i don't understand why we are still in iraq i mean we went over there we
got saddam an we were still gettin our butts kicked... i mean don't get
me wrong i support our troops but i dont get why president bbush sent
even more troops over there. i say either bomb the crap out of them or
get out of their country an let them blow each other up

Please visit

Community­ / Current News & Events / Iraqi President Seeks Arab Support,
Fanta46,

and tell us your thoughts about the Iraq quagmire, ... after reading
the post!!! Would be interested in your comments.

Sluggo posted this a couple of days ago - give it a look see.

http://www.youtube.com/v/m9Yc3wYJOtI

Have a great day.

Hello Verbatimeb,

It would be great to get your angle on Fanta's post!

See you there.

Hello again 'verbatimeb',

Check this very interesting site of soldiers by soldiers, giving near
real-time account of the Iraqui war.

http://ftssoldier.blogspot.com/

Truly an eye opener: objective human beings (volunteer soldiers) giving
unsollicitated accounts of their experience in Iraq: what they saw, the
questions they raise, their ambivalent feelings with us back home
'supporting them'!!!

Let me know what you think.

P.S.: I've viewed the YOUTUBE post. Interesting! It will be fun
comparing notes after you visit 'ftssoldier'.

i tried to view the utube link and it wouldnt work!!!

Barb...,

Do you visit this site. Try it and let me know.

http://ftssoldier.blogspot.com/

We already bombed the crap out of them
that's why were's still there.

It's the Pottery Barn axiom:
'You break it, you fix it.'

But President Bush and his neo-con
handlers didn't anticipate that
it would create an insurgency as
Bush stood on the aircraft carrier
flight deck with a sign behind him
which announced 'Mission Accomplished'.

The Administration has failed in every
respect in managing this war and has
lost the trust of the American people.

It's funny, I actually supported the
President when he went into Afghanistan.

We should have stayed there and completed
the mission.

Now the Taliban is coming back and bin Laden
is still alive somewhere.

Great link, voileazur.

Glad you visited and enjoyed it mnhiker!

It was a 'Fanta46' find and invite originally.

You might also enjoy visiting and adding your thoughts to:

"...Community/ Current News & Events / Iraqi President Seeks Arab
Support, Fanta46,"

A look at our responsibility in understanding the 'real' situation in
Iraq as 'maybe' the only way of honestly supporting our soldiers
committed in the conflict.

Enjoy!

Guess, Junior Bush hasn't finished Daddy's war there and will want to
take all the oil there too

Exactly, It's a Prospective infringement over rights to the oil supplies
since now that the country is in shambles and no former government is
there to take control. The self-Appointed new head or president of Iraq
was placed into Office by the US and not by choice of the people.

u r the king of misinformation shadow. new government was elected by
iraquis not placed into ifice by u s government.
reality check

wow a falcon i love u and i don't even know u very very very good point.

oh please...

been there?

done that?

im glad you have a opinion, and its great to be able to express it isnt
it?


dont get me started on this subject


doc

and i will be going back, and looking forward to it

Being an Ex-Soldier i agree with the rest of the people this war has
been wrong since it started.

I have a best friend who is a war Correspondent and this is his report.

I had the unique opportunity to interview five US military servicemen
who just got back from Iraq, or in the case of two men, corresponded
with their wives so that I could ask questions of these soldiers by
mail. When the two I corresponded with came back just last week, I was
able to complete the interviews I started several months ago with some
new details on how the war is actually going.

I was shocked and angered when I found out how many of the service men
hate being in Iraq and want nothing to do with rebuilding and policing
the devastated nation. From the conversations I had, many soldiers never
wanted to go over to Iraq and fight, and the ones who had were now
convinced of the awful crime that had been committed against Iraq and
our own troops. I was told very few soldiers now believe in staying in
Iraq, or want to stay in the country and serve any more days.

The following interview was with an enlisted man, but someone very
high up in the enlisted ranks, with over 20 years of military service. I
have promised not to reveal his identity for reasons that he has a
family and has been told not to speak to journalists. He told me the
Army had put a gag order on him while he was home, and told him they
would give him twenty years in prison if he spoke out in any manner
against the US or the government.

I took several weeks to finish this interview because of not being
able to safely be seen with this individual out of his fears of being
caught speaking out.

