An open letter to the American People,

[PITbull]

I wanted to apologize to the faithful posters on US Aviation. Apparently PITbull thought my last post was intelligent.

If PITbull thought my last post was intelligent I must have been "completely off my rocker." I will try to do better next time and post something that PITbull claims is a nuisance to his common sensibilities.

There is no doubt that you won't disappoint, or shock the "faithful" again.

 

[delldude]

Of course his silly carrier landing irritated us. Aside from it being an embarrassing act of grand standing, it turned out to be utterly false. He said ‘mission accomplished’ and a few days ago he says we will not leave till we are successful. It was a lie when he landed and it is wish thinking at best right now.

Who cares?
Wasn't a lie as you so eloquently state.
The mission was to oust Saddam and at that time I think he was hiding in a hole.Get with it......
Funny how you smacks got all twistedup over Bushie riding second seat
Woulda been cool as a cucumber if some Dem did it though...

why you crying little girl? I just found out my parents are liberal's

 

[Ch. 12]

Who cares?
Wasn't a lie as you so eloquently state.
The mission was to oust Saddam and at that time I think he was hiding in a hole.Get with it......
Funny how you smacks got all twistedup over Bushie riding second seat
Woulda been cool as a cucumber if some Dem did it though...

why you crying little girl? I just found out my parents are liberal's

Mission was to find phantom WMDs. We didn't. Still haven't. "Mission" was changed to ousting Saddam (which, we all know, was the underlying pretense for the war all along...settle a score) and NOW you all are trying to change it to the "war on terror".

WMDs. That was what it was about. We have never accomplished that mission. Now the REAL mission is to fix what we have done and all that our leadership can do is create excuses. Oh yeah...and fire Rummy when he suggests that we need a different approach to Iraq.

Mission Accomplished...yee haw! If only the Iraqis saw that carrier landing, maybe they would have layed down their arms knowing that we already won?

 

[Garfield1966]

I wanted to apologize to the faithful posters on US Aviation. Apparently PITbull thought my last post was intelligent.

If PITbull thought my last post was intelligent I must have been "completely off my rocker." I will try to do better next time and post something that PITbull claims is a nuisance to his common sensibilities.

I should hope so. You really dissapointed me with that one.

 

[Garfield1966]

Who cares?
Wasn't a lie as you so eloquently state.
The mission was to oust Saddam and at that time I think he was hiding in a hole.Get with it......
Funny how you smacks got all twistedup over Bushie riding second seat
Woulda been cool as a cucumber if some Dem did it though...

why you crying little girl? I just found out my parents are liberal's

Good lord. Are you really that obtuse? If the mission was accomplished, why are we still in Iraq with no end in sight? Why have 3,000 troops dies if as he said “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended� Here is his speech. Show me where he states that the mission was to oust Sadam. I see a mission to fight terrorism. I see a mission to bring freedom to Iraq (how’s that working out?) Sadams name is not mentioned one single time in the speech. One would think that if the mission was to oust Sadam he would have at least mentioned his name. Sure, the US beat Sadams military. But as he stated, that was not the purpose. The purpose was to move Iraq from a “dictatorship to democracy will take time, but it is worth every effort. Our coalition will stay until our work is done. And then we will leave — and we will leave behind a free Iraq.†And that is not happening. He stated Iraq was supporting terroris yet there is no evidence to suggest he was. He ousted OBL and his gang from Iraq. It was lie after lie.

I realize critical analyses is not your strong suit but this is just plain embarrassing.



Admiral Kelly, Captain Card, officers and sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln, my fellow Americans: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country.

In this battle, we have fought for the cause of liberty, and for the peace of the world. Our nation and our coalition are proud of this accomplishment — yet it is you, the members of the United States military, who achieved it. Your courage — your willingness to face danger for your country and for each other — made this day possible. Because of you, our nation is more secure. Because of you, the tyrant has fallen, and Iraq is free.

