Well, as a member of the Air Force, I've had the terrible pleasure of visiting the Middle East on many occasions. Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Afganistan, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE etc. I've been shot at on a few occasions by small arms fire and had some of those bastards on a hill from outside our base launching mortars on our tents, then running away before our security forces could get to them. The way they think is that 1 of their lives is worth 10 American's lives. I know this because I've spoken with many moderate thinking Arab workers on base and they told me this personally. In the Arab world, the man with the biggest stick is the king, point blank, and in order to get them to understand you are serious, you have to basically bitch-slap them regularly.
I guess we have the bigger stick for now. Don't ever feel sorry for me or my military counterparts because we're fighting an unpopular war and get sent away to foreign lands, we raised our right hand and swore to defend the Constitution of the US and to obey the President,
Unfortunately, you are in the unenviable position of obeying a president who
is himself by several accounts violating the Constitution of the US.so help us God, and we will. No different than a fireman or policeman, only difference is, the military are the "defenders of Democracy", however, we're not the "practicers of it." I love my country and our way of life, and I want it for my daughter and her kids. If it takes turning the entire Middle East region into a sheet of fucking glass from dropping a nuclear weapon on their collective asses to stop this terrorist shit, then so be it!
Yes, there were folks like that who were advocating using nuclear weapons against China and Vietnam 35 years ago. Today we're peddling Kentucky Fried Chicken in both countries. What political objectives do you really think can be achieved with such extreme measures as the use of nuclear weapons? It's a case of Social Darwinism,
Speaking of social Darwinism, the self-deluding arrogance of the Bush administration may well lead eventually to much diminished US power in both Asia
and the Middle East. Other important things are going on in the world while the US is involved in the quagmire of military adventurism in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Soviet war in Afghanistan was certainly a factor in bringing down the Soviet Union. And Bush is not raising taxes to finance and "support" the troops. But coming generations of US taxpayers will be paying the trillions of dollars of war related costs. BTW, we skipped out on having to pay the remediation costs in Vietnam after that similar debacle. (Self-interest can sometimes be involved in losing.)and in the end, every Arab who dons a Pizza Hut table cloth on their head, wearing a belt ladened with C-4 exposives, deserves to meet Ala before they carry out their dirty deeds. Until you've been there and seen what you're military has seen, the looks of happiness on the Iraqi childrens' faces, reconstruction, schools, markets, and most of all, FREE SPEECH that they'd NEVER had before, you can't speak.
[SIZE=7][COLOR=red]Sorry, but we can, and do speak, and I know veterans who
don't share your view of the situation in that region in its totality. If you believe the press, you're sadly misinformed. Fact is, bad news sells more papers and programs than good news does. I'm sorry to have drawn this out, but I feel our country did what it needed to do after 9/11. Afterall, you don't tip-toe into the lions' den, you kick down the door, have your spear ready, scream like a banshie, and say," Where is that son of a bitch!"
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