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 Greetings! You are reading an article from The Mudville Gazette. To reach the front page, with all the latest news and views, click the logo above or "main" below. Thanks for stopping by! June 19, 2009 Stupid things to say...By Greyhawk...to anyone preparing to deploy to a combat zone - or their family members (part 9,000): "My husband has actually had someone say to him that at least his upcoming deployment is to Afghanistan, which serves a purpose and has meaning, unlike Iraq." That from our friend Sarah, who is struggling with this one...
She's seeking motivation. Read the whole thing, perhaps you can help. Posted by Greyhawk / June 19, 2009 3:29 PM | Permalink TrackBackTrackBack URL: http://www.mudvillegazette.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/16326 4 CommentsLeave a comment |
March 19, 2010Dawn Patrol 03/19/2003 [Greyhawk]
"Welcome to the Dawn Patrol, our daily roundup of information on the War on Terror and other topics - from the MilBlogs and various sources around the world." Mudville was founded in March, 2003. Our efforts to bring the thoughts, words, and deeds of milbloggers to a wider world evolved to become The Dawn Patrol in March, 2005. With today's entry we're going to reset the clock - but not re-write the history - and recreate the world as it was - on a day the world changed...
Updating... more to follow.... MILBOGSAndrew Olmsted, 19 Mar 2003, Stateside: It would appear that the liberation of Iraq has begun. Greyhawk, 18 Mar 2003, Germany: A united world could have, just maybe, brought down Saddam without firing a shot. We will never know. 19 Mar: We'll never know what a united world could have achieved... the UN could not agree on anything, the situation degenerated, and here we are. Status quo was not working. The French were too desperate for oil and trade at any cost. Well-intentioned Americans were led into the streets by Communists (and others) with an agenda. The media distorted the split. Many in America and abroad thought they could manipulate the situation to their personal gain. They miscalculated. The fire is lit. Pontifx ex Machina, 18 Mar, undisclosed location: Rolling out the gate, the guard gets a quick "hook-em, horns" sign as we weave through the barricades. Then we're off, cruising through the desert in a battered-up SUV. On the eve of war, only one thing passes through our minds: is there going to be any appropriate music on the radio? Lt Smash, 19 Mar, undisclosed location: Read the President's speech today. The clock is ticking. Chief Wiggles, 22 Mar, Kuwait: The war started Wednesday morning for us right after the president gave a speech to the American people that lasted about 4 minutes. We were all very anxious for this whole thing to be either over or get it on its way. Will, 22 Mar, en route: I am going to Baghdad to personally shoot that paper hanging son of a bitch! Lt Smash 20 Mar, undisclosed location: Sgt Stryker, 20 Mar, Stateside: Iraq to File U.N. Complaint About Attack Primary Main Objective, 30 Mar, undisclosed location I Dare Kofi to Come Get Me.
BruceR, Flit, 19 Mar, Canada: AND SO IT BEGINS. Godspeed, Yanks. Come home safe and soon. Andrew Olmsted, 20 Mar 2003, Stateside: The most important thing to remember over the next few days is this: the first reports are almost always inaccurate. First reports are generally submitted in the heat of battle before any real analysis can take place. Therefore, they're highly subjective, based on limited information, and rarely hit the mark. So as the first reports of 'surgical strikes' on Iraqi forces come in, it's best to take those reports with a grain of salt... Iraqi BlogsSalam Pax, Baghdad: The bombing aould come and go in waves, nothing too heavy and not yet comparable to what was going on in 91. all radio and TV stations are still on and while the air raid began the Iraqi TV was showing patriotic songs and didn't even bother to inform viewers that we are under attack. at the moment they are re-airing yesterday's interview with the minister of interior affairs. THe sounds of the anti-aircarft artillery is still louder than the booms and bangs which means that they are still far from where we live, but the images we saw on Al Arabia news channel showed a building burning near one of my aunts house... American BlogsGlenn Reynolds has a ton of links. Newpapers
Updating... more to follow.... |
The Mudville Gazette is the on-line voice of an American warrior and his wife who stands by him. They prefer to see peaceful change render force of arms unnecessary. Until that day they stand fast with those who struggle for freedom, strike for reason, and pray for a better tomorrow.
