Brown & Root employee writes Stripes letter defending Bush LOL!

[lebkuchen]

Meanwhile, the banner Stripes newspaper headline for today is "Bush expects Halliburton to repay any Iraq overcharges."

Here's the letter (URL provided when available)

I'm writing in response to a few recent letters that said President Bush is somehow responsible for the deaths of our soldiers in Iraq. The letter "Thanksgiving visit" (Dec. 7) is one that comes to mind. This surrealistic way of looking at who caused these deaths serves not the truth, but merely acts as a self-delusional prop for shaky leftist logic.

It's extraordinarily obvious to me (and most folks, I suspect) who is responsible for the deaths of our fine young troops: the elemental force of evil, Saddam Hussein, and the people who pulled the triggers and punched the buttons. I'm reminded of a quote by Edmund Burke: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Thank God we have a good man like President Bush who possesses such moral courage.

If I'm killed while driving in one of the many convoys I run in Iraq, and St. Peter asks me at the gate what good things I've done with my life, I'll be able to say, "I was proud to have helped President Bush and our troops free 25 million people from evil and tyranny in Iraq." It wouldn't even occur to me to blame President Bush for my death. How silly that would be of me.

Ron Cooper
Brown & Root Services
Kuwait

Comment: The Halliburton Bible-belter above is referring to this letter below:

So the boss came to visit us on Thanksgiving, under wraps and under the American flag. Thanks for coming. Oh thank you, kind leader, merciful leader, for taking one day out of your busy schedule to visit us. The shepherd looking over his flock. Thanks for making the sacrifice. God knows we’re making one. Re-election is coming up, but that had nothing to do with it, now did it?

I remember your victorious landing on the ship. Oh how all those then alive, and now dead, would love to sit down next to you, cutting their families’ turkeys and filling the empty seats at the tables. Leader of the free world, be our guest at the head of our table. Or would you like to sit in one of the many empty seats left by the war? There’s plenty of room. Enough turkey and stuffing to go around. Fat and happy, delirious and exhausted. That’s how I feel.

In a hurry? Going so soon? Have time for questions? You sure do have time for compliments. Do you ever feel responsible? I’m tired of this. Go back home to the ranch and tell them how happy and fulfilling the trip made you feel.

Spc. Damian Torres
Iraq

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=19144

[eileen_d]

1. What a contrast!

This quote from Spc. Torres is chilling:
"Leader of the free world, be our guest at the head of our table. Or would you like to sit in one of the many empty seats left by the war? There’s plenty of room."

:(

BTW (and off topic) that's one of the scariest smilies I've ever seen.

[0007]

12. Check out this five minute video -

This will wake up anyone that thinks junior is a good guy.

http://www.angelfire.com/creep/gwbush/remindus.html

[cornermouse]

2. Cooper is an idiot.

Speaking as a mother, if they were to draft my child and he was injured or killed in Iraq, I would absolutely consider George Bush responsible.

[lebkuchen]

3. Eileen and Cornermouse

When I was on base yesterday, I ran into an enlisted acquaintance who I knew had been deployed. He was on R & R, going back to Iraq in two more days, reluctantly. I asked him when he would be returning for good, and he said he wasn't sure. February ended his 1 year tour, but he said the stateside unit that was to replace his unit wasn't "prepared," and the unit to go in place of that unit wasn't prepared, either. So, he said it could be March, but who knew for sure. He sounded disgusted, tired, and sad.

I asked him where he was based, and he said west of Baghdad, in the Sunni Triangle.

I wished him a safe return.


BTW, anyone wishing to respond to Crackpipe Cooper, and help drive this puppy home while we've got them on the defensive and the damning facts figures are abundantly available, write to Stripes here, and send them a phone number where you might be reached:

[e-mail]

[eileen_d]

4. disgusted, tired, and sad...

and who could blame him? My friend's husband is going at the beginning of the New Year.

I wish him well, and I wish his swift and safe return.

Edit: LOL, just saw the "Crackpipe Cooper" comment...

[lebkuchen]

7. "Crackpipe Cooper"

It's a tongue twister, just like his brain.

Notice his use of "lefty," demonstrating how little the fundamentalist mentality has progressed since the Joe McCarthy days.