Operation Iraqi Freedom was carried out with a combination of precision, and speed, and boldness the enemy did not expect, and the world had not seen before. From distant bases or ships at sea, we sent planes and missiles that could destroy an enemy division, or strike a single bunker. Marines and soldiers charged to Baghdad across 350 miles of hostile ground, in one of the swiftest advances of heavy arms in history. You have shown the world the skill and the might of the American Armed Forces.

This nation thanks all of the members of our coalition who joined in a noble cause. We thank the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom, Australia, and Poland, who shared in the hardships of war. We thank all of the citizens of Iraq who welcomed our troops and joined in the liberation of their own country. And tonight, I have a special word for Secretary (Donald) Rumsfeld, for General (Tommy) Franks, and for all the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States: America is grateful for a job well done.

The character of our military through history — the daring of Normandy, the fierce courage of Iwo Jima, the decency and idealism that turned enemies into allies — is fully present in this generation. When Iraqi civilians looked into the faces of our servicemen and women, they saw strength, and kindness, and good will. When I look at the members of the United States military, I see the best of our country, and I am honored to be your commander in chief.

In the images of fallen statues, we have witnessed the arrival of a new era. For a hundred years of war, culminating in the nuclear age, military technology was designed and deployed to inflict casualties on an ever-growing scale. In defeating Nazi Germany and imperial Japan, Allied Forces destroyed entire cities, while enemy leaders who started the conflict were safe until the final days. Military power was used to end a regime by breaking a nation. Today, we have the greater power to free a nation by breaking a dangerous and aggressive regime. With new tactics and precision weapons, we can achieve military objectives without directing violence against civilians. No device of man can remove the tragedy from war. Yet it is a great advance when the guilty have far more to fear from war than the innocent.

In the images of celebrating Iraqis, we have also seen the ageless appeal of human freedom. Decades of lies and intimidation could not make the Iraqi people love their oppressors or desire their own enslavement. Men and women in every culture need liberty like they need food, and water, and air. Everywhere that freedom arrives, humanity rejoices. And everywhere that freedom stirs, let tyrants fear.

We have difficult work to do in Iraq. We are bringing order to parts of that country that remain dangerous. We are pursuing and finding leaders of the old regime, who will be held to account for their crimes. We have begun the search for hidden chemical and biological weapons, and already know of hundreds of sites that will be investigated. We are helping to rebuild Iraq, where the dictator built palaces for himself, instead of hospitals and schools. And we will stand with the new leaders of Iraq as they establish a government of, by, and for the Iraqi people. The transition from dictatorship to democracy will take time, but it is worth every effort. Our coalition will stay until our work is done. And then we will leave — and we will leave behind a free Iraq.

The Battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11th, 2001, and still goes on. That terrible morning, 19 evil men — the shock troops of a hateful ideology — gave America and the civilized world a glimpse of their ambitions. They imagined, in the words of one terrorist, that September the 11th would be the "beginning of the end of America." By seeking to turn our cities into killing fields, terrorists and their allies believed that they could destroy this nation's resolve, and force our retreat from the world. They have failed.

In the Battle of Afghanistan, we destroyed the Taliban, many terrorists, and the camps where they trained. We continue to help the Afghan people lay roads, restore hospitals, and educate all of their children. Yet we also have dangerous work to complete. As I speak, a special operations task force, led by the 82nd Airborne, is on the trail of the terrorists, and those who seek to undermine the free government of Afghanistan. America and our coalition will finish what we have begun.

From Pakistan to the Philippines to the Horn of Africa, we are hunting down al-Qaida killers. Nineteen months ago, I pledged that the terrorists would not escape the patient justice of the United States. And as of tonight, nearly one-half of al-Qaida's senior operatives have been captured or killed.

The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We have removed an ally of al-Qaida, and cut off a source of terrorist funding. And this much is certain: No terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime, because the regime is no more.

In these 19 months that changed the world, our actions have been focused, and deliberate, and proportionate to the offense. We have not forgotten the victims of September the 11th — the last phone calls, the cold murder of children, the searches in the rubble. With those attacks, the terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States. And war is what they got.

Our war against terror is proceeding according to principles that I have made clear to all:

Any person involved in committing or planning terrorist attacks against the American people becomes an enemy of this country, and a target of American justice.

