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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Military / War Fatigue

War Fatigue

by John Cole|  June 21, 200612:00 pm| 26 Comments

This post is in: Military, Politics, War

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A somewhat interesting AP piece on the growing frustrations some soldiers and their families are feeling in regards to the war:

“I’m not sure we’re doing a whole lot of good,” Myers, 46, said of the U.S. presence in Iraq. “Everybody thinks we are. We’re trying to, but we’re not going to change what they want to do, and if they don’t want to change, they’re not gonna.”

I say somewhat, because the piece deviated quickly from the headline into a debate about the merits of John Murtha, when it owuld have been much more interesting to simply examine the opinions of soldiers.

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Reader Interactions

26Comments

  1. 1.

    jg

    June 21, 2006 at 12:41 pm

    If soldiers don’t give their opinions then I don’t have to read about the right attacking the soldiers for their opinions.

  2. 2.

    ppGaz

    June 21, 2006 at 12:49 pm

    we’re not going to change what they want to do

    Sgt. Myers has it exactly, precisely, perfectly right.

    All one need do is take his excellent caution and combine it with a quick read of the last 100 years’ history of the region, and one could have predicted with considerable accuracy the general situation of the last 3.5 years in Iraq.

    I know this, because I did just that, 4 years ago. Pat me on the back? Hell no. Kick your government in the gonads. If I can get this right, why the hell couldn’t they?

    All I did was the simple due diligence over material easily available to me. Asked a few hard questions. Took the most reasonable and likely answers, and went from there.

    Why do I need a government that can’t even bother to do that before it starts a damned war?

    Who wants to bet me that I didn’t know more about the history of Britain’s adventures in the region 80 years ago, than your president did, on the day the war started? And who wants to argue that that’s okay?

    Believe me, when I know more about a situation than the people starting a war, you’re in big trouble.

  3. 3.

    Jill

    June 21, 2006 at 1:03 pm

    Myers seems to be saying pretty much what Cindy Sheehan has been saying…

  4. 4.

    Mr Furious

    June 21, 2006 at 1:18 pm

    Who wants to bet me that I didn’t know more about the history of Britain’s adventures in the region 80 years ago, than your president did, on the day the war started? And who wants to argue that that’s okay?

    I’ll bet you knew more that day than Bush knows now.

  5. 5.

    Rudi

    June 21, 2006 at 1:19 pm

    Murtha is part of the story because although a vocal critic of the Bush/Rumsfeld war policies he has his boots on the ground supporting returning vets and the wounded. While he goes over the top on many ocassions, his support is genuine like Jones of NC. I don’t hear of Santorum supporting the grunts, maybe he is to busy fiighting the WOUF (War on Unborn Fetus). Like ppGaz I looked at the history of Algeria and Lebanon and seen the PNAC neocon vision of the ME for what is was. Afghanistan is bad enough, we had every reason for a war there, Iraq was the folly of Perle/Kristol and Bush.

  6. 6.

    Lee

    June 21, 2006 at 1:25 pm

    and if they don’t want to change, they’re not gonna.”

    Nail meet Hammer.

  7. 7.

    srv

    June 21, 2006 at 1:47 pm

    I’ll bet you knew more that day than Bush knows now.

    You moonbats. The President surrounds himself with real experts and gets plenty of opinions before putting on his Decider Hat. People who make history don’t need to know history.

  8. 8.

    Punchy

    June 21, 2006 at 1:50 pm

    People who make history don’t need to know history.

    Bush’s history has become His Story… (hat tip to Flava Flav)

  9. 9.

    Andrew

    June 21, 2006 at 2:01 pm

    You moonbats. The President surrounds himself with real experts and gets plenty of opinions before putting on his Decider Hat. People who make history don’t need to know history.

    I think the real gem to come out of Suskind’s recent reporting is that Bush always got “pre-briefed” 5 minutes before meetings so that it would appear that he actually knew something.

  10. 10.

    jaime

    June 21, 2006 at 2:07 pm

    Bush’s history has become His Story… (hat tip to Flava Flav)

    F&*% Him and John Wayne.