And we have learned nothing from Vietnam in our attempt to combat insurgents.

[cornermouse]

5. I wish him a safe and healthy return home.

[eileen_d]

6. Hi and welcome to DU!

:hi:

[cornermouse]

9. Hi.

:hi:

[lebkuchen]

8. Thanks.

His family is mortified. Bush has placed tremendous hardship on the military family.

[Cheswick2.0]

10. I just wrote

what a peice of crap war profiteering scum bag phony.

[lebkuchen]

11. appreciated

I just read a piece from the Boston Globe...heart wrenching...inre: a letter written by a Landstuhl nurse, posted on Buzzflash. If it's not already posted, I will do so.

I was in Landstuhl last Oct. The German gate guards told me that they had on average 3 helicopters a day bring in the most seriously wounded, and buses/ambulances driving in from nearby Ramstein AB all day long. W/attacks on the increase, those stats have likely increased, very sad to say. Such young people, and there was no pressing need for us to send them.

[aquart]

27. Of course there was a need.

Rich men needed more money.

May they never sleep.

[gonefishing]

13. Confused in the USA

I personally already have enough reasons to dislike dubya without the war issues (economy, ecology, the fact that he is a frat brat rich silver spoon fed son who abused his power and wealth). However, I have to say I am torn on the war issue. I read Woodward's "Bush at War" and I know the dubya administration was hell bent from day one to finish what poppy didn't. My gut tells me that the BFEE and all their clones (Cheny included) are going to profit from this war (evidence abounds). I think the way we handled the war was disgusting (i.e., going in as a lone wolf).

Here's the thing. I know that Sadam is an evil man. I don't feel bad that we toppled that regime. I have a strong affinity to the military (my brother-in-law is an A10 pilot and fought in the war). I think sometimes we cheapen what they do when we criticize our country for soldiers dying. The thing is that most of them belive that what they are doing is right because they are told to belive that. The reason they have that unconditional belief is because they ultimately belive that the USA is a just and right nation run by a majority rules and that it is one of the best forms of governments in the world.

As you might have guessed my brother-in-law is a staunch republican and a family get together is sometimes difficult. I have to be very delicate when I talk about the war with him. He belives (heart and sole) that what he did was right (up-and-down the line).

Here's the kicker, I know that my brother-in-law would suit-up without hesitation and risk his life if told to go even if my opinions were the majority and he personally agreed with a minority position. In fact he already has under the Clinton administration (he hates Clinton). I feel a comfort zone knowing that there are a lot of men and woman who would do the same.

I know I am rambling and I don't have the writing eloquence of most of the posters on this wonderful board. I just had to get this off of my chest.

[cornermouse]

14. I don't think many people would argue that

Saddam was not a horrible and cruel leader whose deposal is not regretted, but he was only one of many. And then there is the "forgotten" fact that we never finished bin Laden and Afghanistan (necessary) before we moved on to Saddam.

[hippywife]

15. Or that some of our allies

like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan aren't really great regimes either.

We're not criticizing the troops...just trying to bring them home. That letter from Cooper is from a corporate flunky, not a soldier. He gets paid lots for being there, the soldier does not.

In fact, I heard an interview on NPR this week with Larry Korb (former Asst. Secr. of Defense under Reagan) criticizing the Bush Administration for increasing the number of Reserves from 20% to 40% in these relief deployments because it costs $100,000 to deploy a regular while it only costs $20,000 to deploy a Reserve.

[cornermouse]

16. Scratch the "not".

I started out saying that he was not a good man and then forgot to back up far enough.

[hippywife]

17. You can edit your remarks, Cornermouse.

Just click on the edit link in the bottom right corner. And welcome to DU. Fasten your seat belt...it can be a bumpy ride. ;)

[gonefishing]

18. I missed those ones in my post.

The focus should have been bin laden first. In "Bush at War" in the first war room meeting after 9/11 Cheny and Rumsfield were all set to go into Iraq. The only person against was Powell. Their motives were not exactly in our best interest.

[dead_white_man]

19. Didn't finish bin laden?

You seem to be under the very naive impression that these United States of America can handle only one derangesd, psychotic, terrorist leader at a time. How juvenile! or is it cowardice?

