Yes, if any of this sounds familiar, it is because it is the exact same game as has been played for the past three years. Everything's fine. Those buildings are not on fire. Those killings weren't religious killings, so they don't count. The electricity is on... at least, for between one and four hours a day, and if you want more than that it's because you hate freedom (freedom, apparently, hates to be refrigerated.) If it weren't for al Qaeda, or Iran, or the weather, or a certain militia, or the British pulling out, or you damn kids today with your loud music and opinions about things, we'd be winning already. So give it another three or six months, and then you just wait -- wow, the progress you'll see!At some point, we need to step back and look at what we've been told for four years, and compare it with what we've seen for four years.
And as we think about this, please remember, this war is coming home.
The Leesburg unit of the Virginia Army National Guard - C Company -- left for Iraq earlier this week after completing two months of pre-deployment training Aug. 26 at Mississippi's Camp Shelby. The 120 or so soldiers in the company were trained to serve as convoy escorts and security, moving supplies between bases in Iraq. The soldiers will be in active service for the next 11 months in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.Convoy escort is one of the most important, but difficult, jobs in Iraq. Our neighbors will be going over there for 11 months to make sure our front-line troops have the supplies they need to carry out their orders. They will also be providing general security for the people trying to bring peace and safety to Iraq. They will be giving their all to fulfill their duty, the least we can do is make sure that the decisions our political leaders are making are the right decisions. A good sign of correct decision making is accurate predictions of outcomes. So far, the outcomes that have occurred in Iraq have been the opposite of those predicted by The Executive. Draw your own conclusions.
- The Loudoun Times
And when someone accuses those who question the war of not supporting our troops, I point them to a UVA student Jo Watts, who left for a second tour in Iraq this year - as a National Guardsman from Suffolk:
Whether the American people believe the U.S. presence in Iraq is effective or not, in no way does Watts feel there is a lack of support for the soldiers as there was during the Vietnam War. Unlike the soldiers in Vietnam who, upon returning, were accused of being "un-American," Watts said everyone he encounters has been "100 percent supportive."We all have a responsibility to each other. That responsibility becomes more acute when the people we elected ask our neighbors to lay their lives on the line in a foreign country. Jim Webb understands this, John Warner understands this. We can do no less than come to this understanding ourselves."I think the American people learned from their mistakes [in Vietnam] and realized even if the war is unpopular it's not the individual soldier that is at fault," Watts said. "It's the administration that plans the war that should be held responsible."
- The Cavalier Daily (Though it may pain me a little to quote it)
(Crossposted from Leesburg Tomorrow.)