VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, [2] ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 12:46:57 09/21/04 Tue
Author: Jeffersonne
Subject: Re: A Soldier's Thoughts
In reply to: Ann 's message, "A Soldier's View" on 07:11:52 04/05/03 Sat

>This comes from an F-15


God bless you. Your mission on the ground will be much harder than flying cover and destoying unidentified villages on orders of President Bush.
God knows if you are right, here in this post.




pilot, sent just days before
>the war broke out. Worth the read. Show it to your
>kids who may or may not be getting just one side of
>the story from school. Show it to a protester / peace
>actiist you may know, though that person will most
>likely turn a deaf ear. Most importantly, support your
>troops! This is not propaganda folks. We really are
>fighting the good fight - though the media may make
>some of you believe otherwise.
>---------
>I've been deployed to Turkey for about 3 months now
>and am told I will be here "indefinitely." We aren't
>flying much and there isn't a whole lot else to do
>right now, so I get to keep up with the news pretty
>well on satellite TV. This weekend, I was shocked, and
>frankly pretty annoyed, to see millions of people
>around the world protesting potential war in Iraq.
>Don't get me wrong; I don't disagree with anyone's
>right to do that. In fact, I encourage it if that is
>what they truly believe. It is just clear to me based
>on the ridiculous comments they made to reporters and
>the carnival atmosphere of the marches that these
>people have no idea what the actual facts of the
>matter are. If they knew the facts, I believe many
>would feel differently. Since there are probably some
>of "those people" among you and you apparently weren't
>swayed in the face of Colin Powell's evidence, let me
>present my perspective to you.
>
>Many people out there think that we should just give
>the inspectors more time, that war should be the last
>resort. I agree with you--war should be the last
>resort. Trust me, it's my pink body on the line, not
>yours. The problem with the "more time" argument is
>that people are only taking into account the last
>three months of inspections. Do you realize that there
>have been UN inspections for a total of 9 out of the
>last 12 years?
>
>That's right, there have NOT been three months of
>inspections. There have been NINE YEARS of
>inspections. Do you really think they are working?
>They haven't turned anything up, but do you really,
>honestly believe that the Iraqis are not hiding
>anything? Do you really, honestly believe that
>inspections will find what they are hiding? How many
>YEARS of inspections would it take to satisfy you? I
>think nine is more than enough.
>
>Based on Powell's speech alone, even a skeptic can see
>that the Iraqis know ahead of time where the
>inspectors are going and clean those sites out before
>the inspectors get there. We know for sure, FOR SURE,
>that the Iraqis have chemical and biological weapons.
>No question. The Iraqis continue to claim they don't
>have them. The inspections have not found them. "Then
>how could we know that and why won't the government
>'prove' it to me," you ask. Intelligence is the
>answer. The reason you can't know HOW we know is that
>the way we know that would then be given up. We need
>the WAY we know that to be secret because we need
>those sources to continue to provide information so we
>can DESTROY the chem/bio weapons. In a purely
>theoretical example, if we bugged a conference room
>where the Iraqi generals discussed where they were
>moving their weapons and we told the world of the
>conversations we overheard there, the Iraqis are not
>stupid enough to keep talking in that conference room!
>We no longer have that information coming in. We may
>not be able to use that info to go destroy the
>chem/bio weapons. Since that is the REAL GOAL, it is
>far more important to accomplish that than to convince
>you. Intelligence is a simple thing to counter if the
>bad guys know how you are getting your information.
>The trick is keeping them from knowing your sources
>and methods. Therefore, the "good stuff" can't exactly
>be broadcast on the evening news just to satisfy you.
>
>Many out there believe that the Iraqis MAY have
>chem/bio weapons, but don't really care because "they
>are only for self-defense. They wouldn't actually use
>them." Let me tell you about the Iraqis and chemical
>weapons. Saddam Hussein took power in 1979. In 1980,
>Iraq invaded its eastern neighbor, Iran. The resulting
>Iran-Iraq war lasted for eight years. Iraq started it.
>They invaded Iran and then used chemical weapons to
>kill thousands of Iranian troops. They used chemical
>weapons against Iranian villages and civilians. Oh
>yeah, the soldiers he captured in that war became
>medical guinea pigs for chem/bio experiments. They all
>died as well. (Let's see, who else in history has used
>humans as guinea pigs for chemical weapons
>experiments? You can figure that one out, I digress.)
>
>"Well, that was war" you say. In 1988, Iraq ordered
>chemical weapons used against a Kurdish village (all
>civilians) in northern Iraq. FIVE THOUSAND people
>died, SEVEN THOUSAND were wounded. For reference, note
>that 3500 were killed in the WTC attacks. In 1991,
>after the end of the Gulf War, Saddam Hussein ordered
>Iraqi troops to use chemical weapons against another
>Kurdish village in northern Iraq. He killed everyone
>in that village--3000 people. The Kurds were all
>civilians. They were all IRAQI CITIZENS. Saddam killed
>them because of ETHNIC HATRED. Think of the Kurds kind
>of like the Gypsies in Italy. The Turks, Iraqis, and
>Iranians all hate the Kurds. But let me say that
>again, he KILLED them because of ETHNIC HATRED. Women,
>children, old people. (once again, sound familiar in
>history?) He doesn't care.
>
>"Well," you say, "Iraq has been oppressed by sanctions
>since the Gulf War. Its people are starving. It's only
>natural for them to try to break free from these
>oppressive resolutions." (Once again, sound familiar
>in history?) Let me tell you about that. The UN
>authorized the Oil for Food Program after the Gulf War
>that would allow Iraq to sell oil to get money for
>food and medicine for its people while economic
>embargo's remained in place to force Iraq to disarm.
>International aid organizations have been sending food
>and medicine for years. Much of it is taken and
>immediately sold on the black market for cash. That
>cash is used to buy items (mostly weapons) prohibited
>in the Gulf War cease fire agreement. Most of the rest
>sits in warehouses in Baghdad, undistributed to the
>Iraqi people. The Iraqi government refuses to hand it
>out because they want to be able to blame the plight
>of their people on the US. If the people see that the

