a) What was your opinion on the war before you were deployed?
That it was completely mis-guided and a total waste of resources and manpower. I didn't understand at the time why we really weren't making a real effort to go after OBL. I also knew it was in the works long before 9/11 happened, so this tended to color my judgment a bit. I really thought the French solution, turning loose about 20 arms inspectors on permanent duty running around the country, would have accomplished the same "WMD curtailment" at a fraction of the cost and manpower.
b) What was your opinion on the war after you left Iraq?
It was unchanged from above. What had changed was my total loss of respect for many of the people I had been serving with and looked up to as heroes and leaders. War seemed to transform them into little psychopathic kids, totally devoid of ethics or responsibility...or brought about extreme cowardice with leaders blatantly passing the buck to less qualified subordinates in order to secure their own safety. Neither of which I could stomach well.
c) What is your opinion on the actions taken by the Bush administration to convince Americans that the invasion of Iraq was right. (ie: saying there were WMDs and that Hussien was a direct threat to America).
Being witness to a lot of the behind the scenes intel, I would say what was presented to the American people was laughable and blantantly factually deficient. In hindsight, there were special departments created with the Patriot act re-shuffle who's sole job it was to manufacture the evidence and reasoning presented on TV. The actual intelligence work was not matching C-SPAN in the least, but in the G-2 here in Germany we were split into two camps, those that knew what was going on and agreed we should do it anyways for whatever misguided patriotic reason, and those that completely disagreed and threatened with career problems if we opened our mouths or blew the whistle.
Actually, I take it all back...I would happily spit on any zoomie trying to pass himself off as a real soldier. Don't get excited though, pieces of starch might flake off your uniform...I've actually seen zoomie BDU's break completely off at the edges. I lost all respect for AF the day my squad got brought up on charges for stealing the AF detachment's teddy bear mascot during a post run at DLI. My 1SG laughed it off, but that didn't stop their commander from screaming bloody murder for about a week and trying to press UCMJ charges. It wasn't like we stole their guide-on...well...that week anyways. I do have to say though, that the Marines wooped us...they managed to paint the Navy anchor bright pink the night before.
That it was completely mis-guided and a total waste of resources and manpower. I didn't understand at the time why we really weren't making a real effort to go after OBL. I also knew it was in the works long before 9/11 happened, so this tended to color my judgment a bit. I really thought the French solution, turning loose about 20 arms inspectors on permanent duty running around the country, would have accomplished the same "WMD curtailment" at a fraction of the cost and manpower.
b) What was your opinion on the war after you left Iraq?
It was unchanged from above. What had changed was my total loss of respect for many of the people I had been serving with and looked up to as heroes and leaders. War seemed to transform them into little psychopathic kids, totally devoid of ethics or responsibility...or brought about extreme cowardice with leaders blatantly passing the buck to less qualified subordinates in order to secure their own safety. Neither of which I could stomach well.
c) What is your opinion on the actions taken by the Bush administration to convince Americans that the invasion of Iraq was right. (ie: saying there were WMDs and that Hussien was a direct threat to America).
Being witness to a lot of the behind the scenes intel, I would say what was presented to the American people was laughable and blantantly factually deficient. In hindsight, there were special departments created with the Patriot act re-shuffle who's sole job it was to manufacture the evidence and reasoning presented on TV. The actual intelligence work was not matching C-SPAN in the least, but in the G-2 here in Germany we were split into two camps, those that knew what was going on and agreed we should do it anyways for whatever misguided patriotic reason, and those that completely disagreed and threatened with career problems if we opened our mouths or blew the whistle.
You actually attended a Phelps funeral protest? Those guys aren't anti-war or anti-soldier and could care less, they're a far right anti-gay Christian fringe group exploiting soldier funerals to get attention. Get your facts straight, what the hell world you living in and what kind of idiots do you take us for? Nevermind, the answer is obvious. Bottom line is that no liberal war protester would ever protest a soldier's funeral.Arabeater says:Yes I went to a friends funeral a couple years ago that was killed in Afghanistan and there were alot of anti-war demonstrators that had signs saying "All soldiers are going to hell" and "Thank god for dead soldiers".
Sorry, I have to call bullshit on this also. It seems to have come straight out of Bill O'Liely's little factbook on the Vietnam War...which was anything but fact. Truth is that soldiers have almost never ever ever been held accountable by any kind of protestors, anybody with enough brains to protest has enough brains to know that it's politicians that put the soldiers in harm's way like that. This "Protestors Spit on Soldiers" meme is absolute bullshit propoganda by the pro-war right and has been going on since Vietnam. I've given lots of talks about Arab culture, my army experience, and intel subjects since getting out to many different foreign (and virulently anti-US and anti-war) audiences and never encountered anything like that.That kinda fucking anti-war sentiment. It took everything I had not to kick their asses'. I'm sure not a majority of the US feels this way but I have spoken to some college and high school classes and i'm getting the vibe that they are viewing the US soldiers as the evil ones. They pretty much all told me that they dont understand why people wanna join the military and we all chose to serve so therefore we arent being forced to kill anybody against our own will. I even had a few come up to me and started calling me a "baby killer" and a "murderer".
Actually, I take it all back...I would happily spit on any zoomie trying to pass himself off as a real soldier. Don't get excited though, pieces of starch might flake off your uniform...I've actually seen zoomie BDU's break completely off at the edges. I lost all respect for AF the day my squad got brought up on charges for stealing the AF detachment's teddy bear mascot during a post run at DLI. My 1SG laughed it off, but that didn't stop their commander from screaming bloody murder for about a week and trying to press UCMJ charges. It wasn't like we stole their guide-on...well...that week anyways. I do have to say though, that the Marines wooped us...they managed to paint the Navy anchor bright pink the night before.
Last edited by GorillaTicTacs (2007-01-02 00:21:58)