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The best comments I've seen on the current situation in Iraq

 
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USMCWayne
Lt.Jg.


Joined: 12 Oct 2004
Posts: 117
Location: Montana
PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 8:33 pm    Post subject: The best comments I've seen on the current situation in Iraq Reply with quote
...and they're from a former Pittsburgh Steeler, 4-time Super Bowl winner Rocky Bleier.

Bleier, who spoke a recent Montana State Bobcat booster banquet in Great Falls, said...

Quote:
"The common feeling now," he said, "is let's get out of Iraq, because we don't agree with the policies and circumstances that got us there in the first place. And the other feeling (that's prevalent) is, 'We support our troops.' So there's a separation between the war itself and the participants, the soldiers."

Bleier, whose rugged features and trim waistline make him seem much younger than 61, purses his lips a bit.

"But ... you can't support the troops if you don't support the mission," he said. "It's one and the same, whether you like it or not. Those young men and women who are serving today have made a commitment, and if you talk to the majority of them, what they feel that they're doing and the inroads that they're making in Iraq, whether they want to be there or not, I think most of them are pretty positive about it."

Bleier was wounded in the jungles of Vietnam in August, 1969. He took a bullet to the left thigh. Then while he was down, a grenade exploded nearby and he was hit with shrapnel in his right leg and foot. He was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star, nice gestures to be sure, but not necessarily the kinds of things that could help the American troops in the field.

And there wasn't much thanks from folks back home who had long decided that the war was flat wrong.

"The soldiers didn't get any support," he said. "Our feeling was, allow us to do what we're supposed to do. Allow us to fight and allow us to win, whatever that is or whatever it takes to get that done. And I think it's the same thing (in Iraq) now, from a soldier's point of view."


Amen.

Here's a link to the entire story.

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007704280325
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NortonPete
PO2


Joined: 13 Aug 2004
Posts: 385
PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 10:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
The only similarity to Vietnam is the lack of resolve and underlining weak character that Americans have shown to any kind of difficulty.
I suggest that during WWII, most Americans were not as well off as today, they did not have big SUV's to drive to WalMart, so they thought a bit about their country. Someone knew a soldier, or a nurse and they connected to their common fate, they wanted to win.
We do not have this today. People making a lot of money do not connect that success to the freedom our troops provide.
I regret we have a country which has 50% useless individuals, and fear the consequences. Perhaps this does highlight the "Fall of Rome" theory.
I hope not.
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