Any person, organization, or government that supports, protects, or harbors terrorists is complicit in the murder of the innocent, and equally guilty of terrorist crimes.

Any outlaw regime that has ties to terrorist groups, and seeks or possesses weapons of mass destruction, is a grave danger to the civilized world, and will be confronted.

And anyone in the world, including the Arab world, who works and sacrifices for freedom has a loyal friend in the United States of America.

Our commitment to liberty is America's tradition — declared at our founding, affirmed in Franklin Roosevelt's Four Freedoms, asserted in the Truman Doctrine, and in Ronald Reagan's challenge to an evil empire. We are committed to freedom in Afghanistan, in Iraq, and in a peaceful Palestine. The advance of freedom is the surest strategy to undermine the appeal of terror in the world. Where freedom takes hold, hatred gives way to hope. When freedom takes hold, men and women turn to the peaceful pursuit of a better life. American values, and American interests, lead in the same direction: We stand for human liberty.

The United States upholds these principles of security and freedom in many ways — with all the tools of diplomacy, law enforcement, intelligence, and finance. We are working with a broad coalition of nations that understand the threat, and our shared responsibility to meet it. The use of force has been, and remains, our last resort. Yet all can know, friend and foe alike, that our nation has a mission: We will answer threats to our security, and we will defend the peace.

Our mission continues. Al-Qaida is wounded, not destroyed. The scattered cells of the terrorist network still operate in many nations, and we know from daily intelligence that they continue to plot against free people. The proliferation of deadly weapons remains a serious danger. The enemies of freedom are not idle, and neither are we. Our government has taken unprecedented measures to defend the homeland — and we will continue to hunt down the enemy before he can strike.

The war on terror is not over, yet it is not endless. We do not know the day of final victory, but we have seen the turning of the tide. No act of the terrorists will change our purpose, or weaken our resolve, or alter their fate. Their cause is lost. Free nations will press on to victory.

Other nations in history have fought in foreign lands and remained to occupy and exploit. Americans, following a battle, want nothing more than to return home. And that is your direction tonight. After service in the Afghan and Iraqi theaters of war — after 100,000 miles, on the longest carrier deployment in recent history — you are homeward bound. Some of you will see new family members for the first time — 150 babies were born while their fathers were on the Lincoln. Your families are proud of you, and your nation will welcome you.

We are mindful as well that some good men and women are not making the journey home. One of those who fell, Corporal Jason Mileo, spoke to his parents five days before his death. Jason's father said, "He called us from the center of Baghdad, not to brag, but to tell us he loved us. Our son was a soldier." Every name, every life, is a loss to our military, to our nation, and to the loved ones who grieve. There is no homecoming for these families. Yet we pray, in God's time, their reunion will come.

Those we lost were last seen on duty. Their final act on this earth was to fight a great evil, and bring liberty to others. All of you — all in this generation of our military — have taken up the highest calling of history. You are defending your country, and protecting the innocent from harm. And wherever you go, you carry a message of hope — a message that is ancient, and ever new. In the words of the prophet Isaiah: "To the captives, 'Come out!' and to those in darkness, 'Be free!"'

Thank you for serving our country and our cause. May God bless you all, and may God continue to bless America.

 

[delldude]

You know garfield...in a nutshell you are one great

Liberal piece of work.

USA>Military
from the November 28, 2005 edition

BACK HOME: The experiences of Marine Cpls. Jeff Schuller (l.) and Stan Mayer (r.) during their service in Iraq often differed from the media's portrayal of the war.
ANDY NELSON - STAFF
The Iraq story: how troops see it:


BROOK PARK, OHIO – Cpl. Stan Mayer has seen the worst of war. In the leaves of his photo album, there are casual memorials to the cost of the Iraq conflict - candid portraits of friends who never came home and graphic pictures of how insurgent bombs have shredded steel and bone.
Yet the Iraq of Corporal Mayer's memory is not solely a place of death and loss. It is also a place of hope. It is the hope of the town of Hit, which he saw transform from an insurgent stronghold to a place where kids played on Marine trucks. It is the hope of villagers who whispered where roadside bombs were hidden. But most of all, it is the hope he saw in a young Iraqi girl who loved pens and Oreo cookies.


