Lately I've been taking it easy, laying off playing so much MW2, and I find myself thinking a lot about the current "war" we are at in the middle-east. Now I'm not going to argue politics, but I do think we should all at least pay our respects to the men and women who serve this country.


I'd like now to take a moment of silence, and salute those men and women, who so bravely stand before the challenges that threaten our freedom which so many of us take for granted every day. The freedom to live, the freedom to speak your mind, and the freedom to enjoy all the things that make this country what it is today. Our prayers, our thoughts, and our love be with these brave men and women as they carry the United States Flag with all its glory.


Through blood, tears, and brotherhood just as those before them did, willing to die for all the things the flag stands for...
--

i like our soldiers too.

DURR DURKA DURRRRDURS

one of my hot blonde female soldier friends just came back from iraq, we're going to go shoot guns together.

You should shoot your gun into her if you catch my drift.

I have the utmost respect for the men and women in our military, and I wish them all a safe return to their families and loved ones.

That being said, I have absolutely no respect for the scumbag politicians who have abused their power and started not one but two useless wars in god forsaken armpits of the world which will never end unless we just pack it in and leave like we did at the end of Vietnam.

The overwhelming majority of people in Iraq and Afghanistan do not want western style democracy. What they want is religious theocracy and if history has taught us anything it should be that you cannot make people do something they do not want to do. We are wasting our time, money, and the irreplaceable blood of our brave soldiers...and for what exactly? The terrorists are not even there, they are hiding in Pakistan.

I say drop the 82nd into northern Pakistan and bring back Osama's head on the end of a pole...game over. Screw the Paki's, they are doing NOTHING to bring that HOMOSEXUAL to justice. Ya they will be pissed...but in the end we can be in and out of there in a week or two and in a few months they will all be back to killing each other like again they have done for thousands of years.

As for Iraq and Afghanistan we should just leave. The idea that it is a threat to national security for us to do that is a joke. That is exactly what the so called experts said back in the 70's about Vietnam. In the end there was no fallout from that decision, and there will be no fallout from leaving the current conflicts either.

One thing you can count on from radical intolerant religious types is that they will always be radical and intolerant. The only reason these people are unified today is because they have a common enemy to shoot at. If we were not there they would go right back to hating each other soon enough, and if they are killing each other they are no threat to us.

yup the 2/162 ONG is comming home mother F*CKERS. he is in debrief at Ft. Lewis and home on wed.


we are going to get our shoot on in a big way! welcome home avery!



Mariens - to those that have fallen rest in peace, to those that are still with us, fight with honor...... from the hall of montezuma to the shores of tripoli.

army - over there, over there, send the word send the word over there.....oooh rah.

airforce - off, into the wild blue yonder, flying high into the sun!

navy - ya'all niggas is gay!




lol




much love to every branch of service, and each and every personnel....god bless.

Not a good way to make friends around here KA-BAR.

9/11 got us basing rights that we couldn't get before (during the Clinton administration). Had Clinton been able to get basing rights Uzbekistan, he likely would've been able to kill Osama years before 9/11.



Kinda like Clinton tried to do?



The difference between Vietnam and the situation in Iraq is that genocide happened before we invaded. Yeah, they've got no WMDs. Yeah, Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Does that change the fact that Hussein was guilty of genocide? Absolutely not. Anyone guilty of genocide needs to be killed. It's a crime against humanity, and it is the human responsibility of any nation that is capable to kill that person. Vietnam didn't have anything to do with genocide. That was your average, friendly cold war vicarious conflict between the Soviet Union and the USA.



Don't forget that a lot of Christians are radical intolerant religious types, too. ;-)

question were playing on afghan when you thought of this?

gman,

Don't forget that Hussein was installed by the US government and he was supported vigorously right up until he decided to invade Kuwait. Even when he was lining up Kurds by the thousands and shooting them in the head the US government was happy to satnd by his side and support his regime. It was only when his actions threatened to destabilize the situation in middle east and adversely affect our relationship with the Saudis that we condemned him.

As far as similarity with Vietnam I am referring to the argument that pro-war pundits are making regarding the fact that withdrawal is not an option due to the impact that would have on US national security. This is the exact same argument that was made repeatedly back in the early 70's for why we needed to "stay the course" in Vietnam. In the end we bailed out and what was the impact to national security? Zero.

If we were to walk away from Iraq and Afghanistan tomorrow the only thing that would happen is that the radical muslim factions would soon grow tired of co-existing and start warring with each other as they have always done. So what I say, let them kill each other. We have enough problems here with a shattered economy, rampant unemployment, and what is shaping up to be a worse economic disaster then the Great Depression.

The United States is not the world's police force. Screw basing rights, I for one am tired of paying for it. National defense is consuming over 50% of the federal budget at this point and I say enough is enough. Let Europe and the rest of the world pay for their own defense. There is a reason that the EU is in better economic shape then the US. It is because we have borne the brunt of the cost of their defense for decades. What we need to do is stop doing that and focus on our own house for a change.

