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Anyone agree or disagree with this point of view?

Should we take the gloves off over there and finish what we started instead of *****-footin around?



A PICTURE'S WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

From the GI’s point of view, there are similarities and differences between reporters and insurgents.

They’re both working against you, but you can only shoot the insurgents.

That’s the only conclusion that can be drawn after recent days have seen an escalation of anti-American bigotry in the Middle East tied directly to idiocy on the part of the press.

“Newsweek” stabbed our troops in the back with the Koran-down-the-toilet story and “The Sun” has done its part by publishing pictures of Saddam Hussein in his BVDs. Both have put rioting idiots in the streets, both have fueled the anti-war/Bush/America crowd in the United States and both have offended the over-inflated Muslim ego.

Which is just what we need now.

In a conflict fueled by a religion that teaches its young men to blow themselves up in the name of God, giving the hotheads at the mosques something else to be ticked off about is just not a good idea.

And the press’s incessant banging of the drum against our troops, our president and our country is predictable and dangerous. Every story about the Saddam pictures brings up the Abu Ghraib matter and every story assumes and asserts the worst about our cause and our country.

Which is all a bunch of crap.

So let’s get some things straight.

First of all, everybody knew Saddam Hussein was in jail, didn’t they? Wasn’t that on TV? Isn’t that known?

So the notion he’s behind bars, living the life of a prisoner, shouldn’t take anybody by surprise.

And what do the pictures show?

They show a healthy man.

He doesn’t have any bruises. He doesn’t have any broken bones. He is being well fed and has the musculature to indicated that he’s getting appropriate exercise. He has clean and well-maintained clothes. He is in a clean environment and his hair and body seem clean, groomed and well taken care of.

And he has his head.

He’s not in shackles or chains, he’s not being mistreated, he has an area where he can move around and have a space of his own.

The pictures of Saddam in jail show that he is being treated better than every single prisoner who has been taken by our enemies in Iraq or Afghanistan.

And yet these people who hate us over there have their nose out of joints because the dignity of some Muslim man has been, according to them, disrespected.

Well tough luck.

This man is a mass murderer, and he’s being treated better than anyone he ever held in jail. And a sense of religious or national dignity that puts empty pride in front of common sense and decency is just short if insane.

This man killed more than a million people and Muslims are upset by the fact that an idiot newspaper published – for no reason other than sensation and commercialism – a picture that some other idiot had taken. It’s too much stupidity.

The pictures shouldn’t have been taken, they shouldn’t have been published, and they shouldn’t be taken this seriously.

But they are.

And that ought to tell us that we need to stop pussyfooting around the Middle East.

If you’ll forgive the vulgarity, we went over to kick ass – not to kiss ass. And our hand wringing over hurt Muslim feelings is an embarrassment. These people have contempt for us because we’re acting contemptible.

They detest weakness and respect strength, and we are bending over backwards like a bunch of pansies. We’ve tied our troops’ hands, we have oddball rules of engagement, we are using the Vietnam playbook.

We couldn’t win hearts and minds there, and we can’t win hearts and minds here.

Because that’s not what you do in war.

In war, you don’t try to make friends, you try to kill enemies. Period. When we firebombed Dresden – and anyplace else we could find – we weren’t that interested in winning the hearts and minds of Germans. We were intent on breaking their will.

Truman leveled Hiroshima and Nagasaki to send the clear message to the Japanese that they wouldn’t like us when we got mad.

Ditto for Sherman’s march to the sea. He didn’t burn Atlanta thinking it would make the Southerners welcome his troops as liberators. He did it to show that fighting against the American Army was an act of suicide.

So what possibly makes us think that all the military history of the world is going to change now? How can we possibly think that the dynamic of warfare is going to change just because we want happy stories in the paper?

You win wars by pounding the snot out of people. You lose wars by doing exactly what we’re doing. Peace comes through victory, and if you’re not willing to fight, you can never have either victory or peace.

We have been at war with these people for three years, and they’re not afraid of us. They have open disrespect for us. They burn our flag and march in the streets and send their sons off to plant bombs near our vehicles.

That means they’re winning.

And they’ll keep winning until we stand up and fight like Americans. They’ll keep winning until we turn our military loose and let it get the job done.

Until then, we better start calling Baghdad Saigon.

And we better get used to something as meaningless as a magazine paragraph or a newspaper photograph creating more trouble than we can handle.

This isn’t Girl Scout day camp, this is war. And it will be won with bullets and bombs, not press releases.

Somebody up the chain of command better catch on to that soon.

