Not too many weeks ago, we saw what the flag waivers really thought:
On the other hand, we have the absurdity where the two needless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a Harvard University study, have a projected final bill to hit $4 trillion to $6 trillion in the coming decades.
Yet the latest headlines are that Obama is too timid and not getting us involved in new foreign ventures. Who do you believe in Washington?
This probably explains some of it:
Burr Duels With Veterans’ Groups
ReplyDeleteBurr said in an “open letter to America’s veterans”:
It became clear at the hearing that most of the other VSOs attending appear to be more interested in defending the status quo within VA, protecting their relationships within the agency, and securing their access to the Secretary and his inner circle… I believe the national and local commanders of every VSO have the interests of their members at heart, and take seriously their commitment to their members and their organization. Unfortunately, I no longer believe that to be the case within the Washington executive staff of the VSOs that testified. Last week’s hearing made it clear to me that the staff has ignored the constant VA problems expressed by their members and is more interested in their own livelihoods and Washington connections than they are to the needs of their own members.
...
Burr’s letter triggered some tough responses from those he targeted.
“This is clearly one of the most dishonorable and grossly inappropriate acts that we’ve witnessed in more than forty years of involvement with the veteran community and breaches the standards of the United States Senate,” said the VFW’s William Thien, commander-in-chief, and John Hamilton, adjutant general, in a statement.
“Although Senator Burr attended much of that hearing, apparently all he wanted to hear were calls for the VA Secretary to resign,” Joseph Johnston of the Disabled American Veterans said. “Senator Burr may be enamored with the idea that all of VA’s problems and challenges can be overcome by replacing one Secretary, but the plain facts and simple logic indicate otherwise.”
But he didn’t attend the entire hearing, as Paralyzed Veterans President Bill Lawson and Executive Director Homer Townsend, Jr., noted in a letter:
“Perhaps you should have shared with all veterans in your `open’ letter that you cared so much about their health care that you were not actually present during the testimony that the VSO representatives provided and you did not ask a single question to gauge our recommendations about how to fix the problems the VA health care system is facing.”
Robert Welch favored a foreign policy of “Fortress America" rather than "entangling alliances" through NATO and the UN. For this reason, Welch combined a strong anti-Communism with opposition to the bipartisan Cold War consensus of armed internationalism. undoubtedly, he would have opposed our adventures in Iraq, Kosovo, Libya, Syria and anything in the former Soviet territories in Ukraine.
ReplyDeleteThe White House blew the cover of the top CIA agent in Afghanistan on Sunday, when the person’s name was included on a list given to reporters during a visit to the country by President Barack Obama.
ReplyDeleteThe name was then emailed by the White House press office to a distribution list of more than 6,000 recipients, mostly members of the US media.
The agent in question, listed as chief of station, would be a top manager of CIA activity in Afghanistan, including intelligence collection and a drone-warfare programme under which unmanned aerial vehicles mount cross-border attacks into Pakistan.
The name appeared on a list of attendees requested by White House officials for the president’s visit to Bagram air base to mark Memorial Day, the national day of tribute to fallen service members. The list of 15 people was drawn up by the military, written into a routine press report and sent to Washington. The Obama press office then sent the list, unredacted, to the larger group.
The mistake did not come to light until the reporter who had filed from Afghanistan, the veteran Washington Post correspondent Scott Wilson, looked more closely at what he had sent and noticed the name and title.
“I drew it to their attention before they had noticed what had happened,” Wilson said on Monday, hours after returning from the 33-hour trip overseas.
“I asked the press official that was with us on the trip if they knew that the station chief had been identified in the list. That person said that they did not know that, but that because the list was provided by military, they assumed it was OK. By this time the list was out.
“Soon after, I think that they talked to their bosses, and realised that it was not OK. And they tried to figure out what to do about this, if there was a way to kind of un-ring the bell.”
The name was left off of a subsequent report filed from Bagram.
How do you think this will work out?
ReplyDeleteUkraine's president-elect, Petro Poroshenko, promised to end the armed insurgency in the east of the country in "hours", as Kiev's forces launched air strikes on separatists during an intense battle to regain control of Donetsk airport which left many injured.