ON DUTY: Lt. Richard Malmstrom, battalion chaplain.
ANDY NELSON - STAFF






Like many soldiers and marines returning from Iraq, Mayer looks at the bleak portrayal of the war at home with perplexity - if not annoyance. It is a perception gap that has put the military and media at odds, as troops complain that the media care only about death tolls, while the media counter that their job is to look at the broader picture, not through the soda straw of troops' individual experiences.

Yet as perceptions about Iraq have neared a tipping point in Congress, some soldiers and marines worry that their own stories are being lost in the cacophony of terror and fear. They acknowledge that their experience is just that - one person's experience in one corner of a war-torn country. Yet amid the terrible scenes of reckless hate and lives lost, many members of one of the hardest-hit units insist that they saw at least the spark of progress.

"We know we made a positive difference," says Cpl. Jeff Schuller of the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, who spent all but one week of his eight-month tour with Mayer. "I can't say at what level, but I know that where we were, we made it better than it was when we got there."

It is the simplest measure of success, but for the marine, soldier, or sailor, it may be the only measure of success. In a business where life and death rest on instinctive adherence to thoroughly ingrained lessons, accomplishment is ticked off in a list of orders followed and tasks completed. And by virtually any measure, America's servicemen and women are accomplishing the day-to-day tasks set before them.

Yet for the most part, America is less interested in the success of Operation Iron Fist, for instance, than the course of the entire Iraq enterprise. "What the national news media try to do is figure out: What's the overall verdict?" says Brig. Gen. Volney Warner, deputy commandant of the Army Command and General Staff College. "Soldiers don't do overall verdicts."

Yet soldiers clearly feel that important elements are being left out of the media's overall verdict. On this day, a group of Navy medics gather around a table in the Cleveland-area headquarters of the 3/25 - a Marine reserve unit that has converted a low-slung school of pale brick and linoleum tile into its spectacularly red-and-gold offices.

Their conversation could be a road map of the kind of stories that military folks say the mainstream media are missing. One colleague made prosthetics for an Iraqi whose hand and foot had been cut off by insurgents. When other members of the unit were sweeping areas for bombs, the medics made a practice of holding impromptu infant clinics on the side of the road.

They remember one Iraqi man who could not hide his joy at the marvel of an electric razor. And at the end of the 3/25's tour, a member of the Iraqi Army said: "Marines are not friends; marines are brothers," says Lt. Richard Malmstrom, the battalion's chaplain.

"It comes down to the familiar debate about whether reporters are ignoring the good news," says Peter Hart, an analyst at Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, a usually left-leaning media watchdog in New York.

In Hit, where marines stayed in force to keep the peace, the progress was obvious, say members of the 3/25. The residents started burning trash and fixing roads - a sign that the city was returning to a sense of normalcy. Several times, "people came up to us [and said]: 'There's a bomb on the side of the road. Don't go there,' " says Pfc. Andrew Howland.

Part of the reason that such stories usually aren't told is simply the nature of the war. Kidnappings and unclear battle lines have made war correspondents' jobs almost impossible. Travel around the country is dangerous, and some reporters never venture far from their hotels. "It has to have some effect on what we see: You end up with reporting that waits for the biggest explosion of the day," says Mr. Hart.

To the marines of the 3/25, the explosions clearly do not tell the whole story. Across America, many readers know the 3/25 only as the unit that lost 15 marines in less than a week - nine of them in the deadliest roadside bombing against US forces during the war. When the count of Americans killed in Iraq reached 2,000, this unit again found itself in the stage lights of national notice as one of the hardest hit.

But that is not the story they tell. It is more than just the dire tone of coverage - though that is part of it. It is that Iraq has touched some of these men in ways that even they have trouble explaining. This, after all, has not been a normal war. Corporals Mayer and Schuller went over not to conquer a country, but to help win its hearts and minds. In some cases, though, it won theirs.

