Villainous Company

You and the Marine team are doing an outstanding job! Keep up the good work!

As curt, the Navy team leader states, it's our wounded men and women who are benefitting.

Ahh, now I can think of a positive side.

OK, kiddo...I'm a-gonna put the button on my blog, FWIW.

I just hit the donate button again. :-)

Thank you kindly.

I will too, as soon as I judge the poster contest.

But I'm going to have to hide the receipts from the spouse. I'm dreading tax time... heh.

People, I'll tell you that Cass isn't kidding about hiding the receipts. She has set the standard very, very high.

Cass, you are aweomse... in so many ways. :)

Well I am not so awesome at getting big name bloggers to link to us.

But I did fool a certain Professym into putting a button on his site! Heh... bloody fascist.

Yes it is a touching photo. And yes, I'm certain the Marines in Iraq, for the most part, believe they are their for good. The military takes orders and does what it is asked.

That makes it all the more tragic that they are there under false pretenses and positioned in a untenable situation by civlian leadership who never were in the military, nor fought a war. Yes, save the people of Iraq....and save our brave soldiers who shouldn't be doing the dirty work of idealogues. This election was a referendum on this abyss. I hope both the soldier and the child he's holding get to safety soon.

Miguel,
There were no 'false pretenses.' That is an oxymoron anyway. And yes, the military takes orders and does what it is asked, but you seem to forget something: The little girl would most likely have been left to die, whether we were there or not.

One other thing: Our military strives daily to do the right thing and this is one of those things. No commander or supervisor is going to tell that SFC he had to hold that angel, he is doing it for all the right reasons and then some.
No false pretenses there.

And I couldn't see the number of rockers under the chevron; no one ordered that MSGT to do it.
Period.

Newsflash, Cricket...100,000 or more men, women and children have died from our bombing and armaments, as well as insurgent violence since we arrived in Iraq. It is very precious that this child is saved, but misrepresentative of our actions in Iraq. Checkout any website, civilian or government measuring the devastation in Iraq, and they will estimate slightly lower or considerably higher than this number. Saving one among many that have died is noble. Killing one, accidental or otherwise, in the name of this so-called Operation Iraqi Freedom, is ignoble.

Newsflash, Miguel.

You're in enemy territory here, son. And I *do* mean "son"... because anyone infantile enough to come here, on THIS POST, and spew hatred about how our troops have been duped into this war, that they and their families don't know the truth.. is inexcusable. You have NO idea what you're talking about, or who you're talking to.
I don't normally feed trolls, but you need a smackdown.

Go away. Kos has a place for you, I'm sure... but not here. Not on this post.

And if you decide to stay.. put your money where your mouth is and pony up some cash for Valour-IT. After all, if you're going to trash the place with your hatred, you can at least help clean up your mess.

Miguel, you really are an ass in the world.

Just ignore him AFS. He is just getting you riled up. Getting mad at an idiot wastes your time and doesn't bother the idiot: ergo, waste of time. Let it go.

It makes no difference whether an engineer "believes" he is good at building bridges Miguel. It matters whether or not his calculations are correct and whether he is competent. Likewise, many Presidents who were brilliant leaders and statement led this nation in war yet were never in the military. Their lack of military experience had absolutely NOTHING to do with the war.

That is a red herring and you know it. The war exists, independent of the military experience of the civilian leadership (who, after all, have been empowered by the Constitution to oversee the military).

I just got back from the Professym's site. There it was, under the 9/11 report he is reading.

Miguel, just for laughs and giggles, try to read through a post before you knee jerk. The insurgents prey on the Iraqis who want something better. They have a chance, literally a fighting chance to have something that no other country in the ME has...a democracy. You truly do not understand even the nature of the insurgents. Here is another newsflash; the insurgency is not made up entirely of Iraqis, but Arabs, Syrians and Iranians. They are killing their own religionists who know that it can be better.

Under Saddam, children like her were jailed, tortured and killed just for the crime of being related to their parents. I repeat, she would have been left to die. And it would not have mattered about her family's death, our presence in Iraq...her family was marked and that was the end of it.

Her life was spared. And what it comes down to in a way is the way we treat the so called 'enemy.' We do not make war on women and children, but the insurgents do. They hide behind them knowing we will not fire upon them because of it.

So get off your self righteous high horse before you get kicked in the head.

What I want to know is how Miguel's life has removed the causes of war?

HOW CAN HE LIVE WITH HIMSELF?

Anyway, shame on you Cricket. Uday just shaved those young girls' heads so they would be cooler in the summer heat after he threw them out in the street. So caring.

Killing one is ignoble in the cause of freedom.
Anyone hear the Founders spinning in their graves?

Miguel, you have uttered some nonsense but that takes the cake. I take it you are pro choice?
Cause if you are, then those who volunteered made the choice to follow their orders and kill the enemies who would deny others the right to choose, even to kill emryos and fetuses.

Sayonara.

*hangs head in shame*

Whatever happened to the diaries of Oogalay Hussein? I used to read them for inspiration.
As well as laughs and giggles.

Oh come on Cricket, you know the Revolutionaries never killed any Brits. They just kinda tagged them and the Brits obliged by considering themselves "out".

