Obamas thank military in Christmas message

[TomCADem]

Source: MSNBC

President and first lady urge Americans to support families

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama offered Christmas wishes to the nation on Thursday, including a special thanks for the U.S. military. They urged Americans to help support military families this holiday season.

In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama said serving as commander in chief has been his greatest honor as president. He saluted the "selfless spirit" of those who serve and said he has been "humbled, profoundly" by those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

"So to all our men and women in uniform spending the holidays far from home — whether it's at a base here in the states, a mess hall in Iraq or a remote outpost in Afghanistan — know that you are in our thoughts and our prayers," the president said in a message released two days early because of Christmas. "And this holiday season — and every holiday season — know that we are doing everything in our power to make sure you can succeed in your missions and come home safe to your families."

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34589882/ns/politics-white_house/

[bluestateguy]

1. You just have to thank God that this man is our commander in chief

It's good to be proud to be an American again.

[Larry Ogg]

2. I doubt that he would be thanking this guy

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x415927">Amazing Speech by Iraq War Veteran

[winyanstaz]

11. thank you so much for that link...

That soldier is a true patriot and a hero for speaking out. Thank you sir for your service to all the people of the Earth.
I salute you young man.

[dballance]

3. I'm Sure Michelle Malkin will be ...

I'm sure Michelle Malkin and her ilk will be condemning them soon for their "politicization" of the military.

[nyy1998]

5. And Christmas too!

[Mr. James]

18. Yar!

Y he thank militery, all no oboma hats amurika!!!!!!!!1111111 *sarcasm*

[optimator]

4. thanks for blowing up innocent civilians around the world

amen.

[proteus_lives]

7. Nice smear.

You should always take an opportunity to shit on the men and women in uniform. :sarcasm:

[ShortnFiery]

14. Nobody is doing that. They are being MIS-used. It's time to bring them HOME. eom

[Iowa]

22. What is honorable about volunteering to go to war in this day and age?

If there was a draft, I'd be much more inclined to agree with you (and with Obama).

OK... I realize this isn't a politically-correct thing to say, but perhaps it's time we stopped glorifying military "service", especially in view of recent history. Doing so serves only to entice gullible, (often poor), young people into a nasty business that has very little to do with national defense, and much to do with oppression, death, destruction, and propping up a plutocracy that is hellbent on maintaining perpetual war. There is far more honor in undertaking productive pursuits, IMO.

If one strongly opposes unjust wars, and all the horrific damage they unleash, it makes very little sense to glorify those who volunteer to carry it out. This business of glorifying soldiers strikes me as more propaganda employed by war-mongers to keep the people off-balance, uncertain, and divided so their wars can go on ad-infinitum. It makes it more difficult to bash a senseless war (and the warriors who volunteer to carry it out) when the kid next door has his life on the line over there. And the sleazy pols aren't above using that dissonance to manipulate the public and further their ends.

What I can say about the young people who have volunteered for today's wars is that they probably didn't think it all the way through. That's about it. But can we really blame them when we, as a country (and through the president), continue to pretend that military service in this day and age is an exalted and noble pursuit? If our volunteer soldiers really want to serve their country, they would all resign en-mass and tell the war-mongering politicians (and the plutocrats who control them) to go fuck themselves. If they would do that, they would then (to quote Obama), "know that they are in my thoughts...".

We teach kids not to smoke, or drink, or use drugs... maybe we should be teaching them not to volunteer for senseless wars, and withholding our praise for those who don't.

[chrisa]

8. Bahhh Humbug!

I would advise against anybody joining the military, but you clearly have no idea what you're talking about.

[ShortnFiery]

15. No, USA meddling in CA during 1980s NEVER happened and the SOA is part of our imagination.

Wow, that's some secluded "world view" you have there. :shrug:

[chrisa]

19. I said any of those things, where?

Huge strawman.

