WAR IS HELL

You know, we're all wearing the 'support our troops' magnetic banners on our vehicles and I think that is a good thing to do. But it seems to me that we really don't have a grasp on what these guys are really going through. Imagine the post-apocalyptic scenario these guys have to walk into. Going door-to-door, not knowing whether the door you push open is going to be booby-trapped with a bomb, or a suicide bomber on the other side. When you drive your humvee past another vehicle or someone walking past your vehicle imagine not knowing when your time is up. It's knd of like you're playing a game of 'Russian Roulette' every day. So, that soldier that shot the wounded, unarmed insurgent last week was probably in the mindset I just described. I don't know that I would have done the same thing. I also believe that the blame for some of these atrocities, put on the soldier on the field of battle, is misplaced.
Consider that these soldiers are put in this situation by men that have never seen battle. I have not seen battle, but I certainly can imagine what it must be like. These guys are on double tours of duty. Some are not properly trained -- example, there was an interview with the mother of a soldier who said he was being trained as a cook and three weeks before being shipped out he was re-trained as an infantryman -- three weeks seems a bit short for such a dangerous job.
This administration will not honor these troops who give their lives for this administration -- and that is who those lives are lost to -- can't show the coffins coming home. Might help us realize the hell that is war. Then on Veteran's day we couldn't play the uncut version of "Saving Private Ryan", a movie that surely shows you the horrors of war. I don't think you can watch this film and not think of the troops that are in Iraq.
With Colin Powell gone we have no military experience in this administration. We are supposedly getting some intelligence out of Iran that might cause us to militarily act against them. The 'coalition of the willing' is going to be coming from our own back yard. And I think that as soon as the big boys can secure their offspring in deferments we will be looking at a draft. Dying for a noble cause is one thing, being sent to slaughter is totally different. Being sent to slaughter, realizing it , acting on the premise that you shoot first to save your life and having to take the full blame for it is shameful. War is hell.