opinions on the war in Iraq.

Subject: RE: opinions on the war in Iraq.
From: cookster
Date: 24 Jun 07 - 03:20 PM

cronological age. What's your mental age, 2?

Subject: RE: opinions on the war in Iraq.
From: akenaton
Date: 24 Jun 07 - 03:42 PM

I'm starting to warm to this pup. Are you Scottish by any chance?

Subject: RE: opinions on the war in Iraq.
From: GUEST,282RA
Date: 24 Jun 07 - 03:58 PM

I'm sorry but I don't care how old this poster claims to be. I don't believe anyone online with that garbage. Chances are he is an adult using this as a shield to act like an ass. No 11 year old would hang out at a place like this. Would you?

Subject: RE: opinions on the war in Iraq.
From: cookster
Date: 24 Jun 07 - 04:07 PM

Akenaton, I am not Scottish.P.S. yeah I would and I am not the one acting like an ass.

Subject: RE: opinions on the war in Iraq.
From: cookster
Date: 24 Jun 07 - 04:13 PM

Well the chances aren't on your side.Ask anyone on this thread they'll say I'm 11.

Subject: RE: opinions on the war in Iraq.
From: cookster
Date: 24 Jun 07 - 04:35 PM

Akenton where are you from?

Subject: RE: opinions on the war in Iraq.
From: akenaton
Date: 24 Jun 07 - 04:48 PM

The Underworld!

Subject: RE: opinions on the war in Iraq.
From: Don Firth
Date: 24 Jun 07 - 05:19 PM

Brilliant rejoinder for an 11-year-old, cookster, but you might want to let up a bit on wasting band-space here on Mudcat with trivial threads. Serious issues are generally treated seriously, trivia draws trivial responses.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: opinions on the war in Iraq.
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Jun 07 - 07:22 PM

I talked with both Cookster and 282RA, and I trust there will be no further animosity. Please carry on the with Iraq war opinions.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: opinions on the war in Iraq.
From: cookster
Date: 24 Jun 07 - 08:29 PM

SIR YES SIR!!!

Subject: RE: opinions on the war in Iraq.
From: Charley Noble
Date: 25 Jun 07 - 10:31 AM

Well, here's an opinion which might carry some weight. It's from an interview by columnist Bill Nemitz (Portland Sunday Telegram, June 24, 2007) with a World War II Marine veteran from the battle for Okinawa. Dave Astor, 87, knows a thing or two about loyalty, and about fulfilling your mission. And about keeping your reservations to yourself:

"I've never said this publicly," Ames said over coffee Thursday morning. "I was so proud of the Marines when they first dashed through Iraq. And then I said, well, be patient ... be patient." And now?

"And now my patience is gone. It's useless. It's come to the stage after four and a half years that we're worse off than we were then."

And so, on this day he'd planned to commemorate the victory in Okinawa (62 years ago), Astor found himself saying something altogether different about Iraq.

"I think we should just declare victory," he said. "And then get out of there."

And how would he define vicotry? The old Marine, who never thought he'd hear himself say this, didn't flinch.

"Easy," he replied. "You just get the hell out of there."

Charley Noble, who likes to learn from experience

Subject: RE: opinions on the war in Iraq.
From: Stringsinger
Date: 25 Jun 07 - 11:34 AM

War is propaganda. War is a racket. War is a vehicle for rich industrialists to make more money. War is a way for the human race to become extinct. War ultimately never solves any problem.

"One world must come out of world war two".....FDR

Yeah sure!

Subject: RE: opinions on the war in Iraq.
From: GUEST,Bradman
Date: 28 Jun 07 - 09:40 PM

Leave Cookster alone!

Subject: RE: opinions on the war in Iraq.
From: cookster
Date: 02 Jul 07 - 09:50 PM

Thanks Bradman!

