Bush Seeks to Boost Troop Morale for Iraq Fight

[Barrett808]

Bush Seeks to Boost Troop Morale for Iraq Fight
By Adam Entous

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (Reuters) - President Bush sought on Tuesday to boost the morale of U.S. troops facing extended deployments in Iraq by promising to train Iraqi forces to replace them but acknowledged only mixed results so far.

As deadly insurgent attacks continued, claiming another American life in Baghdad and taking the U.S. combat death toll to 1,000 since last year's invasion, Bush made clear he expects a tough road ahead and stopped short of offering timetables.

While a recent offensive in Falluja "dealt the enemy a severe blow," Bush said the insurgents who used the city as their stronghold will "keep on fighting," and offered a more cautious assessment of Iraqi troops than he has in the past.

"Some Iraqi units have performed better than others," Bush told thousands of camouflage-clad Marines. "Some Iraqis have been intimidated enough by the insurgents to leave the service to their country."

But Bush said "a great many are standing firm," and the United States would continue training Iraqi security forces "so the Iraqi people can eventually take responsibility for their own security." He touted a new NATO training program and said efforts were underway to "develop a core of well-trained senior and mid-level Iraqi officers" to lead the new forces.

(more)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/20041207/ts_nm/bush_iraq_dc

[neverforget]

1. More brave words from a fucking coward! I loathe him.

[demosincebirth]

2. Boost morale? from a friggen deserter

[mpendragon]

3. how to really boast troop morale

This is from my stepfather who is a retired vet working for the Veteran's Affairs office:

---------------------------------------

Many of you have requested ways to help the returning wounded from Iraq. I'm sending a recent request received from Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Bruce G. Nitsche

Veterans Liaison to the Secretary

Department of Veterans Affairs



The number ONE request at Walter Reed hospital is phone cards.
The government doesn't pay long distance phone charges and
these wounded soldiers are rationing their calls home.

Many will be there throughout the holidays.

Really support our troops --Send phone cards of any amount to:

Medical Family Assistance Center
Walter Reed Medical Center
6900 Georgia Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20307-5001

They say they need an "endless" supply of these -- any amount is greatly appreciated.

Many of the discount warehouse stores such as Walmart, Costco, BJ's Wholesale, etc. have good prices on phone cards.

Please feel to pass this request on to others.

Thanks,

Ed Ortiz

Exec Assistant
--------------------------------------------------

I say we send them blue cards or cards in blue envelopes to show them some love from the left.

[Just Me]

5. I donated minutes from my phone card.

I was happy to do so with the holidays approaching.

Wish I could send them tickets to come home! :bounce:

[Mandate My Ass]

7. Thanks for the heads up, mpendragon

I'll send some cards for a good cause. The least these men and women should get for Christmas is a phone call to their family from their hospital beds. Blue envelopes is a good idea.

Great Tom Paine quote in your profile. Glad to see you here. :hi:

[underpants]

8. Thanks

I will get one tonight

[llmart]

12. I wish I wasn't so cynical.....

but I can't help myself any more. These military people voted overwhelmingly for Bush (if you believe the numbers that are reported by the media), so I just can't gather up any compassion for them. If I knew which ones were actively against this war and Bush/Cheney then I would "support" them, but I don't.

If they voted for Bush, then I'm sorry you aren't getting any "perqs" with your job. Did you really expect him to care about you? He and his ilk only care about themselves.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

42. Thanks for the tip

Got a phone card with minutes left I can send.

[SammyWinstonJack]

4. How can they stand to hear this draft dodging chickenhawk AWOL

COWARDLY POS talk about morale boosting? Doesn't any of that bother them? :shrug: :crazy:

[DemoTex]

6. Maybe Bu$h should read the troops the CIA Baghdad Bureau Chief's report.

.

[underpants]

9. GO GET'EM BOYS! ...I'll be back here thanks

A0Hole

[KansDem]

11. Yeah! "Bring it on!!!!!"

"...but wait 30 minutes after my plane has taken off...!"

[Sideways]

10. My Oldest Son Ben Is In Boot Camp At MCRD Now

Week four. He will go to Pendleton next. After that I am fearing he is on his way to Iraq. My outrage over MonkeyNuts and his ill gotten sham of a war knows NO bounds. Can you guys hear me crying? I am in Sicily but I'm sure you can hear me.

[lachattefolle]

19. Hey, Sideways, my son is also at MCRD, week , also on week 4!

Wonder if they know each other? I am so angry. I hate * and all he has done to the military. And my active duty husband, son and daughter did NOT vote for him so all these people on DU who bash the military as one entity should think about what they are saying. It's like when a DU'er bashes all religious people. It's hateful and hurtful and not exactly what I thought progressives were supposed to stand for.

