the simple historical fact is that those places that America choses to garrison prosper. So I’m in no hurry to “bring the troops home”. Judcar has this right. We won in Germany and stayed. We won in Japan and stayed. We fought to a standstill in Korea, and stayed.
We’re winning in Iraq, and we’ll stay. And the region will be better for it. Vlad has a hard time with this, as do most liberals. The liberals seem to associate the American military will all that is evil in the world, yet our military has been a massive force for good on this planet.
it is such a shame that hateful people like Vlad can’t get over themselves long enough to look at things differently. How sad. Such a pity.
Uhm, how about when the freely elected Iraqi government tells us we are no longer needed?
So you admit that your main goal is just to get more Americans killed?
No, vlad, my main goal in winning the Iraqi front in this GWOT is to prevent the genocide of thousands of innocent Iraqi men, women, and children and support a fledgling democracy and ally in the heart of the Middle East.
the simple historical fact is that those places that America choses to garrison prosper. So I’m in no hurry to “bring the troops home”. Judcar has this right. We won in Germany and stayed. We won in Japan and stayed. We fought to a standstill in Korea, and stayed.
We’re winning in Iraq, and we’ll stay. And the region will be better for it. Vlad has a hard time with this, as do most liberals. The liberals seem to associate the American military will all that is evil in the world, yet our military has been a massive force for good on this planet.
it is such a shame that hateful people like Vlad can’t get over themselves long enough to look at things differently. How sad. Such a pity.
Did you know that the Green Revolution which has resulted in millions of people no longer starving to death had its origins in our occupation of Japan?
T. Paine, seriously, are you pulling my leg? Because I’m starting to think that you’re perfectly OK with dead puppies.
That’s not a denial.
A precipitous date-certain withdrawl that leads to the mass slaughter of thousands of Iraqis is a very real possibility that leftists like you don’t seem to care about, much less discuss.
If BHO is elected POTUS, he may go down in history as the greatest mass murderer of this century if he follows through on his promise to surrender Iraq to the Islamists.
yes, Judcar, I read your post about rice. It was interesting. Here’s a story about our agricultural efforts in Iraq:
Farmer Joe” Honan, US Navy Agriculture Specialist.
You know how I said last update that I worked well with the General’s staff on the sheep feed program? Well because of my sins I have been given a second “hat” as the Multinational Forces West Civil Affairs Office Agriculture representative. That’s right, they asked me stay on the General’s staff to do farming. The good news is that I’ve managed to extend myself past sheep and now have visited poultry and fish farms. Its up to the big leagues once I get to see the dairy cows.
To help, the Marines gave me a Gunnery Sergeant. A good man typical of the breed. We met and he said “Sir I don’t know why I have this job, I wanted to run convoys but they said since I grew up on a farm in Michigan I had to do agriculture. I didn’t learn anything as a kid, I just did heavy labor, and spent most of time trying to get out of that!”
I just smiled and said “Gunny, you and me are going to get along just fine.” We have a great officer/NCO relationship. I think big strategic thoughts and he stands on people’s necks until it happens.
Seriously though I don’t think that I’m missing anything because I don’t have an agricultural degree. The issues hare are pretty straightforward. The know how to farm, and most have some type of AG Degree, but the infrastructure here is about thirty years out of date. Some was destroyed in the fighting, some through neglect by the government which in the heavily centralized Saddam era was the only group to do it. The big issue is that power has been disrupted, so there is no electricity for the irrigation pumps or fuel for the generators in the poultry hatcheries. Farmers have been staying afloat by selling livestock or bits of equipment, making the problems worse.
here;s the addy:http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/update_3_from_t.html
What I find soooo frustrating is the simplistic negativity of the anti victory folks. I remember when the American left stood for “progress” I guess those days are gone for good. So here we are, fighting and helping in Iraq and all the Vlads of the world can do is whine.
It is just so tiresome. Honestly these guys should really, as they say, “dig themselves”
OK, fine, the jihadists admit defeat, violence is down, political reconciliation is moving forward, oil production is up . . .
When can our troops come home?
(Laughter)
When are our troops that Clinton put in Kosovo 10 years ago coming home, Vlad? He said they would be home “by Christmas”. He’s an unusually good liar, you know. Bob Kerrey told me so.
(OK, class, now Vlad will immediately ask me if I “support” the troops in Kosovo. Not biting.)