 
 
 I like having visitors to my house. I hope you are entertained. I fight for your right to free speech, and am thrilled when you exercise said rights here. Comments and e-mails are welcome, but all such communication is to be assumed to be 1)the original work of any who initiate said communication and 2)the property of the Mudville Gazette, with free use granted thereto for publication in electronic or written form. If you do NOT wish to have your message posted, write "CONFIDENTIAL" in the subject line of your email. Original content copyright © 2003 - 2009 by Greyhawk. Fair, not-for-profit use of said material by others is encouraged, as long as acknowledgement and credit is given, to include the url of the original source post. Other arrangements can be made as needed. Contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com  |
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The American Military does not make the decision to start or end a war. War is a decision made by political leaders - the President who makes the call to go with Congressional approval and funding. The role of the American Military is to follow the lawful order(s) of the Commander-in-Chief, the President. It is the foundation of our continued democratic experiment that our Military obeys its political leadership, even when such leadership is wrong in its decision making
For those who say Iraq is a mistake, I always ask if they truly believe that, then we as a country should do what is the proper thing that should be done when a mistake is made - as best we can, put it back like it was before the mistake was made. I then ask how many people would want Sadam Hussien, or someone like him, to be restored to the same power and military potential as existed before America went into Iraq? I have yet to find one person who says they want that to happen, and in the end, everyone, regardless of their political leanings, or feelings about war, says essentially the same thing "he was an evil tyrant and we are glad he is gone..."
I have also said this in response to claims that Iraq is another Viet Nam - "when we left Viet Nam we did not have to worry about them following us home and trying to kill us on our own land. The forces we fight in Iraq, and now around the world, leave us no choice but to take the fight to them on their turf and tie up their resources somewhere else so they do not have the same level of leathality they would otherwise have to effect an attack on our own shores."
We fight a foe that will take lives of our brave American Military Personnel for generations to come, maybe forever. Radical fanaticism can only be stamped out one way - with the evil tyrancial controls of its people and society such as Saddam Hussien and his sons effected. Such is not the way America will fight or govern, nor should it.
In my opinion, we are not fighting a war of attrition, or a war that can be won in the traditional sense in Iraq or Afghanistan or the next country that it will spread to. We fight a war that very likely will never end, at least so long as radical fanaticism is a cult whose following is underpinned by religious teachings that has not been properly denounced or deprived by the very religious authorities who are themselves hijacked in the process. And until those very hijacked religious leaders stand as clearly and strongly as those on Flight 93 did and say we are not going to be victims and we are going to take on the hijackers, then the radical fundalmentalism and extremism that is Al Qaeda and its knock-offs will continue to be a force America must fight.
proud dad SGT Mike Stokely
KIA 16 AUG 05 near Yusufiyah Iraq
USA E 108 CAV 48th BCT GAARNG
Well said Robert.
Robert you just reminded me of this quote from a great book, which I then left at Sarah's blog:
"Do you hate me, Lady? ... Were I you I would."
"I will never tell the city why I appointed these three hundred. I will never tell the Three Hundred themselves. But I now tell you.
"I chose them not for their own valor, lady, but for that of their women...
"Greece stands now on her most perilous hour. If she saves herself, it will not be at the Gates ...but later, in battles yet to come, by land and sea.Then Greece, if the gods will it, will preserve herself...
"When the battle is over, when the 300 have gone down to death, then will all Greece look to the Spartans, to see how they bear it.
"But who, ladies, who will the Spartans look to? To you. To you and the other wives and mothers, sisters and daughters of the fallen.
"If they behold your hearts riven and broken with grief, they too will break. And Greece will break with them. But if you bear up, dry-eyed, not alone enduring your loss but seizing it with contempt for it's agony and embracing it as the honor that it is in truth, then Sparta will stand and all Hellas will stand behind her.
"Why have I nominated you, lady, to bear up beneath this most terrible of trials, you and your sisters of the Three Hundred? Because you can."
- Leonidas, in Stephen Pressfield's Gates of Fire.
Robert, thank you very much for your comments, especially your last paragraph.
And Greyhawk, thank you for honoring me with that passage, which is one of my favorites and one I try to live up to all the time.