybe they would have sent the right amount of people the first time (maybe a draft would have come around) and we would be done in iraq by now.
if we could do things like this successfully, then it would be worth doing. democracy is a lovely thing. but, since the fact is that we have no clue how to build a nation, we shouldn't be doing it. i'm not going out building houses. i have no clue how. whatever house i build would be a terrible death trap. it would fall on your head.
15 - Big Dog
We have that many troops.
The strength of the military is about 1.2 million.
I have a philosophy about war. If you are going in go in big. Shock and awe should have been just that. We should have destroyed every thing that moved the wrong way and shot anyone coming into the country. We did not
How can we win now? Put a lot of troops in there and kill every living thing that acts hostile in any way. Stop allowing the word of the people there to trump the word of our troops and stop worrying about collateral damage. Sounds cruel but it won WW II.
We should not nation build. I would be happy if we would have started the mess and then left and let them all kill each other. I don't really care if the Sunnis and the Shiites kill each other off. I just do not want any of them coming here.
In the news today. Ahmadinejad said the US would be destroyed soon along with Israel.
We should have provided Israel with everything it needs for defense and helped it and then let the sand fleas kill each other off. Of course, we would need to vigilant here and stop all this concern for organizations like CAIR. Profile and screw the ACLU if they do not like it. Watch our own turf and deal with whomever survives their infighting.
Acts of terror in other countries happened for what reason? Spain attacked AFTER it pulled its troops out of Iraq. If you think leaving will make them stop you are mistaken. There are terror cells here now and a few suitcase nukes unaccounted for from Russian inventory.
They are coming and we better be ready.
16 - zingzing
"I have a philosophy about war. If you are going in go in big. Shock and awe should have been just that. We should have destroyed every thing that moved the wrong way and shot anyone coming into the country. We did not
How can we win now? Put a lot of troops in there and kill every living thing that acts hostile in any way. Stop allowing the word of the people there to trump the word of our troops and stop worrying about collateral damage. Sounds cruel but it won WW II."
well, hello napoleon, you nasty little man. what won wwII is not what's going to win here.
"I would be happy if we would have started the mess and then left and let them all kill each other. I don't really care if the Sunnis and the Shiites kill each other off. I just do not want any of them coming here."
ahh, you are a model of humanity. beyond that, don't you think staying out of the middle east would make them hate us less? they wouldn't have time for us if they were busy with each other. now, we are part of their problem.
"Acts of terror in other countries happened for what reason? Spain attacked AFTER it pulled its troops out of Iraq. If you think leaving will make them stop you are mistaken."
no, i don't think leaving now will make them stop. however, i think it will lessen the amount of new terrorists we have to worry about. for every man we kill, his brothers, sons and cousins all line up against us. since it only takes one man to start world war III, i would think that less men hatin on us would be a good thing.
17 - MCH
"Let me say it this way, unless you are serving, have served, or speak to military members every day, avoid telling people what the military should do or what the members think."
- Big Dog
Attn:
RJ Elliott, Dave Nalle, Lumpy and Arch/Bing...please see above.
18 - Big Dog
MCH,
I am sure there are plenty of others. But be professional and put the entire thing in there. This follows:
You can certainly have an opinion but avoid speaking as if you are an expert.
19 - zingzing
Dog: "Let me say it this way, unless you are serving, have served, or speak to military members every day, avoid telling people what the military should do or what the members think."
so the military is not at all accountable to the people? not in the least?
and if you've never spoken to a member of the military who has expressed grave doubts about the direction we are taking in iraq, you are picking who you speak to very carefully. or you don't speak to as many people as you claim. or you don't read the news.
20 - zingzing
are you an expert in military strategy, big dog?
21 - D'oh
BD...have served, and am in contact with many who still do. that *qualify* me enough?
Just for fun, allow me to recap some ofthe history leading up to the current conflict which you seem to have forgotten.
Remember the Shah? Kooky guy who ruled Iran for a while after the U.S. ousted the democratically elected president, he got a cut of the oil bucks and the CIA trained his secret police (SAVAK).
Well, they had a revolution and kicked him out. Mullahs replaced the tyrant/monarch and the American embassy was invaded and captured with no shots reported fired. after more than 400 days, we get the hostages back.
It gets really crazy here, U.S.S.R. in Afghanistan, the CIA trains the mujahadeen (foreigners fighting against the Russians) including a Saudi whose name sounds like "Oh, summer bed linen."...there's good old Ollie and friends importing cocaine to raise money to buy guns from Iran to sell to the Contras in defiance of stuff the Congress had passed and made federal law, and Rummy shaking Saddam's hand while getting some WMD's from U.S. to use in the Iran/Iraq war.
That war ends after 8 years, Saddam's feeling frisky and invades Kuwait, then gets curbstomped by U.S. and all kinds of folks stopping in or giving money to see him spanked.
At that moment, I fervently hoped they would catch his ass and drag him in front of the World Court live on CNN, didn't happen cuz a lot of the people who were paying for more than 80% of the invasion (Saudis) didn't want a Sunni head of state taken out that way. the U.S. leaves, but encourages the Kurds to continue on and Saddam uses some of the left over WMDs on the Kurds, killing thousands in a fit of insane pique.
Saddam continues to be an asshole, but is pretty well contained and poses no threat, and continues to be useful in counterbalancing Iran in regional politics.
Meanwhile, we all know those mujahadeen that were as much abandoned as the Kurds do, they go fucking batshit insano, form up the Taliban, blow up the largest Buddha statues in the world...and al Qaeda.
Plenty more, but I think that's enough of a history lesson for you without me getting paid to do your opposition research/history lesson.
the Tao of D'oh.
22 - Big Dog
Yes, but in a specialized field.
I have spoken to troops who express doubts. They just do not occupy the numbers people are led to believe. An officer refuses to go and you hear all about it in the news. How his rights are violated because he broke the law. Let a soldier beg to go and finally get his request approved and there will not be one mention of it on the news.
23 - zingzing
"Yes, but in a specialized field."
and that was...
"I have spoken to troops who express doubts."
and here i was under the impression that you wouldn't tell them how to think. do you discount their testimony? how about all those generals who have said that we are making a big mistake? what about them?
24 - Big Dog
I won't directly comment on it, I am also a medical expert. We will keep it that way.
D/'oh
Looks like some of those facts are not exactly correct. But I am not going to rehash this old history and argue about it because it does not make a bit of difference right here and right now.
Thanks for your service.
I do not discount anything my soldiers tell me.
25 - zingzing
ok... as a medical expert, what do you feel about the fact that 30% of iraqi children in baghdad are suffer from ptsd and that 92% are showing learning difficulties (other than the fact that 70% don't go to school because they would rather join the militia or find getting to school to be impossibly dangerous)?
and yes, you are correct in saying that the u.s. can thank themselves for the current situation in the middle east.