Pretty obvious to me. I’ve got a 12 ga Mossberg. The government has aircraft carriers and space shuttles.
Yeah. You ought to see what a gunship helicopter with night vision and gatling guns can do to a group of armed citizens.
We may have space shuttles, nuclear weapons, and other nifty gadgets, but none of those things have been able to squash the insurgency in Iraq, even though we’re presently throwing $2 billion a week at the problem. I’m afraid that we’re standing next to Tarkin on the Death Star when he says that this is the moment of our greatest triumph.
Arnold was framed for that…
If they were willing to use a death star, there would be no insurgency. 
Space Shuttles? 
What are they going to do, drop a big-ass frozen Deuce on the insurrection?
But that’s the point, isn’t it? We get to see it every goddamned day and it’s making us into pussies.
Some people look at our dwindling Rights and point the finger at a branch of government. But I’ve interviewed dozens of men who think every time our military develops an IED countermeasure another domestic Predator gets its wings. To them, the balance of power is nonexistent and in this US you might as well wipe your ass with the Declaration of Independence.
These are frightening times.
I disagree. If you deliberately surround yourself with people who either share your vision or are just too enamored of getting their third or fourth star to disagree with anything you say, you cannot go around making statements that imply that you are following the recommendations (and have the support of) an objective non-partisan military.
When you say “churn through the fat meat of our military” are you just talking about the generals or the military generally because this war is most certainly reducing the quality of our recruits and they seem to be taking pains to hold onto warm bodies longer than those warm bodies want to hang around.
Considering what I know of Wilhelm, that’s a good comparison in more ways than one.
Okay, now I’m thinking of the “Mission Accomplished” speech where Bush flew onto the aircraft carrier, and Wilhelm encouraging his infantry to be thought of as the Huns as they boarded a train or ship.
Now that is damn scary. I can’t sleep at night because of you, Guin.
This is tremendously insulting to the men and women who have spent their lives working for the honor of a single star, let alone multiples. You have an incomplete or missing understanding of the US Military.
Again. Just because they’re mission-oriented does not negate their objectivity.
No, I’m talking on all levels. It’s high season for house cleaning. And now every Ortiz, Dre, Dyke and Peckerwood are signing up in droves for our new model army.
I know what the slurs “Dykes” and “Peckerwoods” are, but what are “Ortiz” and “Dre”?
“Peckerwood” is not a slur. It is an honorific, thank you very much.
I beg your pardon. I am from a rural Southern area and would take offense.
If it is then the insult comes from their fellow generals. Gen. Eaton raised the point of the senior officers being derelict on Countdown and ascribed it to Rummy hand-picking senior generals by passing them through his sieve. And it was military officers who made exactly the same point in interviews with Woodward for his latest book State of Denial.
I believe the army can only take this for so long. I have no idea how long that is, but as has been mentioned recruitment standards have been progressively lowered so that targets can be hit.
The same units keep rotating through Iraq with no apparent change in the situation they face when they return there.
And now the casualty rate has increased abruptly. Despite all the hoopla about the “greatest generation” the AWOL rate among combat forces in WWII Europe was quite high. Higher than Koreaa, Vietnam or now, Iraq. Of course there was a large and familiar civilian population where you could hide in Europe. That’s not true in Iraq and I wonder how long those who keep being returned there can last.
There is no let up. There is no place you can go into a nice cafe and have a beer while your unit is in the rear area. It looks to me like a pretty bleak outlook.
Sorry if this seems rude, but those aren’t exactly sterling cites you’ve offered. Give me the word of General Bootsontheground and I’ll buy your side, otherwise it’s just rhetorical static.
General {Boots On the Ground} Eaton, commander of the 1st Infantry Division in Ieaq made his statements on Countrdown as I said. Did I write too fast?
Did Eddie Slovak have any effect on that?
I’m surprised that the local population would hide American deserters. They were refusing to fight for them, after all. Unless you are talking about Germans…
What’s worse is that National Guard units are taking deep damage. Why, our Colorado Guard has to go elsewhere to prepare for deployment to Iraq, simply because they’re not properly outfitted in their home state! We are an analogous desert, an ideal training ground, yet our boys and girls are hamstrung by the Quartermaster.