[ShortnFiery]

21. No, just more of the same: KILLING and DYING to entertain the upper 1%.

[ShortnFiery]

13. Yes, only America knows what's good for people in the ME.

:eyes:

[Xenotime]

23. It's all we seem to do no matter who is in office.

[madrchsod]

6. they sacrificed their lives for the carter/reagan doctrine...

and for the multi national oil corporations.

[RedCloud]

9. Does a Nobel Peace Prizer ever thank the pacifists?

I mean just once?

[winyanstaz]

10. If you really support our troops you would end these wars and bring them home safe now.

These wars are illegal and wrong. Dont be wishing our troops Merry Christmas as you send them to die for lies.

[MissDeeds]

16. +1

I couldn't agree more.

[katkat]

17. ditto: support the troops, bring them home from senseless wars n/t

[SandWalker1984]

12. Mr. President, if you really want to give them a good Christmas - bring them home!

Why we will lose in Afghanistan

What we are hardly ever told about the country is that it has been for 300 years the scene of a bitter civil war, says Christopher Booker

By Christopher Booker
Published: 6:47PM Nov 2009

As both Britain and America are plunged into an orgy of tortured introspection over what we are doing in Afghanistan, a further very important factor needs to be fed into the discussion, because it helps to explain not only why we have got into such a tragic mess but also why our armed intervention in that unhappy country is doomed.

What we are hardly ever told about Afghanistan is that it has been for 300 years the scene of a bitter civil war, between two tribal groups of Pashtuns (formerly known as Pathans). On one side are the Durranis – most of the settled population, farmers, traders, the professional middle class. On the other are the Ghilzai, traditionally nomadic, fiercely fundamentalist in religion, whose tribal homelands stretch across into Pakistan as far as Kashmir.

Ever since Afghanistan emerged as an independent nation in 1709, when the Ghilzai kicked out the Persians, its history has been written in the ancient hatred between these two groups. During most of that time, the country has been ruled by Durrani, who in 1775 moved its capital from the Ghilzai stronghold of Kandahar up to Kabul in the north. Nothing has more fired Ghilzai enmity than the many occasions when the Durrani have attempted to impose their rule from Kabul with the aid of "foreigners", either Tajiks from the north or outsiders such as the British, who invaded Afghanistan three times between 1838 and 1919 in a bid to secure the North-west Frontier of their Indian empire against the rebellious Ghilzai.

When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, after years of Durrani rule, it was to support a revolutionary Ghilzai government. But this new foreign presence inspired general Afghan resistance which was why, by the late 1980s, the Americans were supporting the almost entirely Ghilzai-run Taleban and their ally Osama bin Laden. In 1996 the Taleban-Ghilzai got their revenge, imposing their theocratic rule over almost the whole country. In 2001, we invaded to topple the Taleban, again imposing Durrani rule, now under the Durrani President Karzai.

As so often before, the Ghilzai have seen their country hijacked by a Durrani regime, supported by a largely Tajik army and by hated outsiders from the West. One reason why we find it so hard to win "hearts and minds" in Helmand is that we are up against a sullenly resentful population, fired by a timeless hatred and able to call on unlimited support, in men and material, from their Ghilzai brothers across the border in Pakistan.

Only in towns such as Sanguin and Garmsir are there islands of Durrani, willing to support the Durrani government in distant Kabul. No sooner have our forces "secured" a village from the Taleban, than their fighters re-emerge from the surrounding countryside to reclaim it for the Ghilzai cause. Without recognizing this, and that what the Ghilzai really want is an independent "Pashtunistan" stretching across the border, we shall never properly understand why, like so many foreigners who have become embroiled in Afghanistan before, we have stumbled into a war we can never hope to win.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/6570380/Why-we-will-lose-in-Afghanistan.html



Our brave soldiers should not be giving up their lives for pipelines, profits and PNAC.

[Bragi]

20. How courageous. Not. /nt

[chrisa]

24. What exactly do you mean by that?