Were it not far, far too easy in these days to seem disrespectful to the troops, I would attempt a pastiche.

(And, of course, if I weren't so damned tired.)

Meanwhile...

Next year, "a marine in Iran"?

Rot in hell, George Bush.

bitter fruit

The Washington Post has an article today that says the Army is STILL trying to get all their Humvees up-armored, and have sent assurances that more armor kits will be sent out by mid-year.

Humvee Armor

As for the PTS counselling people are getting, unless it's gotten better than what I got, it's cursory, unless the troop really wants to get help.

I know, looking back, I could have used more than I got, and I had no trouble making the counsellor think I was just fine (coping as well as can be expected, was one of the comments; it all boiled down to , "fundamentally stable" which was true, but far from complete).

That showing pictures of US dead and wounded became "unpatriotic" was an amazing win for the Ministries of Peace, Truth, and Love.

John, #23, how do you know they don't have those tendencies? Abuse isn't always talked about outside the house.

Such injuries were suffered trying to liberate the death camps of Nazi Germany. Does that make it any better than the current fracas? Did that end justify these sorts of prices?

Marilee, been there and experienced something similar -- but I think your family situation was worse than mine and for mine it WAS peacetime at that time.

As for the current affair, I can accept debacle, although my definition is likely different than yours, but treasonous? Not by any definition.

It was reasonably late and they were before him in an ATM queue and the one of the ATMs was broken, my friend went and used the other one and then commented to the soldiers that the machine they were trying to use was broken, i.e the "out of service" message flashing on the screen was why it wasn't working for them.

He got immediately punched in the jaw and nose, he managed to stay on his feet so after that they got friendly and offered to buy him a pint and said they'd just hit him to see if he'd stay on his feet.

My friend was more concerned about going to the nearest hospital and having his possibly broken jaw looked at.

Who knows, this might have nothing to do with the guys having just returned from Iraq a few days before but they were definately not right in the head.

He had gone into the military to have a career at it like papa, I think he at least got an honorable discharge but I'm not sure. We don't talk about mental illness in my family.... (my mom is the queen and my father WAS the king of denial--'don't talk about it and it doesn't exist...'). His first Viet Nam tour was a piece of cake, he was a missile specialist. the second tour he was a Huey pilot and was traumatic in ways that he didn't/doesn't talk about. I lost my brother, the older guy that I talked to and sang with and respected and loved with all the joy a 10-years-younger sister can manage. And learned to hate war more than I had before (I always thought it was a waste).

This whole adventure in Iraq has just been such a waste of everything, I cry about it at least once a day. But the guy who's sending them has no conscience and no heart, and really does not give a damn about anything except the profits his trust fund (and Mr. Dickhead's trust fund) is accruing. And until/if there is an election we can't do much else except protest.

The reasons we were involved in WWII were both good and compelling.

This Iraq adventure: the reasons we are there are neither good nor compelling.

As to Walter Reed: we used to have a joke: Nothing's too good for our boys in uniform. It's just that Congress hasn't figured out how to give us less than nothing.

Because of our familial history of denial, I'm certain that the VA did nothing to help my brother, because he didn't ask (well, except keeping on taking that librium). In fact, because he as a BS in psychiatry, he made sure he didn't get diagnosed until he started acting out in an illegal way and he had no control of his problems. (sorta long story, short trip to Larned, KS where they have the hospital that takes care of the criminally mentally ill in Kansas... he's done okay since he got released, but he is not the person I knew once upon a time).

That and magnetic yellow ribbons.
[/snark]

If Bush is ever impeached and convicted, a suitable punishment might be getting kicked in the groin with every prosthetic foot he made possible.

This was done deliberately to enable the current Mis-Administration to lie about the nuclear capabilities of other countries.

Bush lied to get us into this war, and his master, Cheney launched an attack on those who told the truth about the situation.

Acts of honorable men? I don't think so.

Bush lied? About what? WMDs? Unfortunately pretty much everybody else, like the British, French and German intelligence services, agreed with the Administration's belief that the Iraqis had WMDs. So I'll have to pass on that particular lie.

I'm far more concerned about the mismanaged conduct of the war than anything else. The total failure to plan for stability operations is scarier to me than all the other BS that the KOSsacks are up in arms about because that process isn't supposed to be political. Such incompetence in our professional military is frightening.

You blew your whole argument in your first sentence.

If Valerie's employment weren't classified and covert, the CIA wouldn't have sent the case to the Justice Department, because they wouldn't have thought that a crime had been committed.

That's what Libby was trying to hide. Lying to keep it a secret is what he's on trial for.

In case you haven't been following the Libby trial, the evidence demonstrating Libby's commission of perjury also shows that Dick Cheney was the driving force behind outing Valerie Plame and her cover company, Brewster-Jennings.

What makes it even more ironic is that Cheney is the one who requested that the CIA check out the Niger info in the first place...and when it didn't produce the result Cheney wanted, he and the rest of the Administration lied about that.

http://www.ifilm.com/video/2870953

http://www.ifilm.com/video/2870953