Soldier dies, sad

[pastorables]

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/ny-li ... rint.story

[EagerBeaver]

This guy's case, while sad, is just one of many.

Not only are we fighting a war with no clear objective, but our nation's best and brightest are coming back battle-scarred physically, mentally and emotionally.

I don't like it one bit...may God bring healing to EVERYONE involved in this debacle.

[MacUser]

War is man made HELL.

A close friend of mine deals with anger issues as he was in both the first and second gulf war. When he first came back from the first Gulf War 1.. his body sweated out the drugs they injected to protect him for months afterward. I mean his bed sheets would be chocolate brown as he would burst into sweat during the night. He even shared that he successfully avoided a few of the booster shots during that first trip. As a result he can rarely sleep without medical aid (sleep drugs etc)

These heros deal with these issues every day after they come home. This is why.. I'm so extremely proud and honor the men that volunteered to defend my family and nation.

God Bless

[Dr. Ron]

While each man's death dimishes me, I cannot quantify this death or that of any soldier in a volunteer military as "having no clear objective" or any of that left wing rhetoric.

Bev, I know you served there, and I thank you for your time videoing and whatever your duty was. It is extremely hard for me to think you went there and didn't see the point....and yet I talk with troops all the time who are glad to have fought, had clear understanding of the objective and are proud of their service.

I have one friend who was Special Forces who lost a leg/....came home to find his wife living with his best friend and his truck had been sold so his wife and bf could go to Vegas.

He says the experience taught him many things about life and what is good about it.

I don't know how you have come to the "debacle " conclusion unless you were embedded with a bunch of liberal newspeople while there.

My son certainly understands the objective and has already volunteered to return.

I'm sorry but this is a little bit of a sore spot to me.....you are not doing due diligence to your research of the issues.

[EagerBeaver]

So if Iraq has an objective, then what was Vietnam?

[Dr. Ron]

If you can even remotely compare Vietnam to Iraq it assures me you have no concept of military history........or world history for that matter.

I am rather appalled that you were in MY AIR FORCE and don't know about this stuff..........were you totally under a rock?

To compare the two conflicts is like trying to compare light and dark.

I have lived through both and I know something of this. While I was not given the opportunity to serve in VN ( I volunteered) I do know that this war is completely different...........and only uses volunteers....not conscripts.

We also have an intelligent CIC.........not some democrate dolt.

If "wild Bill Clinton " had done his job properly there would likely not have been a need for this war...........

[EagerBeaver]

If you can even remotely compare Vietnam to Iraq it assures me you have no concept of military history........or world history for that matter.

I am rather appalled that you were in MY AIR FORCE and don't know about this stuff..........were you totally under a rock?

To compare the two conflicts is like trying to compare light and dark.

I have lived through both and I know something of this. While I was not given the opportunity to serve in VN ( I volunteered) I do know that this war is completely different...........and only uses volunteers....not conscripts.

We also have an intelligent CIC.........not some democrate dolt.

If "wild Bill Clinton " had done his job properly there would likely not have been a need for this war...........

No I wasn't under a rock, but I was in Iraq. Pun based on pronunciation completely intended.

Seriously, what is the objective in this war? We are told to stay the course but for what?

We had a very tough time in Iraq...at least the broadcast detachment I was embedded with. Our commanders kept telling us "stay the course, stay the course." Stay what course? Saddam is now gone, so why are we there? To dodge bombs and babysit infighting Iraqis, rebuilding their infrastructure with tax dollars that should be used to rebuild ours???

I'm proud of my service and I'm proud of the job I (emphasis on I) did when I was in Iraq. I don't agree with an aimless, borderline illegal war though. We should have left Iraq alone in the first place, we had no exit strategy then and we still have none.

[TC]

To put it simply we are trying to liberate Iraq (and its neighbors) from the radical Muslim extremists that have dominated that part of the world for years. It is in our best interest to stabilize Iraq so we can use that foot hold in case we need that to protect us and our friends if needed.

While I agree this is not a quick process, remember we did not get to be the best country in the world over night…or a few years. And I can see us with a fairly large footprint for at least 20 years. I think the “stay the course” had a lot to do with the PR of telling the Iraqi people that “we will not run and leave you alone and unprotected.”

[Mike Vande]

Not only are we fighting a war with no clear objective, but our nation's best and brightest are coming back battle-scarred physically, mentally and emotionally.

This absolutely kills me. How else do men come back from war? Are they supposed to come back suntanned and relaxed from the healing effects of mortal combat? If, in anyone's irrelevant opinion, this was a "just war", the best and brightest of our nation would still be coming back scarred and damaged and messed up.

By the way, we do have a clear objective in Iraq. It is to establish a vital and active democracy in the Middle East to balance out the extremist Islamics in the region and eventually bring about the demise of radical Islamist governments. President Bush told everyone plainly and clearly when we got into this deal that there was no quick fix, that this conflict was likely to outlast his Presidency, and the important thing is to get the job done right, not quick. Lives are lost in the struggle to establish democracy in a place it has never existed before.. The Tree of Liberty must, from time to time, be watered with the blood of patriots. Anyone who is really looking can see that we can't just take our bat & ball and go home, not unless we want to be beck over there in four or five years with no one who trusts us at all because we cut and ran and left them holding the bag, or even worse, be fighting them off over here in ten.

America, in the end, is going to go out the way Rome did, not with a bang but a complacent whimper, done in by it's own selfish refusal to do anything but keep living La Dolce Vita. We will bring ourselves down ,and simpering twits who mindlessly scream "end the war now, no matter the cost!" are only proving it.

