'On loyalty: An open letter to US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq'

[mtnsnake]

I apologize if this has already been posted, but it's worth reading if you haven't already. Here's a very small snip from a powerful letter about what really goes on in Iraq, and the link provided for the rest of it:

http://smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=21546&mode=nested

snip:

"A young friend of mine, Patrick Resta, who recently returned from Iraq, and who is now a member of an organization called Iraq Veterans Against the War, recently told me, "My platoon sergeant tried to get us to violate the Geneva Convention, and when we resisted, he threatened us with punishment. He told us that'the Geneva Convention doesn't exist in Iraq, and that is in writing at the Brigade level.'"

You all know that this is bullshit, and if you didn't know, let me give you a news flash about some ­ not all, but some ­ military lifers; and this is coming from a military lifer. Some of them are dumber than dog shit. Some of them say things when they don't have the foggiest fucking idea what they are talking about. Some of them will say any goddamn thing to get you to do what they want you to do........"

Read the rest of it at:

http://smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=21546&mode=nested

[Horse with no Name]

1. Powerful stuff

>>>>snip
If I had my way, we would issue the whole shriveled, manicured lot of them their assault rifles, put them aboard an Air Force transport, tighten the leg straps on their static line parachutes, and boot their sorry asses out from 800 feet right over the middle of Ramadi ­ where they could drop their harnesses in the street and explain democracy to the locals.

[mtnsnake]

4. haha, Goff does have a way with words, eh, & how about this snip...

<snip>

But that brain-dead piece of shit in the White House who is legally your boss, and all his handlers, starting with Vice President Dick "Halliburton" Cheney they sent you to do this thing anyway.

They talked themselves into believing this would be ­ and these are their words ­ a cakewalk. They surrounded themselves exclusively with others who echoed what was already in their minds; and they punished and villified and isolated anyone who told them what they didn't want to hear.

and this....

Since they'd made up their minds, they didn't want to hear anything except rosy scenarios for their plans, because these reptile-minded, preppy gangsters are like spoiled children who can't abide anyone fucking up their toy-emperor fantasies.

[evlbstrd]

2. That's a great link!

<snip>
But let's look at the bigger picture here, and for that I'll take you back to Vietnam, before many of you were born. We heard this same bullshit then. Almost verbatim. And do you know what one of the main contributing factors was for getting us out of that war?

We quit being good soldiers.

The United States military got to the point where it was no longer an effective fighting force, because US soldiers quit taking orders. It got to the point where an officer who was using his men's bodies to chase medals might find himself on the wrong end of a Claymore mine. Now I'm not advocating that again, and I hope we can stop this before it goes that far.

[PsN2Wind]

3. I think we should start using the Viet Nam era

term for KIAs. Instead of killed in action, etc, we could say that they were "wasted". Because the Repubs are, in fact, wasting the lives of many military personal for a "Bush, Saddam grudge".
Off subject, but have you ever seen anyone look more constipated than Pat Robertson praying?

[evlbstrd]

7. Rummy don't play with enemy body counts.

Or U.S. body counts.
Did you hear that he kinda flipped off Senator Kennedy in a Senate hearing?
These guys are on the ropes.

[mtnsnake]

5. The part you quoted may be what eerily puts this war to an end, too,

just like he pointed out happened during the days of Vietnam.

[evlbstrd]

6. It feels the same to me now as it did then.

This worm is turning.