Soldiers in Iraq feel forgetten by US - A scribe's salute to the troops

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.dmregister.com/opinion/stories/c5917686/22076075.html

A half-dozen Iowa Army National Guard soldiers were having a quick smoke, trying to find some shade out of the brutal Kuwaiti sun, when they got around to their question.

"We've been talking, and there's something we'd all kind of like to know," Sgt. Jimmy Mart of Emerson asked a visitor from Iowa. "We were sort of wondering if people back home have forgotten we're over here."

--snip--

But the truth is, other than glancing at a headline about another soldier killed in another ambush, a lot of people moved on once the combat ended.

"Yeah," said Staff Sgt. Craig Comstock of Des Moines. "We figured that was the deal."

Again and again, I heard the same story from Iowa Army guardsmen and reservists during a month in Kuwait and Iraq.

A soldier's wife is at the store and somebody asks, "Where's Joe?" The wife says Joe is in Iraq. And the friend is shocked.

"What's he still there for? The war is over."

[SodoffBush]

1. Americans are so busy hiding behind their flags

and going about their gluttonous lives to expend much effort on the troops. In the U.S., it's enough to say you support them. You're not expected to know what it means.

[w4rma]

2. Blame it on the corporate media, not us regular folks (n/t)

[jcc]

3. Forgetting them

They are forgotten except by those who love one or more of them. I wear the dogtag my boyfriend gave me everyday and on the outside of my outfit to remind people we are still there and that he is still there. People stare at me in shock. The worst, I am sad to say however, are the liberals who look at me, my dogtag and then look away in disgust. He asked me soon after the war started not to let people forget about them, but what am I supposed to do when America has proven itself so ignorant and distracted by shiny things.

[Skittles]

4. WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT

I wore a dogtag for four years (MY OWN) and no one ever looked at me in "disgust". America hasn't proven itself ignorant by "shiny things". It proves herself ignorant by allowing Bush Inc to STEAL ELECTIONS, ILLEGALLY INVADE COUNTRIES and BANKRUPT THE NATION.

[jcc]

8. ???

WTF are you talking about Skittles? With the exception of the first sentence, nothing you wrote was even remotely related to what I said. Not meaning to offend, I would recommend a basic Strunk and White.

[lebkuchen]

6. Armchair Commander

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0329/sutton.php

[Stuckinthebush]

7. The liberals are trying to get him home

The liberals didn't want to send him in the first place.

The liberals don't say, "Bring 'em on"

The liberals want to make sure he has health care when he gets back

The liberals cry at the thought of him over there as a pawn for the neo-conservatives

I dare say that the look of disgust you see may be a look of pain instead.

[jcc]

9. Ah, the liberal ego...we all have it, but should we?

Stuck: The liberals didn't want to send him in the first place.

JCC:One of my state’s “liberal” congress women and more “liberal” HO Reps than I can count voted for pre-emptive war, that sounds a lot like they wanted him to go.

Stuck: The liberals don't say, "Bring 'em on"

JCC: They may never have said “Bring ‘em on,” but our liberal representatives certainly haven’t said anything else. They have not addressed the issue of a Plan B in regards to all areas of combat and reconstruction. There was not adequate action taken by liberals to demand a reconstruction plan. All you hear from most liberal party presidential candidates is “why did you lie to us in those 16 words?” All I have to say is that you knew it was a lie, you didn’t vote for it, but now you’re whinning; you have just failed “the game”. Nobody wants a whinner for president, certainly not moderates who we will need this coming election.

Stuck: The liberals want to make sure he has health care when he gets back

JCC: It is kind of ironic that liberals fight for health insurance for the full time military who are mostly Republican, but what they don’t seem to have noticed is that most military Dems are reserve which have to pay for their insurance out of pocket or through the companies they work for on the outside. My boyfriend is a student on loans, he will never be covered by military insurance and he doesn't have the money to pay for it out of pocket. The bills that have been fought for by liberals will protect "lifers," but they don't protect liberal reservists.

Stuck: The liberals cry at the thought of him over there as a pawn for the neo-conservatives

JCC: HaHaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! I'm sorry, but that is the funniest thing I've ever heard. All the thought of him being over there does is give liberals wet dreams about having Dean in office and being able to use the occupation as a tool for the election. I'm sure that they care, but scary thought, I have seen republicans fight Bush better than most Dems because they know how to play the game and make their voices heard.

Stuck: I dare say that the look of disgust you see may be a look of pain instead.

JCC: I have to say that I don't agree with the pain concept. I think that if it isn't disgust, it might be shame. Most are adults and I think that they are starting to realize that they forgot to use what worked for so many years and let the war issue slip through their fingers by using the less effective, but more "fun and easy" methods of protesting.


I have met a great number of ignorant conservatives and a great number of ignorant liberals; they are the loudest and most populous of the people in our country and they are starting to drown out those few rational voices left on either side. People often (including myself) mistake political compatibility with intelligence. I learned the hard way that just because someone is a liberal doesn’t bean that they have an inkling of a clue as to what they are talking about. Liberals, like conservatives almost never think long-term, or with reference to possible backup plans or what might have to be given up in liu of doing something different. Being a liberal doesn’t make a person smart, and if that person weren’t trained in “the game,” then they should seek schooling from 80 year old activists who actually won freedoms.

Do not crow so loud over the conservatives; they are winning.

[PATRICK]

5. The Onion, again

goes the extra mile in a brief snippet about a mother who has forgotten where her soldier son is and doesn't bother to read his letters.

American public so disinformed as to be first stupid, then functionally insane. Of course this is used as further justification to remove democracy from the ruling class' overfilled plate.