I remember now. When the Engineer was doing BCT,
he told me about that...how we learned about counting coup from the Native Americans and then the OCs from Phrance told the Brits they lost.
Of course the war was speeded up when MILES gear was issued to both sides...

Plenty of military families who disagree with you all on this matter of Iraq. I reread my note to this post and didn't sense, nor imply, any hatred. Any hatred read by the reader was self-inflicted. This isn't about hatred...this isn't about being anti-military. This is about a lack of truthfulness which this administration used for committing our country to this fiasco.

I truly feel for every soldier and family who has too endure this thing. We can talk all day about Uday, Saddam and any other despot who we formerly supported. Those weren't the reasons we went into Iraq. Please read any document or 9-11 Report as it pertains to this war.

I know I've stepped into Illogical Land when the subject of Pro-choice/pro-life is juxtaposed against an illegitimate war. Please stay on one ideological horse at time. Especially when that is the topic.

It's wonderful that you all support the troops in Iraq. I have as well, sending money to funds that support families who've lost one of the 2,800 some soldiers in Iraq. It's seems that would be a major reason to get these people out to some degree....to not let them get killed for something which was fabricated. Please, nothing about freedom. We weren't thinking about the freedom of the Iraqi people when Don Rumsfeld met with Hussein in 1986....or when we didn't finish things in 1991 when the Gulf War was coming to a close....or when we bombed the country for over eight years under GHWB and Clinton.....or when GW stood on the deck of the Abraham Lincoln under "Mission Accomplished".

As you've seen from my post, I blame the leadership. The civilian leadership that caused this to happen. The soldiers are caught in the middle. That is unexceptable to me.

You brought up the Sanctity Of Life. If it is immoral to kill for the sake of freedom, it is immoral to kill on any grounds. Do not infer or imply by any means that the two are mutually exclusive. The fundamental right to choose
is protected. Else why raise the hue and cry over rights, period?

And the NYT actually published a piece on how close Saddam was to getting a nuclear weapon.
Dared to chide the Bush administration for not classifying that document! Bush didn't lie.

And Oogalay Hussein is not a real person. He is a figment of a blogger's imagination. Google the 'Diaries of Oogalay Hussein.'

DILLIGAS about what is unacceptable to you Miguel. ESAD boyo. Or do all a favor. Take a quick ride over a bridge with your master Ted K.

LtCol USMC, I'm sorry I don't understand what DILLIGAS is. I do understand what ESAD is. I am tickled when assumptions are made about what I said or didn't say. If "Cricket" is implying my mention of 100,000 dead Iraqis as a sanctity of life issue, therefore we invoke the issue of abortion, wow that is some twisted logic. And I never said this was killing in the name of freedom. Those are your words. My reference was one of irony, which is apparently lost on this site.

Freedom is the double-speak used by those who hookdwinked everyone on Iraq. And with all due respect Lt., if generals in most branches of the military are speaking out about this thing and you think its a good thing, maybe you've already drove off the wrong bridge. Machismo and crudety aside, you might want to take a look at military history. I"m sure you learned much about that at Quantico. WAs that Ted Kacyinski?

So what are you all saying now that Bush is changing his tune? Rumsfeld fired for the very reasons I've mentioned. Listen to the generals. Bush is now concillatory. How will you all feel when "Operation Iraqi Freedom" becomes a tactical and prolonged extraction along with a turnover to the Iraqis who are ill prepared for the outcome? By every measurement, the leadership of this administration has failed its soldiers and its citizens. Why all the anger, Lt., when I've supported the troops in my comments and criticized the Pres? Your cussing at the wrong guy.

Miguel, the name of this 'action' is Operation Iraqi FREEDOM. People are gonna get killed, hurt or maimed to free others. You said it was ignoble to kill one in the name of OIF. YOUR WORDS, NOT MINE.

If it is ignoble to kill in the name of freedom, it is dastardly to kill for any lesser reason, abortion included. There is NO reason to abort unless there is a need to protect the mother and the consequence is abortion.

I do not want to hijack this thread, but you can't talk about the sanctity of life in a war
as though just by talking we can work things out
IT WON'T HAPPEN with talking. The terrorists don't want to LISTEN. And neither do you.

I am not responding to you any more.

Wah, wah...take my ball and go home. You would have flunked jr. high debate. The difference is you are deluded into thinking the name is synonymous with the action. "People are gonna get killed".....you implied I thought it was for freedom. Its double speak sweaty. And it is ignoble. It's all over the place. George Carlin did a bit on oxymorons years ago which is apropos here.

"If it is ignoble to kill in the name of freedom, it is dastardly to kill for any lesser reason, abortion included." Funny, you've stated you are pro-life, and yet in view of this premise, you think its okay to kill Iraqis and military men and women in the name of this debacle. Now you might want to pray to your maker on that one. Seems you are the one deeming which life is sanctified, and which is not, not me.

Love the typical reductionist reasoning when one loses their cool. Since I won't listen, and terrorists won't listen to your logic, then I'm a terrorist. Wow! Bravo. Do you remember that the terrorists were originally in Afghanistan, not Iraq. Remember, no connection has been shown nor proven. So we left Afghanistan to go to Iraq. We had a chance to do something noble in Afghanistan. See? Get it now? Original idea for War on Terror. Good. Iraq. Bad. It really is that simple.