Why isn’t Anyone Listening?

[dreki8]

I don’t understand how so many Americans can just sit and ignore what is going on around them. Not just the “normal” people who have lives to life and families to feed and what not (that’s not an excuse btw), but even the politicians who work on Capital Hill, who deal with the almost daily interruptions from Code Pink and The Gold Star Families

Comments

[stinkydoommonke]

As far as the validity of our being in Iraq, I go back and forth on that one.

"The absolute quickest way to get out of Iraq is to send more troops. Now this seems stupid at first but the bottom line is we can't cover all the ground that we would like to and with all the negative media attention very few people want to join the military. Since we are an all volunteer force that means we have less people now than we did at the start of the war." (The above opinion is quoted from my neigbor who is EOD and just got back from Iraq about two months ago. I reserve the right to withold an opinion until I get firsthand experience, which will hopefully be never.)

[murstein]

As an "armchair strategist" who spent the last decade of the Cold War in uniform, I agree with your neighbor.

It was obvious from the start that we weren't going in with enough force to do the job right. Those who were in positions to point out the error to those who had the power to fix it, have since been hounded from government service. Those who insisted on the error are still in office.

Frankly, it would take more troops to properly occupy Iraq and stamp out the terrorists than we currently have in the Army and Marine Corps. In 2001 through 2003, we could have grown forces through recruitment; instead, potential enlistees were turned away in droves. Now, instead of highly motivated volunteers, we have recruiting shortfalls, and we could only grow the forces we need today through a draft.