OT: Letters, journals, and blogs from soldiers in Iraq

[bodhitree]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/25/us/25dead.web.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp


4,000 American soldiers dead. It's certainly a sad time. God bless those who serve. God bless the families of those who serve. God bless the innocent civilians in Iraq who have been affected by the war.

[sanjuro_ronin]

You know what ****es me off ?

The president of Iran visits Iraq and walks around in broad daylight, in no danger, and the president of the US ??
What a f-n mess.

[David Jamieson]

You know what ****es me off ?

The president of Iran visits Iraq and walks around in broad daylight, in no danger, and the president of the US ??
What a f-n mess.

Truthfully my fellow countryman, do we really care? Our guys are in Afghanistan and our Prime minister cruises around there in a flak jacket in broad daylight and in little danger.

I know for a fact that Steve ain't anything like Azerbhaiis-whatever the heck that guys name is. lol

I think it more odd that people never learned the lesson from vietnam about wars of attrition.

Some things never change I guess.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Truthfully my fellow countryman, do we really care? Our guys are in Afghanistan and our Prime minister cruises around there in a flak jacket in broad daylight and in little danger.

I know for a fact that Steve ain't anything like Azerbhaiis-whatever the heck that guys name is. lol

I think it more odd that people never learned the lesson from vietnam about wars of attrition.

Some things never change I guess.

No, they don't, things(lessons) tend to get loss over time it seems.

[bodhitree]

I certainly think it was quite the foolish move to invade Iraq (bad intelligence, bad leadership, overall stupidity), now we are stuck. Unfortunately we need to try to achieve some sense of stability in that country before withdraw.... or else the consequenses could be felt the whole world over.


Remember, Canada is part of the western world, and luckily has not fallen victime to terror yet. As part of the western world though, it is always possible. Spain, the UK, Kenya, Bali, and many other places wouldn't have thought they would be victims either. Canada is not exempt, even though it made the wise decision to not be involved in Iraq.

If there is instability in Iraq, the whole western world can (and probably will) suffer for it.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Remember, Canada is part of the western world, and luckily has not fallen victime to terror yet. As part of the western world though, it is always possible. Spain, the UK, Kenya, Bali, and many other places wouldn't have thought they would be victims either. Canada is not exempt, even though it made the wise decision to not be involved in Iraq.

Our presence in the Stan may come back to bite us on our butt, this is true.
But the fact that we have not done anything ( up until our presence in Afghanistan) that could be viewed as hostile to the arab world, in fact we protected many muslims ( case in point Bosnia) is probably why we have never DIRECTLY been a target.
We have always maintained diplomatic realtions with most arab countries and never tried to undermine or infulence major politics in that area.

Not really to the extent the US has, we shall see what the future holds.

[bodhitree]

Our presence in the Stan may come back to bite us on our butt, this is true.
But the fact that we have not done anything ( up until our presence in Afghanistan) that could be viewed as hostile to the arab world, in fact we protected many muslims ( case in point Bosnia) is probably why we have never DIRECTLY been a target.
We have always maintained diplomatic realtions with most arab countries and never tried to undermine or infulence major politics in that area.

Not really to the extent the US has, we shall see what the future holds.

except for crusades, what did Spain do to warrant the attacks? I don't think Spain was on board for the war in Iraq? Extreme Islam hates the west, and pretty much anything that's not also extremely Islamic. The hatred is deep, and noone is exempt from being attacked (not even other muslims, case in point Iraq, far more muslims have died from sectarian violence than from US forces).

[sanjuro_ronin]

except for crusades, what did Spain do to warrant the attacks? I don't think Spain was on board for the war in Iraq? Extreme Islam hates the west, and pretty much anything that's not also extremely Islamic. The hatred is deep, and noone is exempt from being attacked (not even other muslims, case in point Iraq, far more muslims have died from sectarian violence than from US forces).

If I recall the Spanish government at the time had supported the war and invasion of Iraq, no?
Silly thing to do in a country with so much ties and history to the muslim world.

[bodhitree]

If I recall the Spanish government at the time had supported the war and invasion of Iraq, no?
Silly thing to do in a country with so much ties and history to the muslim world.


Oh, I'm probably wrong, I didn't think much of western Europe supported the war in Iraq (England being the obvious exception).

[sanjuro_ronin]

I think that, if the US had just bombed their ass back to the stone age and NOT invaded, things would have probably been better, who knows?
Certainly less US lives would have been loss.
Just a horrid situation from the get go.

Personally, i don't know why they are still there, I mean, all the "goals" have been accomplished:

Get rid of Saddam - check
Eliminate the threat of WMD - check ( though they created a new one in Iran).
Establish democratic elections - check
Arm and train democratically elected army - check

Mission accomplished, lets go home.

[bodhitree]

I think that, if the US had just bombed their ass back to the stone age and NOT invaded, things would have probably been better, who knows?
Certainly less US lives would have been loss.
Just a horrid situation from the get go.

Personally, i don't know why they are still there, I mean, all the "goals" have been accomplished:

Get rid of Saddam - check
Eliminate the threat of WMD - check ( though they created a new one in Iran).
Establish democratic elections - check
Arm and train democratically elected army - check

Mission accomplished, lets go home.

The most important thing is stability, oddly enough that was there under Saddam (albeit brutal stability)

[sanjuro_ronin]

The ME has never been "stable".

[David Jamieson]

I certainly think it was quite the foolish move to invade Iraq (bad intelligence, bad leadership, overall stupidity), now we are stuck. Unfortunately we need to try to achieve some sense of stability in that country before withdraw.... or else the consequenses could be felt the whole world over.


Remember, Canada is part of the western world, and luckily has not fallen victime to terror yet. As part of the western world though, it is always possible. Spain, the UK, Kenya, Bali, and many other places wouldn't have thought they would be victims either. Canada is not exempt, even though it made the wise decision to not be involved in Iraq.

If there is instability in Iraq, the whole western world can (and probably will) suffer for it.

we had the FLQ crisis in the 70's and ergo have done our baptism of fire regarding acts of terrorism on Canadian soil. No luck there. Not to mention our fallen in Afghanistan. Or for that matter, the thousands of Afghans and Iraqis who weren't combatants that were killed. far more than the approximately 3000 multi nationals the Saudi terrorists took on 9/11.

[bodhitree]

Speaking of Canada and Islam (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7273870.stm)

[sanjuro_ronin]

Speaking of Canada and Islam (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7273870.stm)

" Canada's Human Rights Act is not an Islamic creation; Jewish and other groups have supported complaints under its speech provisions. "

Such is the tricky slope of free speech and the protection of groups from hate being spewed by individuals and/or groups.

[David Jamieson]

Speaking of McCleans Magazine and Islam (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7273870.stm)

fixed.

123456

[Drake]

I spent a yearlong tour in Iraq (missed the 15 month markup sale, yay!). It sucks. The whole **** country is just plain awful. They need, seriously, to stop blowing crap up.