attack in Mosul

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anyone who thinks that this war is justified is surely ignorant of the facts. doesn't matter if they are in iraq now or if they haven't seen a tv in years.

but that's a whole other can of worms.

unless you were'nt aware, sting, inciting another person is also against the rules. try and have a little bit of fucking decency for once, hide the Dubya posters in your room that are covered in little hearts, and open your damn eyes for a minute. :mad:
 
Okay, kids, that's enough now.

Off to thine separate corners to collect respective tempers and come on back when y'all can play nicely.

(Dave, by the way, Old Navy TOTALLY has a website.)
 
Dave C,

My wife escaped her 18 month deployment to Mosul with the 133rd from Maine due to pregnancy of our 2nd child. While both Maine casualties were in her batallion, one was in her Company and she knew the guy fairly well...left behind a wife and 2 adult children. Devestating. Senseless. Needless to say, my wife is sick to her stomach over this and the news is really hitting this State and National Guard community hard...really hard.

Also, I've lived in Maine all my life and never heard of Scobee, Maine...are you sure you have the correct spelling of the town your friend lives in? Just curioius...

LSTB
 
All of this killing and destruction by these thugs is unfortunate. We are never going to agree with each about this war. There are too many different schools of thought about it. At any rate these particular killings were carried out by Wahhabist thugs, the same jerks who blew up the Shi'ite mosque. They're trying to divide the country between Kurds and Arabs and Shi'ites and Sunnis. This sucks no matter what you thought of the invasion.
 
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: Everything we do good, no matter whether it's helping a little kid or building a new school, the public affairs sends out the message that the media doesn't pick up on. How do we win the propaganda war?

RUMSFELD: That does not sound like a question that was planted by the press. That happens sometimes.

(Uproarious Laughter.)

RUMSFELD: Everything we do here is harder because of television stations like Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabia and the constant negative approach. You don't hear about the schools that are open, and the hospitals that are open, and the clinics that are open, and the fact that the stock market is open and the Iraqi currency is steady and the fact that there have been something like 140,000 refugees coming from other countries back into this country. They're voting with their feet because they believe this is a country of the future. You don't read about that. You read about every single negative thing that anyone can find to report. I was talking to a group of congressmen and senators the other day, and there were a couple of them who had negative things to say and they were in the press in five minutes. There were 15 or 20 that had positive things to say about what's going on in Iraq and they couldn't get on television. Television just said we're not interested. That's just -- sorry. So it is, I guess, what's news has to be bad news.

From Captain Dan Mattson
It's Christmas Eve, though it didn't feel like it. There are some good decorations in the hospital, but we had no Christmas music in the OR today, and no snow on the ground. No nativity scenes or festive cheer in this part of the world. Then, after a routine for here but hardly routine day in the OR, my day was made. I'm referring to the interaction I witnessed and helped facilitate between a young injured soldier and a high ranking official. Here is how it happened:

I was reading foxnews.com at around noon when I told the anesthesiologist that "the Donald" was in town on a surprise visit. No, not Donald Trump, but Donald Rumsfeld. He laughed cynically and said no way would he come here. Well, at around 1600 I was in the OR and I was told that Rumsfeld was downstairs, and we could go down there if we wanted to. I was not in a position to leave, obviously.

Well, the timing worked out well, because I was taking my patient to the recovery room when we wheeled the stretcher through a mob of dignitaries, to include 3 and 4 star generals. I knew the Secretary was nearby, and it turns out he was in the ICU. The patient drew enough attention because of his bruised, banged up face that the 4 star came over to get his story from the surgeon. I was doing some charting by the bedside when Mr. Rumsfeld came over and heard the kid's story from the 4-star. Rumsfeld looked concerned and kind of kept his distance from the gruesome site. He said something like "bless his heart", as if talking around him.