With almost all the votes counted on Monday evening, Poroshenko, a pro-west businessman, was on course for a decisive victory with 54% of the vote, while his nearest challenger won just 13%, but when he takes up office he will be faced with the immediate task of bringing calm to Ukraine's eastern regions.
The pro-Russia forces who have occupied government buildings in eastern Ukraine said they were ready to negotiate with Ukraine's new leadership, but only with Russian mediation and on equal terms. The separatists have declared themselves de facto independent states and claim Kiev has no jurisdiction over them.
Less than a fifth of polling stations opened in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions on Sunday following a massive campaign of intimidation by the separatists, who say they want the eastern regions of Ukraine to join Russia after questionable referendums earlier this month.
But as the majority of Russian troops have now moved away from the border with Ukraine, the prospect of a Russian invasion or a Crimea-style annexation of the territory is unlikely.
You've lost your mind, Deuce.
ReplyDeleteWhatever about Iraq, we had to go into Afghanistan.
I hope we stay, after all this trouble.
They attacked our financial center, and the Pentagon, and were going for our center of Legislation and/or the White House.
We are perfectly justified in what we have done in Afghanistan.
I put your change of view on your Arabic girlfriend, not really wanting to say you've gone insane.
She must be damn good with the pillow talk.
DeleteThe objective was obtained in weeks, yet the Bush Administration would not dispatch 800 Rangers to Tora Bora close OBL's escape route into Pakistan, as it would be "to big" a footprint.
DeleteBut within a year the US had tens of thousands of troops in Afghanistan, on a nation building mission that has failed in a bi-partisan manner.
The only fellow that has lost his mind is Bob.
DeleteYou can't fix stupid
And it is disgusting to hammer on our Memorial Day.
ReplyDeleteDisgusting.
The non-veteran, the fellow that thinks his taxes made up his 'sacrifice' is offended.
DeleteBuzz off, bitch
As Rufus would say, blow me.
DeleteMemorial Day recognizes all the sacrifices our people have made over the years.
ReplyDeleteThe world is a better place because of those sacrifices.
Blow me.
You have never sacrificed for anyone but yourself.
DeleteYou do not know the meaning of the word.
Bend over, I'll drive you home, bitch.
And particularly in WWII.
ReplyDeleteThe world is a better place because of our Vets.
That would be everyone here, but YOU.
DeleteWhy are you always the outlier, Bob?
DeleteWhy don't you fit in?
Why do you think the rest of us are crazy and only you are sane?
Don't you recognize the incongruity of that position?
rat, you are not a Vet. You were just a gun for hire in Central America.
DeleteIt is not you I am saluting.
I am saluting the true Vets.
.Why are you always the outlier, Bob?
DeleteWhy don't you fit in?
Why do you think the rest of us are crazy and only you are sane?
Don't you recognize the incongruity of that position?
Why do you disrespect rufus?
DeleteWhy do you disrespect Deuce?
Why are you always the outlier, Bob?
Why don't you fit in?
Why do you think the rest of us are crazy and only you are sane?
Don't you recognize the incongruity of that position?
If you wish, Anon, you are perfectly able to go out and piss on a flag pole today.
ReplyDeleteBecause of the Vets.
Why do you disrespect rufus?
DeleteWhy do you disrespect Deuce?
Why are you always the outlier, Bob?
Why don't you fit in?
Why do you think the rest of us are crazy and only you are sane?
Don't you recognize the incongruity of that position?
Why do you disrespect the Veterans, Bob?
DeleteWhy do you disrespect rufus?
Why do you disrespect Deuce?
Why are you so vile?
Why aren't you a Veteran, Bob?
DeleteWhy are you the outlier?
Not a Vet cause I never joined the Army.
DeleteWent farming instead.
But I salute those Vets who have helped maintain our way of life.
I salute the true Vets, and not a punk like you, rat, who went on a little killing spree in Central America and bragged about it.
DeleteThe true Vets should be saluted, you should be in prison.
The old Bircher crank was about half right. A big reason for these bullshit wars is "war."
ReplyDeleteThe part about "covering up the communist takeover of America . . . . . . . . .?"
