Keeping Up

I have a little traveling to do. You can keep up on the blogs via Memeorandum, look in on PJM - there's Breitbart for news - and you can also check out the blog roll on my side bar.

Comments

[Fred Beloit]

Here is a military tactic that should not be kept secret.

http://www.grunt.com/images-bs/jun04/skipper-blackjack.jpg

[Worst_President_Ever]

Some more people foryou guys to attack.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/opinion/19jayamaha.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&oref=slogin

To believe that Americans, with an occupying force that long ago outlived its reluctant welcome, can win over a recalcitrant local population and win this counterinsurgency is far-fetched. As responsible infantrymen and noncommissioned officers with the 82nd Airborne Division soon heading back home, we are skeptical of recent press coverage portraying the conflict as increasingly manageable and feel it has neglected the mounting civil, political and social unrest we see every day.

[Fred Beloit]

From the article by "them". "In the end, we need to recognize that our presence may have released Iraqis from the grip of a tyrant, but that it has also robbed them of their self-respect. They will soon realize that the best way to regain dignity is to call us what we are — an army of occupation — and force our withdrawal.

Until that happens, it would be prudent for us to increasingly let Iraqis take center stage in all matters, to come up with a nuanced policy in which we assist them from the margins but let them resolve their differences as they see fit. This suggestion is not meant to be defeatist, but rather to highlight our pursuit of incompatible policies to absurd ends without recognizing the incongruities.

We need not talk about our morale. As committed soldiers, we will see this mission through. "

Thank you so much, you very small number of soldiers and NCOs of the 82nd Airborne. From your tactical experiences in the streets and fields of Iraq you have deduced the strategic situation, the deductions of which have eluded the senior officers of the Army, Marines, and Air Force, the combined intelligence services, and the entire Administration, half the Congress of the United States and journalists/bloggers embedded and otherwise?. May I ask a question? How is it that you men see the truth, whereas all these foolish officials, authorities and elected representatives and others do not? My, my, what very large b--ls your training has provided to you.

Oh, one final note. Populations who allow themselves to be ruled by a tyrant have no self-respect to begin with. Thank you so much for sharing you opinions with the Dem propaganda rag the NYT and with us. Now, how about going back to work and destroying some more of the enemy instead of helping them out with their propaganda, you stupid jerks.

[Fred Beloit]

Dear Worst President Ever, thank you for the opportunity to once again attack the NYT. I wouldn't miss it for the world. Also appreciate the opportunity to attack a few soldiers who seem to have too much time on their hands and who write like candidates for doctorates in English Literature at Yale. Elizabethan society anyone?

It would be the most interesting thing in the world to see how it came about that these wise-beyond-their-years and wiser-than-other-mortals arranged to have their words of wisdom printed in the NYT. Perhaps the NYT would print other differing opinions?

[templar knight]

Perhaps the NYT had best start worrying about the price of their stock, and the severe downturn in advertising revenue and circulation. A logical person would conclude that they had better change directions, or bye-bye. It's a win-win situation for us conservatives.

[Worst_President_Ever]

Thanks for our input General Beloit of the 101st Fighting Keyboarders. I agree with you completely. Just because those soldiers happen to be over there fighting, laying their lives on the line doesn't give them the damn right to question Fox News, Bill Kristol, etc. Obviously, we need more junkets for our elected officials so they can tell us the truth of Iraq and shut these heathens up.

[Fred Beloit]

You were WITHOUT DOUBT one of the Lefties her who was recently in favor of the muzzling of an Army Sergeant by a bullyboy koskid recently. Now you are suddenly a big fan of a few Army Sergeants who want to make strategic decisions for the country. Please stop acting like a complete nitwit. You will never make it. No one is quite a complete anything.

[Worst_President_Ever]

Fred: Your last post is pretty much incomprehensible.

Anyone that isn't a cheerleader for our Iraq policies are immediately attaacked by Fred, Templer, et al., even when they're on the ground actually fighting the damn war. Fred pounds out a few attack posts dissing those soldier's opinions and calls them jerks. But he'll take every opportunity to smear liberals for not supporting our troops.

Come on Fred, support our troops!

[Worst_President_Ever]

Fred writes: "From your tactical experiences in the streets and fields of Iraq you have deduced the strategic situation, the deductions of which have eluded the senior officers of the Army, Marines, and Air Force, the combined intelligence services, and the entire Administration, half the Congress of the United States and journalists/bloggers embedded and otherwise?."

Those guys have really done a great job. I'm trying to think of something to do with Iraq they were actually right about.

So if the choice of who to believe is between a bunch of grunts out fighting the war or the desk jockeys who got us into this mess, I'll take the grunts.

