I brought three kids into this world in the hopes that they’d have a better life than the generations before them. I’m an independant who married a republican. Cripes, he had Ronnie Raygun’s mug plastered on the fridge. My oldest, a 26 YO daughter, is getting married to a Texas Republican who is looking for his Bic pen to re-up because he lost his job and is enticed by the “medical benefits” and “educational opportunities” the army is offering. He’s firmly convinced he’ll stay stateside doing IT work. She’ll be a widow in a year. My oldest son is draft age (24), likes Bush and is contemplating “the service”. With his ROTC training, guess where he’d go? Fortunately, I have a 14 YO boy at home who hates Bush and everything this admin has done, but his dad is dying. There is no happiness left; just an oppressive sense of dread.

I give up. My talking/pleading to the older ones won’t change their minds and I dread their calls: Hi mom; we’re in the army now. Writing my Senators and Congressman do no good. The Senators roll over and the Congresscritter is a stand by your Bush man.

If this retired general can make a difference, I pray for it, but I’m not counting on it.

FEAR FEAR FEAR!!!

That is what’s stopping GOOD Men/Women from standing up for their Soldiers, because that’s what this is all about, to hell with not wanting to look disrespectful or not wanting to be called “phony” by some fat, rich, cut and runners from war. When you don’t stand up and speak your peace, not only dont you get any, you don’t deserve any, and everyone else has to rest in it.

There are some officers (mostly junior) who have spoken out, and have since left the Army because their superiors are too afraid to carry their/our concerns higher for fear of making the next rank.

The seniors see what happened to Shinseki, Zinni, and others and they dont want that to happen to them, to which I say they were never in it for the Soldiers they command, they’re in it to fatten up the ol coffers. NOONE joins the military to get rich, we join to serve, and te people we are sworn to take care of deserve people who will put themselves before any promotion, job, etc. But all of those leaders seem to be gone or choose to muzzle themselves.

You would be shocked if the so-called liberal media ever did an honest story about how many NCO’s and Junior Officers are leaving the Army, it would stop all of this talk about how high re-enlistment rates are. Its a lie, too many combat veterans are leaving and they’re leaving because they dont like what the Army has become, which is another political party. We fight wars, not build democracy’s, not bring political parties together, not form governments, WE FIGHT!! Now we’re politicians, and those of us who know better don’t like it, because when your a politician wearing an Army uniform you automatically become at odds with half of your Soldiers, thats why it is important to be able to put that shit aside. But now it seems that ALL of the Senior leadership have becomes muzzled, soulless, incompetent, obseqious, un-caring, sheep.

.

And the death toll climbs because of it.

RIP
SGT Stephen R. Sherman
C CO 1-5 IN (STRYKER)
KIA 3 Feb 2005
Mosul, Iraq

http://osi-speaks.blogspot.com/2007/10/trouble-with-folks-like-general-sanchez.html#links

I realize that the trolls don’t actually believe what they’re saying, but could it be that it’s just gotten too damned hard for them to keep smearing truth-tellers and defending a bunch of lying, treasonous cowards? Or were they just caught napping?

The criticism of Sanchez for his role in letting Abu Ghraib happen is justified, but I’m betting that the (concern) trolls will take that route to smear him instead of a frontal attack.

Any thoughts about how many officers have your commitment to their troops, and why so many don’t display what you espouse? Is it politics, peer pressure, fear for their careers, what?
And is it mostly top-level officers, or does it go deeper than that?

“WTF is going on in this country?” should be the name of a blog or something.

That shows the kind of leadership Sanchez is talking about. What fool thinks Rumsfeld did a good job. I mean come on guys, this idiot was the one who reduced the size of our military, although the Republicans blame Clinton. No it was Rumsfeld who had the stupid idea that you could fight a war with high tech weapons and didn’t need a large number of troops to do so. Where he got that idea is beyond me, and I said at the time, it was a huge mistake. Now the administration finds itself trying to increase the size of the Army and Marine Corps.

I had written some critical things about Gen. Sanchez in the past which I thought he deserved. I take most but no all of it back now. What he should have done was speak out sooner, perhaps while he was lying to Congress and the American people about having enough troops in Iraq. He was being a good soldier, but there’s such a thing as taking that too far. I spoke up several times when I was a soldier because remaining silence will troops die is beneath me and what I and the military stood for.

