Article

2003-04-11 Iraq

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Posted by Dar 2003-04-11 08:22 am|| || Front Page|| [7 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 what a classic! while war is truly a serious and tragic thing, there have been some most amusing and gratifying moments. This is one of them.

Posted by anon1 2003-04-11 09:25:18|| 2003-04-11 09:25:18|| Front Page Top

#2 True story: I was a salesman at a community music-instrument store, and every Christmas season we'd get out a giant Santa Claus doormat. My boss was not amused when I told customers that it was an opportunity for them to get back at the bastard whose mythical existence obliged them to be buying soon-to-be-ignored guitars and drum sets in the first place. So I can understand the soles-of-the-shoes thing.

Posted by FormerLIberal 2003-04-11 09:41:36|| 2003-04-11 09:41:36|| Front Page Top

#3 The Truth is: the reticence of the Iraqi people to rebel quickly is attributable to Bush Sr, and his abandonment of the rebels in 91.

Some of my most graphic frustrating memories were from after the war, when we were enforcing the truce lines. The ROE didnât allow us to engage Iraqis unless they were pointing the weapons in our direction. So, consequently, we watched their troops shooting women and children and there wasnât a damn thing we could do. We were cursing (in Arabic), yelling all kinds of things just to get Saddam's thugs to point the weapons at us so we could take them down hard. But they didnât take the bait.

I still remember seeing a woman die while coming across the bridge to us from wounds she received, and our OP, despite orders to the contrary, went out and pulled her body the rest of the way, and then treating the 6 year old son she was carrying (soaked in her blood), for gunshot wounds to his legs from the bullets that had passed thru his mother.

Didnât hear about it in the papers did you? Nope - the friggen reporters left when they thought things were "over" - didnât want to tell the story of how that evil bastard was killing his own people, and we were forced by our own politicians to stand there and do nothing from only a mile away.

And not a damn thing we could do because Bush Sr was too damn timid to do the right thing - he was worried about "image" instead due to the killing of the bandits on the âhighway of deathâ. We had preparatory orders to march on Baghdad at the end of the war - and the Marines would have moved into Basra. But Bush Sr stopped things 24 hours too soon, and allowed that cursed regime to live and kill more of its people over the past decade.

I had nightmares about this one for a few years after coming home, and despite my "rough and tough" image, I'd wake up with tears on my face at times. Call it PTSD, or whatever, this dream started coming back when this war started. I will never forgive Bush Sr for not letting us do what we knew was right, when we had the time and tools there to do it.

In case you couldn't tell, Iâm not a big fan of Bush Sr. I voted for him, but only as a lesser of 2 evils. So yeah, it is OK that they got his face off the floor, but there are those non-Saddamites in Basra that might deservedly miss it.

Thank God that "Dubya" seems to have the moral backbone to stand up, and courage to do whatâs right, even if it is unpopular with the rest of the world (unlike his father).

Posted by OldSpook 2003-04-11 15:02:50|| 2003-04-11 15:02:50|| Front Page Top

#4 Oldspook, having not been there I can't say I suffered anywhere nearly the same impacts as you by any means, however, it wasn't invisible to the American public what we had done to those people, and I think it lead to a rather bland support among Republicans for Bush 1. Bush 2 seems to have a lot of his mother's spine and atitude, and for that I'm grateful. He says what he means, and finishes what he started, I like/respect that

Posted by Frank G 2003-04-11 18:54:02|| 2003-04-11 18:54:02|| Front Page Top

16:40 Old Grouch
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02:48 HULUGU
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