What is Digg?406 Comments
- MadKennyP, on 11/04/2007, -16/+333Well, their Commander in Chief pretends to lead.
- StevenMcD, on 11/02/2007, -20/+124I truely feel for these soldiers, why are they fighting to liberate a people that don't want to be liberated?
- lucidguru, on 11/04/2007, -4/+87They must be reading Catch-22. A fear of a meaningless death is pretty normal.
The American people don't care about their soldiers. Soldiers are pawns put in front of danger for no sensible reason. Our politicians reduce their funding and refuse to pull them out of war, putting them in more danger. The people in America sit in apathy while the gov't does whatever it wants. And the only ones that silently suffer are the soldiers.
Before you go digging me down ask yourself if you even know the NUMBER of American soldiers that have died in Iraq... I'm not asking for names... I'm sure very few of you can actually come close... proof enough that we really don't care as a nation.
Oh and there is also that little inconvenience of about 28,000 wounded. They actually made it back. They may be missing an arm, a leg, an eye or like most suffering from brain injury and PTSD, but hey, they still have their lives so we won't count them. They must die if they want any acknowledgment. /sarcasm - physphd, on 11/02/2007, -4/+68You're right, but remember that under Saddam they had utilities. Hospitals, schools, universities were open. People had jobs to go to. Neighborhood markets. (Non-state) crime and violence were low. Sectarian violence was in check. While not fully up to a western standard of living, perhaps, Iraq was far from being a culturally backward banana republic.
Now going on 6 years later, clean water and basic sanitation are a problem, ~10% of the hospitals and schools have been rebuilt, gas lines stretch for miles, there is little commerce and few jobs. And then ther's some of the highest violent crimes rates in the world which stops people from going out and openly working to improve their situation. Everyday life is still far, far worse than under Saddam. It's a depressingly acute example of Maslow's hierarchy of needs: it's tough to worry about political ideals when your basic health and safety is a challenge. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of ...
On a side note, my department recently enrolled a grad student from Baghdad. His father was a doctor and mother an engineer. He's been out of school since his university closed at the start of the war. They had no jobs or income, but tried to stick it out, until starting trying to leave 2005. Between the sectarian violence and US forces restricting all travel, his family got separated. Short story, mom's dead, dad's in Syria with his sister, and he's a brother somewhere too. It's been quite a time just talking with him and comparing notes from when I was in the south in Gulf War 1. He says that most people have welcomed the troops and hated Saddam, but says it's hard think good of the US forces when life is worse in everyway than before the war and people are living like animals. He knew classmates that took up guns and turned into thugs and thieves just feed their family. Imagine that: physics students driven to banditry. I'm frankly amazed he was able to get a visa, but then again this is one of the most driven people I've ever met. - VIrus9, on 10/31/2007, -2/+66The public would support the war if it were worth supporting.
- siszam, on 11/02/2007, -3/+61When you support people you don't put them in harms way. My son is a Marine and I don't want your kind of warmonger "support". If it wasn't for people like you he would be home safe and sound. Go fight your own war coward.
- KokomoNYC, on 10/31/2007, -2/+59There was a guy who was on patrol at the Battle of the Bulge when he ran into two Germans and all three men put their hands in the air. The two Germans managed to say, in broken English, "You have to take us as prisoners because there are two of us and only one of you." Guess those Germans really didn't want to go back out on patrol.
It just sounds like it sucks. What a sad thing. - tucsonsun13, on 10/31/2007, -9/+64Our exit from Iraq is long overdue.
We don't want to be there, the troops don't want to be there, we who do not want our troops to be there hardly watch what transpires there (other than reading a few clips sporadically), Al Qaeda comprises a scant 5% of the insurgency, 4/5 Iraqis want our boys DEAD, 9/10 want us out within a year, we spend 330 million $ / day in Iraq, and have now lost over 4,000 troops there - especially if you include forces flown to US bases outside of Iraq who die elsewhere. - sebastijan, on 10/31/2007, -8/+61That's very sad.I understand this veterans.They didn't fight for their freedom.
They dint fight for theirs country ,they MUST fight because some politicians find that necessary.
I just wish that all soldiers that is in IRAQ will come home alive and healthy,because the war trauma no-one can erase-and for WHAT!?
For OIL, not for ordinary people, for OIL!!! - jmpeagle, on 11/03/2007, -4/+57he's from Slovenia (opened profile), not bad for someone where english is not their first language
- physphd, on 11/03/2007, -3/+45mtshasta, let's see your mad Slovenian skills.
- inactive, on 11/05/2007, -6/+47Ive forgotten what we are even doing over there anymore...
- inf0, on 10/31/2007, -2/+41Oh he's leading for real... leading your country right down the toilet.
- inactive, on 11/01/2007, -8/+47Yeah, it's like the Iraqis didn't ask the USA to invade their country and kill hundreds of thousands of their fellow citizens.
- MakiNavaja, on 10/31/2007, -2/+35You are a ***** moron.
Just bend over and let Bush and Cheney Vader screw us silly, eh? That's your plan?
