Posted on 10/23/2006 4:41:01 PM PDT by MVV
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A search is under way for a U.S. soldier who went missing in Iraq Monday evening, amid fears the soldier might have been kidnapped.
A military official in Washington told The Associated Press the missing service member was an Army translator.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
What is the solution? How many more Soldiers and Marines are going to have to die before something is done?
The end of Ramadan cannot come soon enough for our Troops! There is no end in sight and everyday we lose more and more Soldiers and Marines!
I pray for this soldier. The "religion of peace" seems to be celebrating their holy days in the usual way. Sickening.
Bttt!
Thank you for answering that for me.
People need to keep a steady strain. This is a tactic by the terrorists. We do not want to play into their hands like the weak minded Spaniards did.
We need to lift the rules of engagement that our troops are under and let them DO THEIR JOB and BE SOLDIERS! This is Bull Shi!!! And way overdue!
Anybody have any clue how this happens? The translator is generally with the patrol leader, who is generally where he can best C2 the patrol, which is generally somewhere in the middle.
We need to get 80,000 more troops in Iraq after this election is over. We can clamp down on Baghdad and get a big force into Anbar to go after the bad guys. I have a feeling that is precisely what is going to happen when this election is over, maybe not 80k more troops but quite a bit more. That's what's behind the Baker Commission report and Warner coming back from Iraq saying we may need a change in strategy. I've maintained that's all been orchestrated to provide cover for the administration after the election to seriously up the number of troops in Iraq and to send them on the offensive.
So don't lose heart. We all mourn for the losses but the terrorists and their Democratic friends want those images to cause you to lose heart and to give up on the war effort. The US faced far heavier casualties than this in prior wars and far tougher times and we prevailed. There is no reason we cannot do so again. But it will require you and other Americans to replace fear with resolve and to send the message we're prepared to see this through to the end, even if that means seeing a temporary increase in casualties there should we do the wise thing after this election and go on the offensive with more troops being inserted into Iraq.
I dont give a SHI! about the upcoming elections! Right now I am most concerned about the welfare of our troops that are getting extensions left and right! This is an unending battle that won't end, we will be in IQ for YEARS!!! And yes I am a registered Republican that is FED UP!!
Thank you for a calm and cool analysis Mike.
The Spanish train bombings are a good comparison. Since Al Qaeda can't hit us here at the moment, they're driving up our casualties in Iraq to impact our election just like they did in Spain. Unfortunately it seems all too many Americans will fall victim to this tactic, certainly the media already has and of course the Democrats did long ago, and don't get this is all to get them to vote a certain way. Voters need to ask why it is terrorists think Democratic control of Congress will be good for their cause and then vote accordingly.
I am in daily contact with dozens of Soldiers that are there, defending and trying to stay alive. The stories and pics they send me are unbelievable. I chat with these brave men whenever and as often as I can. It's a bad, bad scene. I don't need the Dems to tell me anything! I hear it firsthand and it makes me sick!
Solution: Make...the...rubble...bounce.
You're a victim of the drive by media is what you are. Turn off the TV news and stop getting played by the media and its emotion-drenched coverage of Iraq. And I'm sorry you don't care about these elections. The future of the country and our effort to defeat Al Qaeda are what's at stake.
And if you don't want to fight them in Iraq, then where would you suggest that effort take place?? That confrontation had to come some time and where it happened was in Iraq. Do you have somewhere else this should have happened instead or do you think that Clinton-like we could have just ignored Al Qaeda and they'd have given up on trying to get at us??
As can be seen by the anger in your posts, you are all emotion and very little thought. We all mourn the troops but good security policy is not dictated by sorrow and emotions. Yes, I think changes need to be made and they are. I think we need more troops there to go on the offensive. But losing our minds and going all emotional just ensures the enemy wins and that they succeeded in their goal to cause us to lose our will.
I would suggest less of your kind of reaction would go along way to telling the enemy that they cannot cause us to lose heart and give them more a sense of hopelessness around their cause than around ours.
And many more soldiers are saying the media greatly exaggerates it all. No doubt the people you are talking to are in the worst of it in Baghdad. But you're reaction to this is what the terrorists are hoping for...the loss of hope and resolve. Why don't you steel yourself instead and advocate for a more forceful effort to win this thing?
I don't watch the news Mike. I am in touch on a daily basis with the troops that are over there, are you? I don't think so.
Theres no winning this "thing" until our soldiers are allowed to be soldiers. This is a PR war!
I can see you're not interested in a thoughtful debate but just want to take cheap shots that somehow you are more informed than me because you talk to a small group of soldiers. Have a nice night.
And consider what's at stake in our effort to defeat Al Qaeda in IRaq before you go all cut and run on us. War is tough. That's not news to anyone. But it seems to you that this war is somehow worse than most which it is not. You seem not to know that US history is replete with warfare far more excrucitatingly difficult than this. Yet we prevailed precisely because we were determined to. Read the history of the US Revolution, the Civil War and World War II, etc to see how unbelievable difficulties, defeats and even outright debacles nonetheless were overcome for us to win. Even with present difficulties we will prevail. In WW2 we left over 10,000 US troops in the Phillipines to be captured by the Japanese. Before their capture they were left with no ammo, no food, little water. They were barely stick figures by the time those forces were capture en masse and taken to Japanese POW camps on the Batan Death march. It was a horrible defeat and US forces were left without food, ammo or hope as MacArthur was ordered to Australia. Should we have given up with that terrible defeat?
I bet the men you talk to in Iraq would agree with me that the present difficulties can be overcome with determination and grit, not just theirs but ours, and that we owe it to them not to lose our will. We've suffered far less in this fight than we have in other wars in which we've prevailed. We'll prevail again.
Anyway, I can tell you're emotional so I am going to end my part of this discussion. It is too difficult to talk logic with someone consummed by emotion. And I'm more of a gentleman than to keep aggravating you.
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