The Troops Also Need to Support the American People - Page 2 - Big Big Forums

DBackFan · 02-02-2007, 05:25 PM

http://www.flashdemo.net/gallery/wake/index.htm

Jolie Rouge · 02-02-2007, 06:52 PM

Poet/war veteran Russ Vaughan is inspired:
http://www.oldwardogs.us/2007/02/wapo_weasels_ii.html

Want to slam our soldiers, Arkin?
Well here is one to slam.
I got used to Lefty slamming
When I came back from Vietnam.

So you want to put a muzzle
On our brave fighting men?
Well try muzzling me you jerk,
Just tell me where and when.

Your profession needs a lesson
In basic free speech rights,
For those you worms all hide behind,
For those who fight your fights.

Like all your soft and smarmy kind,
You really have no clue,
Who American warriors truly are,
What our warriors truly do...

How many times in your four years
As a chair-borne analyst,
Were you within an ocean’s width
Of combat’s hard mailed fist?

How many medals did you earn
In those warrens at Fort Meade?
In four years of four-eyed service,
Just what was your bravest deed?

FOX news has combat warriors
To help us understand the score,
While MSM uses clerks like you,
Who have never been to war.

Your resentment of your betters,
Seeps through your bitter writing,
And shows you have no clue or care
Of those who do the fighting.

Like your ivy-cloistered Comrades,
your war’s between the classes,
Dialectics, speeches, theory,
your heads firmly up your

Russ Vaughn
2d Bn, 327th Parachute Infantry Regiment
101st Airborne Division
Vietnam 65-66

http://www.oldwardogs.us/2007/02/wapo_weasels_ii.html

gobs101 · 02-02-2007, 08:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rosina823

)

Regardless of where you stand on the issue of the U.S.
involvement in Iraq, here's a sobering statistic. There has
been a monthly average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq
theatre of operations during the last 22 months, and a
total of 2,112 deaths. That gives a firearm death rate
of 60 per 100,000 soldiers.

The firearm death rate in Washington D.C. is 80.6 per
100,000 persons for the same period. That means that
you are about 25% more likely to be shot and killed in
the U.S. Capital than you are in Iraq.

Conclusion: The U.S. should pull out of Washington.

I REALLY hate this comparisson.

U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq at 3,092

mine is #500

suher99 · 02-05-2007, 07:57 PM

This just makes me sick! My DH is over there now. I can tell you he didnt do it for the pay! And Tricare is a joke! I'm fighting with them to pay my bills cause they claimed I had secondary insurance when I didnt! I would rather have my DH home, but he's doing his job and I stand behind him and his fellow soldiers 100%!

Johnsmom · 02-06-2007, 01:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by suher99

This just makes me sick! My DH is over there now. I can tell you he didnt do it for the pay! And Tricare is a joke! I'm fighting with them to pay my bills cause they claimed I had secondary insurance when I didnt! I would rather have my DH home, but he's doing his job and I stand behind him and his fellow soldiers 100%!

Dealing with Tricare is like beating your head against a brick wall. My Tricare claims were all processed, or shall I say misprocessed by WPS. THey got every claim wrong...sad thing is, I worked in health insurance for a decade, so I was sending in clean claims with all the necessary paperwork and they still couldn't get it right. I hope you can get it straightened out soon. Send an appeal to Tricare Management Activity (address is onthe back of your EOB) if this doesn't get resolved soon.

Jolie Rouge · 02-06-2007, 05:16 PM

NBC Analyst Insults U.S. Armed Forces
Tuesday, February 06, 2007

This is a partial transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," February 5, 2006, that has been edited for clarity.

BILL O'REILLY, HOST: Continuing now with our lead story. A vicious attack on the U.S. military by NBC News analyst William Arkin. That report appeared on "The Washington Post" website.

By the way, we expect blow back from NBC News and from some committed left wing media writers. We'll keep you posted. I'm sure that's going to happen. With us now, FOX News analyst Kirsten Powers here in the studio. And in Washington, Michelle Malkin.

