Bush supporters' aftermath thread II

JTT wrote:

Foxfyre wrote:

A great nephew just back from Iraq was not happy about going and was one who was pretty down on the war. After six months active duty he is back and volunteering to go back. He said it was nothing like what we see in the papers and he is now convinced the US media is mostly distorting it.

That cinches it. The generals and other high ranking officers who report that things are bad are out to lunch. Thank god for Foxy's nephew. Who would have ever known?

Really? Do you have a nephew freshly back from Iraq who sees it differently?

September 27th, 2006 Democracy Now [Excerpts]

Army reservist Sergeant Marshall Thompson spent a year in Iraq working as a military journalist. He reported from across Iraq, interviewing thousands of US soldiers. Now back home in his native Utah, he is planning a 500-mile walk across the state to protest the war and call for a withdrawal of US troops.

AMY GOODMAN: I spoke with Sgt. Marshall Thompson on Monday in Salt Lake City in his first national broadcast interview. He began by talking about why he plans the walk.

SGT. MARSHALL THOMPSON: Well, I got back from Iraq about two months ago, and I knew I'd have to do something to make things right. And so I decided, my wife and I, that it would be a good idea to do a walk through Utah. Utah is my home state, and I love it.

It's also the reddest state in the nation. It's kind of a symbol of the last bastion of support for the war. So I thought that if I could walk through Utah in a peaceful manner and show that there's support in Utah for peace, then that just might be what turns the tide.

AMY GOODMAN: What did you do in Iraq?

SGT. MARSHALL THOMPSON: I was a military journalist. It was a great job. I got to travel all around Iraq and interview thousands of soldiers. So I really got a good idea of what's going on over there.

AMY GOODMAN: Marshall, why did you join the military?

SGT. MARSHALL THOMPSON: I love my country. And I really wanted to serve it.

AMY GOODMAN: When did you join?

SGT. MARSHALL THOMPSON: I joined in 1999.

AMY GOODMAN: Before the 2001 attacks.

SGT. MARSHALL THOMPSON: Yes. I was deployed to Kosovo during the 2001 attacks.

And I've been very proud of my service. And it's just been a hard time in Iraq, because this war is unjust. And no amount of patriotism that I have can change that.

AMY GOODMAN: How did you come to the conclusion that it's unjust?

SGT. MARSHALL THOMPSON: Well, it happened before the war started. I was on the fence. And when Colin Powell addressed the UN, I believed him, like most people did, I think.

But then there was something in me that kept bothering me, and it was that the decision to go to war with Iraq was based on fear, fear of something that hadn't happened yet. And those are never good decisions. We can't make fear-based decisions.

So I decided that even if they had weapons of mass destruction, that I was going to be opposed to the war.

Then, years later when I went to Iraq, spent a year there, saw what happened, it was only reinforced.

And I knew that I was going to have to come home and do something to make it right for my participation in it and just because I feel more responsible for what goes on over there, having been there for one year.

AMY GOODMAN: You interviewed hundreds of soldiers?

SGT. MARSHALL THOMPSON: Thousands.

AMY GOODMAN: Thousands of soldiers in Iraq. What is their attitude to the war?

SGT. MARSHALL THOMPSON: Most soldiers want to withdraw. That is proven. There was a Zogby poll. 72% of recently turned Iraqi vets want to be out of Iraq by 2006.

AMY GOODMAN: 2006?

SGT. MARSHALL THOMPSON: By 2006.

That means this year.

And my experience backs that up absolutely.

There is a lot of pressure for soldiers not to speak out. There's fear of court-martials. There's fear of their commanders getting mad at them. There's a lot of reasons why soldiers don't speak out.

But nobody should be fooled.

Soldiers know what's going on over there, and they are not happy about it.

AMY GOODMAN: What was the response when the soldier asked Rumsfeld about why they weren't being protected?

SGT. MARSHALL THOMPSON: That was -- we loved it. We thought that, you know, score one for the little guys.

AMY GOODMAN: Did you see any kind of challenging of the supervisory officers by the lower level soldiers?

SGT. MARSHALL THOMPSON: Absolutely.

Constant challenging, especially on the issue of censorship.

Also, like I said, a lot of people, I think, underestimate soldiers.

We know what's going on. We're smart. We read the newspapers.

And there's a lot of orders that may be unlawful that are challenged.

You don't hear about those, because those are the good examples.

And then sometimes there are unlawful orders and they're followed. And that's the biggest problem.

AMY GOODMAN: Were you able to follow up on atrocities like Haditha, like Mahmoudiya, that story of Steven Green and the other Army soldiers who went into the home of this 14-year-old girl, Abeer, and killed her and her mother, father and sister?

SGT. MARSHALL THOMPSON: We were not able to follow up on atrocities such as those. I was able to post a blog. It kept me sane for the year, because I could print anything I wanted to on my blog.

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_23172.shtml

Unjust, unlawful? Yes, certainly. As most of us knew several years ago, the invasion of Iraq was and is a crime.
Even if it had turned out "well", that fact would not and could not change. And it has turned out badly.

Who can we blame for the weeping wound that is Iraq?

This is Baker's counsel to adopt a different tactic. I don't fault anybody for suggesting better ways to win.

Baker doesn't seem to be advocating a better way to win. He seems to be advocating a face-saving way of getting out.

Foxfyre wrote:

This is Baker's counsel to adopt a different tactic. I don't fault anybody for suggesting better ways to win.

Baker doesn't seem to be advocating a better way to win. He seems to be advocating a face-saving way of getting out. But I agree that unlike McTag, he isn't saying it's a crime.

Thomas wrote:

Baker doesn't seem to be advocating a better way to win. He seems to be advocating a face-saving way of getting out.

Cut and run? I highly doubt that.

Powell's wife says Bush used him

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Former Secretary of State Colin Powell's wife says in a new biography that President George W. Bush used her husband to sell the war in Iraq.

In "Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell" by Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post, Alma Powell describes the administration's treatment of her husband as callous.

"They needed him to do it because they knew people would believe him," Mrs. Powell said.

Powell, the first black secretary of state, gave DeYoung six interviews for the book. He told her he never considered resigning even though he had disagreements with the president about the 2003 invasion.

"I supported him," he said. "I can't go on long patrol and then say, 'Never mind.'"

SierraSong wrote:

Thomas wrote:

Baker doesn't seem to be advocating a better way to win. He seems to be advocating a face-saving way of getting out.

Cut and run? I highly doubt that.

Live by simpleton slogans. Die by simpleton slogans.

Rarely is the question asked: is our children learning?" -- George W. Bush

"I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family." -- George W. Bush

"The most important job is not to be governor, or first lady in my case." -- George W. Bush

"We must all hear the universal call to like your neighbor as you like to be liked yourself." -- George W. Bush

"Well, I think if you say you're going to do something and don't do it, that's trustworthiness." -- George W. Bush

"I think if you know what you believe, it makes it a lot easier to answer questions. I can't answer your question." -- George W. Bush

"This campaign not only hears the voices of the entrepreneurs and the farmers and the entrepreneurs, we hear the voices of those struggling to get ahead." -- George W. Bush

"We cannot let terrorists and rogue nations hold this nation hostile or hold our allies hostile." -- George W. Bush

"Actually, I -- this may sound a little West Texan to you, but I like it. When I'm talking about--when I'm talking about myself, and when he's talking about myself, all of us are talking about me." -- George W. Bush

"Will the highways on the Internet become more few?" -- George W. Bush

"This is Preservation Month. I appreciate preservation. It's what you do when you run for president. You gotta preserve." -- George W. Bush, speaking during Perseverance Month.