Also, the only time Clinton ever did crap was if he needed a diversion when he got caught having his dick sucked in the Oval Office or something else he needed to get people's attention off of like Whitewater or Vince Foster.

His half assed attempts at gunboat diplomacy are a major part of the reason 9/11 happened, and what he did in Somalia was a freaking joke. Lobbing Tomahawk missiles into Afghanistan which hit the wrong targets and not following up on the strike to ensure that the mission was actually accomplished just poured fuel on the fire and left Osama bin Laden around to continue building the Al'Queda network.

Clinton was well known as a president who combined brinksmanship with indecision on applying military resources. He basically had no clue how to use the military and it proved out to screw us badly.

And yes...lots of Christians are quite radical and intolerant as well. Thankfully for us there are not many of them running around with AK 47's and RPG's. :)

I just want to say as a veteran who has been overseas twice for his country, it truly is a shame to watch these people die for nothing and all I can do is watch as this great country has fallin into complete garbage.

U.S. has lost sight of what is important, we have given up our once great economy to interfere with middle eastern squabbles that have been going on forever and will never end. Those people DO not want to change and therefore deserve whatever life throws at them. If they want to blindly follow a religion, not question anything, and not attempt to change the government, then just let them be. Let them kill themselves to the end of time, as long as they stay over there. Any country that lives like afganistan should just be told "hey, stay there and if you cross your shitty-worthless F*CK of a country's line, you're dead." It's a simple concept. Laws need to be changed to where a human that resorts to violence before even attempting to rationalize anything should be treated as a "wild animal" and gunned down immediatly.

Amen to that.

A Libertarian, eh? I'm a Libertarian at heart, but I don't exactly agree with their foreign policy. I agree with 99.9% of what you said to an extent. We are not the world's police force, but we are human. I think that as humans, we have the obligation to stand up against genocide/democide. I know our purpose in Iraq is not to stop the democide that was going on, but it was a result of our actinos.... partially because there's no real government there anymore, despite what the media tries to tell us. Can't have democide without government!

It doesn't matter who put Hussein in power. We (the WWII allies/the UN) created Israel. Does that make it right? No. Do we now need to do all we can do to defend them? Maybe. They're there because our grandfathers put them there. Israel is our mistake, just like Hussein was our mistake. If I spill a drink, I clean it up. It's called accountability.

Anyway, you're right about the economy. There are more inexpensive ways to accomplish our goals. The CIA, Army Special Forces, the Navy Seals, and the various "allied" intelligence agencies (MI6, Mossad, etc), can be deployed for discreet accomplishment of our goals. The problem there is that you run into some serious issues with international law and jurisdiction. Then again, if nobody knows who did it....

But I feel for you. I'm sick and tired of seeing my 401k/stocks going into the shitter because of poor financial management in the White House/Pentagon.

Most of this whole mini-debate was just so I could gauge your intelligence ;-). You definitely seem like a dude I could knock back a few beers with. We could probably have some pretty interesting conversations.

Oh, and with regard to the current/former members of the US Armed Forces: my dad was a marine. My grandpa was a marine (WW2 pacific/korea veteran). His dad was in the Army (WWI vet). One of my best friends is a marine (you guys remember Lone Mortal?). I have a ton of respect for those guys. They're bad-ass, ass-stomping, killing machines. Gotta love a killing machine.

any of your siblings serve?

No. At a young age, my dad strongly suggested that my brother and I not pursue the military at all. He said that if we can get where we want to go without joining the military, then do it. He joined as a last resort when he had no other options.

Lol, you nailed it...been a Libertarian since I read John Stuart Mill's "On Liberty" way back in the days when I was an impressionable youth.

Definitely up for knocking down some beers...I am up for Draught House next Friday, thats good beer there.

Yeah, I might be down for that. My life right now revolves around interviews and meetings. We'll see how everything pans out and if I've got the time etc. I'm hitting up Fast Eddies tonight with a lady and some friends from work, but other than that I don't have very much planned this-or-next weekend.

rofl lighten the F*CK up GK

Our soldiers deserve a LOT of respect! My prayers go out to all that have served or are currently serving, and last but not least the ones who have lost there lives in action .

I'm not one to debate with cuz I don't know to much about the situation. But it doesn't seem like we've made much of any progress over there, and the progress we have made will be for nothing once we leave because it will eventually go back to the way it was. It might be shitty that it is helping ruin our economy, but even worse is all the greiving familys who have lost loved ones. All the little brothers that no longer have a big brother to look up to, the mothers that have lost the child they have become so accustomed to seeing. I can't even imagine the suffering they have gone through! The damage is already done, so why are we so intent on causing so much more?