Now NBC News is going to say, well listen, all voices should be heard. You know, we give a platform to people. And this is freedom of speech, blah, blah, blah. What say you?

MICHELLE MALKIN, FOX NEWS ANALYST: I say that I think NBC News and "The Washington Post" and anyone who gives this man a platform ought to be very clear and transparent with the public about what he is. He's an intellectual coward. He's a thug. And he's a radical left wing loon. And he hides behind these neutral titles that these mainstream media outlets give him. You know, they call him a military affairs analyst and an intelligence specialist.

This guy worked for radical left wing organizations like the NRDC, Greenpeace, and Human Rights Watch. And I think actually he's done us all a favor. He's done America a favor by showing just how unhinged some of these so-called mainstream journalists really are.

You can read the kind of tripe that he put on "The Washington Post" blog every day in the far-left swamps of the Internet. But now it's got the endorsement of "The Washington Post" and by tacit acceptance NBC News as well. And I think that people really need to hold him accountable for these words. He refused to answer your producer's questions.

O'REILLY: No, he wouldn't answer any of our questions. But look, it's worse than that. It's worse than you're making it out to be. It's worse.

Here's what's worse. NBC News, in which this guy has appeared on "The Today Show," on Williams' show, on "Dateline," they never said what you said. They never told anybody he worked for Human Rights Watch, or Greenpeace, and he's a radical leftist. Never. They portrayed him fraudulently as an objective military analyst. He's on their payroll, Michelle, as an objective military analyst. That's fraud.

Now we've uncovered the fraud. He made the mistake. He brought in the hatred he has for the military. And believe me if, if you look at his book, his book might have gotten people killed. He broke classified information on code names. This is the worst. He is a military hater. Now has NBC News said that to anybody at any time? Have they?

MALKIN: No. That is my point.

O'REILLY: Right.

MALKIN: They need to be forced.

O'REILLY: No.

MALKIN: To disclose this kind of stuff.

O'REILLY: No.

MALKIN: If they're going to employ people like this.

O'REILLY: And how much money is General Electric making making submarines, building submarines for the U.S. military? How much?

MALKIN: Oh, I'd like to see that on the nightly news broadcast actually.

O'REILLY: Yes. OK?

MALKIN: Let me say one thing in defense of NBC News though, because William Arkin was driven crazy by an NBC News segment that featured troops who criticized disingenuous anti-war people who say they support the troops. And that's what sent William Arkin through the roof.

And you do have to give credit — I don't know how that report slipped through the NBC Nightly News, but it did.

O'REILLY: No, no, again, you're wrong.

MALKIN: It's the exception and not the rule.

O'REILLY: You're wrong. There are good people at NBC News. It isn't an organized cabal that says let's put on a nightly newscast and bash the troops. That's not what they do.

The problem, Michelle, is this. They'll do a pro-military piece on NBC News. They have good correspondents, fair correspondents over there. The problem is the management has made a decision, Michelle, to go to the left to pick up viewers, because they feel the mood of the country swinging that way.

Arkin's just part of that. And these decisions are made at the Zucker level, at the Robert Wright level, at the — whatever the — you know, Capus level. And Immelt knows this. And Immelt, who could change it like that, OK, because he has power over these three, all right, goes along with it. So they're selling out their country for ratings points, Michelle.

MALKIN: I'm well aware of that, Bill. And I think if there are good people at NBC News, and I'm sure there are a few of them.

O'REILLY: There are, there are.

MALKIN: I would try and convince them to get Brian Williams to have a sit down interview at the top of the nightly news show with William Arkin and ask him to explain what exactly he...

O'REILLY: Absolutely right.

MALKIN: meant by the obscene amenities that are being sent to the troops.

O'REILLY: There you go.

MALKIN: Because I saw nothing of that when I was in Baghdad.

O'REILLY: What are the obscene amenities. You were over there for a week. I was over there. I didn't see any obscene amenities. They have good food and they can get access to the Internet. All right.

MALKIN: I saw troops sleeping on the floor at the Baghdad International Airport. I guess that's what he means by obscene.