  11. 11.

    ppGaz

    June 21, 2006 at 2:57 pm

    The President surrounds himself with real experts and gets plenty of opinions before putting on his Decider Hat.

    After he decides, he puts a feather in it and calls it Macaroni.

    At least, that’s the way I like to imagine it.

  12. 12.

    Richard 23

    June 21, 2006 at 3:17 pm

    After he decides, he puts a feather in it [his hat] and calls it Macaroni.

    At last, something you can tell your granddaughter.

  13. 13.

    Sstarr

    June 21, 2006 at 3:25 pm

    We changed the objectives of the war from “finding and eliminating the WMDs” to “creating a stable democracy in the middle east.” Unfortunatly, victory or defeat are ENTIRELY OUT OF OUR HANDS. We will “win” if the Iraqis can create and maintain a stable, western style democracy that is to our liking. We will “lose” if they don’t. It’s that simple.

    As far as I can see the mission of the average US soldier is to sit there and get shot at until the political climate improves to some halfway tolerable point where the administration can declare victory.

    I say we change the objectives back to “Eliminate the WMDs.” Then we can come to the startling conclusion that we are 100% victorious, as there are no WMDs in Iraq.

  14. 14.

    The Other Steve

    June 21, 2006 at 5:14 pm

    I say somewhat, because the piece deviated quickly from the headline into a debate about the merits of John Murtha, when it owuld have been much more interesting to simply examine the opinions of soldiers.

    Does anybody really care what the soldiers think?

    That seems to be the attitude of the politicians. The ones desperately trying to justify the Iraq debacle after no WMDS were found.

    I look around at all my Republican friends, most of who have kids over 18. Not a single kid is serving.

  15. 15.

    ppGaz

    June 21, 2006 at 6:35 pm

    We’ve known for years now that George W. Bush received a presidential daily briefing on Aug. 6, 2001, in which he was warned: “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” We’ve known for almost as long that Bush went fishing afterward.

    What we didn’t know is what happened in between the briefing and the fishing, and now Suskind is here to tell us. Bush listened to the briefing, Suskind says, then told the CIA briefer: “All right. You’ve covered your ass, now.”

    Via DKos, material from the new book “The One Percent Doctrine.”

    Promises to be a rich, long lasting treasure trove of OMGs and Can You Fucking Believe It stories about this idiot government and this stupid war. “You’ve covered your ass, now.” This may, and should, go down as the greatest gaffe in the long history of gaffes manufactured by this astounding bozo.

  16. 16.

    The Other Steve

    June 21, 2006 at 8:19 pm

    Promises to be a rich, long lasting treasure trove of OMGs and Can You Fucking Believe It stories about this idiot government and this stupid war. “You’ve covered your ass, now.” This may, and should, go down as the greatest gaffe in the long history of gaffes manufactured by this astounding bozo.

    You know… Honestly, this is stuff I don’t want to know.

    I already think the guy is stupid, I really don’t think I need historical evidence to prove it.

  17. 17.

    moflicky

    June 21, 2006 at 9:36 pm

    I say somewhat, because the piece deviated quickly from the headline into a debate about the merits of John Murtha, when it owuld have been much more interesting to simply examine the opinions of soldiers.

    maybe that’s because they ran out of defeatist soldiers?

  18. 18.

    radish

    June 21, 2006 at 10:08 pm

    People who make history don’t need to know history.

    Not only that, but people who get history degrees from Yale don’t need to know history either. Sure am glad I didn’t go there…

  19. 19.

    Inhumans99

    June 22, 2006 at 12:06 am

    Apologies if this is a double post:

    It is time to remind us cough*continuetorulebyplayingonourignoranceandfears*cough once again of why we went to Iraq, and that the “traitorous left” has been wrong all along about their being no WMD in Iraq….because I just hit James Joyner’s OTB blog, and discovered that what is making the rounds of the right-wing sites, and I guess libertarian sites like Instapundit, is that more hidden artillery shells from 1991 with degraded mustard and sarin nerve gas in them were discovered (or at least I take it that this information is now conveniently being declassified).