He asked me to call him USA in all the transcripts of these
interviews. I have followed his wishes and tried to write what he said
in the manner it was said so as not to lose any impact. At times the
interview was very rough and the grammar is not perfect, but I tried to
write this in his voice so that he can tell the world how bad it is in
Iraq. I truly want you to feel what he has experienced in some way if
possible.

CFTM-- “How are you today? Resting I hope?”

USA-- “Can’t sleep for sh..t and I have horrible nightmares when I do
sleep. I might be lucky to catch an hour at a time before the nightmares
wake me up. I slept easier in the combat then now that I’m away from
there. Most awful place I’ve ever been or served duty and I didn’t want
to leave my guys. That was the hardest part was leaving the guys I had
been leading around and trying to keep out of trouble and alive.”

CFTM-- “Did you see a lot of your buddies get killed? How did it
affect you?”

USA-- “How the hell do you think it affected me? I saw over 30 of the
men I had to keep safe die, and over 100 get wounded and not come back.
I still don’t know if some of the wounded men made it or not. I was
never told before I came back home.”

CFTM-- “So it really was awful and as bad as some returning troops
have claimed?”

USA-- “It was like a long trip to hell that you knew you might return
from. Of course it is as bad as the soldiers say it is. Hell it’s even
worse if the truth has to come out. It’s a constant fu..ing nightmare
trying to figure out where the guerillas are going to hit, how to keep
the civilians calm, and also getting enough water and food to eat. That
is one thing the media never really told the Americans about, how bad it
was when our convoys weren’t getting through. We had to go to some Iraqi
people and trade socks and underwear for some food and a little water.”

CFTM-- “You really did get that desperate because I saw it in the
foreign media that the Iraqi civilians had stepped in and fed a whole
bunch of troops that had been days without food.”

USA-- -“Yeah, that ain’t no joke about getting help from the civilians
right after the invasion. We had a pretty good laugh about that and how
the army owed them some money for reimbursement. We would not have
starved probably, but when we got the food from the people it made sure
we could still operate as a functioning unit. It was a near thing that
several guys almost died of dehydration because we ran out of clean
water for a few days.”

CFTM-- “Just keep going, I want to hear more about the hardships the
military and Bush made you go through. I want the American people to
know what a nightmare this war has become and what it’s doing to our
service men over there.”

USA-- “Okay, well I can ***** about the problems like food being short
and water going bad, but I want to tell people about how bad the attacks
on US and coalition forces have gotten in the last month. In the last
two weeks I was there we were attacked at least 20 times a day if you
count all the shots we heard from random sniper or opportunity attacks.
We were losing at least five men a day to injuries and there was at
least one of our unit killed every twenty four hours.”

CFTM-- -“So you were getting one a day killed and at least five
injured? Did you know many of the guys killed?”

USA-- -“That’s a real dumb fu..ing question to ask me. You know what
my rank is, of course I knew them, I was the head NCO for years in our
unit. I knew most of the guys who died and I held a lot of hands as they
were dying. You tell me that’s not gonna to give you nightmares!”

“I had one guy tell me all he wanted was to see his little daughter;
she was born three days after the war started. He died in the sand
holding my hand and crying because his daughter would never know him.
Tell me that’s fu..ing right. Where was George Bush when this kid was
gasping for air and spitting his blood on foreign soil?”

CFTM-- -“I talked to you about this the other day. Do you think George
Bush is the wrong man to order troops into battle when he ducked it
himself?”

USA-- -“That asshole went AWOL and never showed up for duty and then
he has the nerve to take us into two different wars that will be going
on for years. I do not believe he should be president of this country,
he’s a complete idiot and he’s controlled by madmen with a drive for
only profits and getting oil.”

CFTM-- -“I just have to get this straight for the public, you are well
educated are you not? I mean you have had years of leadership training
and schools right? You sound very well informed and aware of the current
lies and manipulations, which I have not found in some other soldiers.”

USA-- -“I have a four year degree in the economics field and I am not
a soldier all the time. I am Reservist who just keeps getting caught on
long duty assignments. Believe it or not I read authors like Noam
Chomsky, Gore Vidal, and Jim Hightower, and went through three copies of
‘Stupid White Men’ by Michael Moore while I was over there. I let people
read parts of Mike’s book and they were irate that Bush had screwed us
so hard. I had parts of ‘Best Democracy Money Can Buy’ mailed to me
because I knew if I had the whole book it would get stolen in a
heartbeat.”