>US is sending them food and medicine, that ruins the
>argument.
>
>Much of the money Iraq was supposed to use to buy food
>was diverted directly to Saddam Hussein himself. Since
>the Gulf War, Saddam has built himself forty palaces.
>That's right, FORTY PALACES! These are not just big
>houses. The total landmass of Saddam's new palaces
>totals about NINE SQUARE MILES! The palaces are filled
>with marble and gold and plenty of portraits of
>Saddam. Meanwhile, his people starve and he doesn't
>care. "We should be focusing on Al Qaeda," you say.
>"They are the real threat to us." Well, Al Qaeda has
>strong ties with the Iraqi government (you're going to
>have to trust me on that) and Iraq is a haven for Al
>Qaeda leaders. Al Qaeda SEEKS chemical, biological,
>and nuclear weapons. Iraq HAS chemical, biological,
>and IS DEVELOPING nuclear weapons. They are now
>friends.
>
>It doesn't take an Einstein to do the math here.
>Everyone wants to see a smoking gun. You idiots! If
>there is a smoking gun, it is too late. The gun has
>gone off. The smoke will be dead bodies. What do you
>want, pictures of Saddam playing golf with Osama?
>After Sept 11th, everyone asked why we couldn't piece
>it all together beforehand. Why couldn't the
>government see it coming? What do you think the
>"smoking gun" would have been back then? Some guys
>took flying lessons? Some guys got on airplanes with
>box cutters? Before the actual hijacking, there was
>not "proof" of anything! Would anyone have supported
>invading Afghanistan and rooting out Al Qaeda based on
>that? NO WAY. The smoking gun, well, you know that by
>now.
>
>"Exhaust diplomacy," you say. First of all, there has
>been TWELVE YEARS of diplomacy to try to make Iraq
>disarm. Did you know that Iraq has not fully complied
>with a single UN resolution in the last twelve years?
>
>That's right, not just this stuff about the
>inspectors. ALL SEVENTEEN resolutions have been
>ignored. Do you honestly believe that anything we do
>diplomatically will persuade Saddam to disarm? DO YOU?
>He is only interested in staying in power and is
>playing the game well to keep himself there. We have
>tried talking to the him. We have tried economic and
>trade sanctions. We have tried military action. We
>have tried no fly zones. We have tried inspections.
>What else do you suggest? Maybe if we just say "pretty
>please" he'll comply. We've tried everything else.
>
>"Don't act uÿ

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]
[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.