“If they’re going to support us, support us all the way.”

He shouldn't have to apologize for the truth.

 

Obama is a disgrace for saying that. Imagine if you were a parent of a soldier to died for the cause. What if Obama came into your living room and told you your son's life was 'wasted'?

What kind of language is that from someone who aspires to be the Commander in Chief?

 

Open Mouth, Insert Foot. - The Decider Speaks.

I think it's also important for the president to lay out a timetable as to how long [U.S. troops] will be involved and when they will be withdrawn.
-- Speaking about President Clinton's military action in Kosovo. This is probably worth contrasting with Dubya's reluctance to lay out any sort of timetable on his much more significant actions in Iraq. Reported in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Jun. 5, 1999

Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the president to explain to us what the exit strategy is.
-- Speaking about President Clinton's military action in Kosovo. This is probably worth contrasting with Dubya's reluctance to lay out any sort of defined exit strategy for his war in Iraq. Reported in the Houston Chronicle, Apr. 9, 1999

CONNIE CHUNG: The problem, though, would be is if, indeed, [Dan Quayle] made several phone calls or some people made phone calls on his behalf to get him into the National Guard. I mean, did that happen to you? Were you...
DUBYA (interrupting): No. I don't think so. But in those days, people were going into the service all different branches. And if you want to go into the National Guard, I guess sometimes people make calls. I don't see anything wrong with, a matter of fact I'm glad he served his country. And serving in the National Guard is serving in the military. They probably should have called the National Guard up in those days. Maybe we'd have done better in Vietnam.
-- Interview with Connie Chung (NBC) at the 1988 Republican convention, New Orleans, Louisiana, Aug. 17, 1988

- Source dubyaspeak.com

 

In none of those quotes did Bush disrespect the troops like Obama did. Nice try Mulder. Actually it wasn't.

Why do liberal politicians like Kerry and Obama think they are just soooooo superior to the troops? They regard them as 'wastes' that they have to be nice to b/c for public opinion reasons... That type of haughtiness is pathetic. Thumbing your nose at the troops = bad for public relations...

 

The Cause

 

actions speak louder than words...

Veterans face consecutive budget cuts

Cutbacks aimed to take effect after next president is in office

WASHINGTON— The Bush administration plans to cut funding for veterans’ health care two years from now — even as badly wounded troops returning from Iraq could overwhelm the system.

Bush is using the cuts, critics say, to help fulfill his pledge to balance the budget by 2012.

After an increase sought for next year, the Bush budget would turn current trends on their head. Even though the cost of providing medical care to veterans has been growing rapidly — by more than 10 percent in many years — White House budget documents assume consecutive cutbacks in 2009 and 2010 and a freeze thereafter.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070213/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_budget_veterans_2

Who's disrespecting the troops?

 

I agree with Obama's "slip."

Those 3,000 lives have to contribute to some worthy goal... what's the trade-off for the 3,000 lives?

A more stable Iraq? No.

A more stable Middle East? No.

A rise of democratic thought and institutions that empower everyday Iraqis? No.

An increase in American prestige and power? No.

A war that supports America's national interest? No.

A weakening of Al-Q? Apparently not.

A curbing of nuclear ambitions across the globe? Obviously not.

And that's not really looking at the incredibly bad consequences... most likely losing Afghanistan, the enormous increase in the Federal debt, the weakening of our armed forces, the reduced ability to respond throughout the world when and where needed, etc.

Oh, wait! I figured it out:

A conflation of national security and the integrity of our armed forces with the political ambition of a corrupt group of autocrats? YES!

Iraq: worst vanity project in US History, worst strategic blunder in US History.

 

Awaiting your condemnation of McCain....

 

I was wondering if anyone else caught that.

 

C'mon don't you know that only Democrats and non-Republicans can be treasonous.

 

if you keep posting in this thread ALL THE WAY it shows support for the troops.

 

About 1 million times less as embarrassing as a current president who sends troops to die for a war on deception and bullsh!t, who ran in cowardice when it was his time to "serve his country proud". Less we all forget his/cheney's amazing cowardice.

 

absolutely.

Bush and NeoCon claim that they support the troops. their actions more than contradict that fib

• sending American young men / women to Iraq without enough troops, without enought protective armor.
  
  They're been using these young US soldiers as sacrificial lambs.
  
  Now the recent disclosure about the horrible conditions of the wounded soldiers only underscore the extent to which the Bush gang don't give a hoot about the soldiers.

 

America's top General in Iraq says that Iraq can't have a military victory.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/

 

Reading through this thread is amazing. In one of my post I said brush up on your history. Military can not fix this alone. Its simple really.

 

Today from the pen of Robert "I'd leak her name again" Novak. --

 

This probably should be its own thread. --

'Supporting the troops' means withdrawing them

COMMENTARY | July 05, 2007

Gen. William Odom writes that opponents of the war should focus public attention on the fact that Bush’s obstinate refusal to admit defeat is causing the troops enormous psychological as well as physical harm.

By William E. Odom
diane@hudson.org

Every step the Democrats in Congress have taken to force the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq has failed. Time and again, President Bush beats them into submission with charges of failing to "support the troops."

