Bush Lied: True Stories from the Sand Box

What have these lies actually cost us? As of today 4278 soldiers have been killed in Iraq. Families have been destroyed and forever changed because of these tragic losses. Another, 31,215 service members have bee seriously wounded in Iraq. When this was posted the war has cost American tax payers 664,117,000,000.00 Dollars, which has mostly went to corrupt defense contractors owned by Dick Cheney. Our image has been forever tarnished around the entire globe, and apparently we now think it is o.k. to torture people (the end justifies the means). Even with Obama as president there is no end in sight for the war in Iraq. Even worse is that the real perpetrators of 9-11 have not been brought to justice in Afghanistan and the tribal areas of Pakistan. Since the war in Iraq has used and destroyed so many valuable military resources (equipment, personnel through attrition and personnel from declining retention) we may never succeed in accomplishing the mission in Afghanistan. The American people, as naive as they are, do not have the patience for long brutal wars, which can be mostly blamed on the Bush Administration. If we would have put this effort in to Afghanistan, that war would probably be winding down, not ramping up...

But was that the worst part of the Bush Lies? No, the worst affect of the lies is that thousands of military service members that return home from Iraq are battling their daemons from combat. 144 Iraq veterans have committed suicide, and this does not include those veterans who committed suicide while in the military, or those who slipped through the VA system. I know of two local Iraq veterans that have taken their own lives. If you ask most of these service members the only thing worse than getting killed in combat is coming back physically and mentally damaged. There probably is not a service member in America that will go a single day for the rest of their lives without thinking about their experiences in Iraq. I hope that in the future, we as Americans do not allow our government to take advantage of our fears to facilitate unnecessary wars. 239 years ago the people of this land revolted and overthrew the oppressive British government. The reason? The government does not have the right to lie to, excessively tax the poor, and oppress the people! I hope that I will never have to bear arms against our government... DON'T TREAD ON ME!

Posted by huffx058 at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It is amazing how quickly people forget what the former president stated leading up to the invasion of Iraq, and throughout it. The worst and most leading lie, in my opinion, was that Al Qaeda was being supported by Saddam Hussein. "Evidence from intelligence sources, secret communications and statements by people now in custody reveal that Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of Al Qaida.", State of the Union Address 1/28/2003.

The video can be seen here (click on 2003)

http://www.c-span.org/executive/stateoftheunion.asp

Al Qaeda in Iraq was not formed until late 2004 when mostly Sunnis, who were lead by foreign fighters, came to Iraq to gain combat experience against the American military. To date, not a shred of evidence connecting Hussein to Al Qaeda, or any other known terrorist organizations, have been revealed. I came to realize, while I was serving in Iraq, that Saddam had accomplished something that foreign militaries had failed to do in Iraq for centuries. Our country, and others like it, failed to bring stability to a strongly divided ethnic region. Saddam was able, by force, to make the Christians, Kurds, Sunnis, and the Shiites get along with each other, which we have not been able to do. Hussein and his two sons were horrible cruel people, I will not argue against this. However, the thing that was worst about overthrowing Saddam, and turning him over to the Iraqi government for what they called a "trial", was that we had the best deterrent to Iran in place. Saddam kicked the Iranians asses for years, and he probably disliked the Iranians more than the U.S. I often sat out in the desert on patrol wondering "If we had to invade somebody, why did we not invade Iran?'. I guess there is not any good answer to any of these questions...

This past week I recently had an epiphany. I believe that we tortured all of these Talibanis, and Al Qaeda members in hope of making them confess to being linked and tied to Saddam Hussein. If you look back at when the torture was authorized by the Bush administration, and when they were desperately in need of a justifications for the invasion of Iraq, they directly coincide with each other. Bush, Chenney, I can't wait until you are both dead or you are in prison!

Posted by huffx058 at 9:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We were not just plain old boring killers, we were time killers. We got to be pretty good at slaying the boredom during he long lull's of action, and since I just figured out how to upload videos, I thought I would share these with you. These should lighten the mood a bit after m last entry.

Rubber bullet in the Ass!

Download file

This proves I have at like reflexes... Me demonstrating how to ignite artillery propellant, and almost getting burned!

Download file

The next tiger woods!

Download file
Download file

The man in the gun turret had to try and explain the giant bruise on his chest to his wife.

