Pay Attention to the Vets

We should listen. We now have Hagal and Murtha, a Republican and a Democrat. Each has been critical and each wants things to change in Iraq, They want things to change now.

I have said that Iraq is not Vietnam, and I still believe that. But all of us who fought in Viet Nam have experienced the amazing frustration of the interference, incompetence and lack of support for what we were doing. We have never blamed each other. We have always respected the brothers who came home, mourned those who died and we have never forgotten those who are still there. It never leaves us.

We are loath to say anything about Iraq because many will jump on what we say and use our experience to support or attack the current administration or worse, interpret what we say as some how being critical of those who are in uniform fighting. Those of us who had bags of shit thrown at us in airports when we came home from Nam and those of us who were refused admission into the American Veterans of Foreign Wars do not want our sons and daughters to feel that way. So when one of us says something, we do so because we care about the soldiers and we do not want Iraq to be anything like Vietnam.

When combat veterans speak about what they know, it is best to listen. I didn’t say agree; I said listen.

There have been so many errors made by our government in the last 29 months, so many failures of leadership by both the civilian and military that it would fill a large book. It is time to start doing things right.

We have just passed the 17,000 wounded mark and over 2,060 of our best are dead. These casualties were mostly caused by bombs--not soldiers or advancing armies--but by murderers who put bombs in dead cows and dogs. While we are not losing this war, we are not winning either, our political leaders are giving Syria and Iran a pass and we are letting militias run around free in Iraq while corruption is everywhere

Let’s be clear, if anyone can criticize out handling of this war while holding the feet and balls of incompetent political and military leaders to the fire, combat vets can. Who better? It’s kind of hard to call them unpatriotic and whoever throws the next rock had better damn well have a purple heart attached to it. Others talking about this: Michelle Malkin, Small Town Veteran, and The Moderate Voice. Posted over at The Political Teen.

Comments

[LargeBill]

Col,

You said "It’s kind of hard to call them unpatriotic and whoever throws the next rock had better damn well have a purple heart attached to it." Isn't that just taking the bs chickenhawk argument a step further? I'm not accusing either of the men of being unpatriotic, but my right to agree or criticize their comments should not be limited by whether I served and if I served whether I was unfortunate enough to be injured.
Stick to the issue. Either what they said has validity or it doesn't. If they say were wrong in how we are prosecuting the war they are either right or wrong regardless of what they were doing 40 years ago. To my own view they are both politicians doing what politicians do. Which is making calculated statements for political gain.

[Chris]

Hey Bill--seems to me that Republicans are all about demnding that we support the troops and the conservative blogs are all about pointing out the posts when they support the Republican position--but the minute a soldier or a veteran says something they don't like it's open warfare on them. I respect everyone's right to disagree with Congressman Murtha--but when you do it, you owe him the respect he earned when he served this counrty. The bloggosphere today as well as the House of Representatives are full of comments about Murtha lacking backbone and being a coward and being in favor of cutting and running--it's disingenuous and disrespectful--in fact it is a disgrace. We owe combat veterans more than our thanks--we owe them respect and we owe them the time and patience to at least listen to their opinions because we can benefit from the things they know that we will never know. But I should have know better to expect the right thing from the President since he demonstrated his respect for Senator McCain in the 2000 South Carolina primary and I should have known better than to expect the right thing from VP Cheney who "had more important things to do" than serve his country and I should have know better to expect the right thing from the party that would humiliate and make fun of Max Cleland and would stand behind the Swiftboat Veterans for whatever--disagree with Congressman Murtha all you want--but the people who do so should do so with the morals and values they so loudly proclaim to have.

[LargeBill]

Chris,

You're are mistaken on something there. Certainly Rep. Murtha as a veteran is deserving of respect for his service. However, his current misbegotten position is not deserving of respect. As a citizen of our country I have to be able to disagree and even to denigrate his comments when he is wrong without some considering that an attack on his honor or his service. Throughout our country's history we have had many former military members who were later vastly wrong on issues. Have you not heard of George McClellan, George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, or even Charles Lindberg? All were veterans but all were also laughable about what direction our country should take. Military service is laudable but not indicative by itself of grat wisdom. Heck, I did a few years in the military and I would be ashamed to tell my three brothers or five sisters who did not serve that I thought my point of view should carry weight than theirs.

[Chris]

Bill--while I think that you definately should be able to ridicule the man--I think it is wrong to do so.

[Vince B]

Dear Col. Hunt,

I have never had, nor see a problem with going to war to kick butt - and when I say 'kick butt' I mean royally kick butt, and not this nation building 'crap' going on now.

But what can we expect when the president shows all the signs of someone with his own agenda - and the communist dems on the other side with theirs?

Rather than advancing democracies around the world, which is nothing more than imperialism being advanced via America's leadership, (and calling Islam a peace loving religions), perhaps time, money, energy and resources could be better served focusing our attention on the fact this nation is a Constitutional Republic, proceed in securing our borders, and get to work cleaning out members making up both houses of congress - and replacing them with those who'll honor the oaths they take?

Regards

[Chris Sears]

I am way over my head, again, over here in the militery area. But, I have found out just recently, in the sphere of military people, (whose sphere I am gratefully in, and never knew before) that they actually want to hear your (my!)opinion, however "un-military"...

"Hagal and Murtha want things to change" Well, "I" want things to change. Mostly what I want to change is the attitude of the American people. And, that will not change as long as the media does not change.
That "Iraq is not Viet Nam" is definitely in that realm of "SIMILAR BUT TOTALLY DIFFERENT" (my "signature" logo). For Viet Nam, we have a wall with nearly 60 thousand names. For Iraq, we have... elections, a Constitution ... .a representative government, a real type of Democracy BECOMING here.

What I want to happen is

#1 Every single day, the President goes on TV and shows the map of Iraq and points out what we did that day. "We got info from some Iraqi people about ... they are helping us now" "This city has been taken over, and is secure and ready for the Iraqi Security forces to take care of".

#2 Get a bunch of Iraqi's (maybe some of those Kurds, who cry in their thankfulness to us)Bring them over here to take part in Events that say 'Thank-you" to the Americans.(that is what they feel)
Have them shaking the hands, at these events, of Ted Kennedy, and the others who say the Liberation of Iraq shouldn't have happened,. Let these Democrats explain to these people why they think they should still be under Saddam and his sons and why we should not have saved them from the Rape Rooms and Torture Chambers.
President Bush - show what you have done!! Show your plan for the future. Show us why we should follow. LEAD US!

[Denise Dixon]

Dear Colonel,

I watch you often on Fox and always agree with what you say. We gotta get tougher, we gotta kill terrorists, not try to negotiate, we gotta stop being politically correct. NO TALKS WITH IRAN! My God, I am so concerned about the future of our babies, how in the world can we get the governtmet to hear us??