Why do the Democrats allow this to happen? Because they let the president define what "supporting the troops" means. His definition is brutally misleading. Consider what his policies are doing to the troops.

No U.S. forces have ever been compelled to stay in sustained combat conditions for as long as the Army units have in Iraq. In World War II, soldiers were considered combat-exhausted after about 180 days in the line. They were withdrawn for rest periods. Moreover, for weeks at a time, large sectors of the front were quiet, giving them time for both physical and psychological rehabilitation. During some periods of the Korean War, units had to fight steadily for fairly long periods but not for a year at a time. In Vietnam, tours were one year in length, and combat was intermittent with significant break periods.

In Iraq, combat units take over an area of operations and patrol it daily, making soldiers face the prospect of death from an IED or small arms fire or mortar fire several hours each day. Day in and day out for a full year, with only a single two-week break, they confront the prospect of death, losing limbs or eyes, or suffering other serious wounds. Although total losses in Iraq have been relatively small compared to most previous conflicts, the individual soldier is risking death or serious injury day after day for a year. The impact on the psyche accumulates, eventually producing what is now called "post-traumatic stress disorders." In other words, they are combat-exhausted to the point of losing effectiveness. The occasional willful killing of civilians in a few cases is probably indicative of such loss of effectiveness. These incidents don't seem to occur during the first half of a unit's deployment in Iraq.

After the first year, following a few months back home, these same soldiers are sent back for a second year, then a third year, and now, many are facing a fourth deployment! Little wonder more and more soldiers and veterans are psychologically disabled.

And the damage is not just to enlisted soldiers. Many officers are suffering serious post-traumatic stress disorders but are hesitant to report it – with good reason. An officer who needs psychiatric care and lets it appear on his medical records has most probably ended his career. He will be considered not sufficiently stable to lead troops. Thus officers are strongly inclined to avoid treatment and to hide their problems.

There are only two ways to fix this problem, both of which the president stubbornly rejects. Instead, his recent "surge" tactic has compelled the secretary of defense to extend Army tours to 15 months! (The Marines have been allowed to retain their six-month deployment policy and, not surprisingly, have fewer cases of post-traumatic stress syndrome.)

The first solution would be to expand the size of the Army to two or three times its present level, allowing shorter combat tours and much longer breaks between deployments. That cannot be done rapidly enough today, even if military conscription were restored and new recruits made abundant. It would take more than a year to organize and train a dozen new brigade combat teams. The Clinton administration cut the Army end strength by about 40 percent – from about 770,000 to 470,000 during the 1990s. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld looked for ways to make the cuts even deeper. Thus this administration and its predecessor aggressively gave up ground forces and tactical air forces while maintaining large maritime forces that cannot be used in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sadly, the lack of wisdom in that change in force structure is being paid for not by President Bush or President Clinton but by the ordinary soldier and his family. They have no lobby group to seek relief for them.

The second way to alleviate the problem is to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq as soon as possible and as securely as possible. The electorate understands this. That is why a majority of voters favor withdrawing from Iraq.

If the Democrats truly want to succeed in forcing to begin withdrawing from Iraq, the first step is to redefine "supporting the troops" as withdrawing them, citing the mass of accumulating evidence of the psychological as well as the physical damage that the president is forcing them to endure because he did not raise adequate forces. Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress could confirm this evidence and lay the blame for "not supporting the troops" where it really belongs – on the president. And they could rightly claim to the public that they are supporting the troops by cutting off the funds that he uses to keep U.S. forces in Iraq.

The public is ahead of the both branches of government in grasping this reality, but political leaders and opinion makers in the media must give them greater voice.

Congress clearly and indisputably has two powers over the executive: the power of the purse and the power to impeach. Instead of using either, members of congress are wasting their time discussing feckless measures like a bill that "de-authorizes the war in Iraq." That is toothless unless it is matched by a cut-off of funds.

The president is strongly motivated to string out the war until he leaves office, in order to avoid taking responsibility for the defeat he has caused and persisted in making greater each year for more than three years.

To force him to begin a withdrawal before then, the first step should be to rally the public by providing an honest and candid definition of what "supporting the troops" really means and pointing out who is and who is not supporting our troops at war. The next step should be a flat refusal to appropriate money for to be used in Iraq for anything but withdrawal operations with a clear deadline for completion.

The final step should be to put that president on notice that if ignores this legislative action and tries to extort Congress into providing funds by keeping U.S. forces in peril, impeachment proceeding will proceed in the House of Representatives. Such presidential behavior surely would constitute the "high crime" of squandering the lives of soldiers and Marines for his own personal interest.

Lieutenant General William E. Odom, U.S. Army (Ret.), is a Senior Fellow with Hudson Institute and a professor at Yale University. He was Director of the National Security Agency from 1985 to 1988. From 1981 to 1985, he served as Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, the Army's senior intelligence officer. From 1977 to 1981, he was Military Assistant to the President's Assistant for National Security Affairs, Zbigniew Brzezinski.
E-mail: diane@hudson.org

http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=background.view&backgroundid=00192

 

Since Odom is a general, Bush must be listening. Boy will Bush be mad when he finds out he can't fire Odom.