Opinion: Troops deserve praise for serving in Iraq
Publisher’s note: This editorial is from the Dec. 15, 2011, Reno Gazette-Journal.
Only time will tell whether President Barack Obama was right on Wednesday when he told troops recently returned from Iraq that “we are leaving behind a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq …”
But there can be no disagreement with his tribute (spoken in a TV interview) to the men and women who gathered in a hangar at Fort Bragg, N.C.:
“We must not forget the men and women who gave their lives, tens of thousands wounded, all those missed birthday parties, missed soccer games and missed dinners because folks were on their second or third deployment. We should not take that for granted.”
It would behoove all of the politicians in Washington, D.C., to remember the president’s words while they are glibly tossing around threats to take action against this nation or that — most recently it has been Iran.
The sacrifices made by the men and women of our armed services, many of them from the Guard and Reserves, have indeed been great. The war in Iraq has taken the lives of more than 4,400 Americans. (By some estimates, more than 100,000 Iraqis have lost their lives because of the war in the past nine years.) Many more have been injured. All have seen their lives drastically changed by the call to duty.
They have paid a high price to leave behind a “sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq,” and we must never forget what they did.
When President George W. Bush announced nearly nine years ago that the U.S. military had invaded Iraq in an effort to rid the country of its belligerent dictator, Saddam Hussein, and destroy his weapons, no one imagined that the troops would still be there in 2011.
We should all raise a glass to our outstanding, courageous and selfless servicemen and women this Christmas (and every Christmas).
I was amused when the now largley irrelevant TIME ragazine (does anyone still read that thing?) designated the “Protestor/Squatter” to be “Person of the Year”. As far as I’m concerned, America should only have one of two entities as “Person of the Year”. It should perpetually alternate between “The Serviceman/Woman” and “The Entrepreneur”. They each need each other to exist (the Serviceman makes it possible for the Entrepreneur to function in security and freedom, and in return, the Entrepreneur funds the operation of the the government/Military) and America could not be the greatest nation ever founded without BOTH of them.
For Christmas 2012, the best thing we could give our brave fighting men and women would be a NEW Commander-in Chief. In the 2008 election only 23% of the active duty Military favored Obama, it will be significantly lower this next election.
“(the Serviceman makes it possible for the Entrepeneur to function in security and freedom, and in return, the Entrepeneur funds the operation of the the government/Military)”. What a pathetic worldview….. For Xmas 2012, the best thing we could give our service members is Peace on Earth and Good Will Toward Men and to hell with fighting bogus “wars” for the interests of war profiteers and the corporate scum that have taken over our government. Nobody is “amused” by your ongoing Islamophobia/warmongering BS….. and who’s your candidate for Commander-in-Chief? Perry?Gingrich?Paul?Cain?Romney?Bachman?… circus clown carload… I loathe the ignorant “patriotic” sociopathic conservatards.
Smedley, Pinapploopey, Oboinko, whatever…
Seems like that 41% Obama re-elect number’s got you feeling awfully bitter and down in the dumps, huh?
I have never used a name other than SmedleyButler on this forum. Some comment under several nom de plumes… often profusely praising their previously brilliant posts. That’s how pathetic their failed ideas really are.