Theodore's World

Iran has been kidnapping Americans since 1979. They have been behind the killings of many more. It sure seems like we are getting closer to avenging those actions. I don't think Ahmanutjob really understands just how unstable a lame duck president can be.

Thanks WT, Billy's right. What makes the situation worse is that Chirac believes that Iran should have the nukes. It's pay now or pay later, there are unmistakable signs of world capitulation to Iran's threat, we're essentially alone in this since the Euro bloc is defenseless, mentally, morally and physically and half of the US is already that way.

Jack,

Chirac may, quite literally, be mentally defenseless. I read an article last night on drudge that I believe may have originated at the NYT which inferred that Chirac's pastry oven may no longer be able to bake croissants.

He apparently gave an 'on the record interview' the other day stating that 1 or 2 Iranian nukes would be no big problem and a few other oratory gems. Then he called back the reporters to say he didn't mean it because he thought he was speaking "off the record".

That either opens a window into a dangerous mind or it opens a window into a dangerous mind.

If senility is creeping in, as what was being implied in the article, Chirac the Appeaser's reign may be quickly coming to an end. With Blair exiting this year, along with Putin, it will be interesting to see what direction Europe will head. Couple that with a possible Iraq pullout, a Hillary presidency and a Nuclear Iran, all the ingredients will be in place for some serious fireworks. As bad as it is right now, there simply doesn't appear to be any shining stars popping up on the horizon.

I'm reminded of the old(?) Billy Joel song "We didn't start the fire".

Do you know what the going rate per acre in Bora Bora is???????

Unfortunately, Bora Bora, Tahiti, is French territory! I'd check out Samoa or Fiji instead...

Still, if the savages actually do pull a kidnapping of an American? That's a causus belli, and it would in large part solve our Iraq problem. Who, after all, are stirring up trouble in Iraq?

Unfortunately, Bora Bora, Tahiti, is French territory! I'd check out Samoa or Fiji instead...

Still, if the savages actually do pull a kidnapping of an American? That's a causus belli, and it would in large part solve our Iraq problem. Who, after all, are stirring up trouble in Iraq?

I wonder if the Iran's Revolutionary Guards are the equivelant to Iraq's Republican Guard?

BobF, from what I've heard, they think they're badasses. Badasses don't kidnap; they kill outright. If they were behind the murder of the five GI's, they were trying to show something additional, which is that they have some freedom to do as they wish. That's supposed to frighten us. They need to rely on fear because they're chickenshit themselves.

Brave soldiers do not deceive in order to fight, they simply fight. Fu** Iran. We can't kill enough Revolutionary Guards to suit me, and that time will come.

I could not care less if they kidnap Europeans or South Americans. How do you make cowards more cowardly?

WT,
This is some what off post but I think it needs
to have a beat down... It's all over the net
and Blackfive is doing the monkey stomp on the
SOB. I thought you and the folks who post here
could lend a little stomp to the stomp...


William M. Arkin on National and Homeland Security
The Troops Also Need to Support the American People
I've been mulling over an NBC Nightly News report from Iraq last Friday in which a number of soldiers expressed frustration with opposition to war in the United States.

I'm sure the soldiers were expressing a majority opinion common amongst the ranks - that's why it is news - and I'm also sure no one in the military leadership or the administration put the soldiers up to expressing their views, nor steered NBC reporter Richard Engel to the story.

I'm all for everyone expressing their opinion, even those who wear the uniform of the United States Army. But I also hope that military commanders took the soldiers aside after the story and explained to them why it wasn't for them to disapprove of the American people.

Friday's NBC Nightly News included a story from my colleague and friend Richard Engel, who was embedded with an active duty Army infantry battalion from Fort Lewis, Washington.

Engel relayed how "troops here say they are increasingly frustrated by American criticism of the war. Many take it personally, believing it is also criticism of what they've been fighting for."

First up was 21 year old junior enlisted man Tyler Johnson, whom Engel said was frustrated about war skepticism and thinks that critics "should come over and see what it's like firsthand before criticizing."

"You may support or say we support the troops, but, so you're not supporting what they do, what they're here sweating for, what we bleed for, what we die for. It just don't make sense to me," Johnson said.

Next up was Staff Sergeant Manuel Sahagun, who is on his second tour in Iraq. He complained that "one thing I don't like is when people back home say they support the troops, but they don't support the war. If they're going to support us, support us all the way."

Next was Specialist Peter Manna: "If they don't think we're doing a good job, everything that we've done here is all in vain," he said.

These soldiers should be grateful that the American public, which by all polls overwhelmingly disapproves of the Iraq war and the President's handling of it, do still offer their support to them, and their respect.

Through every Abu Ghraib and Haditha, through every rape and murder, the American public has indulged those in uniform, accepting that the incidents were the product of bad apples or even of some administration or command order.

Sure, it is the junior enlisted men who go to jail. But even at anti-war protests, the focus is firmly on the White House and the policy. We don't see very many "baby killer" epithets being thrown around these days, no one in uniform is being spit upon.

So, we pay the soldiers a decent wage, take care of their families, provide them with housing and medical care and vast social support systems and ship obscene amenities into the war zone for them, we support them in every possible way, and their attitude is that we should in addition roll over and play dead, defer to the military and the generals and let them fight their war, and give up our rights and responsibilities to speak up because they are above society?

I can imagine some post-9/11 moment, when the American people say enough already with the wars against terrorism and those in the national security establishment feel these same frustrations. In my little parable, those in leadership positions shake their heads that the people don't get it, that they don't understand that the threat from terrorism, while difficult to defeat, demands commitment and sacrifice and is very real because it is so shadowy, that the very survival of the United States is at stake. Those Hoovers and Nixons will use these kids in uniform as their soldiers. If it weren't about the United States, I'd say the story would end with a military coup where those in the know, and those with fire in their bellies, would save the nation from the people.

But it is the United States, and the recent NBC report is just an ugly reminder of the price we pay for a mercenary - oops sorry, volunteer - force that thinks it is doing the dirty work.

The notion of dirty work is that, like laundry, it is something that has to be done but no one else wants to do it. But Iraq is not dirty work: it is not some necessary endeavor; the people just don't believe that anymore.

I'll accept that the soldiers, in order to soldier on, have to believe that they are manning the parapet, and that's where their frustrations come in. I'll accept as well that they are young and naïve and are frustrated with their own lack of progress and the never changing situation in Iraq. Cut off from society and constantly told that everyone supports them, no wonder the debate back home confuses them.

America needs to ponder what it is we really owe those in uniform. I don't believe America needs a draft though I imagine we'd be having a different discussion if we had one.

I'm just waithing by the door waiting for them to show up. I've also reserved a spot in heaven, er HELL for their sissy asses

Can we turn that pissant country into a sea of glass now?!