[Sideways]

20. They Must Be There At The Same Time

Ben's address is 2nd Bn Hotel Co PH#2047. If they are there together we have to let them know. Stay in touch friend.

[lachattefolle]

45. I like your profile hobbies except the running LOL. Scott is in 3rd Bn,

Mike company, so I don't know if he would know your son. Probably not since they aren't even in the same battalion. What did yours enlist for? Mine wanted, and got, a slot with heavy construction equipment. He'll probably end up in Iraq as soon as training is over. I don't know that for a fact, just being pessimistic since "Our Leader" has just started his own Vietnam over in the Middle East.

[daleo]

13. He should serve in the Iraqi National Guard

All that Texas National Guard training could be put to some effect. I am sure he would "jump at the chance".

[Mari333]

14. From my soldier stepson who has been extended to March in Iraq

all I can say is what he wrote to me
"fuck Bush". The grunts really hate that POS.

[lachattefolle]

46. Wanna bet their votes got tossed in the trash? n/t

[genieroze]

15. Tell his daughters to enlist. eom

I'm in the 700 club:party:

[rodeodance]

16. the president of Iraq said to Pewtin today that he does not know how

elections can take place in Iraq when Iraq is occupied by foreign troops! Can you believe that!!!

[genieroze]

31. Huh?

:wtf:

[saigon68]

17. He should provide beer and whiskey

That's the ticket to improve morale.

[Malva Zebrina]

18. Is it not the ultimate in irony

that a man, if you can him that, who deserted his own reponsibilities to the mililtary in war time, now gets up in front of great crowds of camoflaughed wearing young troops, and attempts to "lead" them. Is it not the ultimate in irony that he is wearing a gaddam miliary jacket with epaulettes no less, and an embroidered "President George Bush, Commander in Chief" on the left side of the jacket?


He, in his most lovely fantasies,loves thinking he has power over the military--those youngsters who are so hepped up on the current rambo mode, that they are cheering their heads off for this filthy liar, who is putting them in harm's way and has been responsible for the deaths of some 1,275 comrades, who declared the mission accomplished last May, who is nothing but a cheap wannabee military dictator who seems to be obssessed with a sadistic occupoation with issues of death. Do they really believe these young soldeirs died to defend our freedoms and fight the "terrorists" in Iraq. Has the notion that we invaded a sovereign country on egregious lies, from the lips of an 'AWOL comander in chief, been erased from their brains so effectively that even I am afraid of Bush' control over these troops, and that he may use them against his own people at some point?

If the reports are true, they did vote for him.

So my comments do have a bit of an unconcerned shrugging of the shoulder when it comes to supporting the troops.

[symbolman]

21. miliary jacket with epaulettes?!!!!

What the F*CK? What next, those riding pants that poof out from your legs on both sides?

He really thinks he's a goddam dictator at this point.. did you know that Presidents as CIC have the legal right to Dress up like Mussolini if they want?

They can design a fascist looking outfit complete with a big W with the swastika would go and be perfectly legal..

fortunately no one before has had the Bad Taste to do that - even Eisenhower didn't like to do it, and remember HE warned us, "Beware the Military Industrial Complex.."

Eisenhower would not stop vomiting if he was alive today and forced to stand next to the COWARD POS.

I hope these little shits die in droves if that's what they want.. they are NOT innocents, they have the right to disobey a direct order..

But they do not have the right to even talk about their glorious leader without being potentially courtmartialled..

I know, I am a Vet and got out with an Honorable even tho I'd had it with the military, Nam was over and wanted to go home.. so I refused to salute, wore filthy wrinkled uniforms, no hat, etc until they gave up and let me out..

they were afraid of me, because others were starting to do the same thing - if I behaved they offered me an Honorable DIscharge, so I toed the line for 30 days and left..

I HAD given them my two weeks notice that I was quitting in all honesty :)

Bush is a COWARD of the lowest order, I have more respect of the scummy soap film on my shower door..

[Malva Zebrina]

25. and you need to have shiney knee high boots that make a clomp-clomp sound

sound on the pavement to go with those puffy pants.

LOL--miliary--I may have made up a new word. Crooked fingers--and I need to edit better.

[NYC]

39. The puffy pants were called peg-tops.

I can't find a picture of them. Here's a description of them:

Peg-top or zouave trousers for day wear between 1857 and 1865 were cut wide at the hips, tapering to a close fit at the ankles; these never became a universal fashion, aithough a modified version was re-introduced in the 1890s with more success.

They were popular for riding.

Here's an RCMP link:

http://www.rcmp.ca/uniform/breeches_e.htm

[leftchick]

27. bush* in his dress up outfit...

US President George W. Bush (news - web sites)(C) waves to the thousands of US Marines gathered to hear his speech at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base in California. Bush said that Iraqi elections scheduled for late next month 'will proceed as planned.'(AFP/Paul Richards)

[Clark2008]

35. Here's a better shot

Put a comb-shaped mustache on the sucker and he looks just like Hitler.

