We Cannot And Should Not Forget

[Rich One]

Well ... yes, we have to hold people accountable for their actions - as will as give them credit for their actions. But how many of the guys who served in Iraq do you think analyzed that war and determined that it was a war of choice. I think that the vast majority of them just thought that their country needed them. Few of us have the competence to questions our President and Congress.

Bob

Do you also question those veterans that fought and died in Vietnam ....?

 

[GS_Dirtboy]

You'll notice that combat veterans don't talk about it much, if at all ...

 

[bobg]

Do you also question those veterans that fought and died in Vietnam ....?

Certainly not! (I think that you might have misread my post - or maybe I didn't say what I meant very well.) At the time I was not sure that our involvement there was wrong. I respect and honor those that died there. And by the way I was in the US Army at the time and missed going to 'Nam by a hair's breath. And had I gone I almost certainly would have been killed - I would have been an artillery forward observer, the enemy's favorite target.

Bob

 

[mc kenna]

A moment of silence out of respect for those who fought to give us the freedoms ,that some of us are in such a hurry to give up

 

[bobg]

I'll put my competence up against Shrub's and Cheney's any day.

And that might be a fair match. My point was that the average citizen with the average size ego, e.g. yours truly, finds it tough to disagree with a military decision reached by the President and Congress and based on intelligence from the NSA, CIA, and Pentagon. A really wrong decision and a stupid decision are two different things - although the consequences might be very similar. I can't recall anyone at the time saying "but wait ... there's going to be a wicked insurgency and IEDs, which our vehicles are not prepared for, around every corner and we are going to end up being there for over a decade." I don't think that it's fair to compare the calls which the Monday morning quarterback would have made to the calls made by the quarterback during the game.

Bob

 

[GS_Dirtboy]

It was hard not to get caught up in the swell of patriotism after 9/11 to go into Iraq. I know. I was there. I now think differently about our involvement.

 

[internationalguy]

The only think I can think of is that regardless of the evil aspirations nazi leaders had back in the 30s and 40s, most German soldiers were following orders in exactly the same way one of our own would follow orders. I don't want to say that I agree with the agenda they had, of course I don't. But a soldier who wasn't really allowed any freedom of information as to what the reality was like for real, who was following orders, can't be held accountable for all the things that were done. Maybe they could have opted for desertion, but how likely do you think they really knew what it was all about?

 

[ajoknoblauch]

It was hard not to get caught up in the swell of patriotism after 9/11 to go into Iraq. I know. I was there. I now think differently about our involvement.

With all due respect, it was obvious from the beginning that Regent Cheney was simply making stuff up. Iraq was the biggest lie in US history, and that's saying a lot. I, for one, never bought a word of it.

 

[ajoknoblauch]

Respecting and mourning the past deceased, including so called War criminals. We have a national shrine called the "Yasukuni"
There all war related perished soldiers are buried. When a head of state goes in to pay respects to all sacrificed beings there, PRC and Korea all have to complain year after year.! WTF, only the victorious nation genre can go to and pay respect to their deceased heroes, but some defeated nation's head can't .....

Ronald Reagan, though, could openly express his Nazi nostalgia in Germany:

 

[Caliexpat]

If we truly want to honor the veterans of WW2 then we should start by not repeating the events that lead up to world war.

Also, instead of being so "proud" of our troops, why don't we instead start by not sending them off to die in some pointless war in the first place.