You've been listening to too many Democrat campaign speeches, Beav. They have to make things look bad in order to get elected. Frankly, I wish it was as simple as you make it out to be, but I really believe you are gonna end up with sincere and profound regrets it if you get what you want...

[Pastor Gary]

You've been listening to too many Democrat campaign speeches, Beav. They have to make things look bad in order to get elected. Frankly, I wish it was as simple as you make it out to be, but I really believe you are gonna end up with sincere and profound regrets it if you get what you want...

The younger people who lack the perspective of years are buying the Obama PR blitz hook, line and sinker and America will learn some very, very hard lessons if they elect him.

[Dr. Ron]

Bev, If you review history, we have never left any place that we have won the war.....

We only left VN because we Lost or rather "bugged out"./

All the wars we fought were unjust.......we were attacked...that makes it unjust for us.

But we are still in Germany after 60 plus years.....still in Japan, South Korea, and may I remind everyone of Kosevo..........we will still be there as long as there is an american military. Where ever we do leave, hostility and human rights become null.

Try the Phillipines for example......being totally over run by radical islam.

We needed a base of operations in the middle east anyway. The base at Rihad , SA, was on lease after WW2 and the Lease is up and they want us out of there..........which we virtually are.

We OWN the base in Bagdad....we will never leave there. It is far to important to our National Security and that of Isreal. My Lord, son, you were there and you still buy that claptrap of Obama????

He has an agenda to assist with the propogation of Islam........whether you believe it or not.....He is a very evil intentioned man......

He has already stated that this country is no longer a christian nation that we are a nation of Christian Jews and Muslims. He is promoting that heavily.

We had better wake up to this very quickly or you don't want to know how hard your life is about to become if he is elected.

[EagerBeaver]

I will address many of the finer points later, but namely Dr Ron and Vande, may I kindly ask that you guys not lump me in with Obama or the Democrat Party viewpoint. I served over in Iraq and I am forming my own opinions based on what I personally saw, not one force fed to me by the Dems or the GOP.

Thank you.

[Dr. Ron]

Bev, as I have said before, I certainly appreciate your service and admire you for being there. Wish I could go......they say I'm too old and my knees won't stand the strain.

Please also realize that you were there, but you were (no offense intended) enlisted and in a very specific mos.

You did not have the full information that those who are entrusted to prosecute this war have. Nor should you have. You agreed in your swearing in, to obey the commands of those officers under whose command you were placed. That is what soldiers, sailor, and airmen do.

Do I have all the information? Of course not. But in the words of PG, I do have a perspective beyond your years.....even though you were in Iraq.

You are among only a handful that I have talked with who doesn't see this as a very spiritual war. My little soldiers here talk often and openly about fighting against spiritual darkness while they are in the middle of firefights. One story I was given was of angelic hosts protecting the men of a small SF unit. He said. We couldn't miss and they couldn't hit. We were out numbered 10 to 1. But we felt the presense of the HOLY SPIRIT and were praising the name of our Lord for safety.

Foxhole talk? Maybe....but trust me....you are in a very small minority of those who return who didn't see the point.

I will honor your request not to "lump you" in with those you described as long as your rhetoric doesn't support their PR>

[EagerBeaver]

Bev, as I have said before, I certainly appreciate your service and admire you for being there. Wish I could go......they say I'm too old and my knees won't stand the strain.

Please also realize that you were there, but you were (no offense intended) enlisted and in a very specific mos.

You did not have the full information that those who are entrusted to prosecute this war have. Nor should you have. You agreed in your swearing in, to obey the commands of those officers under whose command you were placed. That is what soldiers, sailor, and airmen do.

Do I have all the information? Of course not. But in the words of PG, I do have a perspective beyond your years.....even though you were in Iraq.

You are among only a handful that I have talked with who doesn't see this as a very spiritual war. My little soldiers here talk often and openly about fighting against spiritual darkness while they are in the middle of firefights. One story I was given was of angelic hosts protecting the men of a small SF unit. He said. We couldn't miss and they couldn't hit. We were out numbered 10 to 1. But we felt the presense of the HOLY SPIRIT and were praising the name of our Lord for safety.

Foxhole talk? Maybe....but trust me....you are in a very small minority of those who return who didn't see the point.

I will honor your request not to "lump you" in with those you described as long as your rhetoric doesn't support their PR>

Oh I see the spiritual aspect behind it. Our nation's leaders will never admit it but we're fighting Islam.

We're trying to mask it as something else but we're failing to do so. That's it.

I do have a personal story about the Lord's hand on me during an attack on a convoy I was riding with. PM me sometime if you want to hear it.

[Pastor Gary]

Oh I see the spiritual aspect behind it. Our nation's leaders will never admit it but we're fighting Islam.

And, knowing that, you propose we surrender and retreat?

As for the issue of war casualties -- always tragic -- you are aware, are you not, that electing a Democrat to the White House is no guarantee of an end to military casualties... or even a REDUCTION of casualties.

More U.S. Military personnel died during the Clinton Presidency than during the G.W. Bush Presidency.

Clinton years (1993-2000): 14,107 military deaths
George W. Bush years (2001-2007): 7,932 military deaths

Source: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf

NOTE: I am double-checking this source and the date, as someone has pointed out to me that they used a calculator and didn't arrive at the same numbers/totals. Stand by.