My nephew just came back from Iraq....

and from what he has told me, the military backs President Bush by a staggering percentage. They have no respect for Kerry and do NOT want him as their commander in chief.

Also, I was glad to hear that most of them do not keep up with the news as they know it is just a bunch of bull. They know they are there doing good and a lot of good things have come out of us being there.

His exact words at one point were "I don;t know who you plan to vote for, but if you vote for Kerry, your voting in the draft." I believe him.

I'm so proud he went, I am glad he's home. Hopefully we can learn from the men and women coming back this time, instead of demean their mission and courage by not giving the war it's due. We are there, get over it. We are doing a good job, and we will continue until Iraq can stand on its own.

I am glad he is back, and it sounds like he is well which is good.

I am curious to hear if others have been hearing similar things. (I don't at all mean to discredit you or your nephew, but always good to have multiple sources for that sort of opinionated issue)

Glad he's back...

make sure you let him know that at least one member of this board appreciates what he did. I'm sure that others do also....

God Bless....

nice to know people are proud of killing others

My sentiments exactly regarding the troops over there.

I am British & to be honest i dont like politics or have any real idea about the US elections. I dont pretend to even know about the UK politics.

My son is over there right now along with his 2 life long friends, all based just outside Basra.
Every day that goes by fills me with agony because i dont know exactly what he and his 2 friends are doing or if they are ok. Guess thats just the parent in me coming out.

The sights they have seen would screw even the most hardened civilian up, but these 19 year olds have to put up with this because its there line of work. Ok, i know they signed up to join the forces and this type of thing is to be expected.

We all know that wars are started by politics and won by soldiers who do a damn brave job.
Maybe the governments would think twice about starting wars if they knew that siblings of there own were going to defend their country.
Has Bush got any children serving ? Has Blair got any children serving?

Ultimately, they are playing with mens & womens lives for the sake of controlling oil. This, to me prooves its all about politics and not to free a country from a 'madman' allthough i do think the world is better off without him. Having said that, what about our leaders? I will leave that one open for discussion.

The war has happened , and we are there like you said. Lets hope for the best and look forward to our loved ones coming back safe and sound.

Cheers

Bikereddie in the UK

i answered this again just to get it back to the top.

I think it could do with some replies as to how people feel about the war and for any who have relatives serving.

Maybe they could share a few thoughts and experiances about their siblings etc.

Aimlessly,

Thank him for me too. Most of us appreciate the service this fine men and woman are doing. My cousin is in Afghanistan...

Best of luck to them all....

I am glad also that he is back and well, I also have friends that just came back and their views of the war its a lot diferent they are Marines so they were in the worst areas of the country, and they are just happy to be with their families and just been alive.

They know they are there doing good and a lot of good things have come out of us being there.

So please, enlighten us with atleast 3 or 4 positive "good things" that have come out of the war in Iraq.

I'm curious to know what "a lot" actually means in this case.

What service was he in? Everyone I know from the Army says the opposite.

I hear that!

I'm no Bush lover (understatement of the month candidate...), but I sure as hell wouldn't want to work for Kerry. I couldn't trust him as a soldier.

It was bad enough being an enlisted man in Clinton's Army.

Aimlessly, no matter what I think of the war, I have but one thing to say to you...

I am so happy to hear that he is safe and that he is home, its so nice to hear that instead of the death tolls for a change.

And Bikereddie, I hope your son and his friends return home soon, safe and unharmed.

As I said, no matter my opinion of the war, they are all VERY brave guys and girls over there.

Originally posted by bodrul
nice to know people are proud of killing others

This post coming from an individual who has the signature he does, a semi-auto handgun with the tag, "You're either SWAT, or you're not"


Let's see if you can spell it...

Hip---oh---krit??????

DeltaChaos my husband served under 4 presidents and he never complained about any of them regarless of his personal political affiliacions.

I have to give it to my husband he respected the desicions of his comander in chiefs.

Originally posted by curme
What service was he in? Everyone I know from the Army says the opposite.

Yeah, but both of them are Democrats, the only ones in the Army, right?

OK folks .........for what its worth I'll give you a couple of bits and pieces for you to digest.

Firstly I did not agree with the justification for going to war and i wish to point out that I am ex military. However when we did go in, I backed our troops 110% because once commited there was no way the US or UK government was going to back down.

For about a year now I have been operating in Iraq, mainly in the Baghdad area and as I type can see the lights of the so called "Green Zone"(or recent PC name International Zone) across from me. So I guess that I feel pretty entitled to share my thoughts with you all.

The situation out here is the worst I have seen it, with a real general feeling of menace in the air. There are constant security alerts and all the US troops that I have seen are at a 'heightened state'. So now that is out of the way lets look at good and bad things.

Good

1/ Many children in the Baghdad area now attend school on a regular basis. Most, if not all of these schools have been refurbished by either western aid agencies or US Mil.

2/ Power cuts are less frequent.

3/ Parks are being built and landscaped by US Mil. The thoughts behind this is the old 'Hearts and Minds' projects.

4/ The transport infrastructure is currently being worked on.

Bad

1/ In Sept 34 US troops were killed.

2/ Life for the locals is still cheap. If they get caught in cross fire then its classed as thier fault.

3/ I have taken incoming while I have been out here, mainly from bandits whilst driving between Baghdad and the Jordanian boarder earlier in the year. BUT my biggest fear is still being shot by mistake by an American soldier.

Quite simply.......out here 'good news' for the media organisations is when a single incident kills more than 10 people in one go. What you don't get to see is the un cut footage, which if it were shown in 1st world countries would couse an outcry that no government would ever recover from.

All in all Iraq is in a mess that will take 5 to 10 years to put right. The question we should all be asking though is where do Bush and Blair intend to invade next???

Oh by the way..........look out on the news for something big over here around the 31st. You know....just before the elections.

Stay Safe

[edit on 19-10-2004 by BillyTheCat]

Originally posted by Affirmative Reaction

Originally posted by curme
What service was he in? Everyone I know from the Army says the opposite.

Yeah, but both of them are Democrats, the only ones in the Army, right?

Maybe you should check your sig.

Originally posted by marg6043
DeltaChaos my husband served under 4 presidents and he never complained about any of them regarless of his personal political affiliacions.

I have to give it to my husband he respected the desicions of his comander in chiefs.

Yes. So long as the CinC's decisions lead to actions that are necessary, and in the interest of the whole of the people. Just because one is a soldier, does not mean that they are not a citizen. There was a time when superiors valued the input of their subordinates. Bureacracy has all but eliminated that basic tenet of bottom up communications being fudamental to effective top down leadership.

Right now, our lieutenants, captains, and sergeants have more combat experience than the general officers will ever have. Someone needs to pay attention.

Maybe Douglas MacGregor?

Bush is so completely blind to what he has done. Actually, I don't think that's true. I think he just has to display an air of flawlessness so that no one could acuse him of 'flip-flopping' and lose the election because of it.

I would be infinitely more happy working for Clinton than I would be working for Bush.

Originally posted by curme

Maybe you should check your sig.

Maybe you should read it and heed it.....

I have friends in every branch.

The most recent ones I have talked to were a demolition guy in the Marines, a Navy SEAL, an artillery guy in the army and most recently a radar operator in the Navy.

All back Bush. Each of them said everyone they know in the service backs Bush.

I think it is obvious that no one in the military wants to be bossed around by scarry Kerry because he doesn't support them. He doesn't vote for weapons systems and when he came back from nam he was a traitor.