Stripes: For the past 4 years I’ve been an avid supporter of the * admin.

[lebkuchen]

Iraq getting out of control

Throughout the past four years I’ve been an avid supporter of the Bush administration. I’ve always been a conservative Republican. But the events of the past few weeks are making me somewhat feel that it’s time for a change.

It came out recently that an August 2001 memo said Osama bin Laden was plotting against the United States. The whole Iraq situation is getting out of control. Why don’t we just pick up and go home? We’ve been there more than a year now. Are we still hoping to find the elusive weapons of mass destruction? It’s really getting out of hand down there, and we’re losing more and more lives with each passing day.

After reading the news about the 1st Armored Division, I was quite saddened. These soldiers have given us enough over the past year. How many birthdays and anniversaries were missed? How many soldiers could not return home due to the death of an immediate family member? How many lives have they sacrificed already? I have a great amount of respect for 1st AD soldiers. I’d like to thank every single one of them, but I think it’s time for them to come home. If I could, I’d volunteer to go to Iraq so that one of them may return home. Perhaps some lucky father could be home for the birth of a new child or someone could get to hold and hug his children for the first time in a year.

I am prior active duty Air Force, and I know that the treatment is different between Army and Air Force. Air Force members are the spoiled, whiny, white-collar brats of the military who complain about anything and everything. Army members continually get the short end of the stick and are expected to just “suck it up and shut up.”

I still have a great amount of respect for the Bush administration. I just hope it considers re-evaluating the extension of troops who have already been in Iraq one year or more. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld should put himself in the soldiers’ place and think what it would be like to be on his way home and then be extended for an unknown number of days. This will do nothing but hurt the mission, as the morale of 1st AD soldiers will certainly suffer because of this. Wouldn’t we be stronger with fresh troops who haven’t been down there? I pray that the soldiers in Iraq will all return home safe and soon.

Jeffrey S. Bode
Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany

http://www.estripes.com/section.asp?section=125

[KissMyAsscroft]

1. What a tool...

He still respects the Bush administration after all that he was witnessed...

[lebkuchen]

2. BUT, there's a glimmer of hope: he now has doubts

and he's looking for a "save face" exit.

It will be those who are closest to the military carnage, the "military family," that bolt from the ranks of the GOP, well before the gun-toting beer-bellied Christian Coalition gang in the old US of A ever will. Forget about trying for the southern RW fat man's vote. Go for the military vote. They have every right to be pissed and eager for change, and they are, on both counts.

[1gobluedem]

3. How can you still respect

...this administration? They're LIARS. If they lied about the reasons for war doesn't it stand to reason that they're lying about everything else? Like tax cuts benefit the middle class? HA! Or outsourcing is good for the economy? HA! again. You name it, they've lied about it. They do not deserve respect.

I want our troops home now. They shouldn't be dying for a lie.

[lapislzi]

4. Two words: "fungible resources"

Mr. Bode need go no further than those two words if he wants to consider the views of Secretary Rumsfeld. The Secretary has a heart of stone. No, wait, that's an insult to stones.

Still, I am saddened to read this. It's a cri de coeur from a man desperately trying to hang onto his world view. It won't take much to tip him over the edge. There is hope.