Subject: RE: opinions on the war in Iraq.
From: Dickey
Date: 03 Jul 07 - 12:18 AM

"...On 29 June, American and Iraqi soldiers were again fighting side-by-side as soldiers from Charley Company 1-12 CAVâ€"led by Captain Clayton Combsâ€"and Iraqi soldiers from the 5th IA, closed in on a village on the outskirts of Baqubah. The village had the apparent misfortune of being located near a main roadâ€"about 3.5 miles from FOB Warhorseâ€"that al Qaeda liked to bomb. Al Qaeda had taken over the village. As Iraqi and American soldiers moved in, they came under light contact; but the bombs planted in the roads (and maybe in the houses) were the real threat.

The firefight progressed. American missiles were fired. The enemy might have been trying to bait Iraqi and American soldiers into ambush, but it did not work. The village was riddled with bombs, some of them large enough to destroy a tank. One by one, experts destroyed the bombs, leaving small and large craters in the unpaved roads.

The village was abandoned. All the people were gone. But where?...

...There were bodies of men, women and children. Al Qaeda slaughters families everywhere: as these graves were being unearthed, more bombs were found in London.

By the time I arrived, 5th IA had uncovered parts of six bodies. But from what I could see, they did not all appear to have been murdered at once. In one grave, there were exposed ribs and other bones, although there was still flesh on the bones.

Soldiers from 5th IA said al Qaeda had cut the heads off the children. Had al Qaeda murdered the children in front of their parents? Maybe it had been the other way around: maybe they had murdered the parents in front of the children. Maybe they had forced the father to dig the graves of his children.

Iraqi soldiers were barely talking. All had grim looks and everybody seemed to want to be a million miles away. Yet these Iraqi soldiers helped me do my job.

Later in the day, some of the soldiers from the unit I share a tent with, the C-52, told me that one of their Kit Carson scouts (comprised of some of our previous enemies who have turned on al Qaeda) had pointed out an al Qaeda who had cut off the heads of children. Soldiers from C-52 say that the Kit Carson scout freaked out and tried to hide when he spotted the man he identified as an al Qaeda operative. Just how (or if) the scout really knew the man had beheaded children was unknown to the soldiers of C-52, but they took the suspected al Qaeda to the police, who knew the man. C-52 soldiers told me the Iraqi police were inflamed, and that one policeman in particular was crazed with intent to kill the man who they said had the blood of Iraqi children on his hands. According to the story told to me on 30 June, it took almost 45 minutes for the C-52 soldiers to calm down the policeman who had drawn his pistol to execute the al Qaeda man. That same policeman nearly lost his mind when an American soldier then gave the al Qaeda man a drink of cold water.

While that was happening elsewhere in Baqubah, we stood around the stinking graves of people who had gotten a close-up view of al Qaeda-style justice. The villagers’ bodies were rotting in the heat before us.

The blade of the shovel struck more fingers, and the Iraqi soldiers stopped and pointed to the fingers so I could film them. But I had seen enough and pulled back into the palm groves.

Captain Baker gave an important interview on video. Captain Baker, who in Captain Combs’ words is “an excellent soldier,â€쳌 is from the Kurdish north, but Baker said he is Iraqi first, Kurdish second. He told me American Special Forces had trained him, and he shared some interesting details about the killing of Zarqawi which occurred back in 2006. Zarqawi had been the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, until he was killed nearby by U.S. bombs.

Soldiers from the 5th IA continued with their task as Captain Combs and I departed, heading back to the M-1 tank.

Along the way we passed fresh craters. The bomb that made the water-filled crater above would easily have destroyed the Bradley in the photo.

LT Baxter, the tank commander, was concerned that the heat was getting to me, and checked my uniform for sweat, asking several times if I was okay. They always watch out for me. But I was okay from the heat; I can take the heat as well as our soldiers can. Still, I felt very sick, the kind of sick that no amount of cool water can fix. I put on the comms in the tank, then ripped them off and left off my helmet and held the jet hose of the air conditioner on my face as the tank rumbled back to base..."

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/bless-the-beasts-and-children.htm