Anybody know how to declare a victory on the “war-on-terror”? We are fighting an ideology – a form of hatred that can never be won with a bullet of bomb. Can we change how people think, if so why has antisemitism been around for over a thousand years; why are individuals calling those people against this war “liberals” another label, another form of ideology. How can we ever hope to try to defeat an idea that says it is okay to kill and die for God.

I stand by what I said in #198.
Semper Fi

Iraq was a lost cause from the beginning. It amazed me at the time that our ruling junta in D.C. thought victory was possible. I am overwelmed at the ignorance of the people who govern us. Any people who have not been totally DEFEATED on the battlefield in mass (like Nazi Germany) will never accept occupation by a foreign army…period. Let alone occupation of an Islamic country by a “Christian” army of largely immoral mercenaries (I joined for the money Sarge!) who have been conditoned by a lifetime of insidious propaganda to believe that “America” is blessed by god and everyone else is scum and should just get out of the way or die. I saw some in our military who had good faith and tried to do what was right (whatever that is) but they were never an overwhelming majority.
The majority revelled in killing. The majority were at the very least complacent in the hourly indignities that are still being committed in our name in Iraq (not to mention worse crimes).
Indignities like the verbal insults of “Haji” and worse that are so common. Indignities like being told to “shut the F up!” in their own homes and country. Daily insults and infringements of a people’s basic rights to dignity have a way of really winning their hearts and minds. So does killing innocent people and then not even acknowledging it. My unit did that at least once. The soldiers in my unit that were still somewhat guiltless felt shame at that, not that we could do much. The army says “hush hush” you know.
Iraqis were wrongly beaten and were often victims of theft carried out by our “noble troops”. Nothing was done.

We never raided a home or detained anyone who was part of the insurgency.
Occupation is an ugly thing made worse by a desensetized, culturally ignorant (and undemocratic) army who has had to deal with a growing and unidentifiable popular insurgency.
Sure the senior officers and NCOs in my unit often believed in what we were doing (at least thats what they told us) but the morale for the rest of us was very shaky and oftentimes miserable. Drinking and illegal drugs were common and often overlooked or dealt with quietly. Weapons were bought on the black market and clandestinely shipped home for profit (look for these to turn up at your local school eventually). Censorship was common and consisted of things like only allowing Fox News to be viewed in mess halls and rec centers. Many NCOs I knew seemed addicted to the Christian fundi “Left Behind” novels that celebrate an armageddon that they themselves felt they were helping to fulfill. More soldiers than I can count insisted privately that they never wanted to return to Iraq. And all of this occurred in 2003!
This tragedy as I saw it at the time and continue to insist is unsolvable until we as a nation realize we are our own worst enemy.

This is an immoral war ordered by greedy war profiteers and those who believe in American Empire. It is carried out by a bureaucratic authoritarian army of would-be social climbers who have no idea about Islamic history and culture (not to mention their own). The fault lies with our militaristic, superstitious and uneducated society that believes it is the “salt of the Earth”. No sense of history. No sense of humanity. Profit before people. Amerika first, last and always.
Yes Mr. Cheney, everything is going well in Iraq and you can be confident too that you and Mr. Bush (and all your lackey wannabe followers) will be “raptured” in the forthcoming apocalapse you have set into motion. God truly help us!

Sure everything in Iraq is peachy when your Halliburton stock options make you a few million in extra spending money.

Blood money, every last cent of it, and pilfered from taxpayers like you and me.

He may even try to bend satan’s ear with that bullshit too…

Nobody should underestimate the extent to which we’re engaged there with this sort of, at present, the “major front” of the war on terror. That’s what Osama bin Laden says, and he’s right