CFTM-- -“So you might be quite a bit more aware and well informed
about the real reasons for the war that others did not know. I don’t
know of many line soldiers reading Greg Palast or Noam Chomsky.”

USA-- -“I guess you’re right and that might be why I am trying to
speak out and let the Americans know that they are sending us to be
slaughtered. If you don’t mind I am going to cut through all the
niceties and get down to why I am going against every oath I took and
giving you this interview. I am doing it for the guys still over there
and for the ones who are going. If I’m not careful I’ll end up back
there for another six months.”

CFTM-- -“Alright tell me what it was really like and don’t skip the
gory details. I want people to be shocked and offended enough to realize
why you spoke out and what it is doing to our military by sending them
over there with blind flag waving and cheers of false victory”

USA-- -“Well the first thing I would like to thank Bush, Cheney,
Rumsfeld, and Congress for is that nice huge cut they made to Veterans
Benefits as soon as the war started. I am in the Reserves after years of
active duty and now I cannot get PTSD counseling or many medical
benefits I used to take for granted. I knew I would have the benefits
because I was laying my life down for my country. Now my benefits are
cut by around 2/3 and I have to go to either group therapy or pay for a
private counselor out of my own pocket. What happens when someone like
me has been through enormous battle stress and combat fatigue and then
comes home to no counseling?”

“I’ll tell you what is going to happen, he will either kill himself or
take a bunch of people with him. Some of the guys coming back are going
to have gone through the worst time of their lives with their buddies
dying and getting hurt, and then they’ll find out they got screwed out
of any counseling. It is the greatest disservice America is committing
against soldiers who fought for this country and may come back wounded
or horribly scarred. Medical services, school aid to dependents, school
aid for the vets, all slashed to the bare bones; mental health and drug
and alcohol counseling are being eliminated or the waiting lists will be
years long for whatever services manage to survive.”

“That is one thing the American people still have not really caught on
to is the fact that while they were screaming out ‘Support Our Troops’
the current regime makers were fu..ing the military and veterans out of
almost every social program and non essential service that would make
life easier.”

“Bush really fu..ked us while we were gone. We found out about after
being in the middle of heavy fighting for several weeks. It was one of
the first things I read in Stars and Stripes, and I thought it was a
joke because it was just to hard to believe Congress and our leaders
would screw us that bad while we were fighting and dying.”

CFTM-- -“Glad you brought that up about counseling because I wasn’t
even aware of it. Are you alright to talk about some of the civilian
casualties you witnessed and some of the horrifying images you told me
about when we first started talking?”

USA-- -“I want to talk about some of the children I saw killed for no
reason, maybe it will wake someone up who doesn’t believe it was
happening, or that it was very bad. I can tell you I will never forget
the screams of the wounded or orphaned kids, or the wailing of the
parents who lost their kids. The Iraqis and most Muslims have a very
vocal way of mourning the dead by lamenting and wailing for the dead.
There is no mistaking a mother or father crying out in pain for the loss
of a child. They don’t cry like that unless there has been a death.
Sometimes after a bombing raid or an artillery attack you could here
hundreds of people wiling and weeping.”

“I have several grown children with grand kids about the age of most
of the dead children I saw in Iraq. I also have several kids who are
about half grown and I saw a lot of Iraqi children that age wandering
around in charge of three or four little ones because their parents were
dead.”

“Let me tell you about the cluster bomb raid we saw wipe out a whole
bunch of little kids. It looked like they had already lost their parents
and were trying to salvage food from a destroyed Iraqi convoy by the
side of the road we were on. The kids were way off to the side about
half a mile away by then when we got the word that the Iraqi column was
going to be hit with cluster bombs and we had to clear the area. We got
on the radio and tried to get the air strike stopped but we were told it
was too late to get it stopped.”

“We could see the body parts flying up into the air after the bombs
hit. It was terrible and we could not do a damn thing but watch it
happen and scream into the radio at the dumb sh.t pilot that was
dropping the bombs. After the strike was over we went to see if there
were any survivors and all we found was bits and pieces of little kids
and here and there an arm or leg you could still identify.”

