Anonymous wrote:since we are already over there we should just have them attack iran, pretty close by would cost less money. Once we get rid of iran the world will be better and oil should be cheaper.

That was what we have done since the80s. Iran and Iraq tied each other up. The war strengthened Iran and weakened iraq which is why Iran won this conflict.

So now Iran won't have to fight Iraq. They can sit back and find the Shiite iraqis and do this without using their own people.

If there was a draft there never would have been an iraq war.

The draft should be reinstated.

Totally agree. You want to enjoy the benefits of living in America? Then put on a uniform and serve two years.

Anonymous wrote:Even if I were denied a job at McD's, I wouldn't decide it was time to kill someone in another country....I would still have my morals.

Tough talk from someone who's probably never had to make a truly difficult decision.

Give your children the poor nutrition and healthcare, nonexistent education, greatly increased risk of assault and abuse, terrible role models and peer influences, and countless deprivations of poverty in this country and then tell us what an "idiot" you'd be to consider all alternatives. I guess your ethical system makes letting your children suffer an easy choice.

Many of our men and women DO have options. Yet they CHOOSE to serve. My oldest will graduate from college at the end of the year. His college was fully funded. He spent eight months in Iraq. And is now in Afghanistan for the next ten months. He didn't have to serve. He chose this life. He'll graduate from college as an Officer in the US Army, and I couldn't be prouder.

My second child is also in the military. He chose a different path. Again, his college was fully funded. He could have got straight to college. Instead, he felt it was his obligation to serve. He leaves for Afghanistan in January. Again,I couldn't be prouder.

I feel really sorry for you and for your children. Your "morals" are obviously very different from mine.

The draft should be reinstated.

A New York Times reporter discovered a stash of classified US documents in a dump in Iraq. The documents provided detailed information about a massacre in which US troops killed over 20 Iraqi civilians. This article reminds me of the role of the Times and other media in getting us into this war.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/world/middleeast/united-states-marines-haditha-interviews-found-in-iraq-junkyard.html

Despite this trove of information which includes first-hand accounts, pictures, and drawings of the scene, the article offers scant detail of what actually occurred. The article hides reality, saying things like: "Within a few hours 24 Iraqis — including a 76-year-old man and children between the ages of 3 and 15 — were killed, many inside their homes." Noticed, these people "were killed", as if by a falling meteor. The journalist knows a lot more about these killings, but refuses to tell us.

Rather than provide details of what is likely a war crime, the journalist concentrates on what he things is truly important:

"But the accounts are just as striking for what they reveal about the extraordinary strains on the soldiers who were assigned here, their frustrations and their frequently painful encounters with a population they did not understand."

Yes, the real story is not that 24 Iraqis were killed in cold blood. The real story is that US troops ware frustrated. Therefore, the truth of their deeds does not need to be exposed.

As for the US military, it refuses to discuss the matter because even though the reporter has the documents in his hand, they are "classified". The Times, showing who calls the shots, has not published the documents.

Anonymous wrote:

TheManWithAUsername wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As long as we have idiots ready and willing to carry guns and kill people, we will always have war.

That's terribly unfair.

No one said it was fair.

You not concerned about being fair when publicly judging others? OK.

Anonymous wrote:We all have free will. There are other ways to survive.

I'm sure you're speaking from your vast personal experience with poverty and personal limitations.

Anonymous wrote:Even if I were denied a job at McD's, I wouldn't decide it was time to kill someone in another country....I would still have my morals.

Tough talk from someone who's probably never had to make a truly difficult decision.

Give your children the poor nutrition and healthcare, nonexistent education, greatly increased risk of assault and abuse, terrible role models and peer influences, and countless deprivations of poverty in this country and then tell us what an "idiot" you'd be to consider all alternatives. I guess your ethical system makes letting your children suffer an easy choice.

Anonymous wrote:since we are already over there we should just have them attack iran, pretty close by would cost less money. Once we get rid of iran the world will be better and oil should be cheaper.

ALASKA!!!

since we are already over there we should just have them attack iran, pretty close by would cost less money. Once we get rid of iran the world will be better and oil should be cheaper.

TheManWithAUsername wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In 2003 we fought a self trained army of 375,000. Now we have a us trained army of 650,000 who knows our every tactic. We never found those WMDs but we gave Iran 10 years of opportunity to build them.

If we're lucky, the Iran/Iraq war will start up again.

Anonymous wrote:We lost more troops than we lost civilians in 9/11 but worse are the 50,000 plus soldiers with permanent brain trauma. And that's just on our side.

And then there's the money, as mentioned - the lives lost and worsened by the waste of resources. $800 billion is the cost of employing every unemployed American at the median income for 2 years and about the cost of feeding every hungry person on earth 3 meals a day for 3 years.

Anonymous wrote:As long as we have idiots ready and willing to carry guns and kill people, we will always have war.

That's terribly unfair. If you had a family to support and you were one of the millions turned down for a McDonald's job, what would you do? I'm glad my circumstances haven't forced me to be one of those "idiots."

No one said it was fair. It's just the sad truth. We all have free will. There are other ways to survive. Even if I were denied a job at McD's, I wouldn't decide it was time to kill someone in another country....I would still have my morals.

Anonymous wrote:In 2003 we fought a self trained army of 375,000. Now we have a us trained army of 650,000 who knows our every tactic. We never found those WMDs but we gave Iran 10 years of opportunity to build them.

If we're lucky, the Iran/Iraq war will start up again.

Anonymous wrote:We lost more troops than we lost civilians in 9/11 but worse are the 50,000 plus soldiers with permanent brain trauma. And that's just on our side.

And then there's the money, as mentioned - the lives lost and worsened by the waste of resources. $800 billion is the cost of employing every unemployed American at the median income for 2 years and about the cost of feeding every hungry person on earth 3 meals a day for 3 years.

Anonymous wrote:As long as we have idiots ready and willing to carry guns and kill people, we will always have war.

That's terribly unfair. If you had a family to support and you were one of the millions turned down for a McDonald's job, what would you do? I'm glad my circumstances haven't forced me to be one of those "idiots."

There was a program on NPR about three years ago in which these researchers had estimated the number of Iraqi deaths due to the war at anywhere from 250,000 to 600,000.
That was three years ago and that doesn't take into account the devastated infrastructure and endemic violence and a country ruled by a Shiite government that's going to be very cozy with the Iranian mullahs, no doubt.

And I believe the final cost of the war has been estimated at $3 trillion.

Thank you W, Rumsfeld, Cheney. May you all rot in in the lowest circle of hell.

We keep the machine going!! War is an industry....we can't let our industry die, can we? As long as we have idiots ready and willing to carry guns and kill people, we will always have war.

We lost 4,000 men and women and spent 800+ BILLION. For what?

So glad we are done with this mess. But I was depressed when I read this quote:

Updated at 5:42 a.m ET: "Since 2003, we have helped the Iraqi security forces grow from zero to 650,000-strong," Austin says.

msnbc

In 2003 we fought a self trained army of 375,000. Now we have a us trained army of 650,000 who knows our every tactic. We never found those WMDs but we gave Iran 10 years of opportunity to build them. We lost more troops than we lost civilians in 9/11 but worse are the 50,000 plus soldiers with permanent brain trauma. And that's just on our side.

It was the wrong war.