- by Bob Lonsberry © 2005



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Abso-friggin-lutely!! I am sick and tired of people(left-wing liberals) saying we need to be nice. It is WAR, dummy. It isn't supposed to be nice. People saying that they understand why the Arabs were frustrated and crashed those planes.

Then ByGod, they should understand why those soldiers are frustrated and are retaliating. I am refering to the humiliation of the detainees. Do I condone what our troops did, no. But I do understand it. And surprisingly, am OK with it.

They started it, but G*ddammit, We are going to finish it.

The Media trying to villian-ize our troops publishing a BOGUS story about the Koran being defiled at the base at Gitmo in Cuba.

That fake story sparked off 3 days of deadly riots in Iraq and Afganistan. Killing hundreds.

How could they print something like that?? Do they want our kids to get killed over a pack of lies?? Apparently so. And the retraction; three lines on the 13th page in NewsWeek. Mixed in among the Ads. Real nice, huh??

I hate the thought of what it would mean to quit ***** footing around. I also hate the though of dragging this out. The idea that we can make them our friends is a hard one for me to swallow. They love not being our friends. They have a need to be in a deadly conflict. I think we need to do whatever it takes to get their respect. They don’t have to like us if they respect us. The problem is…who is “us”?

Agree absolutely BTS.

It is time to take the gloves off now and sort out these insurgents once and for all.

One of the galling things about seeing the daily news footage from Iraq and Afghanistan is knowing we have the ability to get the job done and are not fully using it.

From past experience if politicians get too involved in a war theater there is inevitably the 'tread softly' syndrome.

Our military strength and expertise is far more than the enemy can handle if used to its full extent.

Of course there will be the usual hand-wringing by the liberals but it is really now time to disregard that and get the job finished.

It will inevitably lead to more casualties in the short term but that's a price that has to be paid for the longer term good.

Wolverine wrote: I am sick and tired of people(left-wing liberals) saying we need to be nice.


Tsk. Tsk. Be careful of stereotyping, Wolverine. I'm a liberal and I'm for fighting tooth and nail. Of course I'm a fighter pilot and I was taught to show no quarter, but my point is that people from all sides can have all kinds of opinions, not just certain groups.

How could they print something like that?? Do they want our kids to get killed over a pack of lies?? Apparently so. And the retraction; three lines on the 13th page in NewsWeek. Mixed in among the Ads. Real nice, huh??


Newsweek is a pack of blasted idiots. I have a great solution for this....everyone connected to the story has to serve one month in combat duty over in Iraq. I promise that their stories will take on a much different tone after that.

Don`t forget you`ll never please everybody all the time. During World War II the Allies took massive stick for `not doing something sooner to get more Jews out of Germany` and `for not helping Poland sooner`. Then in Vietnam, after the French had scarpered, the Americans were criticised for trying to at least do something. Now in Iraq, after being told how bad things were under Saddam and getting rid of him, the Allies are still criticised. We just can`t do right for doing wrong!

Jives wrote: Newsweek is a pack of blasted idiots. I have a great solution for this....everyone connected to the story has to serve one month in combat duty over in Iraq. I promise that their stories will take on a much different tone after that.
Send me the petition. I’ll sign it and go door to door getting others to sign it. Most of the “journalists” that write this stuff have never had anything but the best America could offer them. They are spoiled elitists who haven’t got a clue.

Clint wrote: Send me the petition. I’ll sign it and go door to door getting others to sign it. Most of the “journalists” that write this stuff have never had anything but the best America could offer them. They are spoiled elitists who haven’t got a clue.


Add these so-called 'pacifists' to the list.

These and the arm-chair experts would curl up and die if faced with the real world of combat.

Philadelphia Eagle wrote: he arm-chair experts would curl up and die if faced with the real world of combat.


lol. Those would be the guys that told me that flying a fighter was "no big deal" because all I had to do was "press a button".

I'd like to see their faces in a negative-G pushover or a 7.5 G Split-S. :wah:

I agree the *****footing around in Iraq must come to an end. But I'm speaking of the Iraqi Freedom fighters that are playing too soft with the occupier and the puppet junta the US has installed.

BTS, thank you, THANK YOU for posting this article. It was excellent, and I responded, saying just that. Fantastic.

Bob Lonsberry is my new hero. I love it when people tell it like they see it.

All the rightwingers say the 'war' is over and Iraq is a democracy and almost safe enough for Baptists to go door to door! Now we hear extremists screaming for MORE blood and destruction, and use my tax dollars to do it! Is this how we "Set an example" for other Arab countries? So pick one all you conservatives! Doya HATE the A-rabs and wanna kill more or doya LOVE A-rabs and you want to spread democracy?:yh_eyerol