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Old Jun 16, 2006, 01:22 pm   #22 (permalink) (top)
RickSp
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Quote:
Quote by: Apeman81
"It should be obvious why we are losing the guerilla war." Why? Greater control is being excerted in a larger area on a daily basis.

"Yet you only get concerned when a decorated ex-Marine steps up to tell the truth. Sad."

Neither her nor I can readily assert "the truth". The facts are not yet known.

"2,500 dead, roughly 20,000 wounded and counting." What is your point here? Does the accounting of casualities mean something? Are you implying that the goals of the mission are not worth the cost? That would be an opinion, would it not? As an opinion, it can then be added to all other opinions and voiced as such. It does not dictate policy.
Nothing but denial. That seems all you can manage. We are not losing the guerilla war. The facts at Haidatha are not yet known. Reminds me of the nonsense in 1968. The hawks claimed that nothing worth mentioning happened at My Lai and that we were winning the war on the ground. That worked ut real well, didn't it?

And yes, this war, justified and run entirely on lies, has not been worth the cost. Yes, that is an opinion, one shared by the majority of Americans. Only the Bushbots with blinders willing to deny the obvious seem to think it is worth it.

Cynthia Tucker, in the Baltimore Sun, gets it right - anyone who stands up to tell the trutth can expect to be attacked:
Hawks attack those who dare to speak up
Quote:
Since November, when Democratic Rep. John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania began calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, he has been under fire from hard-core conservatives. Like every combat veteran before him who has come to question the pretext for war or its prosecution, Mr. Murtha has been denounced as a traitor, a coward, a defeatist and a liar.

Former White House spokesman Scott McClellan called Mr. Murtha's stance on withdrawal a "surrender to the terrorists." And, of course, the 38-year Marine veteran has been swiftboated: Critics have questioned his two Purple Hearts, on no grounds whatsoever.

In mid-May, Mr. Murtha put himself in the firestorm again when he revealed details about apparent war crimes committed by Marines in Haditha, Iraq, last fall. "Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them. And they killed innocent civilians in cold blood," Mr. Murtha said.

While news organizations had cast doubts on early battlefield reports that blamed civilian casualties in the Nov. 19 incident on an incendiary device planted by insurgents, Mr. Murtha was the first congressman to publicly lend credence to reports of atrocities.

High-ranking military officials have since acknowledged two separate investigations of the incident: Army Maj. Gen. Eldon Bargewell is looking into the initial battlefield reports, while the Naval Criminal Investigation Service is investigating the 24 civilian deaths. The NCIS probe may lead to homicide charges, according to reports.

However, it's Mr. Murtha's outspokenness, not the alleged atrocity, that is roiling the conservative blogosphere, where some correspondents continue to cast him as a cowardly ally of the French, if not a traitorous aide to al-Qaida.

There is plenty of blame to go around. It ought to be shared with Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney and every member of Congress who voted to give the president authority to go to war; with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, whose arrogance and incompetence allowed the insurgency to grow ever more deadly; and with every armchair hawk who, even now, denounces patriots such as Mr. Murtha as cowards or traitors.


Rick

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." Sinclair Lewis
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