Americans are waking up to the fact that President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney deliberately misled us into war and made billions for their friends in the process. Crimes that some say merit impeachment are coming to light.
Bush’s approval ratings are at their lowest, and few Americans believe anything Cheney says. What surprises me is why anyone is surprised.
Read a speech by journalist Bill Moyers on “Restoring the Public Trust” given Feb. 24 for a brilliant outline of the dismal state of U.S. politics and how we got here. The implosion of Iraq was predicted, despite the happy talk from the White House, or generals ordered to say it. To about-to-retire Pentagon brass, expecting big bucks to shill for the defense industry, it’s made clear that: If you don’t play, K Street won’t pay.
Making Southern and rural Christians feel stupid and hoodwinked is the fact that every Bush-Cheney administration campaign speech, policy position, and flip-flop was shrouded in religion and patriotism. Giving “God’s gift” of democracy to Iraqis sounds pretty hollow now, doesn’t it? More galling is the administration’s incompetence in promoting nuclear proliferation, strengthening Iran’s bargaining position, and the sweetheart port security deal.
To former supporters of this bunch who have turned against them: What took you so long? Did you think that voting “Christian Republican” guaranteed honest government? Just because the Rev. James Dobson and other “religious leaders” encouraged voting for them, did you think they were moral people? You and your beliefs have been taken for an expensive ride.
I laughed as Fox News pushed the theme that civil war in Iraq might be a “good thing.” Since that obviously wasn’t selling, their new theme is, “Iraq Civil War: Made up by the Media?” That’s a big clue.
M.D. Wooldridge
Würzburg, Germany
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=35594Also at the above URL is another letter re: use of AC-130 gunships:
Use the infantry soldier
“AC-130 gunships returning to fight in Iraq” (article, The Associated Press, March 5) is absurd. It clearly illustrates our military’s preoccupation with “fire superiority” to beat the enemy.
What use does a weapons platform as powerful as the AC-130 have in a fight against well-trained and well-concealed insurgents who use the population centers and the urban terrain as their battleground? When was the last time you saw a “mass” of insurgents and terrorists or one of their huge supply columns?
A general officer states, “It’s got tons of guns … it’s got all kinds of stuff on it … the ability to take these high-tech pods and to use them to find guys planting
and to find other nefarious activity.”
How can a pod attached to a circling aircraft distinguish an insurgent from an elderly man walking home? Or a rifle from a rake?
The best “pod” we own is already on the ground in sufficient numbers — the U.S. infantry soldier, the best disciplined and best trained in the world. With a little awareness and focused training, we could beat them at their own game.
A good place to start would be to read two excellent and relevant books by retired Marine H. John Poole — “Tactics of the Crescent Moon” and “Militant Tricks” would give all soldiers the knowledge base for defeating this enemy.
Let’s stop wasting our money and time on bigger weapons platforms and thicker armor, and spend it on the tool that matters the most: the living, breathing, thinking and discriminating U.S. soldier. Thousands of innocent lives would be spared and we could actually make progress against an elusive and cunning enemy.
Capt. Jeffery C. Harrison
Forward Operating Base Constitution, Iraq
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