ThinkingLiberal

Waiting To Get Blown Up: How Our Troops Really Feel

There is very little I can add to this article. But I can try and encourage you to read it.

The reporter is in Baghdad with American troops. They tell a story for once untainted by the whitewashing that Fox News does - it reveals scared, lonely, miserable soldiers who do not believe that what they're doing matters, or is having any effect.

If you truly believe in supporting our troops, as so many of you say on the backs of your oil-guzzling SUV's, it might change your mind as to what supporting the troops really means. Because if this is how they feel, then the only way to support them is to get them out of the hellhole that they're in now.

Here are a couple of direct quotes from American soldiers. Whatever your position on the political spectrum, I believe this article is worth reading.

"Think of what you hate most about your job. Then think of doing what you hate most for five straight hours, every single day, sometimes twice a day, in 120-degree heat. Then ask how morale is."

"It sucks. Honestly, it just feels like we're driving around waiting to get blown up. That's the most honest answer I could give you. You lose a couple friends and it gets hard."

"No one wants to be here, you know, no one is truly enthused about what we do."

" [I wish] somebody would explain to us, 'Hey, this is what we're working for.' " With a stream of expletives, he said he could not care less "if Iraq's free" or "if they're a democracy."

UPDATE: Donald "Never Been In The Military" Rumsfeld has ordered 4,000 soldiers from the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team to stay an extra 4 months in Iraq beyond the year they've already spent there.

UPDATE: He is also hoping to move an extra 5,000 troops to Iraq. They will be deployed in Baghdad.

George Is Anything But Pro-Life

George Bush’s hypocrisy knows few bounds.

With the same signature that condemned over 135 people to death in Texas, he vetoed a bill that would have allowed Federal funding for new stem cell research.

His reasoning? “It crosses a moral boundary that our decent society needs to respect," he said. And then, in a moment of supreme arrogance, “I’m not going to allow it.”

Remember, the embryos in question are not farmed or harvested. They are going to be destroyed, whether stem cells are extracted from them or not. So there is no moral quandary here – Bush is simply attempting to create one to appeal to his ultra right-wing supporters.

75% of Americans are in favor of stem cell research. Both the House and the Senate voted the bill through. But George Bush is “not going to allow it.” Once again, the hypocrite’s posturing damages the people he claims to represent.

Bush claims to be pro-life, yet he signed off on the killing of 135 people as Governor of Texas. He claims to be pro-life, yet he won’t allow scientists to research cures for diseases. He claims to be pro-life, but 14,388 innocent Iraqi’s and hundreds of American troops have died as a direct result of his lies, just in the last six months.

George Bush isn’t pro-life; he’s just pro-George Bush.