I would say it makes for a nice winter home to get away from the snow in Pittsburgh, but why would you do a thing like that.
i kinda miss being over there sometimes. do your job people leave you alone decent money. hot as fuck. not to many rules outside the wire. i miss the guys mostly we grew closer than family
here is the problem with that. as a son of a vietnam vet, i’ve been told first hand stories that the problem that war had (excuse me, it was never classified as a “war” by the gov’t. conflict is the word they used) was that there was no real sense of strategy or direction. they were going slowly into it, then balls to wall, then not so much, then all at it again etc etc etc.
the gov’t never used all of the miltary power all at once, never had a difinitive battle plan, and didn’t start off right with what they needed. therefore the war drug on far too long. the war lasted from kennedy in the mid 60’s to '73. thats a long ass time of poor planning.
and its bascially what they’re doing now. regardless of wether you believe if we went into iraq for the right reasons or not, bush didn’t send the right amount of troops to begin with, there was too much relying on technology and not enough forsight into ground combat and gorrilla warfare. now its send more troops and do this and that differently, but its bascially too late, for many reasons, but the key one being that majority of the country (iraq) doesn’t want to be helped and or are fine with us doing all of the work and they’ll jsut sit back and watch. similar to vietnam. we’ve tried to help, but the iraq country as a whole hasn’t stepped up to take things in their own hands enough (or shown any deisre to do so) so its time to get out, or we’re looking at another long term war that isn’t going to be won either way because of poor planning and another major memorial/monument in d.c. with the names of lost soliders who died because of it.
on a side note: to the member who posted in this thread and others who may read it that are serving over there or have had, i’d like to sincerly Thank You. while things have gotten alot better since the days of vietnam and the disgusting mistreatment of america’s soliders by its citizens when they got home, i still don’t think that you men and women get enough thanks, graditude and honor. you sacrifice your lives so that we can sit around at home and have these discussions and freedom in general and for that you should be forever applauded and honored.
on a side note: to the member who posted in this thread and others who may read it that are serving over there or have had, i’d like to sincerly Thank You. while things have gotten alot better since the days of vietnam and the disgusting mistreatment of america’s soliders by its citizens when they got home, i still don’t think that you men and women get enough thanks, graditude and honor. you sacrifice your lives so that we can sit around at home and have these discussions and freedom in general and for that you should be forever applauded and honored.[/QUOTE]
We need more people in the world like you thanking our troops overseas, I wish that i could just tell each and every soldier thank you but i cant. I dont even think that i could deal with being over there. I am proud of every one that is fighting over in the middle east. I am very proud of the soldiers who get hurt and go right back out there. I am very proud of my husband for being able to leave his home and family for such a long time. But most of all I think that we do need to pull out. It is just getting worse as the days go on
pulling out would be a big mistake
Why do you think that then?
I always thought of pulling out as a good thing.:sex:
I am for pulling out. When I was over there, it just seemed like we were going in big circles. We would train IA’s, which would quit and go train insurgents, or use their new found knowledge and ambush us, and then come back to being IA’s. They don’t want to be liberated. Period. Plenty of Iraqi’s told me, the second the US leaves, the IA’s are throwing their weapons down. The only reason they are doing it now, is for hope that it will expedite the US leaving.
Are we fighting a good cause? Yes, I believe so. Iraq would prosper like the rest of the middle east, and would actually have an economy, and dare I say, currency, if they would get their heads out of their asses. But they won’t, and they are very stubborn. So, do I believe we are fighting a war that can eventually be won? hell no. We have a better chance of uniting south and north korea than liberating Iraq.
P.S. And thank you DragonzChick86 for appreciating us. You would be surprised how much shit we get, as if we have a choice in the war.
I say we just empty out the jails, dump off the fuckers over there with some guns and let them handle it /sarcasm
I thought the problem was the armed forces were having problems keeping people over there(IE finding new recruits/manpower) and thats why wer are having problems “ending it”. Ive heard numerious speakers on the war say were like 250k people short of really making a difference. And alot of the people over there are already on 2nd and 3rd tours as is.
I think the area is fucked either way. Iran is on the brink of exploding as is.
That’s no joke. If we do go to war with Iran, then I’m really glad I got out of the military. If a war starts between us and Iran… it’s going to get real messy.
Solid positions in Iraq will make mobilizing a war with Iran much more efficient and effective.
There have been plenty of mistakes, but now is not the right time to leave.
the only reason why we’re having the tough time we are, is we’re not getting the proper amount of troop deployment over there. And we’re being restricted on how aggressive we can be.
Leaving now, would leave the job not finished.
Hate to break it to people, but its war, people will lose their lives, it happens.
If we leave with a job half done, thats an insult to all of the troops over there who lost their lives for this cause.
That country will eat itself apart if we pull out, and the idea of democracy will be lost over there. It’s been proven time and time again the Iraqi people want a democracy, and want oppression, and tyranney to end, and welcomed us with open arms. Don’t believe everything you see on the media, its quite one sided.