[Fred Beloit]

Worst Ever, I admit to making some mistakes in my comments. But if you want a few Sergeants to decide what our nation's war and defense strategies should be, you might be wise to move to a country that soldiers already rule over. In the United States, we have an elected government that oversees and commands the military.

As an alternative. I suppose you could run for office yourself and, if elected, you could work to change our Constitution, do away with the Defense Dept, change presidential powers, etc. And you could work to get your five or so favorite Sergeants from the 82nd to take over Commander-in-Chief duties, or have the NYT pick them out, as they seem to have done in this case.

You may have found my comment pretty much incomprehensible, though you seem to have gotten the gist more or less, but I found your comments untruthful. You imply that this article opened your eyes to the fact this war is a mess (as opposed to all those other ones that were neat and tidy). This is what you wrote: "So if the choice of who to believe is between a bunch of grunts out fighting the war or the desk jockeys who got us into this mess, I'll take the grunts." But that is not true. These soldiers did not show you the war is wrong, you always believed this.

You are untruthful in another way as well. I was quite careful about one thing, singling out these few troops, yet you urge me to "support our troops". I do support them. It is you who support only troops like these, John Kerry-type troops. These are by no means the only Kerry-like troops. Whoever they are and however few they are, I'm sure you support them all. It is the others whom you do not support.

[templar knight]

Fred, you are absolutely right, the only troops these jerks have ever supported are the ones like Scott Beauchamp, liberal douchebags who entered the military because they were incapable of doing anything productive. Why the military would take them is beyond me, as LIAR is written all over them, just like the sniveling liar who posts under Worst President Ever.

Every one of them has a degree in Whineology, with the aforementioned Worst President Ever having a doctorate. Or journalism, same damn thing. They are the sorriest bunch of know nothings and do nothings who have ever inhabited these United States. Frankly, I'm sick of their crap.

[Fred Beloit]

Whineology yes or gripeology, another favorite. I also smell a rat concerning Worst Ever. Perhaps I'm getting spooked because there are so many sock puppets here, but I think Worst is a size 10.

[Worst_President_Ever]

Total BS. We ALL support the troops.

No, we should not turn the role of governing over to the military. That's not what the article's about. They're writing about what they live through every day. They deserve to be heard, and their arguments considered just as strongly as those mental midgets who've been running the war. You might try to break out of your concrete-enclosed mindset and think about what it means if they're right.

Hey Templar, I'm sick of morons that get us into useless wars. Thousands dead. A trillion $ spent and no end or progress in site. If that shoe fits you, so be it.

John Kerry went to war and served honorably. That's more balls than George Where's the Bar Bush or Dick Five Deferments Cheney had.

[Fred Beloit]

Oh what a kind and humanitarian sock puppet is Worst Ever. It all still comes down to BDS. You gave the game away with this : "

[Fred Beloit]

Sorry for the jump folks. This is what I was referring to: "That's more balls than George Where's the Bar Bush or Dick Five Deferments Cheney had." So honorable service in a war is a Kennedy family friend who when he goes home tells the Congress that he himself and every American military person in Vietnam is a war criminal and commits a war crime on a daily basis. This is your hero, huh? See a head doctor immediately for advanced BDS. "John Kerry went to war and served honorably." Sure, "honorably", sure.

[Worst_President_Ever]

Hey Fred, when was the last time your were right about anything on Iraq?

Pick the REAL Patriot:

Dick Cheney says: "I had other priorities in the 60's than military service."

George Bush gets bumped to the head of the National Guard line - also known as Get Out of Viet Nam free - goes to Texas and disappears into the bars

John Kerry enlists voluntarily, goes to Viet Nam, risks his life and is decorated for his service.

[Fred Beloit]

The very first words I ever heard from an Army First Sergeant were these: "We're gonna have a formation at 1730 this evenin'. Ever swangin' richard gon be thar."

Times change. From a few, just a few, of the 82nd Airborne NCOs we now have this: "it would be prudent for us to increasingly let Iraqis take center stage in all matters, to come up with a nuanced policy in which we assist them from the margins but let them resolve their differences as they see fit. This suggestion is not meant to be defeatist, but rather to highlight our pursuit of incompatible policies to absurd ends without recognizing the incongruities."

Well rootie f'n tootie. Are these Army NCOs or NYT copy editors who write like this, I wonder? May I once again remind readers here of the mission of a military unit like the 82nd? "To close with and destroy the enemy and/or their will to resist." Find any "nuances" or "from the margins" in this mission statement?

