Col. Eddie Ray (Ret.): We are being worn down by this war.

[Murcielago247]

sweet

[greentiger1775]

Eddie - did you go to Iraq this time?

[VOTEGOREFISHER08]

My runningmate Jeff Fisher loves the game of football.He enjoys it from Pee Wee,Pop Warner through schools to college to the pros.He loves the game in America,Australia,Europe& Canada.

Albert Arnold Gore Jr

Please Google Jeff Fisher Philadelphia & tell everyone!!! August 16th Jeff got arrested & one very nasty Caucasian police officer used excessive force on him & broke his ribs. I want people to understand that Jeff is the most unique man on the planet & so is his future bride Jane Bowell.

[NYyankees51]

Notice how he is retired.

[fotohogger]

Wow, weird; Americans commenting intelligently on the subject. Don't you know that you can be arrested & held forever without reason, charges or a trail. They must still think they have constitutional rights or something. Wow!

[N2Y3724]

what channle is this on

[IraqVetNY]

Col. Ray is not a Medal of Honor recipient. He is a Navy Cross recipient.

[ganubis]

Nice to see someone from the military come through the filter and speak candidly on an issue the media has consciously omitted from public discourse.

Even as tragically successful the 9/11 attacks were, there was no immediate victory for al-Qaeda in them. Even had all four planes been crashed into their proper targets, there would be no defeat of the US on that day.

9/11 was ALL ABOUT THE RESPONSE to it. al-Qaeda is explicit about wanting to drag the US into a war like the one...cont'd..

[ganubis]

...that claimed 70,000 Soviet casualties over a decade in Afghanistan. The immediate attack on Afghanistan smashed and scattered al-Qaeda, and should have been followed by a continued low-level effort to round up the detritus. Instead Bush pursued the standing plans by the Project for the New American Century and decided to remove a now hostile Cold War pawn, Saddam Hussein. Unfortunately, this granted al-Qaeda what it wanted - a new battleground for jihad. cont'd...

[ganubis]

Al-Qaeda is a grotesquely overhyped, small group of fanatics who actually have a difficult time recruiting for endless jihad, and this war was to serve as a RECRUITING drive for new conscripts. This is happening. It also serves as "camp" for all of the Islamists of the world, who come to learn like they did in Afghanistan. Unlike in Afgh., these men are learning how to fight CITY WARFARE. And like their Afghanistan counterparts, they too will return to their hometowns with their new skills.

[ganubis]

Men who fought in Afgh. also moved onto Bosnia and Kosovo. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, widely viewed as the mastermind of 9/11 was involved in funding the insurgency in Bosnia (which the Clinton government was also arming), and it is no surprise that the plot which preceded 9/11 was named the BOJINKA PLOT (to detonate several planes over the oceans simultaneously). Bojinka is a Serbian word for Explosion. My point is that one thing leads to another.

[ganubis]

The "war on terror" was LOST the day Bush GAVE THE TERRORISTS THE WAR THEY WANTED. The U.S. cannot continue to serve al-Qaeda's interests and simultaneously defeat them.

The longer the U.S. remains in Iraq the longer they give the enemy the chance to build up a revolutionary force with which to overthrow the Arab governments that displease them.

That is another factor omitted by the US press. 9/11 was more about taking power in their own lands than defeating the US.

[ganubis]

Most of the goals of the radical Islamists are IMPOSSIBILITIES, no matter what happens. Their immediate goal is a distinct possibility though: which is to take power in one or more of the Arab Muslim nations.

No one needs to worry about crazed Muslims taking over the world. Most Muslims see these extremists as a threat also.

[SMoldie]

Your absolutely right ganubis, america was dragged into a conflict by the bush administration they could never win conventionally. Its nice to hear this view from an american!!

[SMoldie]

I'm fascinated the retired army personnel in the video at no time talked about the loss of life in the relation to the war or is that just collateral damage

[24mau1983]

He only had 1:06 to speak. I doubt every thought he has concerning the war was presented in that time frame.

[SMoldie]

I would of thought that this would have been his first thought, in the time he had.

[24mau1983]

How do you know what question he was asked or what the specific topic was? If your point was that there has been needless loss of life or waste of American blood and treasure, then fine. Make that point. However, trying to buttress your opinion by belittling the colonel is, in my opinion, first of all illogical and secondly uncalled for.

