Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Congress's Iraq Vets Helplessly Watch Their Gains Lost
National Journal ^ | June 13, 2014 | Clara Ritger

Posted on 06/13/2014 4:11:22 AM PDT by Biggirl

Americans are tired of war. For the 17 members of Congress who served in Iraq, that means watching helplessly as the cities they fought for fall once more to extremists. Militants believed to be associated with al-Qaida overtook Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq, on Tuesday. The group then seized Tikrit, hometown of former President Saddam Hussein, on Wednesday.

(Excerpt) Read more at nationaljournal.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: congress; iraq; iraqivets; iraqvets; oif
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041 next last

1 posted on 06/13/2014 4:11:22 AM PDT by Biggirl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Biggirl

"As arms were given to al Qaeda in country after country,
as the American ambassador and others were slaughtered and ignored,
and as Iran and Afghanistan were finally slowly lost,
where WAS the docile, treasonous, whoring American Congress?"

2 posted on 06/13/2014 4:16:05 AM PDT by Diogenesis
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Biggirl

obama fail


3 posted on 06/13/2014 4:21:43 AM PDT by yldstrk ( My heroes have always been cowboys)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Biggirl
"We have an enemy today that senses weakness, knows how to find it, and then goes after it," Wenstrup said. "I think Iraq maybe thought they could [defend themselves]. This was an opportunity for us to have another ally in the region. I came home from Iraq feeling that we liberated 25 million people."

LOL. What "enemy" is this guy referring to? The U.S. was fighting a "war on terror" in Iraq, wasn't it?

I hope this dude can apply the lessons he learned from this idiocy to his work in Congress.

4 posted on 06/13/2014 4:22:50 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("What in the wide, wide world of sports is goin' on here?")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Diogenesis

Obama’s “Mission Accomplished” moment.


5 posted on 06/13/2014 4:23:33 AM PDT by csvset
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Diogenesis; All
The Democrats were for the war before they were against it. When 911 happened and the towers came down in New York, they were for it. But political expediency came alone and they turned against America and aided the enemy.

Now, Iraq is being taken over by the enemy the Democrats now want to ignore. The problem in the middle east now soars and the public knows it.

Where are the Democrats and Obama? With their heads in the sand.

6 posted on 06/13/2014 4:28:46 AM PDT by sr4402
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Alberta's Child

Our failure in Iraq goes a hell of a lot deeper than Obama. Its rooted in the formation of the UN and the end of victory.

In WWII we didn’t fight to force Germany and Japan to negotiate, we fought to defeat and pacify them.


7 posted on 06/13/2014 4:34:10 AM PDT by cripplecreek (Remember the River Raisin.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Biggirl

We left Iraq is a stable state with a reasonable military and the ability to support itself through its oil sales. In less than 5 years al-Maliki pissed all that away through his own actions. So if we had left troops in Iraq, right now they would be caught in the middle of a civil war that would have started anyway.


8 posted on 06/13/2014 4:34:19 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: sr4402
The Democrats are probably banking on their expectation that the American public doesn't give a flaming sh!t about the Middle East.

And they'd be right about that.

They rode that lesson to victory in 2006, when they made huge gains in the mid-term elections because Americans rightly understood the insanity of spending thousands of American lives and hundreds of billions of dollars on a military campaign halfway around the world while allowing a massive invasion across our own southern border right here at home.

9 posted on 06/13/2014 4:37:10 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("What in the wide, wide world of sports is goin' on here?")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Biggirl
VALKYRIE !!


It doesn't have to be deadly, but YOU guys have the spotlight.

Of ALL the people in politics/congress, YOU are the ones America is hoping for.

If you say nothing nor do nothing we will know we're alone and that the revolution will be fought without you.

You enlisted and fought for our country, you came home to see it a mess and you ran to become part of fixing or saving America ... and now your true hearts are on the line and will be exposed.

Are you men of valor, or politicians ?

We haven't time to debate

10 posted on 06/13/2014 4:37:28 AM PDT by knarf (I say things that are true .. I have no proof .. but they're true.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Alberta's Child
While a Al Qaeda Caliphate gets the Atomic Bomb for Iranian and Iraqi oil. Yeah, that's real smart.

Obama and the Democrats own the illegal alien problems and that of the young illegal aliens swamping the borders. They dumped them on Arizona and they own the problem now.

11 posted on 06/13/2014 4:40:22 AM PDT by sr4402
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: DoodleDawg
There was nothing "stable" about Iraq when we left it. There were even plenty of articles posted here describing regional and local government offices in Iraq that flew their own Kurdish or Sunni tribal flags instead of Iraq's national flag.

Iraq is turning into what Iraq was always going to be. The leadership of the U.S. has a lot to answer for, since the thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars was all for nothing.

12 posted on 06/13/2014 4:41:46 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("What in the wide, wide world of sports is goin' on here?")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: sr4402

They can get that anyway. Pakistan is a bigger problem than Iraq, Egypt, Libya or any other countries where the U.S. has toppled governments in the Middle East. But radical Islamic groups like al-Qaeda can operate freely in Pakistan because the U.S. won’t ‘eff with a country that already has its own nuclear arsenal.


13 posted on 06/13/2014 4:44:18 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("What in the wide, wide world of sports is goin' on here?")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Biggirl
Americans may be tired of HEARING about the war, but unless they have someone who served or is serving, they really have no "skin in the game".

Certainly not like during WWII or even, to a lesser extent, Vietnam.

No rationing, no buying War Bonds or doing without to help the war effort.

No, I'd say the American people are tired of the media and their warped portrayal of the war.

14 posted on 06/13/2014 4:52:19 AM PDT by airborne (My heroes don't wear capes - My heroes wear dog tags!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Biggirl

President opum. Anyone remember saving private Ryan?


15 posted on 06/13/2014 4:54:56 AM PDT by longfellow (Bill Maher, the 21st hijacker.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Biggirl; yldstrk; csvset

16 posted on 06/13/2014 4:55:40 AM PDT by KC_Lion (Build the America you want to live in at your address, and keep looking up.- Sarah Palin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: airborne
That's exactly the point. If there was rationing, buying War Bonds or anything of a sacrificial nature like that, do you think anyone with an IQ above 70 would lend their political or moral support to a military campaign that lasted longer than the U.S. involvement in World War I, World War II and the Korean War combined?

Of course not. If you had 10% of the U.S. population serving in the armed forces like we had during World War II, the war in Iraq -- if it was even fought at all -- would have lasted about 48 hours.

17 posted on 06/13/2014 4:57:19 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("What in the wide, wide world of sports is goin' on here?")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: airborne

We used nukes in WWII because the American leadership knew that the American people would not continue to support the war forever. They knew that invading Japan would crush American resolve so it had to end and end quickly.


18 posted on 06/13/2014 4:58:54 AM PDT by cripplecreek (Remember the River Raisin.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: longfellow

I do remember the movie.


19 posted on 06/13/2014 5:01:14 AM PDT by Biggirl (“Go, do not be afraid, and serve”-Pope Francis)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: airborne

Yep, you got it!


20 posted on 06/13/2014 5:02:03 AM PDT by Biggirl (“Go, do not be afraid, and serve”-Pope Francis)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson