Did you see the McCain interview on The View? With the exception of Joy, those women were snide and disrespectul. And W. Goldberg’s questions bordered on being stupid.

I mean, WOW.

Apparently “winning” (post-9/11) entails prolonged occupations of hostile nations, resulting in large numbers of American casualties and the depletion of our national guard, reserve, and active duty troops and equipment (all of which has been studied, reported, testified to by all branches).

We have lost our ability to deter any unwanted action by any unfriendly nation b/c they know we cannot take on another front. We need a “surge” in Afghanistan but, gee, we can’t find any troops to send there.

My husband is spending 15 months fighting a war that we won four years ago. Imagine that. I don’t recall American soldiers doing that after WWII.

Do you know what winning in Iraq looks like today? It looks like a female soldier dying with 95 percent burns on her body while another male soldier dies, much more loudly, because his head is split open from the top to the back from an IED blast and apparently no amount of morphine dulls that pain. The former made it to the combat hospital, the latter died in the medevac helicopter en route.

Do you know what else, Ms. Reyes, the winning war looks like? It looks like the 19 yr old who shot himself in his pod in front of his 19 yr old wife via webcam about 8 wks ago. They both graduated from high school in June 2007. He is dead today and she is a widow and God knows how traumatized as a result.

Our Army officers divorce rate tripled between 2002 and 2006 and doubled for enlisted soldiers. The suicide rate for young OIF/OEF male vets is 2x higher than it is for their civilian counterparts and for female vets it is 3x higher.

Ms. Reyes, I think you owe this author an apology. If anyone is naive here, it is you. Ms. Stokes’s husband nearly died in Iraq. He has had 30 plus surgeries practically reconstructing his body from top to bottom, not to mention the aforementioned TBI AND PTSD.

I can assure you, ma’am, neither Pamela, nor myself, are naive about a damn thing when it comes to this election as it impacts us in a way that you will never, ever, EVER understand.

So I suggest your next comment be simple and genuine:

“I disagree with your thesis but I am humbled by the sacrafices of your family. Thank you for having the courage to do what me and/or my husband have not.”

If our husbands had not volunteered to defend this country and follow the orders of the Commander-in-Chief this nation elected, your husband (or others) would be drafted for that honor.

Your welcome.

Bacevich’s book is not about putting blame on the poor in America. This book is a call to action. It’s about all Americans being accountable for their actions.

I am not quite sure why you are questioning excessive consumerism. It does exist. It exists in the form Hummers in the midst of a suffering environment. Among many other examples it also exists in the form of consumers waiting in line for days just for a Nintendo Wii Game System. If Americans put same the amount of effort into social reform as they do in procuring a video game system, we wouldn’t have to worry about low income families being forced to shop at Wal-Mart thus fueling the export of American money and the dependence on foreign goods.

I also find it interesting that you accuse Ms. Eggleston and Bacevich of using clichés and yet your opinions are based solely on stereotypes of the “rich elites… eating arugula from Whole Foods”.

It also saddens me that you would discount the sacrifices and experiences of Bacevich who lost his son and Ms. Eggleston whose husband was injured in the service of this country.

I agree with Patriot…How is America better off having invaded Iraq? If being in national deficit due to funding the war, the large number of casualties suffered on the battlefield, and a crumbling foreign policy is acceptable then I question your view of reality.

God Bless

Do you doubt that we as a society are plagued by “excessive consumerism”? Look at the amount of people foundering in debt because they felt it necessary to live outside of their means. Whether it is caused by outright greed, the desire for perceived societal status, or simple ignorance, the fact is that Americans place an inordinately high priority on material possessions. The housing crisis is an example obvious enough even for you to observe.

If the American public is good at one thing, it’s blaming others for its problems. Look at the way political candidates address potential voters. If a candidate were to assert outright that certain problems Americans face were indeed caused by the behavior of Americans themselves, they might as well drop out of the race. Whatever the problem is, it is surely the fault of someone else.

I also wanted to address the topic of the Iraq War. I can only hope that your short-sighted and wholly ignorant statement, “But in case you didn’t notice, the Iraq war was won…” was intended with sarcasm. In the event that you’ve chosen to ignore reality, let me just ask one question: Is America better off having invaded Iraq?

Charges of “imperialism” aside - whether founded or otherwise - we should start by examining the reasons for which the war was initiated. No one denies the atrocities of Hussein’s regime. However, America did not go to Iraq to defend freedom and depose the evil tyrant. If the United States sought to be so virtuous, it might have tried to end recent genocides or stamp out homicidal regimes in South America or Africa that made Hussein’s look tame. The Bush administration’s real reasons for going to Iraq are known only to those in power, but it is documented that the invasion plans for Iraq had been filed away for years prior to the war.

All in all, the war has left us a battered nation. We spend billions to pour men and equipment overseas, and to train Iraqi troops who are unwilling to aid in the defense of their own country (shades of South Vietnam), while our domestic economy suffers. We consider it a good month when we mourn a few less casualties than we did during previous months of combat, ultimately gaining nothing. We send young men and women into the inferno of battle and turn our backs on them when they return home with mental, physical, and financial problems. To say that we’ve won anything is abhorrent.

Finally, I must ask how you feel qualified to discuss the war on a personal level. You have decided to self-righteously clash with the viewpoints of a retired Army Colonel who lost his son in Iraq and a woman whose husband was injured experiencing war firsthand. Both of these perspectives dwarf your own.

Only rarely does someone surface with qualifications as well as insights and a delivery that stimulate thinking. Even more rarely does an individual stimulate the very personal mental articulation of self observation.

http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2008/08/andrew-bacevich-rare-sobering-voice.html

Bacevich deserves as broad an audience as can be exposed to his thoughtful analysis.

I have, and still do, work with the poor, but unlike many of who “work” with those who live in poverty, I know about it from personal experience. And in my quest to understand things, I choose to listen to the left and the right…as an Independent, part conservative, part liberal. I choose to listen to it all. In this instance, I chose to listen to a conservative who is sick and tired of the way things are. It is really that simple.

I am sorry that you think I appear to have naively “swallowed” the cliches, when I only choose to listen, to observe, to step out of my comfort zone. I wish more folks did the same.

My experience with Iraq is personal, as a Purple Heart wife.

That’s it and that’s all.

Ah, yes. Let’s go back to the great depression…

I’ve always worked with the Poor in the US, and I am always impressed that it is the rich elites who make this complaint. They live high on the hog eating argula from wholefoods while sniffing at the peasants buying iceburg lettuce at Walmart superstores.

All those “we” cliches. Yup. Ordinary folks are the evil ones.

Which makes me wonder: Are you saying this of what you yourself have observed, or are you merely echoing the cliches you have read?

The “Imperial presidency” started with Roosevelt…and your arguments resemble those of wendall Wilkie in 1940…

I’ll let your Iraq war arguments stand: I am just wondering why a military person could be so naive to swallow the cliches of the left when discussing a mass murderer and warmonger like Saddam.

But in case you didn’t notice, the Iraq war was won…