tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12796551.post1307889821467671031..comments2024-03-26T05:18:53.709-04:00Comments on Pen and Sword: In Bush's FootstepsJeff Huberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14146644937683409726noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12796551.post-34021566594394559462009-08-25T13:04:59.677-04:002009-08-25T13:04:59.677-04:00As of yesterday, there are more soldiers killed so...As of yesterday, there are <a href="http://icasualties.org/oef/" rel="nofollow">more soldiers killed so far this year in Afghanistan </a> than in any entire year since 2001, and it's only August. <br /><br />Meanwhile, Stan the Man wants sixty (?) thousand more. Where is he going to get them from? I don't understand the logic. If the surge (the most recent one) made things so much worse, how is doing more of the same going to make things better?<br /><br />That's the kind of thinking that comes from lack of sleep and low blood sugar. Sleep deprived drivers are as impaired as someone driving over the blood alcohol limit. Why is sleep deprivation a good thing in war planning?<br /><br />Too many questions, not enough answers.Filostratohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04469903260877069258noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12796551.post-32854707850210656892009-08-23T17:09:46.980-04:002009-08-23T17:09:46.980-04:00I hope you're right, EL, but my sense says we&...I hope you're right, EL, but my sense says we'll be there longer than Obama is president.Jeff Huberhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14146644937683409726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12796551.post-27726515506694388002009-08-23T16:05:20.532-04:002009-08-23T16:05:20.532-04:00My prediction, (for what it's worth) is this: ...My prediction, (for what it's worth) is this: This war in Afghanistan won't last anywhere near as long as the war in Iraq. Obama won't either. <br /><br />The MSM is already tired of both. The war is being referred to as "Obama's Viet Nam" and polling showing that the American people don't think it's worth fighting, is finding its was into print.<br /><br />None of that happened with the war in Iraq. "Shock and Awe" sold ads. <br /><br />Karzai? Innocents (women and children at weddings) being bombed by drones? Not so much.Elderladyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02268520056042293783noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12796551.post-75364380219629670662009-08-23T05:05:57.936-04:002009-08-23T05:05:57.936-04:00Why are people only now coming to the realization ...Why are people only now coming to the realization that Obama is a complete tool of the establishment? I didn't pay much attention to the campaign last year, but the signs seemed pretty obvious to me. He voted for the banker bailout (I can't <i>believe</i> he did that without getting a drop on him – talk about teflon!), he agreed in debate with McCain's idiotic contention that we could be free of Middle East oil in 15 years (just “drill, baby, drill!,” and build those nuke plants), and he received more in donations from individual donors working for defense contractors than McCain. I distinctly remember checking this on one of those campaign contribution database websites (this amazing modern world we live in!).<br /><br />In fact, I can't remember if it was KBR or Halliburton, but I thought it was hilarious that our Iraq Saviour received one contribution to McCain's <i>zip</i>. And then there were all the hedge fund yahoos and corporate wankers pouring money into his campaign (to the tune of 745 million...about what it costs to send a space probe to Pluto!). Did anyone really believe that these people, who are interested in the bottom line <i>uber alles</i> really wanted “change?” Why, oh why, when all of this was known (or could be discovered) before the election, did everyone (and I mean <i>everyone</i>, including all but two of my blog heroes) go squishy on the guy?<br /><br />Change, my ass.jpwhitehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17975430453557627368noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12796551.post-48513971251670728872009-08-23T04:02:23.117-04:002009-08-23T04:02:23.117-04:00Commander Huber -
After rereading, I note that y...Commander Huber - <br /><br />After rereading, I note that your <i>common value</i> post is dated a year ago during the run up to the election. I doubt seriously if this blogger who calls himself 'TrueNorth' is a member of the VFW and perhaps was not even a vet but just a Rovian political provocateur.<br /><br />As to your comment about visiting several posts that were 'right wing nutty', I am sure that is true. But #1, I thought you lived in the Virginia beach area, if you visited a post there then of course they were all Limbaugh lunatics. #2, any and all posts just outside a large military base are probably gung ho and going to be pro war, but not necessarily right wing nutty Limbaugh freaks. And #3, I have to ask, did you canvas all the members or just meet a few blowhards at the bar?<br /><br />As I mentioned earlier, my post has no bar and no clubhouse. I believe that is true of 80 to 90% of posts now due to insurance costs. We basically just have a business meeting once a month to discuss funds expended or vote on future actions. For instance at the last meeting I attended we approved a small cash donation to a sick widow of a WW-II vet with no health insurance and approved gas money to one of our members who regularly volunteers to transport elderly VA patients to the nearest VA hospital (200+ miles round trip).<br /><br />Additionally, I believe that without the VFW (or the Legion or the DAV) there would be no VA at all, privates and seamen would still be making 78$/month, and there would be no COLA in your retirement check. The primary purpose of the national VFW is to lobby for veterans rights. They are a mutual aid society on a national level just like the small posts are all over America. Without the VFW we vets would probably be starving and in rags and facing bayonets like the Bonus Army did some 75+ years ago.mikenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12796551.post-86392768398818038022009-08-23T03:17:09.028-04:002009-08-23T03:17:09.028-04:00Jeff - Your common value link is the raving of som...Jeff - Your <i>common value</i> link is the raving of some lone deluded teabagger and is not VFW policy.<br /><br />Anonymous - Ahhhh, a Pearl Harbor conspiracy theorist I see. Should I refer to you as TinFoilHatMan in any future correspondence?mikenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12796551.post-30830871630811734102009-08-22T22:41:53.043-04:002009-08-22T22:41:53.043-04:00Mike, you sort of missed the main point of my post...Mike, you sort of missed the main point of my post. Most vets cannot or will not accept that the US lied to them about the reasons for whichever war they were involved in. Go to your post or any other and offer to speak about the fact that Pearl Harbor was NOT a 'surprise' attack and check the reaction.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12796551.post-48679016584577802342009-08-22T16:27:19.455-04:002009-08-22T16:27:19.455-04:00" Why a Democrat who was elected on a peace p...<i>" Why a Democrat who was elected on a peace platform feels compelled to throw a bone to Pavlov’s dogs of war is inscrutable."</i> <br /><br />Ummmmm... babe?Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16792708325700599373noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12796551.post-68204489464462724062009-08-22T06:54:21.203-04:002009-08-22T06:54:21.203-04:00Mike,
I am sure there are moderate posts out the...Mike, <br /><br />I am sure there are moderate posts out there, but as the "common value" link illustrates, the VFW castigates them. I've been around several posts, they were all pro war and right wing nutty<br /><br />JeffJeff Huberhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14146644937683409726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12796551.post-48163762905921122542009-08-22T02:04:58.897-04:002009-08-22T02:04:58.897-04:00Commander Huber - I agree completely with your por...Commander Huber - I agree completely with your portrayal of Obama as Bush-2. But you are dead wrong about the VFW being war dogs and Republicans. Every VFW post is different of course just like every American town is different. And in my local small town VFW post the membership reflects the local population. There is one diehard dittohead in our post plus three to four lefties (including me) who give him grief, the remainder of the membership are quiet about their voter registration but most disapproved of the decision to go into Iraq. My post is small, we have no bar and clubhouse, we are basically just a veterans mutual aid group putting out flags in cemeteries on Memorial Day and helping out elderly vets or their families when we can. <br /><br />Anonymous - You are incorrect probably based on an assumption that the small part of the VFW that you were exposed to represents every post in America. I am a VFW member. While many members of our local post served in supporting roles (God bless em I say), my post also includes combat soldiers and Marines from Korea, Vietnam, and Gulf War #1. Our post also includes a WW-2 sailor who spent many hours in the Philipine Sea when his destroyer was sunk out from underneath him, and a WW-2 Coast Guardsman who was a coxswain in the Pacific.<br /><br />By the way, John Kerry is a VFW member and so is McGovern. Bush was never eligible and neither was Cheney who is not even eligible for the Legion.<br /><br />The Legion of which I am also a member is definitely hawkish. Their monthly magazine quite frequently includes a BS article by some neo-con writer, which I suspect are subsidized by right wing mega-bucks. But then that is the magazine of the national organization and does not necessarily reflect the feeling in local Legion Halls.mikenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12796551.post-70829152874134661562009-08-22T00:59:28.927-04:002009-08-22T00:59:28.927-04:00Excuse me if this is double posted.
I have been in...Excuse me if this is double posted.<br />I have been involved with the AL and VFW. I thought that the most anti war people would be those that had experienced it first-hand.<br />I was wrong. The members had integrated their service into a personal paradigm around which they built their lives and personalities. For them to admit that they had been used for reasons other than to 'keep America free', would basically destroy their psyche. Incidentally, most of the vets in these organizations were not combat troops. They use the organization to hide their feelins of not being front line troops.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12796551.post-15327823020692235722009-08-21T18:58:43.985-04:002009-08-21T18:58:43.985-04:00Sometimes Ted Rall nails it (from a year ago):
ht...Sometimes Ted Rall nails it (from a year ago):<br /><br />http://www.rall.com/gallery2/v/Cartoons/7-26-08.jpg.htmlPeter VEnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12796551.post-82686682010134439882009-08-21T13:12:27.556-04:002009-08-21T13:12:27.556-04:00Afternoon, Jeff.
Leave it to the Aussies to get t...Afternoon, Jeff.<br /><br />Leave it to the Aussies to get the story of the election out. From Paul McGeogh at The Age.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.theage.com.au/world/britney-spears-votes-in-afghanistan-20090819-eqj1.html" rel="nofollow">Britney Spears votes in Afghanistan</a><br /><br />''...[B]ritney Jamilia Spears'' is on the roll in the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, where voting is to take place in just three of 17 districts."<br /><br />But <a href="http://wire.antiwar.com/2009/08/20/gibbs-afghan-election-outcome-wont-change-policy/" rel="nofollow">Gibbs said yesterday</a> that "...[r]eports of a light turnout would not alter "our policy going forward in our aggressive goals...".<br /><br />Cue Céline Dion ( sorry! one of our best exports) and the theme from the Titanic. <br /><br />Obama at the front (not the correct nautical term, I know) arms outflung singing at the top of his lungs, "My war will go oonnnnnnn!"Filostratohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04469903260877069258noreply@blogger.com