O'REILLY: Yes. Well, I know what's obscene. His pieces. How do you see it?

( continues )

Jolie Rouge · 02-06-2007, 05:18 PM

KIRSTEN POWERS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Yes, I have to tell you that when this was first sent to me, this was yesterday I talked about this, I had to keep asking over and over again, are you sure this ran in "The Washington Post. I don't understand this. This guy works for NBC?"

Because this was the type of thing that you would expect to read on a far left blog. It has all the hallmarks of the basic far left arguments, which is, you know, the reference to our sons and daughters. We have to save our sons and daughters. The reference to — they're all pawns, they're all stupid. They don't actually want to be over there.

The reference that they only support the war because they have to. What else would they do? They couldn't get up in the morning unless they were tricked.

O'REILLY: Yes, they're too stupid to know what they do.

POWERS: Exactly. And.

O'REILLY: But what about Haditha and Abu Ghraib?

POWERS: Well.

O'REILLY: I mean, my God, you know how many hundreds of —

POWERS: Yes.

O'REILLY: ...thousands of U.S. forces went through there and behaved honorably and put their lives on the line?

POWERS: But I think - I actually think, not to defend him, I think his point was that they were bad apples and it was overlooked. I mean, I don't think that he was trying to say that...

O'REILLY: No, no, no. It was that the American people gave the benefit of the doubt to the military.

POWERS: Right. Bad apples.

O'REILLY: Well, maybe they shouldn't.

POWERS: Well, it was kind of.

O'REILLY: That's what it was.

POWERS: I really didn't read it that way.

O'REILLY: Read it again.

POWERS: OK.

O'REILLY: Read it - I've read it 15 times.

POWERS: But I thought it was - but overall, it was very condescending. And I mean, and the mercenary comment, of course.

O'REILLY: Ha.

POWERS: Was so over the top.

O'REILLY: Oh, my God.

POWERS: That it was just completely outrageous.

O'REILLY: What if you had lost a brother or a husband over there and Arkin, this despicable human being is saying he's a mercenary, he didn't love his country.

POWERS: Yes.

O'REILLY: He just did it for the obscene amenities we're sending. Oh, my God.

POWERS: But the thing that I thought was particularly strange about it is that when you look at what was said in the NBC report, there's nothing in it that should have incited this kind of anger.

O'REILLY: No, he's a hater.

POWERS: I mean, the people - these kids and these guys, these men, whoever they were, were actually saying we don't really — they sounded more hurt than angry that the American people weren't supporting the war.

O'REILLY: Look, and that is their opinion.

POWERS: Yes.

O'REILLY: And they're entitled to it. They gave that opinion to me. They gave it to Michelle. And if the soldiers over there say look, you know, we'd like you to support us. We feel — we here on the front lines feel.

POWERS: Yes.

O'REILLY: We're doing something noble, then you can dissent from the war. This isn't about war dissent.

POWERS: Yes.

O'REILLY: This is about insulting people who are trying — giving their lives to give freedom to other people.

POWERS: Yes. And also Bill, this isn't a good - he's not a good analyst.

O'REILLY: Oh.

POWERS: There are all sorts of good reasons to oppose the war. And it's not — you don't go and attack the soldiers.

O'REILLY: Michelle - I go to ask Michelle one more thing. What did you think of the NBC statement, Michelle?

MALKIN: I thought it was as weasely as William Arkin's interview with your producer.

O'REILLY: I mean, can you imagine.

MALKIN: Yes.

O'REILLY: All NBC News had to do was say, you know, we find that reprehensible.

MALKIN: You know, it would have been nice if they said we stand by the troops who were interviewed in that story.

O'REILLY: I mean, it is just — I am going to keep the ladies for another minute. So kill the music. Now how should we react to this? What should we do, Michelle? What do you think we should do? Michelle?

MALKIN: I think that putting pressure on "The Washington Post" board of directors, the editorial board, their media critics, and the NBC News management.

