Subj : The War Has No Clothes
To   : Frank Reid
From : Angus McLeod
Date : Thu Sep 29 2005 07:59 am

  Re: The War Has No Clothes
  By: Frank Reid to Finnigann on Thu Sep 29 2005 05:48:00

 >  > Everyone keeps saying 'w' isn't as dumb as he seems... Well just when is 
 >  > gonna show us he isn't as dumb as he seems?
 > 
 > What would you have us do?  Turn tail and run, leaving millions of Iraqi
 > citizens who had hopes for a secure future to suffer whatever torture that t
 > ensuing chaos and civil war bring them?  Screw 'em, right?  Hey, why don't w
 > just nuke every major city in Iraq and let 'em start from scratch?

You mat as well do it now as later.  There's gonna be a blood-bath 
eventually.  I wanna know why it was necessary to go and provoke a civil 
war in the *first* place!

 > Every U.S. servicemember casualty is a great loss, but it doesn't mitigate t
 > fact that they are doing an honorable and necessary job in Iraq to establish
 > stability in the country and throughout the entire region.

Hard to swallow, when their presence first DE-stabilized the region.

 > Every solider in Iraq knows that and is willing to stand, fight and win 
 > for that greater good...

Doubt that, somehow.

 > So how can one take a position, at home in an armchair and watching like som
 > spectator sport, that their dedication, courage and integrity are fruitless?

I see their actions and sacrifice bearing no fruit.

 > It is patently inane for anyone to ever suggest "I support our troops, but I
 > don't support the war."  The two concepts are mutually exclusive.

Surely you jest?  I watch brave men and women thrown into danger, who are
struggling to achieve an unreachable goal.  I am rooting for them, same as 
I would for people bailing out a leaky lifeboat in the middle of the 
ocean.  I do NOT support the actions of their leader and Commander in 
Chief, nor the corrupt administration, who placed them in that position in 
order to furthur their re-election plans and line their pockets with cash.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote, "Half a league, half a league, half a league 
onward, all in the valley of death, rode the six hundred."  The famous 
charge of the light brigade, considered still to be a magnificent example 
of courage and fortitude by the military forces of a by-gone age.  But as 
observer Pierre Bosquet said, "C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la 
guerre"  (It is magnificent, but it is not war).  We can admire the 
bravery of the men and their determination to do the best they could, but 
as they regrouped and rode again and again into the muzzles of the Russian 
canon, we can only feel distain for Lord Cardigan's failure to see the 
futility of his action or care about it's effect upon his cavalry.



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