COL Gene COL Gene

Bush has Given our Military the WRONG Mission!

Bush has Given our Military the WRONG Mission!



Most of the negative incidents and difficulties in Iraq are not because we do not have a well trained and dedicated military. On the contrary, look at how they performed during the first three months of this war. Our military is trained to destroy opposing military force and in that mission have NO equal today on Earth.

I have read articles that claim the reason for much of the negative events and lack of progress is because the mission given our military by their Commander-in-Chief is a mission for which our military is not trained, equipped or organized. They were NEVER intended as Nation Builders or to be a Police Force. As I look at the numerous diplomas on my wall from Artillery Basic, Combat Intel, Nuclear Weapons, Command and General Staff College and the Army War College, I must admit that we were NOT trained to do the things our military is being tasked to do in Iraq.

The Army has some Civil Affairs Units (Restoration of civilian services) and Military police units. However these are a VERY small part of the force and for the most part our military was not intended to do what is being asked of them in Iraq.

I commend our military for doing their best but the real problem lies with Bush who has put them into a role for which they were not intended and for which they are not trained or equipped to perform. It is time to for us to get out of Iraq and place that responsibility on this new Iraq Government and the Iraqi People!
19,202 views 67 replies
Reply #51 Top
Show us when a Rogue Dictator attacked a major Power?


What does this have to do with anything? This is pure specualtion of what someone MIGHT or MIGHT NOT do. It hold no factual value.

Show that the information the two CIA Chiefs and Zinni is incorrect?


Col, Zinni and the two "chiefs" have not provided any documented facts. It's just their word against the thousands of other people who disagree. I have shown in other posts that you don't respond to that Zinni is affiliated with left wing organizations, and that his track record on terrorism is dismal at best.


Show how Bush did not claim there was a $5.7 Trillion Surplus to justify his tax cuts in 2001?


Col, you have already been proved wrong about the tax cuts. That's why you abandoned that thread, remember?


Show the military assessment that showed Saddam had the ability to attack the United States in 2003?


Do you want me to quote the one's the democrats said?


Show where Saddam had the nuclear weapons that he could have used to create the Mushroom Clouds of our cities?


Here is a quote from a government official....

"There is no doubt that ... Saddam Hussein has reinvigorated his weapons programs. Reports indicate that biological, chemical and nuclear programs continue apace and may be back to pre-Gulf War status. In addition, Saddam continues to redefine delivery systems and is doubtless using the cover of a licit missile program to develop longer-range missiles that will threaten the United States and our allies."


Pretty much sums it up.
Reply #52 Top
Tell me again Saddam didn't support terrorists.

Documents from Saddam Hussein's regime that are slowly being translated show Iraq trained thousands of Islamic terrorists at camps inside the country before the war.

The evidence – affirmed in interviews by U.S. government interrogators with Iraqi regime officials and military leaders – contradicts the claims of anti-war critics who charge Iraq became a magnet for Islamic terrorists only after the U.S. invasion.

Steve Hayes of the Weekly Standard reports that from 1999 through 2002, "elite Iraqi military units" trained about 8,000 terrorists at three different camps, including Salman Pak, where American forces found an airliner fuselage that possibly was used to practice hijackings.

Hayes, who claims more than a dozen corroborating sources, says many of the trainees were from North African-based terrorist groups with ties to al-Qaida.

The U.S. has collected more than 2 million documents, audio and videotapes and computer hard drives, but only about 50,000 of these of these items have been examined so far by a skelton crew with limited resources.

Along with Salmon Pak, the military units trained terrorists at camps in Samarra and Ramadi who, some intelligence officials believe, are responsible for attacks against Americans and Iraqis.

Hayes says that according to three officials with knowledge of the intelligence on Iraqi training camps, White House and National Security Council officials were briefed on these findings in May 2005.

Later, senior Defense Department officials received the same briefing.
Reply #53 Top
These columns have been documenting this trend for the last couple of years, as well as the revenue tide flowing into state budget coffers. Overall state revenues climbed by 8% in 2004 and nearly 9% in 2005, according to the Census Bureau, and more and more states are piling up big surpluses. We've reported this news because politicians like to disguise these tax windfalls so they can spend it all with impunity and still plead poverty. Journalists contribute to this ruse by focusing their budget coverage on deficits, rather than on the spending and revenue trends that are the actual components of any budget.

The current revenue rush also refutes the prevailing Washington consensus that the federal deficit is the result of the Bush tax cuts. In fact, this revenue tsunami is the direct result of the expansion that took off in earnest at about the time the 2003 tax cuts passed. Lower tax rates have since had precisely the result that supporters predicted, though don't look for that story on page one any time...
Reply #54 Top
IskandDog

You have NOT answered a single question in my challenge. You are all HOT AIR. I sight facts and statement of the foremost experts on the subject and you answer with nothing!

There is NO evidence that I have read that linked Saddam to 9/11. There is no assessment he had any military capability to attack our country.