I think in addition to just how incoherent and illogical and embarrassing William Arkin's rhetoric was, it's also about how he abused these troops because he mischaracterized what they actually said. And he continues to stand by that. And that is a dishonest smear on these troops.

And I think if you really do support the troops, even if you oppose the war, you should get behind making William Arkin pay a price for his intellectual.

O'REILLY: Now he's got his little NBC cap on there. What do you think we should do, Kirsten?

POWERS: Well, I don't think - I mean, I think there's an argument to be made that it's good that he's out there saying these things, because I think it gives an airing to frankly a view that's not that uncommon.

O'REILLY: So you think that no, you shouldn't do anything?

POWERS: No, I have arguments with friends all the time that say - they don't — minus - take the mercenary thing off the table. The rest of it's not, frankly, that uncommon among a certain group of people.

O'REILLY: Yes.

POWERS: And so.

MALKIN: Elitism and snobbery.

POWERS: Yes.

MALKIN: Hostility towards our troops.

O'REILLY: We know.

MALKIN: Yes, let a thousand Arkins bloom so we can just see how naked their hatred of the troops is.

O'REILLY: Well, we'll let them bloom.

MALKIN: I agree with that.

O'REILLY: We — they can't bloom any more than they bloom right here tonight. Ladies, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,250493,00.html

Jolie Rouge · 02-06-2007, 05:23 PM

Glenn Reynolds recommended this new documentary by former Marine, TV journalist, and milblogger J.D. Johannes last week, and I was able to watch it this weekend. http://instapundit.com/archives2/2007/02/post_2156.php

You can get the movie via Customflix http://www.customflix.com/222395 Johannes embedded with his former unit and brings you on the front lines and up close and personal with Marines who willingly go back again and again to Iraq in defense of our security and freedom.

Quote:

Outside the Wire
This is the Iraq War you won't see on the evening news.

Former Marine and television news producer JD Johannes traveled to Iraq with his old Marine Corps unit to produce syndicated TV news reports for local stations. From those reports comes a view of the war that only the grunts who operate outside the wire experience.

From a dust-up with Al Qaida outside Abu Ghriab, to a night raid on the home of an insurgent leader, you will see what the Marines saw and hear the story in their own words of why they joined, volunteered for the deployment, why they fight and what it is like to go outside the wire and into combat.

Arkin calls them "young and naive" "mercenaries."

The rest of us whose brains are not infected with BDS call them American heroes.

Jolie Rouge · 02-14-2007, 06:36 PM

Why don't more Americans pay respects to fallen troops?
By Bill Shore Wed Feb 14, 6:56 AM ET

I fly by Arlington National Cemetery and pass its gates several times a week as so many of us in Washington do every time we travel between office and airport. Lately I've felt its pull, and last month I arrived shortly before it opened at 8 a.m.

A guard asked me to wait behind a group of cars that had arrived for the first of the day's 14 funerals. On most days, Arlington averages more than 20 burials, although not all of them are related to the war in Iraq.

It suddenly occurred to me that I ought to visit the grave of Geoffrey Cayer, a fallen Marine whose remains had been escorted to D.C. on a commercial flight I had boarded last July. I didn't know him, but the flight, met by a military honor guard, was a sobering experience. I later read what I could find about him and even corresponded with friends of his family.

I went to the information counter and asked how to find Lance Cpl. Cayer's grave. An employee walked me over to a computer kiosk, searched "Cayer" and printed out a map of the cemetery with "Cayer, Geoffrey Robert, Section 60, site 8411" printed at the bottom.

If John Kennedy's grave and the tomb of the Unknown Soldier can be considered tourist attractions, then Section 60 is the part of the cemetery where the real work goes on. I had the 600 acres of gently rolling hills nearly to myself. The silence felt eerie. I walked softly, as if a trespasser. I looked in all directions but saw no one.

Map in hand, it took about 15 minutes to get to Section 60, the quiet disturbed only by the rumble of bulldozers and backhoes shuttling back and forth to keep up with the work. In several areas along the way, workers were setting up mobile canopies and green felt-covered chairs for funerals later in the morning. The same military system that fashioned our forces into a fighting machine has also created a machine to process grief efficiently and effectively.