Download file

Self Explanatory

Download file

Maybe this is only funny if you served... This was a tribute to a dumb ass lieutenant who tried to get himself a purple heart, and he probably should not have been in he Army... Thank you Lt. George Hurd for all the laughs!

Download file

Posted by huffx058 at 12:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I usually watch a variety of liberal and conservative cable news networks, and read online newspapers to get inspiration for this blog, however there has been a real lack of Iraq and Afghanistan coverage lately. It is my theory, that as war continues, the public becomes more immune to it. As the networks' ratings fall, and as circulation declines the discourse changes. In doing research on this topic I found that the American Journalism Review, a nonprofit organization, came up with the same conclusion.

http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4515

The major news networks cut their coverage of the Iraq war to an embarrassing 1 %, down from 27% of total news coverage, since the war began. Americans demand exciting violence to consume on television. I was amazed last week by how much coverage the rescue of the boat captain, that was taken hostage off the coast of Somalia, received. As far as military operations go, it was pretty lame, three snipers shot, three stupid pirates, yay. I compare the excitement of this operation to watching paint dry, there was just a story, no pictures or video. There are numerous more spectacular missions, which you would think that had more entertainment value than this, yet they are not being covered. Well America, maybe these will get your attention.

Click to download videos:

Download file

Download file

Download file

Download file

Download file

Posted by huffx058 at 10:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

These big stories prove my point...

THE TRUTH:

Pat Tillman was killed by a bunch of his own Rangers that lacked combat experience. He got shot in the back with a SAW (squad automatic weapon), while maneuvering on a hill.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/01/60minutes/main4061656.shtml

Jessica Lynch and her band of REMFS (the 507th) did not properly maintain their weapons or know how to operate them. They did not know how or why they had to do this little function called headspace and timing on their .50 caliber machine gun(s), which is VERY IMPORTANT in making the weapon fire correctly. For this and many other maintenance related reasons, when they were attacked they could not return fire, and then they got their asses handed to them. What a bunch of careless idiots! All of them...

This was even reported by FOX!

http://www.nathanielturner.com/shoshanajohnson.htm

Posted by huffx058 at 12:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The military does not adequately prepare soldiers for combat. From basic training to pre-deployment training, the majority of military training is worthless. I was an infantryman in the Army. Like all infantrymen I went to basic training at Fr. Benning, Georgia. In the Army infantryman go through a basic training that is far more rigorous and intense than other branches in the Army go through. I think that I was lucky for three reasons: 1. I had intense training by great non commissioned officers (NCO) at Ft. Benning. 2. The NCO's in my unit (after basic training) were hard core, old timers. 3. I had a less intense combat deployment prior to my vacation to Iraq. My pre Iraq deployment training was at Ft. Dix, New Jersey, and what a fucking joke it was! We had 45 year old REMFS (rear echelon mother fuckers, which consist of support people like supply, mechanics, truck drivers, MP's) training infantrymen on combat operations. Do you see any problem with this? The people that the infantryman basically protect on the battle field were conducting out training. These people typically did not know how to properly deploy weapons systems, or what tactics worked well in certain situations. We frequently had to run fake missions that lacked any kind of reality what so ever. Many of these people had never even been deployed before! We even had trainers show up hammered on one occasion. I cannot think of one positive thing to say about the training at Ft. Dix. Worst of all this base was training waves of soldiers, mostly remfs, before they deployed to Iraq. I can tell you the only thing that is more scary than a complex attack from insurgents is a bunch of improperly trained remfs on the battle field. For example on one mission we had to go to forward operating base (FOB) Warhorse in Baquba' to pick up this finance douche bag. Everybody has to load their weapons when they leave the base. As a safety precaution it is standard procedure to watch everyone load and unload their weapons. This idiot put the magazine into his M-16 backwards! I just sat there and looked at this guy in disbelief as he attempted to pound the magazine in... I ordered the guy to stop, which he did with a confusing stupid look on his face. I told him not to load his weapons, and if anything happened, that he was to just stay in the truck, that way he couldn't hurt us... There are countless stories of soldiers who were not properly trained killing or wounded other soldiers, and this includes the chair force dropping bombs on our positions. There were more military casualties in Iraq from accidents than combat fatalities. What the military should do is have 1 month of strict weapons only training and then send the soldiers to the battlefield. When they get there have them spend 3-4 months training with a unit that has already been there for nine months. That way the soldiers get trained well on actual battlefield conditions, and they get the benefit of consuming the knowledge from the people that have already been doing the mission for the previous 9 months. But since "training" stateside makes the US civilians feel better about sending people off to die, it is unlikely to change.