[Cassandra]

20. So far we're not "handling" even one

So is that juvenile, or is it Bush's cowardice?

[JohnyCanuck]

21. Or that the neo-cons want binLaden caught in the first place.

George Orwell had Goldstein. George Bush has bin Laden.

Osama was blamed for everything that went wrong for the U.S. during the `90s. Whenever something blew up, whether it was American embassies in East Africa or the U.S.S. Cole or even the federal building in Oklahoma City, American officials trotted out bin Laden's name before the body count had even begun. So it was hardly a surprise when, on September 17 Resident Bush barked that bin Laden was "wanted dead or alive" for the 9-11 strikes, though in fact his role was probably limited to funding the 19 Egyptian jihadis who planned and carried them out.

Capturing bin Laden was Bush's top priority, or so he said time after time; the bombing campaign against the Taliban was marketed to the American people as a war against a regime that was "harboring" a wanted criminal. But after driving the Taliban out of Kabul, according to a senior U.S. military officer serving in Afghanistan ( news - web sites), "mission creep" began--U.S. forces lost focus. American intelligence sided with some warlords while trying to assassinate others. They became entangled in local politics. They shuttled Afghan officials between Central Asian capitals to cut oil and gas pipeline deals favorable to the U.S.

<snip>

Some experts doubt that the U.S. was ever serious about capturing Osama. If he went on trial for 9-11, after all, his testimony about his years with the CIA ( news - web sites) could prove devastatingly embarrassing. This explains, they say, why Bush refused Taliban offers to turn over bin Laden, why Donald Rumsfeld bombed rather than invaded by ground, why Colin Powell ( news - web sites) never asked Pakistan to seal the border, why General Tommy Franks relied on unreliable local troops. And the Tora Bora escape tale doesn't jibe with Afghan topography or local eyewitnesses, who say that Osama left for Pakistani Kashmir ( news - web sites)--a far more typical exit for fleeing Afghans than the tribal areas of the Northwest Frontier Province--days after 9-11.

Like the Party in Oceania--sometimes at war with Eurasia, other times with Eastasia, the enemy always having been the same--the Bushies' line on Osama has alternated between vague, cunning and menacing. "I suspect we will ," Rumsfeld said in March. "I think we have a good crack at it. I suspect we'll get all or most ." In April, he backtracked: "He's alive or dead. He's in Afghanistan or somewhere else." By June, Time magazine was reporting, "White House aides say bin Laden's name rarely comes up in meetings."


http://www.investigatemagazine.com/_NEWSTALK/000008d9.htm

[tabasco]

23. I have two combat tours, hero.

You?
We had important national security reasons for getting the job done militarily in Afghanistan. But we didn't. We relied on people like warlords and the Pakistanis to get the job done for us, along with 10th Mountain and a handful of SF.
We did not have sufficient reason to invade Iraq. Half of our Army is bogged down there. The administration now admits it was a war of liberation, not dealing with any imminent threat to the US.
I believe many people lack the moral courage to admit the truth. You may be one of them.

[Cassandra]

24. Or not...

dead white man has been tombstoned.

[alcuno]

26. Not only did we not finish bin Laden, we abandoned Afghanistan

NATO, with the Germans in charge, has been left with Afghanistan while the US bugged out. Our moronic administration withdrew people and resources in the build-up to the Iraq invasion. Saddam was a terrorist leader? Not according to our president and the American people will deal with that deranged psychotic in due course.

[tabasco]

22. Cooper is a well-compensated contractor ...

benefiting from the corruption of the Bush corporate cabal. He doesn't have to walk patrols, or lead raids, or man checkpoints. SPC4 Torres, on the other hand, might have to do some of this stuff, and is paid a fraction of what Cooper gets.

[lebkuchen]

25. Here's the URL, finally provided by Stripes

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=19266


There's a letter about the same topic, Bush the Turkey, that tops the list. It's equally as poorly written as the one by KBR. Both writers, BTW, AREN'T in Iraq.

Our soldiers in Kuwait often seem to have no idea what their Iraqi-based brothers/sisters-in-arms are going through. Communication must be very poor.