I found Cayer's grave on the outskirts of Section 60. He lay between two comrades, Matthew Phillip Wallace and Tulsa Tulaga Tuliau, both of whom had been awarded Bronze Stars and Purple Hearts. Tuliau was a master sergeant from American Samoa killed by an improvised explosive device. He left a wife and two very young daughters. Wallace died from burns, also caused by an improvised explosive device. The fresh black lettering stood out sharply on their white tombstones, in contrast with the names on the stones fanned out behind them, faded, perhaps like the lessons of history.

Cayer's grave was in what, until a few weeks ago, had been the last row. Now, new berms of disturbed earth rose up behind it. From an airplane, the lines of white stones seem to stretch to the landscape's limit and give the sense that perhaps the cemetery will soon be full. But on the ground, it's clear there remain vast fields to fill, like a crossword puzzle not finished until every blank space is occupied. Grass had not yet grown over Cayer's resting place. The new grave in front of his had only a tiny, temporary plastic marker. Ten yards away lay a just-dug hole that gaped 8 feet down into the brown mud.

I wondered why it had taken me so long to drive the short distance across Memorial Bridge to pay my respects. I'm surprised more Americans don't do so. It's symptomatic of the distance at which the war has been kept from most of us, and of how content most of us have been to keep it there. We live in a town that generates volumes of opinion about sacrifice and service, but sometimes what is required of us is simply to bear witness.

I stayed at the cemetery for about 90 minutes. Except for the gravediggers, I saw only one other person, a man wearing a suit and a long black coat and also visiting Section 60. This is where the activity is these days, although Section 61 can't be far behind. We were only a few paces from each other but did not speak. It was just a quiet moment to bear witness, even if there was nothing one could say.

Bill Shore is the founder of Share Our Strength, a non-profit that fights hunger and poverty, and author of The Light of Conscience.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/200...Luxj6B4aOs0NUE

stephanyb · 02-15-2007, 09:38 AM

The soldiers have more to express how they feel than anyone. They sit over there and watch the news, they hear Americans talking about how the soldiers are dying for nothing after they had to watch they're buddy die. They hear from their crying wifes that their children heard someone on TV say that they're daddy is fighting for nothing. Or how about the children who have already lost a parent and hear that. Do people who say things not realize how badly they are hurting the families and the soldiers? I know how bad it hurts because i'm the wife of a soldier, I have to explain to my son why people say that his daddy is doing nothing. I see him cry and worry and not understand. Live that life for awhile and then come back and see if your opinion is the same. Those soldiers are over there doing the best they can, not knowing if they are going to make it back that day. They listen to all this crap, yet you wanna say they don't have the right to speak up? Get a grip and stop talking about something you have no idea about.

Johnsmom · 02-15-2007, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stephanyb

The soldiers have more to express how they feel than anyone. They sit over there and watch the news, they hear Americans talking about how the soldiers are dying for nothing after they had to watch they're buddy die. They hear from their crying wifes that their children heard someone on TV say that they're daddy is fighting for nothing. Or how about the children who have already lost a parent and hear that. Do people who say things not realize how badly they are hurting the families and the soldiers? I know how bad it hurts because i'm the wife of a soldier, I have to explain to my son why people say that his daddy is doing nothing. I see him cry and worry and not understand. Live that life for awhile and then come back and see if your opinion is the same. Those soldiers are over there doing the best they can, not knowing if they are going to make it back that day. They listen to all this crap, yet you wanna say they don't have the right to speak up? Get a grip and stop talking about something you have no idea about.

Well said. We have a lot more at stake here than the reporter who wrote that drivel. My husband is home now, but I will never forget the fear and the hard times. I will also never forget the stories he told of going to orphanages on Christmas to give things to the children or of the Iraqi people who were happy to see Americans (my husband was in an area where people had been very oppressed and poverty-stricken under Saddam). I am so sorry your son has to go through this. I hope your hubby will be home safe and sound soon.