Its not a problem. My husband is over there now. I don’t support what Bush is doing with all that is going on over there, but I will have to say that I will support every single soldier that is overseas right now. That is why I got in with OPP, they have been sending care packages to troops overseas for almost a year. And I will continue to suporrt everyone in the Army. People think that just because we are the wives of the soldiers that we arent going through some of the same things. I know that it is totally different but we (wives) are called Silent Ranks. And I thank you for serving for our country
I’m going to have to disagree with you there. I think sending more troops is just a last effort to try and change things. Having more troops there isn’t going to effect anything, except how many worried family members are in the states.
“There isn’t anyone to fight.” The typical day of an infantry soldier consists of driving around the city, until he gets ambushed, in which they can retaliate. It is becoming harder and harder to track insurgents down, especially when they are working for us. The majority of the Iraqi people do NOT want to be liberated. Most don’t hate the U.S., but they do want everyone to leave, so they can, in their minds, “prosper”. We are trying to change a nation, and obviously, the nation does not like change.
YOU OPP PEOPLE ROCK! Those care packages were the shit! Especially the baby wipes.
I agree with you on some points, but the real problem over there isnt Iraq, it lies on it’s neighbors
[QUOTE=BlueZ06;557518]the only reason why we’re having the tough time we are, is we’re not getting the proper amount of troop deployment over there. And we’re being restricted on how aggressive we can be.
Wrong. We created a power vacuum in a land where the only thing keeping people out of a civil war was the authoritarian dictatiorship that ruled with an iron fist.
[quote]
Leaving now, would leave the job not finished.
Hate to break it to you, but these people have been fighting for thousands of years. We’re not going to be the ones to stop it.
Hate to break it to people, but its war, people will lose their lives, it happens.
If we leave with a job half done, thats an insult to all of the troops over there who lost their lives for this cause.
So we should have stuck around in Vietnam and let another 80,000 people die, just so that the lives already lost wouldnt be “insulted”. I’d like you to go up to a mothers and fathers of the future dead Americans and explain to them “well, we know that what we’re doing isnt working, and we have no plan to actually accomplish our goals, but your son had to die so as not to dishonor those who had died before him”.
That country will eat itself apart if we pull out, and the idea of democracy will be lost over there. It’s been proven time and time again the Iraqi people want a democracy, and want oppression, and tyranney to end, and welcomed us with open arms. Don’t believe everything you see on the media, its quite one sided.
So what if they want democracy. The sunni and shites hate each other more than the black panthers and the KKK. They may both want democracy, but do you really foresee it happenning if they are forced to work together in the same government?
may i ask your opinion basis
instead of doing that, here’s a plan that might actually work.
Compliments of Senator Joe Biden (D - DE).
A Five Point Plan for Iraq
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Establish One Iraq, with Three Regions
- Federalize Iraq in accordance with its constitution by establishing three largely autonomous regions - Shiite, Sunni and Kurd – with a strong but limited central government in Baghdad
- Put the central government in charge of truly common interests: border defense, foreign policy, oil production and revenues
- Form regional governments – Kurd, Sunni and Shiite – responsible for administering their own regions
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Share Oil Revenues
- Gain agreement for the federal solution from the Sunni Arabs by guaranteeing them 20 percent of all present and future oil revenues – an amount roughly proportional to their size – which would make their region economically viable
- Empower the central government to set national oil policy and distribute the revenues, which would attract needed foreign investment and reinforce each community’s interest in keeping Iraq intact and protecting the oil infrastructure
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Convene International Conference, Enforce Regional Non-Aggression Pact
- Convene with the U.N. a regional security conference where Iraq’s neighbors, including Iran, pledge to support Iraq’s power sharing agreement and respect Iraq’s borders
- Engage Iraq’s neighbors directly to overcome their suspicions and focus their efforts on stabilizing Iraq, not undermining it
- Create a standing Contact Group, to include the major powers, that would engage Iraq’s neighbors and enforce their commitments
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Responsibly Drawdown US Troops
- Direct U.S. military commanders to develop a plan to withdraw and re-deploy almost all U.S. forces from Iraq by the end of 2007
- Maintain in or near Iraq a small residual force – perhaps 20,000 troops – to strike any concentration of terrorists, help keep Iraq’s neighbors honest and train its security forces
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Increase Reconstruction Assistance and Create a Jobs Program
- Provide more reconstruction assistance, conditioned on the protection of minority and women’s rights and the establishment of a jobs program to give Iraqi youth an alternative to the militia and criminal gangs
- Insist that other countries take the lead in funding reconstruction by making good on old commitments and providing new ones – especially the oil-rich Arab Gulf countries
that still won’t work in my opinion. That still requires the Iraqi’s to unite, and they never will. They don’t see themselves as a nation, they just see people who live around them, and therefore only care about things that directly affect their lives.
Hypothetically speaking, if you told an Iraqi that he end poverty in Iraq, for the cost of all his sheep, the Iraqi would tell you no.
Dude, Since I have joined OPP I have understood alot more
on how to deal and you know what. I need more friends here that I can just go out and hang with. Everyone I know is like 30 min away from my house anymore cause traffic sucks ass. But I have a big GIG tomorrow night and I am going to be so sticked. We are stelling these awesome t shirts to support the troops. But if you want go to the website and see everything that we have done so far. We have sent over 13000 boxes so far!!! go to Operationpittsburghpride.org It explains it all. And I still have to say thank you to you.