[Fred Beloit]

"John Kerry enlists voluntarily, goes to Viet Nam, risks his life and is decorated for his service." Then he comes home and tells Congress that every soldier, sailor, and marine in Vietnam, including he himself when he was there, commits war crimes on a daily basis. Doesn't the Congress give out medals for assertions like this? I'm am really concerned about your mental state, Worst Ever. I suspect a perhaps terminal case of BDS.

[Fred Beloit]

"Hey Fred, when was the last time your were right about anything on Iraq?" Well, since you asked, Worst Ever, I guess it was the last time I said the enemy has not one victory to show for its efforts and that it appeared were were winning. But then I've been saying that for many months.

[Worst_President_Ever]

Fred doesn't like what Kerry said so he slanders a decorated veteran who volunteered to serve our country. Then he'll turn around and defend the draft-dodging actions of Bush and Cheney. Attack the hero, defend the draft-dodgers. Some patriot.

Fred, still clueless about what's going on in Iraq. There's no uniformed army out there to have pitched battles with. Or that can surrender to us. The Iraqi soldier standing next to you during the day may be out to kill you at night. Something like 2/3s of American deaths arm from IEDs. We're referring a civil war.

I'm betting Fred believed in WMDs, Saddam's Nuclear Program, that for the past 4 years "we've been making progress", that Al Qaeda and Saddam were allies, that Iraq was part of 9/11, etc. etc. etc. All wrong.

*********************
Iraqi political progress has been "extremely disappointing," the US ambassador in Baghdad said on Tuesday two weeks before he and the top American military commander in Iraq are to report to Congress.

"Progress on national level issues has been extremely disappopinting and frustrating to all concerned... to us, to Iraqis, and to the Iraqi leadership itself," Ryan Crocker told reporters in the Iraqi capital.

[Fred Beloit]

'"Progress on national level issues has been extremely disappopinting[sic] and frustrating to all concerned... to us..." Ryan Crocker told reporters in the Iraqi capital.' Now answer honestly, if that is still possible for a person like you with acute BDS, doesn't this statement EXACTLY, not merely closely, describe your feelings about political progress in the U.S., Worst Ever?

[Fred Beloit]

While you're thinking about how to weasel out of this corner, think about this as well: Why isn't your war hero John Kerry a candidate for the Dem presidency?

[Worst_President_Ever]

Because Kerry was a lousy candidate. That doesn't detract from the fact he volunteered for Viet Nam when Bush and Cheney did everything they could to avoid it. And then jerks like you slander him but support the draft dodgers.

And now you're trying to do the same to the Iraq Soldiers that wrote the Times Op/Ed because they don't agree with you brain-dead view of Iraq.

It ain't just me, most of the country thinks Bush sucks.

http://www.pollingreport.com/BushJob.htm

*******
Now, though, George W. Bush is in serious contention for the title of worst ever. In early 2004, an informal survey of 415 historians conducted by the nonpartisan History News Network found that eighty-one percent considered the Bush administration a "failure." Among those who called Bush a success, many gave the president high marks only for his ability to mobilize public support and get Congress to go along with what one historian called the administration's "pursuit of disastrous policies." In fact, roughly one in ten of those who called Bush a success was being facetious, rating him only as the best president since Bill Clinton -- a category in which Bush is the only contestant.

[Fred Beloit]

There is at least one tiny thing wrong with your entire argument, Worst Ever Sock Puppet; we are winning. Here's a little reading material for YOU.

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2007/08/shhh-us-winning-iraq-war-military-plans.html

[Worst_President_Ever]

You want to declare victory and go home, it's fine with me. But all the article says is they're making plans to start pulling back in 2008. Ya think next year's election has anything to do with that?

The real things that will drive Washington's decisions are next year's election, the fact we're about out of troops - the Surge pretty much used up all our manpower and those 15 month rotations are going to start coming due. And finally, the American Public absolutely, positively wants out of Iraq. Politicians like to get re-elected. If we don't get out of Iraq, a whole bunch of Republicans are going to lose their jobs.

You really think Rudy / Fred / Mitch and all other Republicans running for election want the war going full throttle during their campaign?

As for the Surge, it hasn't worked. It was supposed to give Maliki breathing room to get his act and the Iraq government functioning. Even the article you link to says the government still isn't working.

And Americans are still dying:

June-July-August 2003: 113 Americans killed
June-July-August 2004: 162 Americans killed
June-July-August 2005: 217 Americans killed
June-July-August 2006: 169 Americans killed
June-July-August 2007: 229 Americans killed (August not over yet)

http://icasualties.org/oif/

[Worst_President_Ever]

And I love the way the article compares casualty rates between wars, as if Iraq isn't really a war because soldiers aren't dying fast enough to make it into the A league. It's just some bush-league contest and we should all stop whining about dead soldiers.

Talk about disrespect for our soldiers in Iraq.