My thoughts: Bring our troops home. NO MORE DEATHS from George W. Bush’s illegal WARS.
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This is now Obama’s War.
Johnson, using Kennady’s plan, started the Vietnam War and Nixon kept it going. Bush started this war and now Obama is chosing to have his name associated with it as he refuses to keep his promises and end it. Obama lied, our kids died.
I see we have a “dithering” fool weigh in. Ex-VP Cheney is STILL advocating for more and more troops and for Obama to make faster and faster decisions.
This war was and STILL IS the Bush/Cheney fiasco of this century. It’s going to take a lot of effort and a lot of doing to undo this stupid set of decisions made by the previous and most devious administration.
In other news, Gitmo detainees from China are now in Palau and there is hope that AU or Germany will possibly give them a home, permanently.
I have to agree with #1. Build up in Afghanistan was an Obama campaign pledge. I beleive he did it as a way to look tough and still criticize Iraq. If so, it’s too bad he has taken it seriously.
And RV, yes time to get out and quit the “SW Asian Create Even More Terrorists Strategy.” It’s not working too well.
David,
I don’t envy Obama inheriting all of Bush’s bullshit decisions. At least that stupid mantra, “WAR ON TERROR”, has been retired permanently.
I see Obama’s visit to Dover as a turning point. He has much more humanity than Cheney/Bush combined. He’ll be even more motivated to get a resolution finalized. The election fraud and current developments there, might also free him up to come to a decision on how to proceed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhrWoTkhvsY
Interesting #5. Not much of a war protest crowd going on there. NOTHING like the big protests that were not televised BEFORE BUSH EVEN PUSHED OUR TROOPS INTO HIS ILLEGAL WAR. Obama’s committments to ending the war and closing gitmo are still in the works.
And it will happen WAY under 7 years that Bush/Cheney had to do the same.
So please explain how it’s an illegal war when congress voted on it and approved it…
http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/iraqwar.html?q=iraqwar.html
Below is the Congressional authorization for force that Bush used to launch the invasion of Iraq. However, if you read Section 3, paragraph B, Bush was required to prove to the Congress that Iraq was in violation of UN Resolutions by still being in possession of weapons of mass destruction, and secondly, that Iraq was behind 9-11. Both claims have since been disproved and discredited, and appear to be created by the Pentagon Office at the heart of the latest Israeli spy scandal.
Therefore, under United States law, the war in Iraq is illegal.
How’s that?
Or you can view the PINKY video for the answers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Khut8xbXK8
More on this conversation about who owns this war:
Lawrence O’Donnell smacks down “Pet Attack Dog” Liz Cheney:
Last week, President Obama made an early morning journey to pay his respects during the return of fallen soldiers to Dover Air Force Base. The visit was unannounced, with only a small number of journalists present, at the families’ request.
Cheney lays down the standard Right Wing fare…that is to day, lies, when she states that she didn’t understand why President Obama showed up at Andrews with the White House Press Pool, with photographers asking the family if they could take pictures.
She then lays on the BS thick, stating that Prsident Bush used to do that, but without the cameras.
Of course, we all know that former President Bush NEVER visited Dover Air Force Base, and in fact, he forbid media coverage of the flag draped coffins, even if the families of the fallen wanted journalists there to pay witness to their returning dead family members. Hardly surprising that BushCo wouldn’t want such a display of their failed policies.
Watch and read as O’Donnell lays waste to Liz Cheney, and the two men responsible for the need to visit Dover Air Force Base in the dead of the night…
http://chattahbox.com/us/2009/10/31/msnbcs-odonnell-smacks-d…
Some very good books to read:
The Punishment of Virtue by Sarah Chayes
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
The Gamble by Thomas Ricks
US Army Counterinsurgency Field Manual
The Warrior Legacy Foundation has a primer on what a population centric counterinsurgency plan looks like.
There are more over in the sidebar of my blog. Lots more.
In addition, there are some very good blogs to read offering boots on the ground perspective. The best of which is Free Range International. In addition, Blackfive and Winds of Change are essential reading.
Cameras at Dover has been a topic among military families that has caused a lot of buzz. The majority don’t want the press there as they see the remains of their loved ones for the very first time. There is time and a place for press once they go beyond the gates, however, at that point, the families have traditionally wanted the time for themselves.
George Bush went several times. He never had a press contingency, because of this understanding of the families desires. It is about upholding the covenant the government enters into with those families to protect and support them in exchange for the sacrifice their loved ones are making for the lawmakers who voted to put them there. It is a matter of privacy.
I don’t think you can call easily call this George Bush’s war. It’s our war, now and in fact it always has been. It belongs to everyone who voted for those individuals who started the whole thing 8 years ago.