Schuller, a heavyweight college wrestler with a thatch of blond hair and engine blocks for arms, cannot help smiling when he speaks of giving an old man a lighter: "He thought it was the coolest thing." Yet both he and the blue-eyed, square-jawed Mayer pause for a moment before they talk about the two 9-year-old Iraqis whom members of their battalion dubbed their "girlfriends."

The first time he saw them, Mayer admits that he was making the calculations of a man in the midst of a war. He was tired, he was battered, and he was back at a Hit street corner that he had patrolled many times before. In Iraq, repetition of any sort could be an invitation of the wrong sort - an event for which insurgents could plan. So Mayer and Schuller took out some of the candy they carried, thinking that if children were around, perhaps the terrorists wouldn't attack.

It was a while before the children realized that these two marines, laden with arms to the limit of physical endurance, were not going to hurt them. But among the children who eventually came, climbing on the pair's truck and somersaulting in the street, there were always the same two girls. When they went back to base, they began to hoard Oreos and other candy in a box.

"They became our one little recess from the war," says Mayer. "You're seeing some pretty ridiculous tragedies way too frequently, and you start to get jaded. The kids on that street - I got to realize I was still a human being to them."

It happened one day when he was on patrol. Out of nowhere, a car turned the corner and headed down the alley at full speed. "A car coming at you real fast and not stopping in Iraq is not what you want to see," says Mayer. Yet instead of jumping in his truck, he stood in the middle of the street and pushed the kids behind him.

The car turned. Now, Mayer and Schuller can finish each other's sentences when they think about the experience. "You really start to believe that you protect the innocent," says Schuller. "It sounds like a stupid cliché...."

"But it's not," adds Mayer. "You are in the service of others."

For Mayer, who joined the reserves because he wanted to do something bigger than himself, and for Schuller, a third-generation marine, Iraq has given them a sense of achievement. Now when they look at the black-and-white pictures of marines past in the battalion headquarters, "We're adding to that legacy," says Schuller.

This is what they wish to share with the American people - and is also the source of their frustration. Their eight months in Iraq changed their lives, and they believe it has changed the lives of the Iraqis they met as well.On the day he left, Mayer gave his "girlfriend" a bunch of pens - her favorite gift - wrapped in a paper that had a picture of the American flag, the Iraqi flag, and a smiley face. The man with the lighter asked Schuller if he was coming back. He will if called upon, he says.

Whether or not these notes of grace and kindness are as influential as the dirge of war is open to question. But many in the military feel that they should at least be a part of the conversation.

Says Warner of reaching an overall verdict: "I'm not sure that reporting on terrorist bombings with disproportionate ink is adequately answering that question."

 

[Garfield1966]

First, thank you. I am not one who normally subscribes to labels but that is one that I am perfectly comfortable with.

What a sweet letter. I guess that since there are these isolated acts of kindness occurring in Iraq we can just over look all the other stuff. Stuff like the 3,000 US soldiers killed. Close to 500,000 Iraqi Civilians killed. The cost so far is well over $100 billion. Iraq is still not producing all the oil we were told they would be producing to pay their own way. The government is barely stable. The police are corrupt. There are 3 factions killing each other whole sale (7,000 civilians were killed in Sept/Oct alone). According to a Stars and Stripes article http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section...mp;archive=true an average of 451 troops are injured each month (that’s almost 5,500 a year).

The best part … Incoming SecDef Robert Gates acknowledges that the US is not winning in Iraq. Maybe you should forward this letter to him just so he knows it’s not all doom and gloom in Iraq.

There are always isolated incidents of good will. We are talking about the war in general. This is a quote from your letter:

"They became our one little recess from the war," says Mayer. "You're seeing some pretty ridiculous tragedies way too frequently, and you start to get jaded. The kids on that street - I got to realize I was still a human being to them."

Even they acknowledge that the incidents described in the letter are isolated and that the ‘bad sh!t’ is far more frequent.

BTW, I checked FOX news and I do not see any warm fuzzy stories about Iraq there either so I guess we can not pin this one on the liberal media.

Seeing that you are not capable of arguing any of your posts after they are discredited, we await your next change of issue post with baited breath.