***** YOU and the rest of the greedy zealots that tell us to blindly follow a path laid out in folly. - inf0, on 11/05/2007, -11/+40God bless those who avoid killing more innocent people!
- quaxon, on 10/31/2007, -20/+42"Millard said "search and avoid" missions continue today across Iraq. "One of my buddies is in Baghdad right now and we email all the time," he explained, "He just told me that nearly each day they pull into a parking lot, drink soda and shoot at the cans. They pay Iraqi kids to bring them things and spread the word that they are not doing anything and to please just leave them alone." "
These are the only kind of respectable soldiers, the ones who don't go around looking for civilians to shoot and who wont have part in an illegal war. Now if only they would be more vocal about their position, turn their guns on their generals and come home here to live up their duty of protecting our freedoms by ousting the current administration that is taking them away. - DangerCollie, on 10/31/2007, -1/+23I don't blame them. We have an administration pretending to be competent, contractors pretending to be under attack and FEMA employees pretending to be reporters, what's the problem if our soldiers want to pretend to be on patrol?
They're just following the example of the man pretending to be their leader. - objectcode, on 11/03/2007, -1/+21still better than a lot of people with English as their first language
- the6thReplicant, on 10/31/2007, -0/+19Best comment for a long time.
Looks like Vicujozobenaxod is rewriting history to make it that the media made us lose that war. Just like what the neocons thought about Vietnam. - lucidguru, on 10/31/2007, -4/+22Soldiers aren't allowed to have a position until they are discharged. A soldier that publicly states a political position is charged under UCMJ and faces possible prison time and other reprimands, such as demotion and by other means additional deployments.
- supermanred, on 11/01/2007, -1/+19Insurgents? Insurgents are those who fight for their country as the Iraqis are rightfully doing. If the US invades my country, I will be an insurgent too, a ***** mass murdering one. Most US citizens would become kick ass insurgents if their country was invaded. You would post the invaders heads on sticks as a warning, or hang their dead bodies from a bridge like the Iraqis did to those blackwater thugs.
US needs to get the ***** out of Iraq before their country goes more in the ***** (both countries actually) - Dragonskies, on 10/31/2007, -5/+22This is really sad to read. How can Bush possibly think going to war with Iran is a good idea when we're already doing so poorly in Iraq? Oh wait, it's Bush...
- arcticblue, on 11/02/2007, -0/+16You wanna know something really good? When I was in Iraq, we shared the same comfort trailers with the Army (I was in the Marines). Well, needless to say, alot of stuff was written on the bathroom stalls. Some high ranking army douche got upset and made his unit go on "poop patrol". The Army removed all the doors off the stalls and the bathrooms/showers became a 12 hour standing post. They had to be in full flak and kevlar with their weapons and ammo and everything. The bathrooms were "guarded" 24/7 for about 2 months. The Army was pissed they had to do stupid ***** like that, and we were pissed we had to get watched while we dumped a load.
The Marines did stupid ***** too. I could write a book on it. It's why I told my career planner to "shove those re-enlistment papers up your ass". - Logicexe, on 10/31/2007, -0/+16According to you the American military is filled with the biggest bunch of insecure emotional sissies the world has ever seen. So we can't criticize the war because it might make our soldiers sad? Is this honestly the image you have of the US military? These are grown men, men that have been trained and trained well to do their jobs. They can handle putting their life in constant danger, they can handle the extended tours, they can handle the physical and mental tasks required to fight a war, and they can do all that without adequate body armor, but as soon as someone criticizes the war they fall to pieces.
Right, I'm sure it's that, not the extended tours, not the repeat tours, not the fact that every time we take one step forward we take two steps back, not the fact that this war appears to be going no where, not the fact that bush intends this war to last for decades (We have ALWAYS been at war with Eurasia, I mean Iraq) no it's those bloody peacenicks! - ChromaVita, on 10/31/2007, -5/+20I would have been nice and let him come in and sleep in my bed.
Provided of course that I get to borrow his car and uniform during that time. - dmjarrington, on 10/31/2007, -0/+15@Vicujozobenaxod
The problem with America is that its people compare the war in Iraq to a ***** football game. Die, idiot. - inactive, on 10/31/2007, -12/+27I wonder if Rush will pick up on this... he'll have a phony soldier field day
- Herolint, on 11/05/2007, -3/+16This is news? "People getting paid to work are just pretending to work..."
Sound like standard American work culture to me. - Fabc001, on 11/05/2007, -6/+19"Many of you will die, but it is a sacrifice I am willing to make" - Lord Dick Farquar Cheney
- postalblowfish7, on 10/30/2007, -0/+12i love people who like to imply their intellectual superiority rather than prove it.
- CaptainNoPants, on 10/30/2007, -0/+12Hopefully your daughter is one apple that fell far far away from the tree, *****.
- statrick, on 10/31/2007, -0/+12theirs no way you can believe this. bush and his crew are not dumb. they are leading this war the exact way they want to. Dick Chaney new exactly what would happen if we invaded Iraq, he made the predictions himself. the more chaos and war the more profit there is to be made. They can finish this war when ever they want to.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=6BEsZMvrq-I - obeythefist, on 10/30/2007, -2/+14Cheney to the American people: "Hey, here's your kid. $5 if you also want his sheild."
