THIS IS A READ-ONLY ARCHIVE FROM THE SORABJI.COM MESSAGE BOARDS (1995-2016). |
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"American casualties in Iraq are mounting as the U.S.-led offensive in Fallujah unfolds. Monday's death toll of 11 was among the highest for a single day in Iraq since last spring, though most were killed elsewhere in the country." What does it say about the state of affairs in Iraq if, while we're conducting a major offensive to the "heart" of the insurgency, most of our casualties are in other parts of the country? How can we conduct meaningful elections if we're going to hold them only days after lifting martial law? Why does it matter that we're training Iraqi troops when the new forces are rife with infiltrators? It's not possible to coordinate the massacre of 49 unarmed trainees without inside information. How can you create stability for elections by declaring martial law on the Sunnis and Shiites (but not the Kurds), attack the Sunnis after giving them ample warning and time to prepare (after putting off the invasion until after the election), all of this after giving up on capturing the rebel Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr? |
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we have our own to deal with. |
The whole "warning" that we will attack thing just fucks with my head. I mean let's just send Mr. Bad Guy of the moment a letter saying "we're going to be here on this date and this time to arrest and or kill you" with the date being a week away or whatever, and like Mr. Bad Guy of the moment is just going to sit there and wait for him? Ummmmmmmmm, it doesn't make sense to me. I mean, if I were the bad guy I'd leave the area before the time frame was up and let them fuck with the wrong place. And in that what gets accomplished? Seriously, send a letter of warning, bad guy flees, we attack same place anyways.......I realize it is seriously more complicated than all of that but the logic of it makes absolutely no sense to me. At this rate, we'll still be fighting in Iraq when my children are my age. |
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Sem, I am hoping that my family history will kick into gear in the girls teenage years, cuz if it does, my girls won't be allowed in the military even if they do change the draft. I could probably have myself labeled as permanently disabled, but I don't want to, cuz I fight my disability. But if things go as I suspect they will, that's a card I am not afraid to play when it comes to the girls going into the military. They are due to be hit with this in their mid teens, but Micki already shows some warning signs. We'll see. But the girls will most likely inherit my disability, and I WILL use it to keep them from fighting. Of course, that is assuming that we are still here when my kids are my age......only time will tell on this one. |
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America is 100% safe from terrorism now! Don't you know that? Ashcroft said so!! chillax, dudes! eat some freedom fries. good times. |
It hit me at 17 and starts 2-3 years earlier with every generation. My mother was 19. My grandmother, not sure how old she was when it hit her off the top of my head, but she was wheelchair bound/on crutches to get from the living room to the kitchen by the time she was 40. When they did her knee replacement surgery they found that she had ground away 3 1/2 inches of bone and the joints were completely gone. And in 3 years she was back in her wheelchair. I will always remember my mother when she found out I had it giving me the lecture of being a fighter and not a wuss like my grandmother. I was never allowed to take any medication for it. When I was swollen I was not allowed to sit down (that would be succumbing to it and that's what a wuss does) so I would be forced to walk on it. It's a severe amount of pain that I spend every day ignoring. But as much as I hate to admit it, there are a LOT of things I cannot do because of it. I used to do a lot of hiking, but I can't do that anymore. Even the precore at the gym hurts, but the treadmill is worse, stairsteppers are totally out, bikes are murder, so precore it is. I just grind gring grind my joints away for better cardiovascular health. It is bad enough that I could get a handicapped placard for the car, etc, but I refuse to do that. I am still capable of doing what I need to get through everyday life. There are others who need assistance much more than I do. I still don't take meds for it, cuz I still have my mother in the back of my head bitching at me. I guess that's good cuz the latest (which my grandmother was taking) has been recalled by the FDA for causing heart attacks. I have noticed with Micki, when she sleeps on top of the blankets and gets cold, she wakes up at night with severe pain in her knees. But it's usually at some ungodly hour of the night, and I am too fuzzy eyed to check for the arthritis swelling. Geez, did I put that there, that I have trouble walking. Spunky is the only other person on the planet that knows that (he's seen it). I mean, who wants to admit that they've been having difficulty walking since they were in their mid 20's? But at least it is an early warning system, when there is a severe temperature change or a bad storm or really cold weather. |