 

[delldude]

Mission was to find phantom WMDs. We didn't. Still haven't. "Mission" was changed to ousting Saddam (which, we all know, was the underlying pretense for the war all along...settle a score) and NOW you all are trying to change it to the "war on terror".
Never said it was a war on terror....
WMDs. That was what it was about. We have never accomplished that mission. Now the REAL mission is to fix what we have done and all that our leadership can do is create excuses. Oh yeah...and fire Rummy when he suggests that we need a different approach to Iraq.
Told you before...WMD's were found ,only they were ignored and redefined by you and your liberal media scumbags


Mission Accomplished...yee haw! If only the Iraqis saw that carrier landing, maybe they would have layed down their arms knowing that we already won?
He he he...still reeling from that...get a life dude....was ok when Bill pulled off other stuff though

 

[Garfield1966]

He said “you allâ€￾ as in you republicans. As for the switch to war on terror, see his speech posted above if you do not believe me.

They found chem. weapons that we sold them. They did not find the chem. weapons and manufacturing that was ‘supposed’ to be there that was part of the lie to get us in there.

As much as you seem to hate Clinton, you sure do use him as a standard bearer quite a bit.

 

[delldude]

Don't hate Clinton any more than you love Bush.Bill is pretty saavy pol.....it was his taste for the "French cusine" that I didn't subscribe to.

As far as chem weapons...if he had our old shells then I guess it wouldn't be a lie saying we new he had them then would it?

So there,once and for all you've proven Bush didn't lie.

Sorry Garfield.....hehehe couldn't resist

 

[Garfield1966]

Don't hate Clinton any more than you love Bush.Bill is pretty saavy pol.....it was his taste for the "French cusine" that I didn't subscribe to.

As far as chem weapons...if he had our old shells then I guess it wouldn't be a lie saying we new he had them then would it?

So there,once and for all you've proven Bush didn't lie.

Sorry Garfield.....hehehe couldn't resist

You know Bush did not find squat because if had found anything they would have been yelling about it from every building and every pulpit they could find. Their silence is an admission that they did not find squat.

Yes, Bush did lie. Becasue if his lie 3,000 soldiers dies and thousands more are injured, this country is loosing billions of dollars everyday and we are stuck in Iraq for an undetermined length of time.

 

[Ch. 12]

He said “you allâ€￾ as in you republicans. As for the switch to war on terror, see his speech posted above if you do not believe me.

They found chem. weapons that we sold them. They did not find the chem. weapons and manufacturing that was ‘supposed’ to be there that was part of the lie to get us in there.

As much as you seem to hate Clinton, you sure do use him as a standard bearer quite a bit.

you hit the nail on the head on all 3

 

[delldude]

You know Bush did not find squat because if had found anything they would have been yelling about it from every building and every pulpit they could find. Their silence is an admission that they did not find squat.

Yes, Bush did lie. Becasue if his lie 3,000 soldiers dies and thousands more are injured, this country is loosing billions of dollars everyday and we are stuck in Iraq for an undetermined length of time.

About clintons lies....?

 

[Garfield1966]

About clintons lies....?

News Flash.
Clinton is not in office anymore.

News Flash
Clinton did not invade Iraq with out a game workable game plan.

New Flash
Bush IS in office.

News Flash
Bush DID invade Iraq with out a workable game plan.

News Flash
The commission pretty much said 'Bush F*ed up'



You can try and bring up the 'Clinton' red herring all you want but that dog will not hunt. Hell, FOX does not even mention his name any more so just grow up and move on already.

You sound like a child throwing a temper tantrum each time you say that. If you have no argument, just remain quiet instead of embarrassing your self.

 

[delldude]

Ahh....kleiner katsa....

You're too funny....I throw out the 'C' word and you cream your jeans....hehehehe.

Ok,no more 'C' word...I promise.

Hows about the failed rescue in Iran under Mr.Peanut...talk about no plan....

I told Santa to get you a spell check for Christmas....you do celebrate Christmas now don't you?



BTW Gar,are you cat 2 equipped?