[SMoldie]

I was simply making a point, I'm curious, when was it made a crime or 'bad form', to question the millitary? Maybe a fuller and franker discussion before the current conflicts would have resulted in a better outcome for everybody, 24mau1983

[24mau1983]

I agree 1:06 is not enough time to cover the subject fully. My point of contention was that you used the fact that the Colonel did not mention civilian casualties during his statement, to make the point that the colonel was somehow unconcerned about them and only considered them as collateral damage. In my humble opinion your statement went beyond questioning the military, but rather questioning the integrity of the man himself. You may find that you agree with him more than you disagree.

[SMoldie]

Its nice to have a calm discourse with some one I disagree. Thank you for you civility, while arguing rationally an opposing view point. It makes a refreshing change 24mau1983. Heres to continued civility on youtube:D

[24mau1983]

I couldn't agree more. Its nice to share points of view....without all the bloodletting. Thanks

[WolverineDeus]

I do not now and never have supported this war. I think it is significant that present and former members of the military are speaking out against it, as well, to offset the carefully stage-managed illusion fostered by the Bush Administration that the soldiers themselves are monolithically gung-ho supporters of its policy. I think that speaking to the plight of the soldiers elicits more immediate sympathy from Americans for ending the war than does talking about Iraqi civilian losses.

[24mau1983]

Wolverine, You are absolutely correct. Servicemen and women do not think in a monolithic way when it comes to politics or any other subject for that matter. It puzzles me that many people in this country apparently still believe that they do.

[ikekll]

nogoodtagsleft, your comment

"We are kicking there ass every day."

The longer we're "occupying" their country, the madder there going to get. Support a resolution and bring the occupation home.

$178 Billion in Blood

watch?v=LrXYP9kaKfY

This news May 11, 08

DoD Identifies Army Casualty

The Dept. of Def announced today the death of a soldier - Spc. Mary J. Jaenichen, 20, of Temecula, Calif., died May 9 in Iskandariyah, Iraq, of a non-combat related injury.

[nogoodtagsleft]

The Taliban and such have told us outright if you aren't Muslim than that makes you an infidel!

According to what they have said all infidels must die. It way easer to fight them over there then it will be over here. Not to mention in the mountains of Afghanistan. Notice are news media never tells us about the hits to the enemy. We are kicking there ass every day.

[markotraco]

So what? Who cares what they think of us. It is all a big joke and you're falling for it, because our borders are wide open. And you can blahblahblah about taking the fight to them but if our borders are open, the whole "war" in Iraq and Afghanistan is LAUGHABLE.

[WolverineDeus]

May 18, 2008: Total Coalition soldiers killed in Iraq to date = 4391. Total US wounded in Iraq to date = 29,978. Last week, an independent report by the Rand Corp. estimated 300,000 Iraq War veterans suffer from some form of PTSD, and 320,000 have some for of traumatic concussive brain injury. The actual costs of this war have just begun to be felt.

[24mau1983]

That's the case in every war....That's why you have to pick and choose which battles are worth the cost and which ones are not. You can't fight them all.

[WolverineDeus]

24mau1983,

The point is, this illegitimate and deceitful was was not worth one drop of American blood or one penny of American treasure, and we have been deceived by the Administration not only about its justification, but also regarding its ultimate cost.

[24mau1983]

Wolverine,  I won't go as far as illegitimate and deceitful, but I think history will show that the Irag War will go down as one of the most glaring failures in intelligence and leadership in American history. This has just been one mistake, bad judgement, poor decision, bad leadership event compounded by another Eventually, we will leave, Irag will break down along religious and tribal orders and Iran will be the winner. In the end, it will not be worth the sacrifice.

[nogoodtagsleft]

We aren't leaving Iraq no matter who is in the white house; they have built the biggest air base in the world today over there. We didn't build that so we can leave it

[coolwaterz1969]

So after that shallow analogy of current event you should ask yourself the real quastion...

And that is who is "they"

they that cause this to happen...

[turbokaveman]

right on man!!!!!!! I hope we (America) learn a lesson from this ridiculous war.

[DukeandDoc]

Incorrect information. He was awarded the Navy Cross, not the Medal of Honor

[copyrightmybutt]

I don't know how we'll get out of Iraq without huge amounts of controversy..