Our opponents in Japan admitted defeat in 1945, and even signed surrender documents. But some of our troops are still there.
Likewise, many of our troops came home after we liberated Germany and Europe, but we still have troops there too.
More recently, we liberated Kuwait in 1991, and Iraq accepted-and signed-our cease-fire terms. We still have troops there, too.
What is it that scares you so much about us leaving troops in this one particular country? Something in the water there?
Keeping American troops forward deployed is in our national interest, especially in a bad neighborhoods like the Middle East (which also happens to sit on top of a lot of the oil that runs Western Civilization).
The only problem comes in supporting them there. That can get kind of dicey if we get…
#1. A lightweight, Leftist President by the name of Obama
#2. The Jihadists manage to trash our economy by detonating a number of nukes in our cities.
#3. Or all of the above.
I’m an optimistic kind of person, but I have a feeling we are headed for #3.
yes, Judcar, I read your post about rice. It was interesting. Here’s a story about our agricultural efforts in Iraq:
Farmer Joe” Honan, US Navy Agriculture Specialist.
You know how I said last update that I worked well with the General’s staff on the sheep feed program? Well because of my sins I have been given a second “hat” as the Multinational Forces West Civil Affairs Office Agriculture representative. That’s right, they asked me stay on the General’s staff to do farming. The good news is that I’ve managed to extend myself past sheep and now have visited poultry and fish farms. Its up to the big leagues once I get to see the dairy cows.
To help, the Marines gave me a Gunnery Sergeant. A good man typical of the breed. We met and he said “Sir I don’t know why I have this job, I wanted to run convoys but they said since I grew up on a farm in Michigan I had to do agriculture. I didn’t learn anything as a kid, I just did heavy labor, and spent most of time trying to get out of that!”
I just smiled and said “Gunny, you and me are going to get along just fine.” We have a great officer/NCO relationship. I think big strategic thoughts and he stands on people’s necks until it happens.
Seriously though I don’t think that I’m missing anything because I don’t have an agricultural degree. The issues hare are pretty straightforward. The know how to farm, and most have some type of AG Degree, but the infrastructure here is about thirty years out of date. Some was destroyed in the fighting, some through neglect by the government which in the heavily centralized Saddam era was the only group to do it. The big issue is that power has been disrupted, so there is no electricity for the irrigation pumps or fuel for the generators in the poultry hatcheries. Farmers have been staying afloat by selling livestock or bits of equipment, making the problems worse.
here;s the addy:http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/update_3_from_t.html
What I find soooo frustrating is the simplistic negativity of the anti victory folks. I remember when the American left stood for “progress” I guess those days are gone for good. So here we are, fighting and helping in Iraq and all the Vlads of the world can do is whine.
It is just so tiresome. Honestly these guys should really, as they say, “dig themselves”
Wouldn’t it be nice if all the great humanitarians on the Left said, “You know, the Iraqi people have suffered a lot. Let’s pull together and have some aid concerts and other fund raisers and help them through this. We have a chance to make a difference in the lives of 25 million people.”
Shoot, I must be thinking wrong. I thought that after you won the war, the troops got to go home.
Guess I am just no used to the new math, lets see, the troops may come home in ten years or maybe a 100 years. How about we just get all the girls with child, leave uniforms and send the troops home and let the Iraqi/amercans who are living there take over and we just send over money?
Shoot, I must be thinking wrong. I thought that after you won the war, the troops got to go home.
Guess I am just no used to the new math, lets see, the troops may come home in ten years or maybe a 100 years. How about we just get all the girls with child, leave uniforms and send the troops home and let the Iraqi/amercans
and the babies are all grown up, and now living there take over and we just send over money?
Would that work?
How about when Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Jack Murtha, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and any other person you call your leaders say the same words: “jihadists admit defeat, violence is down, political reconciliation is moving forward, oil production is up” as well as “we were wrong to admit the war is lost.” “We were wrong to try to end this war before al Qaeda was defeated there. We admit that if we had gotten our way and ended the war in early 2007 that it would have meant a major victory in Iraq for al Qaeda and we’d be well on our way to seeing a new powerful, jihadist caliphate rise up, hell-bent on reigning terror on the US. By failing to stop the surge, we instead find al Qaeda’s dream of jihad completely crushed. We were wrong. Bush was right. He has likely scored a major victory on the war on terror and we are grateful to him and Dick Cheney for their unwavering leadership in the face of great adversity.”