That is when I, without any thought, piped in with "Sir, you can talk to him, he's awake." He told the soldier, named Rob, how proud he was of his service. The soldier was in a bit of disbelief, because he couldn't see with one eye patched and the other swollen shut. He said he wanted to talk to Rumsfeld. That's when I said "He's standing right to your left, Rob, that's his voice you hear. You can talk to him." The kid was nervous at that point, but sputtered out how honored he was to talk to him. Mr. Rumsfeld replied, "No, it's an honor for me to talk to you."

Then remarkably, the young soldier, who had just lost his left hand and right eye from an explosion, came to the defense of the Secretary of Defense, stating "Mr. Rumsfeld, I want you to know, that you are doing a fantastic job. I know that you are taking a lot of heat for the problems with getting armor for vehicles. I want you to know that things are vastly improved. Our vehicles are great, and I have never searched through junk piles for scrap metal."

At this point, Rumsfeld looked choked up, and I had a lump in my throat and and watery eyes. It was moving. What makes a man who has been so close to death, and maimed for life, come to the defense of the Army's highest ranking official? Loyalty, I dare say. Did Rob think Mr. Rumsfeld was having a self-esteem problem? In his greatest hour of need, his thoughts went to the emotional needs of another. I found it quite amazing, and moving. The Secretary took out a coin and gave it to a bystander for him, as if he didn't know he could touch him. Finally, the soldier said, "Man, Donald Rumsfeld, I wish I could shake his hand."

Even at that, I felt Mr. Rumsfeld needed some prompting, so I picked up the kid's arm and looked at the Secretary, and he reached out and took the kid's hand. After the entourage left, I took the coin and placed it in the soldiers hand, for him to feel and hold. I said, "that's not one you'll get every day." He was happy. I told the person caring for him to make certain that coin went with him to his room. I was assured that he would. I told Rob it was an honor to care for him, and then went on to do my next case. I'd like to see him tomorrow, but I heard he is flying out tonight.
 
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Gosh, it's the most frustrating thing in the world, to do such hard and dangerous work and then have it virtually ignored. These soldiers are good people; I'm criticial of their big shot superiors, but none of this is their fault. They're doing their best.
 
so it turns out that of the people killed and wounded, nobody my friend directly knew was involved. but there are lots of people who are friends of friends of hers who have relatives who were hurt.

so fucking pointless. :sad:
 
I know what you mean, when they go off looking for WMD all they wind up finding are mass graves upon mass graves. Saddam was only killing his own people, it's nobody elses business.
 
Over Christmas I heard a soldier on CNN saying he had gotten up from the table to go get a piece of cake. He never has dessert. The bomb went off just then, he lived and everyone else at the table was killed.
 
MrsSpringsteen said:
Over Christmas I heard a soldier on CNN saying he had gotten up from the table to go get a piece of cake. He never has dessert. The bomb went off just then, he lived and everyone else at the table was killed.

:sad: :sad: :sad:
 
Once again a member of our Ally State

Saudi Student Was Mess Tent Suicide Bomber

"PA"


The suicide bomber who killed 22 people when he blew himself up in a US army mess tent the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, was a Saudi medical student, an Arab newspaper reported today.

Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Awsat identified him as 20-year-old Ahmed Said Ahmed al-Ghamdi, citing friends of the man’s father.

The friends said members of an Iraqi resistance group contacted al-Ghamdi’s father to tell him his son was the suicide bomber who carried out the December 21 attack, the deadliest on an American installation in Iraq.

US officials have said their investigation indicates the bomber was dressed in an Iraqi military uniform – but was not an Iraqi soldier – when he slipped into a mess tent packed with soldiers eating lunch in northern Iraq.

The father refused to discuss the suicide bombing, but told the newspaper his son had gone to Iraq to fight the Americans and had died there.

The paper did not name the Iraqi resistance group. But Ansar al-Sunnah, a radical Islamic Iraqi group that has been active in northern Iraq, claimed responsibility for the mess tent attack.
 
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