The more we embrace it as OURS, the more people will start talking about it in earnest, the strategies, the long term repercussions for the men, women and family who have given selflessly. But to try to shrug it off on someone else is engaging in a circular battle while sitting behind a screen and never emerging from behind it to try to help those who have given greatly.
If there is the decision to withdraw, this will not happen quickly. It will not be a matter of sending Southwest Airlines into Kabul, Jalalabad, and Kandahar and picking everyone up. So while I do appreciate your opinion, remember that none of it is as easy as saying, “bring everyone home.”
However, they’ve played it out both ways. A compromise isn’t possible. It’s either all or nothing, so let’s hope he doesn’t decide to do a political move and offer half.
Cordially,
Kanani Fong
Army Wife
Welcome Kanani,
Apparently you have a side to peddle and you’ve brought it here. How much LESS interesting would your blog be if these wars ended? You’re an aspiring author and WIFE of a soldier. If your guy came home, then that whole dramatic blood and gore of war chapter would be over. Can’t have that, now can you?
If you had bothered to read/view the links I presented about the war being ILLEGAL, you’d come to understand that the war protesters, and indeed, the rest of the countries in the world, had it right and George W. Bush had it WRONG when he engineered these wars. They are illegal. They fail all of the tests of legality.
These wars are just examples of the poor decisions that Bush/Cheney made and put this country into the mess it is now. Those two didn’t even bother to put the war expenses in the national budget. Their dishonesty and irresponsibility have shown NO bounds.
As to privacy, that is up to the individual families. They were not offered that choice while Bush was in office. NOW they have that choice. Bush never went to Dover. Neither did Cheney. That’s the official record.
Best wishes on your blog and dreams. Thanks again, for adding to the conversation. Rv- –
ps, your website is hosting a nasty pop-up virus when I visited. fyi.
I think “Red” would be happier living in the Middle East.
Why is that, Cook?
Have I mentioned that I think you’re an idiot lately 😉
Thanks I needed that, 😉
lol!
apparently, so 😉
I think Kanani raises a very good point about “owning” what was a national effort – ever so much more than the Iraq mess. Even though I had trepidations about Afghanistan as a viable venture in 2001, I believed, as did a vast majority of Americans, that Al Qaida needed to be rooted out – and the only way to do that was to take care of its symbiotic Taliban hosts.
Yes, I believe Bush/Cheyney were hopeless drum beaters and liars about Iraq, but there’s no denying that Bin Laden was using A. as his personal playground with impunity and using that impunity to attack our country. Something needed to be done and it was nothing other than self-defense. Maybe it should have been more at the time; and an exit strategy should have been in place shortly thereafter. But there never was one.
I believe that Obama did use A. as way to out-hawk the idiot McCain, and I think it worked – politically. Practically and militarily the idea of ramping up a “surge” seems like a surefire way of costing more and achieving little. No outsiders have ever impressed their will on A. and it doesn’t seem likely to happen any time soon. Instead of pacification, Obama and his braintrust ought to working on a way out. Very soon.
Democrats have control of Congress, Senate, President yet won’t end the war. Nothing worse than a Hawkish Dem trying to show they are tough. Too many of our young boys will die while folks like Obama and Red Vixon and her ilk play at war. Obama will spend his whole term (one I hope) trying to blame his failures on Bush. It might satisfy the Red Vixon’s and MSNBC viewers but most Americans won’t buy it. Now I know why I’m DTS.
Rep.’s and Dem.’s tell the same lies.
EVERYBODY IS BLAMING PRESIDENT BUSH FOR KILLING THESE GREAT SOLDIER’S BUT ONE MAN KILLED THEM A BROTHER. I LOST SOMEONE IN 9/11 AND I’M GLAD THAT WE WENT OVER THERE.
EVERYBODY IS BLAMING PRESIDENT BUSH FOR GOING TO WAR WELL HE IS THE ONLY ONE THAT TOOK CONTROL OF THIS MATTER. TO TAKE CARE OF TERRIOSTS I ALMOST LOST MY BROTHER-IN-LAW IN 9/11. ALL THE SOLDIERS THAT HAVE BEEN KILLED I FEEL FOR THEIR FAMILIES MY EX-HUSBAND WAS IN THE MARINE HIS OUTFIT AND FRIEND’S WAS KILLED WHILE IN LEBANON HE WAS HOME WITH ME AND OUR NEW SON. HE LEFT THE MARINE AND WENT TO THE ARMY AND WENT TO THE FIRST GULF WAR AND IF HE WASN’T IN A WHEELCHAIR NOW HE WOULD BE IN IRAQ BECAUSE TO SERVE HIS COUNTRY. HE IS TRYING TO MAKE THIS COUNTRY A BETTER PLACED FOR OUR GRANDAUGHTER’S SO MAYBE EVERYBODY NEED TO LOOK AT THAT.