Saddam was an evil dictator that the people of Iraq should have removed from power. It was NOT the responsibility of the United States to do that job. It was also not true that we were in danger from Iraq as Bush and Cheney claimed in 2003. All we have succeeded in doing is allowing the sectarian violence to rear its ugly head in Iraq and I and many others believe there will be a full blown civil war before the country has a stable government. We have provided the example that to prevent being invaded the best thing to do is obtain a few nuclear weapons like North Korea. In that way the U S will not invade for fear of the use of such weapons on our military. If you believe the invasion of Iraq has made this country more secure you are badly mistaken.
Reply #55 Top
You have NOT answered a single question in my challenge. You are all HOT AIR. I sight facts and statement of the foremost experts on the subject and you answer with nothing!


I have answered all your question col. It's you who refuses to see anything but hatred for Bush. Seek help for it.


There is NO evidence that I have read that linked Saddam to 9/11. There is no assessment he had any military capability to attack our country.


This is the number reason everybody here knows you are full of it. Nobody said Saddam had a connection to Sept. 11. Do you understand this simple fact?

Saddam had supported, trained and harbored terrorists, including al-qaeda. Everytime this documented fact is presented to you, you go off with the same "Saddam had no connection to Sept. 11". What a joke you are.


Saddam was an evil dictator that the people of Iraq should have removed from power.


The Iraqi people tried col, that's where many mass graves originated from.


It was also not true that we were in danger from Iraq as Bush and Cheney claimed in 2003.


Democrats claimed the same thing before and after Bush was elected. Tell me again how they were decieved, or will you give them a pass and continue to blame Bush?
Reply #56 Top
Here are a few questions for you that you never answer....


Are you a socialist?

What percentage of income should successful Americans be taxed?

Do you support the democrats efforts to use illegal immigrants as a new voting base?

How many times has your book been on the Amazon top seller list?

Why don't you ever respond to posts that use documented facts to show you are wrong?



I'M CALLING YOU OUT ON YOUR BS.
Reply #57 Top
No

Tax rates in effect in 2000

NO

None

I Do. You ignore both facts and expert opinion

Now it is your turn!
Reply #58 Top
I have already answered your questions. Although I see you can't answer truthfully because you act just like a socialist. I also see you have ignored all the posts I made about the good news from the economy. I see you still ignore the posts Shadowar makes about progress in Iraq.

It's so hillarious when you say I ignore facts and expert opinion. Col, you rarely post documented facts, and we all discredit most of your "experts" just like Zinni. I notice you don't respond to the post I made that shows Zinni as incompetent.
Reply #59 Top
There is GOOD news for the economy but most of that does not impact the Average Worker. You refuse to acknowledge the latest news:

800 point drop in Stock market
Higher interest rates
Reduction in Real Estate Market
Poor American Auto sales
High Energy Costs
Other inflation increases
Drop in Consumer Confidence
Trade Deficit
Continued loss of manufacturing and Tec Jobs

What about ALL that economic news?

Reply #60 Top
While I could go through all your points I will pick a few to show how ignorant you really are.

You refuse to acknowledge the latest news


Just as you refused to acknowledge this news.

https://forums.joeuser.com/Forums.aspx?ForumID=3&AID=118700#916160
https://forums.joeuser.com/Forums.aspx?ForumID=3&AID=118311#911735
https://forums.joeuser.com/Forums.aspx?ForumID=3&AID=97450&cmd=myposts

I notice whenever someone posts good news about the economy or Iraq you seem to disappear. Now tell me again how we refuse to see things.

Continued loss of manufacturing and Tec Jobs


Here is just a few quotes from factcheck that debunked Kerrys claims which mirror yours.

US manufacturing employment was in decline for nearly three years before Bush became President. It actually declined by 544,000 between the peak reached in March, 1998 and when Clinton left office, even as the economy added nearly 7.8 million jobs in all categories during the climax of a roaring economic boom that ended a few weeks after Bush was sworn in. In fact, 238,000 of those manufacturing jobs were lost in Clinton's last six month alone, showing that the decline was well-established even before Bush had spent a day in office.


Blame Bush only I guess.

Something democrats like yourself overlook....

The decline in manufacturing payrolls has been offset to a great degree by gains in such industries as health care, construction and government (teachers and firemen, for example.)


Where were you for this col?

Consumers shrugged off higher gasoline prices in April and sent a widely watched barometer of consumer confidence to its highest level in almost four years, a private research group said Tuesday.


Oh I forgot, that's good news. Something you refuse to hear.
Reply #61 Top
Here's a good article for you col.

According to some pundits and political hustlers, free trade has led to a loss of "good manufacturing jobs." Let's look at it, but before doing so, let's first see whether we should work ourselves into a tizzy over other job losses.

In 1900, 41 percent of the U.S. labor force was employed in agriculture. Now, only two percent of today's labor force works in agricultural jobs. If declining employment is used as a gauge of an industry's health, agriculture is America's sickest industry.