Well, what the hell can you say?
Many of my farmer friends are Vets. Not all, but a good number of them.
ReplyDeleteWhy are you not a Veteran, Bob?
DeleteWhy are you the outlier?
Why do you disrespect Deuce and why did you disrespect rufus, on Memorial Day?
I disrespect you, rat.
DeleteNow you go to bed, get some rest, and shut up for the rest of the day, rat.
ReplyDeleteIt's a good thing to set aside one day of the year to the Vets. Doesn't mean you have to respect the government's decisions tho.
ReplyDeletePillow talk? Try thinking for a change:
ReplyDeleteI stated at the time, that Bush should have dragged the Saudi Ambassador into the White House and let him know that they owed us $500 billion in reparations. Period.
I also stated he should have matched and checked the iconic felling of two towers with two mushroom clouds rising on each Afghan training camp. Period.
Instead we have this amazing account to the crass stupidity of Bush and his Neocon flag waivers:
When a suicide bomber detonated an explosive beside the vehicle in which Army Master Sgt. Todd Nelson was riding through Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2007, shrapnel struck his right side, and fire engulfed him.
Nearby troops pulled Nelson from the flaming wreckage of the Land Cruiser, and American medics and surgeons at the nearest base did what they could to stabilize him.
Nelson had a fractured skull and crushed facial bones. His nose, right eye and ear were gone. Burns covered more than 18 percent of his body. He was unconscious for six weeks; only a heartbeat showed he was alive.
Now 40, he’s sure the U.S. medical evacuation teams that flew him swiftly to Germany and on to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio saved his life several times en route.
That Nelson didn’t die from his grievous wounds is testament to the military medical advances that have given U.S. troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan a remarkable 90 percent chance of survival.
Telling his story to a roomful of science reporters last month, Nelson recalled waking up in the hospital and looking at himself in the mirror for the first time, thinking “‘I guess I can live with that.’ Because I felt fortunate to be alive.”
Nelson is just one of more than 50,000 American troops who have suffered combat wounds in Afghanistan and Iraq.
No, I don’t respect bullshit political holidays. No more than I respect incompetent politicians like Lyndon Johnson and Anal Abraham Lincoln that caused the carnage and owns this:
The avoidable US Civil War, 1861-1865
ReplyDeleteTotal deaths (Union forces only): 364,511
Number serving (Union forces only): 2,213,363
Battle deaths (Union forces only): 140,414
Other deaths (Union forces only): 224,097
Authoritative statistics for the Confederate forces aren't available, the CRS report says, but estimates of the number who served range from 600,000 to 1,500,000. The final report of the Provost Marshal General, 1863-1866, indicated 133,821 Confederate deaths (74,524 battle and 59,297 other) based upon incomplete returns, bringing the total to 498,332, making it America’s deadliest war.
In addition, an estimated 26,000 to 31,000 Confederate personnel died in Union prisons.
Sheer genius. Raise the flag higher boys.
ReplyDeleteEvery country in the Americas that practiced slavery (and there were many) ended slavery without murder and destruction except one under one man that wished he was a woman.
ReplyDeleteWhy not save your fire for President's Day then?
ReplyDeleteWhy?
ReplyDeleteHere is why:
Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering the men and women who died while serving in the country's armed forces.[1] The holiday, which is celebrated every year on the last Monday of May,[2] was formerly known as Decoration Day and originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the Union and Confederate soldiers who died in
the war.
It should be renamed Lincoln’s Apology Day.
ReplyDeleteO well have it your way then.It's too nice a day to argue.
ReplyDeleteDay of the Northern Aggression; Celebration of Slavery Day; Old South Day
ReplyDeleteAll of these would be more appropriate.
Day of the Northern Aggression; Celebration of Slavery Day; Old South Day
ReplyDeleteAll of these would be more appropriate.
Old Ways Days
ReplyDeleteCherokee Slavery Day
etc
What this country needs is a Reparations Day.
ReplyDeleteMoney in the mailbox for 100 years or so from the Limousine Liberals and the Cherokee Nation to anyone that can show they are 1/8th black.