CFTM-- -“Pretty rough stuff to have to see. Did that kind of thing
happen a lot?”

USA-- -“More than you can imagine until you’ve seen it over and over
again. Man I don’t want to talk about this sh.t anymore. It doesn’t help
to talk about it because it just makes me think about it again. I can’t
even get any counseling without having to pay for it.”

“Let all those people who support our troops in on that nice surprise
that Bush gave us. That’s how much we really mean to Bush, the
Department of Defense and all those other stupid assholes who keep
saying how good we’re doing over there. Let those patriotic morons go
and fight and die for our country. Let them leave their families behind
for months and maybe come back home in a box. I’ll be the first one to
salute them or honor them when they die.”

“It’s just like Nam was in the beginning. I was twelve when my dad got
back and I’ll never forget the pain and agony he lived with the rest of
his life. Its kind of what I feel now, I suppose. I never thought I
would ever serve in some stuff that’s so much like Nam it isn’t funny.
Now I really see what my pop went through, and if I could I would go
back in the past a few months, I would go AWOL or turn conscientious
objector on them, but it’s too late for that now.”

“I damn sure will not go back over there even if they throw me in
Leavenworth. I never could understand how a guy could be a conscientious
objector until what I just went through. I wish more guys would stand up
and tell Bush and the Pentagon they will not fight their war for oil. We
should not have to die for these rich bastards profits and enrichment.”

CFTM-- -“Thank you for taking the risk and talking to me. I know there
will be other soldiers who can’t speak out who will thank you for having
the courage.”

USA-- -“It isn’t about courage it’s a matter of what’s right. This war
is killing the poor or middle class American men and women who went in
the armed forces to have college or some kind of better future. You
don’t see the rich kids joining up or any Senator’s kid dying in Iraq.
It’s us little guys who are dying over there or getting disabled for
life. Where are the leaders that are supposed to be looking out for the
little man? They are elected to look after out interests not the
interests of Cheney and Halliburton, or any of the rest of the fat cats
piling up the profits while the blood of our soldiers flows over their
hands.”

CFTM-- -“Anything else you want to say to America? Any final thoughts
or words?”

USA-- -“Yeah! Wake up America! Your sons and daughters are dying for
nothing! This war is not about freedom or stopping terrorism. Bring us
home now! We are dying for oil and corporate greed!”

Shadow shadow shadow...

One discrepancy. Out of several that are buried in the above long
disertation.

If this claim of casulty numbers are to be believed his unit alone would
have taken nearly all the casualities inflicted in the war by itself.

That just does not compute.

Please throw real stuff if you wish to get my attention. I may not be
highly educated but I can do math.

from nov of 2005 until nov of 2006 is was in one of the ony two place
that you heard about on the news in regards to iraq.
you always hear about baghdad becaues it was always having car bombs and
stuff like that, but then you heard of this place called ramadi alsoo
called al anbar province, why did you hear of it, well because it was
the most active place in iraq. meaning most of the fighting that was
going on in 2006 was being done in ramadi, dont believe me then google
it and you'll see for yourself, and its still being mentioned today.

having said all that, out of 711 men in my battalion, over 130 received
purple hearts for wounds inflicted or caused directly by enemy actions,
thats about one out of six, we also sustained some losses, in a unit
such as mine you tend to know everyone so all of our losses hurt just a
little bit more.

shadow you want to do an interview, thats no BS,, hey I'll do one with
you. Decorated vet with integrety enough to tell you what i saw and did,
hell ive even managed to write a journal of sorts about the times and
missions over there.

I also want to say something about an early post of yours i think, where
you had posted an editorial about some 650,000 arbitrary number of dead,
that claim, doesnt compute with me either.

why? well seeings how i was in the most kenetic battle field in iraq
during my time there, meaning the most "enemy" deaths, with just under
600 confirmed bodies on the ground, i find it very difficult to stomach
the absoluteness of your count. simple math and common sense doesnt
allow it to add, well.... unless your adding in the mass graves from
sadam, then maybe the number is closer to the truth.

drop me an email shadow, and ask your questions, or do your name calling
or whatever. looking forward to it.

DOC

I agree with the OP, and think that is how it should have been handled
in the first place. Too bad we can't just seal the whole region inside
of some bubble so they can just go at it and the rest of the world won't
keep getting drug into their mess.