I hate to cite Wikipedia but this one is pretty accurate I believe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_accidents_and_incidents_in_Iraq_War

http://www.cnsnews.com/public/Content/Article.aspx?rsrcid=33514

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/feb2004/woun-f04.shtml

Posted by huffx058 at 11:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of the best reasons to support lots of environmental legislation.

Check this out.

http://eyeofthestormexhibition.com/artwork/209869.html

If you have not figured it out yet this is the Baghdad landfill. It is by far one the most disturbing things I have seen, and I have seen a lot. I first saw the Baghdad landfill about a week into my tour in Iraq. Most of us were just sitting around all day waiting to get selected to go out on a mission with the company we were replacing. The first mission I was selected for was to ride along to Camp Victory in Baghdad. For some reason I was not scared, but I was excited. Not even 15 minutes into our mission I experienced my first gunshots fired in defense. The gunner in my truck lit up a truck that came quickly at our HMMWV. Anyways, when we were on the north side of Baghdad, cruising down the freeway, the captain of the unit we were replacing pointed out the landfill. It is huge. Words cannot describe how immense this thing is. I swear you can not see over it from a freeway overpass. That is how much area this thing covers. Just garbage piled 30 feet high for miles. The worst part is that people are living in the landfill, living off the scraps of others. Now imagine what your typical Minneapolis homeless guy throws out, he probably is as wealthy as the typical Iraqi, and now imagine eating what he threw out three weeks ago. Is your stomach turning yet? The people who live there have their own cattle, goats, sheep, and chickens that can be seen foraging in the filth. I do not know what is worse; eating the filth yourself, or eating the animal that lives on it? Anyways, this is why we need to take care of the environment, otherwise we could be living like these unfortunate people someday. Iraq is submerged in air, water, and ground pollution, and I think it made many of us sick. I and many other service members have persistent sinus problems and coughs. The military and the VA call it Illness not otherwise specified (NOS). Oh, and guess what? The US was building the Iraqis a new sanitary landfill (if there is such a thing), but KBR (Dick Cheney's former company) screwed the US and did not finish the project which they started. Another good reason why our country should not be attempting to rebuild Iraq.

Posted by huffx058 at 11:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

No, we do not need to get the homosexuals out of the military. Don't ask don't tell has been a huge failure for many reasons. When I was in Iraq I had roughly 165 men in my company. Since out operation tempo (amount of missions to be completed by a group of soldiers) was very high I rarely saw or interacted with anyone outside of my platoon. Halfway through my tour in Iraq I went to a different platoons tent area to borrow a movie to watch while I cleaned weapons. When I walked into this tent, on this 140 degree summer day, there were two men naked spooning on a cot, watching a movie together. I never new that these guys were gay or bisexual. I was shocked not because there were gay men in my company, but because I had no idea that this was happening. Rumors, spread like a brush fire in a company of soldiers because there is nothing else to talk about, and somehow their squad and platoon never said anything. Nor should they have. The fact is that these two men were soldiers just as capable and dedicated to the mission as any other. What is even more messed up is that the military, especially the Army, is notorious for deploying people to combat zones when they are aware that an individual is gay, and then they kick them out of the military after the deployment. When military retention was an issue, before the economy tanked, they would use gays extensively for combat operations, in clear violation of don't ask don't tell, because they had no one else to do the job. The reality is that the military abuses don't ask don't tell to suit its needs. Don't ask don't tell needs to be repealed, and a new policy that allows gays to serve openly and honestly (honesty is supposedly an Army core value) in order to have a military that does not discriminate, and that represents and glorifies our countries tolerance and our individual differences.

http://current.com/items/89883151/11_openly_gay_soldiers_fired_from_army_in_january.htm

Not all Marines are dumb, but this one might be the most retarded Marine in history...

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1598653,00.html

Posted by huffx058 at 10:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)