Creep.

[leftchick]

36. or a bushier mustache and you have...

saddam! He resembles oh so many little dictators.

[VegasWolf]

37. Shit, that jacket looks like Chairman Mao! n/t

[0007]

40. I can't handle this crap!

[not fooled]

22. the idiotic leading the deluded and blind.

sad..I think * is acting as the Cheerleader-In-Chief and his deluded fan club of soldiers buys *'s act hook, line, and sinker. Teach those youngsters some critical thinking!

[Karenina]

23. WHY ARE AMERICANS

murdering IRAQIS? They PASS the brown bag test! WHY ARE YOU KILLING THEM? WHY???

[louis-t]

24. Best way to increase morale?

is for shithead to resign.

[orpupilofnature57]

26. ADMIT,SUBMIT THEN QUIT i feel better already, they will too*

[hadrons]

28. didn't Rove tell him that quoting how high Halliburton stock is isn't a

morale boost

[leftchick]

29. how to lose your lunch...

U.S. President George W. Bush (news - web sites) talks with Lt. Lauren Connelly (R) during lunch with Marines at Camp Pendleton, California December 7, 2004. Bush sought on Tuesday to boost the morale of U.S. troops facing extended deployments in Iraq (news - web sites), but acknowledged mixed results so far in training Iraqi forces to replace them. As the U.S. combat death toll in Iraq reached 1,000 since last year's invasion with a record monthly toll in November of 136, Bush said he expected a tough road ahead. REUTERS/K. C. Alfred/POOL

[leftchick]

30. and while he is eating lunch and hamming it up.....

This poor fellow is being buried...



The coffin with the body of Marine Cpl. Gentian Marku, 22, of Warren, Mich, arrives in Tirana's airport to be accompanied by Albanian troops for burial at his native village on Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2004. He was killed in Fallujah during enemy combat in Al Anbar Province according to the U.S. Department of Defense (news - web sites). Marku emigrated in 1997 at the age 14 to the United States with his family. The president of Albania awarded Marku with the Golden Medal of Eagle for fighting terrorism and protecting democracy.The 22-year-old Marku was declared a martyr by the Albanian government.(AP Photo/Hektor Pustina)

And this one...



Soldier's carry the casket of Army Pfc. Wilfredo Urbina of New York Guard's 1st Battalion, who was killed in Iraq (news - web sites) on Nov. 29, 2004 when his vehicle struck a bomb, to a grave side service at Long Island National Cemetery in Farmingdale, N.Y. Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2004. (AP Photo/Ed Betz)


and this one...

[falcon]

32. look at the second pic.

Short little fella isn't he. Need a high chair fuckstick ?

[steely]

33. what a jackass....

I wish I knew what the pulse was in the miltary overall regarding that asswipe. I can still remember being in line waiting to vote & having to listen to some freeper tell whomever would listen that her 2 kids in the military loved him - it was all I could do from coughing *BULLSHIT*.

I'm going for the phone card morale booster suggestion mentioned above.

[Edgewater_Joe]

34. You Mean He's Gonna Resign?

That's about the only thing he can do to build any morale anywhere.

Either that or get caught on live TV slugging down a shot of Jack from Jenna's belly button with Barbara shooting a video in the Oval Office.

[VegasWolf]

38. Why, they are already "dying' laughing? n/t

[VegasWolf]

41. I can think of one way awol can boost my morale! n/t

[Unforgiven]

43. More

plastic turkeys and napalm proof x-mas trees.

[Liberal Chad from WI]

44. BUSH MAKES ME PUKE

This guy thinks that he is going to boost our troops morale. COME ON......gimme a break there is no way. HE dont even have the balls to fight for our country I'm sure he won't play any role in morale excepting hurting w/ the backdoor draft right now.

[massive5]

47. BUSH'S JOHNNY ACTION UNIFORM - WHAT A DOOFUS

Did you see the picture of that Bush guy (he was never really elected president, so why call him that?) in his Johnny Action uniform? He even had a little "Commander-In-Chief" stiched on just to boost his overblown ego some more.

What a complete imbecile. He asks us to support the troops. Hey, I know how we can support them -- stop using them as tools! Bring them home! Enough people have died because of this meglomaniac.

[Dr Fate]

48. The Bush twins are enlisting?

Oh thats right- they wont wear anything but designer clothing...

[agincourt]

49. Get out the pom-poms,

and the muscle-shirt, asswipe. Huah! Huah! Head up ass handily.

[pinniped]

50. Maybe he lead a charge like Teddy Roosevelt...ya riiiiiiiight.

Tht chicken hawk wouldn't even accept the duel with Sadaam. That would've saved countless numbers of lives.