I was taught to “Lead, follow or get the hell out of the way”, when I went to Infantry training. That means exactly what it says too. If you are afraid to lead, then follow or just get the hell out of the way and let someone else lead.

Comment by bilbobaggins

I was there, TWICE, and the General NEVER said a word even though he KNEW things were wrong.

I am tired of people who keep saying this BS that we must shut up when WE’RE in uniform, my job as a Soldier yes is to follow orders, but my job also DEMANDS that I STAND UP and SPEAK OUT when those orders are WRONG or will do harm to my Men/Women.

I didn’t do 21 years in the U.S. Army being some quiet go along to get along NCO. I wasn’t worried about getting some cushy government contracting job when I retired or some seat on some corporate board like these so-called military men.

My job was to accomplish my mission, and to take care of my Soldiers, and I did that, and if something was wrong I said so. I want A leader who will speak out when they should, not wait until the body count is too high to take.

If you have seen my writings on here, you would know that I close with my Soldier who was killed. He means alot to me because one I was rersponsible for him, and there was nothing that I could do to stop what happened, because we were on a mission sent down by those who only now say that this war is not right, NOW IT’S NOT RIGHT!! Seven of my Soldiers also lost a limb over in Iraq, so I get very upset when someone who we are supposed to respect waits us out to tell the truth, that IS NOT leadership, that’s BUSH-LEAGUE.

You may want to sit and wait for these politicians in uniform to speak out, but my fellow Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, and Airman (my daughter included) cannot wait that long until it is advantageous to do so.

So I disagree with you, respectfully of course.

RIP
SGT Stephen R. Sherman
C CO 1-5 IN (STRYKER)
KIA 3 Feb 2005

Sanchez “commanded the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq from June 2003 until July 2004″, he certainly must have seen some hint that Pres Bush’s Iraq “strategy” was less than ideal back then.

It’s not as if things all of the sudden went down hill after his departure. As a matter of fact, Abu Ghraib made possible precisely due to a deeply flawed, “with us or against us” pig-headed policy this administration has wallowed in.

And in related news (albeit a little off topic), things are getting tense for the Bushies on the Turkish front:

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has appealed to Turkey for restraint, both against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq and in reaction to a genocide resolution approved this week by a U.S. congressional panel.
US Secretary of State Rice Urges Turkish Restraint

It should be interesting to see the Bush administration explain their saber-rattling against Iran and their efforts to appease the Turks, even as the Turkish government plans to launch an attack on the Kurds across their border with Iraq.

Not at all remarkable. Just business as usual by the “liberal media”.

“They have unquestionably been derelict in the performance of their duty. In my profession, these types of leaders would be immediately relieved or court-martialed.”–Sanchez

If the bell tolls, it tolls for thee, Ricky.

Actually, I think that is a brilliant idea. The problem the Democrats have is that they don’t know how to “frame” issues. The Republicans find an issue and find a point they can “frame” and that frame is repeated endlessly so it somehow becomes a fact in people’s minds. The Democrats could learn from the tricks the Republicans use if they wanted to. Unfortunately they seem determined to keep the circular firing squad going instead.

http://redstate.com/blogs/steve_foley/2007/oct/12/pessimistic_conservatives

It’s all about how those pessimistic Republicans are hurting the part and how if they all have a positive outlook, they can beat the Democrats in 2008. Talk about delusional. But, it’s interesting reading and won’t turn your stomach like their attack on Graham Frost.

My favorite comment was this one:

That is probably my #1 factor in deciding who I will support. Which candidate will slap down the BS from the left. All those bad weeds left unchecked by Bush has caused tremendous damage.
Without restoring respect and sanity the most capable President will not get much done.

“Without restoring respect and sanity” by slapping down all those bad weed Democrats. There is no way the Republicans can restore “respect and sanity” to the office of President unless it was a Goldwater Republican who respected the constitution, the rule of law, our rights to privacy, and the fact that we need to be a team player in the world in general. That ain’t going to happen with any of their current picks.