- inactive, on 10/30/2007, -8/+19Chenney to soldiers, "Come Back With Your Shield, Or On It."
- schroeder, on 11/01/2007, -3/+14Until the next day when their family blew up.
- JacobVorpahl, on 10/31/2007, -5/+16Yeah, it's funny to you guys, they're great, applaud them, blah blah blah... until the unit takes over after them and they say "oh yeah, we did our patrols, found no IEDs, everything is clear." So you drive on the road they supposedly have cleared and low and behold you hit an IED that was supposedly looked for by these guys. This is very upsetting, and I say that as an OIF vet from Ramadi. If I was there and heard some guy say this I probably would have pulled my weapon on him, because it's darn near treason. They are basically putting the guy's life that takes over after them in unnecessary jeopardy when they do this. Anyone who thinks this is OK probably knows jack about what it's like being in theater.
- PATSCRU, on 10/30/2007, -1/+11PTSD=girly man soldier? What do you call chickenhawks who troll digg and criticize soldiers out on the field then?
- digbird, on 11/05/2007, -10/+20This story has some problems with it:
1. "Search and destroy" is a term from Vietnam. I have never heard any operation in Iraq described as "search and destroy" so why would the soldiers be using the term "search and avoid"?
2. There are a lot of UAVs and helicopter flights taking place all the time in Iraq. If they saw a bunch of MRAPs or Humvees parked in the middle of a field, it would get reported.
3. When our guys go out looking for weapons caches, I doubt that they are out in less than platoon strength. This means that not only would junior enlisted soldiers be malingering. Senior enlisted and junior officers would as well...given the fact that those people have careers to worry about, I doubt that they'd countenance something that would get them in deep trouble.
4. If the soldiers just sat in a field with their vehicles, they wouldn't burn up fuel. When they came back to the motor pool, this would be noticed.
5. Lastly, this story comes from Alternet, a left-wing anti-war website by way of a "news agency" that appears equally left wing that quotes a single soldier who is a member of an anti-war group. Trusting such a report makes about as much sense as trusting a report on Rush Limbaugh's website that Iraqis are lining the streets cheering our soldiers wherever they go. - rizla420, on 11/05/2007, -1/+11Freeing people, duh?? Didnt you get the memo that people embrace freedom much easier when they're friends and family are getting killed around them. Get a clue.
- Calcularius, on 11/05/2007, -2/+12I, for one, am sorry to see talented smart people wanting to leave my country, and the retard ass-car watching red necks thinking that it's a good thing. America is turning into the remedial class of the world, a bunch of out of control loser kids who think it's cool to be mean and stupid.
- flink405, on 10/31/2007, -8/+17Total B.S.
Notice how the article only quotes one source, never gives his rank ----- does this person even exist or did they make him and the whole story up?
Yesterday the U.S. military turned another province over to the Iraq military for their complete control.
Deaths and bombings in Iraq are down nearly 80% from a year ago. - 89vision, on 10/30/2007, -1/+10The sad thing is that I think he's leading to the best of his abilities.
- cfuse, on 11/05/2007, -2/+11Oh come on! Who doesn't slack off at work?
- sockpuppets, on 10/30/2007, -1/+10I had my best friend's head blown off right in front of me. I've had nightmares, depression and odd "fight or flight" reactions to normal stimuli ever since. I don't like to whine about it so I keep it to myself but I assure you PTSD is real. You're a douche for minimalizing its effect on people.
- inactive, on 11/05/2007, -8/+17it's all about the oil, why should they care.
- JacobVorpahl, on 10/31/2007, -7/+16Yeah, it's funny to you guys, they're great, applaud them, blah blah blah... until the unit takes over after them and they say "oh yeah, we did our patrols, found no IEDs, everything is clear." So you drive on the road they supposedly have cleared and low and behold you hit an IED that was supposedly looked for by these guys. This is very upsetting, and I say that as an OIF vet from Ramadi. If I was there and heard some guy say this I probably would have pulled my weapon on him, because it's darn near treason. They are basically putting the guy's life that takes over after them in unnecessary jeopardy when they do this. Anyone who thinks this is OK probably knows jack about what it's like being in theater.
On an aside note, I think if this is actually going on, it's nowhere near the extend this article tries to make it, specifically because of the above stated reason. Not many guys I've served with would ever screw the next guys over like this. And unless you've served, please don't chime in on what "you think" the military would or wouldn't do. - Fabc001, on 10/30/2007, -1/+9And God bless anyone that arrests Cheney for lying this country into a war, having 4000 US service people killed and a million foreign nationals, all because of his lies!.
- VRFour, on 11/01/2007, -5/+13This situation is not something can be described as "a people that don't want to be liberated." Religion and ethnicity play an enormous role in the Iraqis' perception of the US led occupation (or liberation, if you prefer) and believe it or not, there are Iraqis that welcomed the day when Saddam was removed from power.
- roystgnr, on 10/31/2007, -0/+8We can't just do what the majority of Iraqis and Americans want! That wouldn't be spreading democracy!
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