    Sigh, the OTB blogger even finds a way to keep the sheep in this country to continue to shake like a Frenchman in a thunderstorm (I think that is the saying)…by going (not his exact words, obviously), ooohhh, what about the “WMD” we have not found yet, it could be in the hands of the terrorists, so folks–there you have it…degraded WMD in Gulf War 1 era shells, now the reason why the “non-traitorous” people in this country can smile and justify the Iraq War.

    Sheesh, like my mother just said to me the other day…this country gets the leadership it deserves.

    Regards
    Christopher H

  20. 20.

    Gold Star for Robot Boy

    June 22, 2006 at 1:53 am

    Spoke with a young man tonight whose brother, a Marine, died in Fallujah earlier this week.
    He said his brother, a 20-year-old lance corporal, was a straight-A student who could achieve anything we sought. Ever since he was a kid, he wanted to be a Marine – he joined last year, after a serving as a firefighter.
    “He said joining the Marines was the worst mistake he made in his life.”

  21. 21.

    Gold Star for Robot Boy

    June 22, 2006 at 2:02 am

    anything he sought

  22. 22.

    Sherard

    June 22, 2006 at 6:08 am

    It would also be interesting if they could deviate from ONE SOLDIER’s opinion. Golly, aren’t there like, over 100,000 soldiers in Iraq at any one time ?

    Seems awfully flimsy to assert that “Troops echo frustration” from one soldier. Nevermind that the poll they reference shows the “frustration” to be in a CLEAR minority.

    Facts are irrelevant, though.

  23. 23.

    Jim Allen

    June 22, 2006 at 8:36 am

    It would also be interesting if they could deviate from ONE SOLDIER’s opinion. Golly, aren’t there like, over 100,000 soldiers in Iraq at any one time ?

    Seems awfully flimsy to assert that “Troops echo frustration” from one soldier. Nevermind that the poll they reference shows the “frustration” to be in a CLEAR minority.

    Leave it to the Liberal MainStreamMedia to be so unprofessional and lazy and not interview, and print the opinions of, all 100,000 troops. Until they do that, how can we possibly know what they really think?

  24. 24.

    Former Grunt

    June 22, 2006 at 12:18 pm

    In regards to WMDs – it was reported today that several hundred active chemical WMD type weapons have been found over the last 3 years in Iraq. Remember when Saddam gassed his own people? Yep, declassified info that is now coming out. In regards to Sheehan, I regard her just as much a traitor as “Hanoi Jane”, Jane Fonda for you kids. Democracy existed until 1958 in Iraq until the rise of Saddam, those folks knew what it was then, they can have it again with our help.

  25. 25.

    dagon

    June 22, 2006 at 1:04 pm

    former grun = current idiot

    it was reported today that several hundred active chemical WMD type weapons have been found over the last 3 years in Iraq.

    –yeah, the weapons that in all likelihood rummy sold to sadaam back in the back and were degraded or destroyed after 1991! this is old news chum.

    also, we didn’t go to war over sarin or mustard gas. it was a mushroom cloud that could be delivered to your sniveling door in 45 minutes or less.

    try again,

    peace

  26. 26.

    Richard 23

    June 22, 2006 at 4:21 pm

    More goodies from Suskind:

    Lantos went on to describe for the president how the Swedish Army might be an ideal candidate to anchor a small peacekeeping force on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Sweden has a well-trained force of about 25,000. The president looked at him appraisingly, several people in the room recall.’’I don’t know why you’re talking about Sweden,’’ Bush said. ‘’They’re the neutral one. They don’t have an army.’’

    Lantos paused, a little shocked, and offered a gentlemanly reply: ‘’Mr. President, you may have thought that I said Switzerland. They’re the ones that are historically neutral, without an army.’’ Then Lantos mentioned, in a gracious aside, that the Swiss do have a tough national guard to protect the country in the event of invasion.

    Bush held to his view. ‘’No, no, it’s Sweden that has no army.’’

    The room went silent, until someone changed the subject.

    Stunning.

    Yet Bush is smart enough not to crow about Santorum’s WMDs.

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