Let's not stop with agriculture. In 1970, the telecommunications industry employed 421,000 workers in good-paying jobs as switchboard operators. Today, the telecommunications industry employs only 78,000 operators. That's a tremendous 80 percent job loss. What happened to all those agriculture and switchboard operator jobs? Were they exported to China and India by rapacious businessmen?

The easy and correct answer is that our agricultural sector has seen massive gains in productivity as a result of advances in farm machinery, innovation and technology. There have also been spectacular advances in telecommunications. In 1970, those 421,000 switchboard operators annually handled 9.8 billion long-distance calls. Now 100 billion long-distance calls a year require only 78,000 switchboard operators. What's more is, the cost of making a long-distance call is a fraction of what it was in 1970.

Here's my question to you: Should Congress do something to restore all of those jobs lost in agriculture and telecommunications, and what might that something be?
Reply #62 Top
The job loss and the trade policies are linked. I have admitted that the trade policies that Clinton followed were a failure all eight years of his administration. What did Bush do with that failure staring him in the face? He not only continued a policy that had failed for the eight previous years but expanded it with China and now Central America. Why would anyone continue a policy that you pointed out was a failure? Care to answer that question?
Reply #63 Top
Hey Gene,

How about this from USA Today, from 2004!!! ( a MSM source God help me)

Among the changes the Army is making:

• More weapons training. Recruits will be taught to fire weapons other than the M-16, the standard rifle for foot soldiers. New troops will learn how to fire other weapons commonly found in the U.S. arsenal, including a variety of machine guns.

• New training on how to identify and counter remote-controlled bombs known as IEDs, or improvised explosive devices. Those bombs have killed dozens of soldiers in Iraq and are a weapon of choice for guerrilla fighters.

• Convoy tactics. For the first time, recruits will ride in convoys and face simulated ambushes. They will learn how to place sandbags inside vehicles to protect against bombs, grenades and machine guns.

• Urban combat. Soldiers will learn tactics for fighting enemies who blend in with civilians.

• Increased first-aid training. Officials say it is important for all soldiers to have better lifesaving skills, because troops are traveling in smaller groups and can be ambushed without a medic or doctor nearby.

The changes added lessons will not lengthen basic training, but recruits will drill more on Sundays, which has been traditionally a light training day.

The last major change in basic training was in 1997, when the Army began teaching values such as courage and honesty. It came after a scandal at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, where drill sergeants forced female trainees to have sex with them.

Sgt. 1st Class Donovan Manley, a Fort Benning drill sergeant, says the new program will make a big difference in preparing young soldiers for guerrilla warfare.

"We don't have the luxury of time right now. We graduate soldiers, and a short time later they are deploying," he says. "This will save lives."

And Gene since you say your were in so long and have so many things on your wall, don't yo ever remember MOUT training?? Its been around since the 1980's and before. For those non-military types thats Military Operations in Urbanized Terrain. Just what they are doing now in Iraq. Darn in fact I was even trained in MOUT and that was back in the early 80's.

Last time I checked, one of the Army's motto's was "adapt and overcome" Seems to be what they are doing.
Reply #64 Top
Oh and Gene, being the military man you are how about a few famous quotes:

Never tell people how to do things.
Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.
- General George Patton Jr

"A leader is a man who can adapt principles to circumstances."
- General George S. Patton, Jr

Maybe this one should read Col.
"I am convinced that the best service a retired general (Col??) can perform is to
turn in his tongue along with his suit and to mothball his opinions."
- General Omar N. Bradley

And one of my favorites:
Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul.
- General Douglas MacArthur
Reply #65 Top
Never tell people how to do things.
Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.
- General George Patton Jr.

This is the one Bush and Rummy did not know when they told the Military Experts what troop levels would be required to CONTROL Iraq after Saddam was deposed. The HOW should have left to the people that KNEW not Bush and Rummy that had no idea! Most of our deaths and injuries are because Bush did not allow the military to do the HOW. He and Rummy TOLD them!
Reply #66 Top
Most of our deaths and injuries are because Bush did not allow the military to do the HOW.


Amazing how you make such outrageous statements with nothing to back them up with.
Reply #67 Top
slandDog

It is a fact the VAST MAJORITY of the deaths and injuries took place AFTER, "Mission Accomplished". They are a direct result of the sectarian violence that was allowed to develop after Saddam fell. If the military had been allowed to make the MILITARY decisions about the resources NEEDED to control Iraq, the sectarian violence would not have been allowed to develop. We created a POWER VACUUM and we were unable to replace the control Saddam exercised with our military when the Iraq Government fell because we DID NOT HAVE THE FORCE LEVELS NEEDED to prevent the violence from developing.

Almost every senior military general admits that we DID NOT control Iraq and that was because we did not have the needed man power. That is BUSH and his minion Rummy that FORCED those choices on the military!