Comments on: War and More War

By: Ruthie Maxon

Ruthie Maxon — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 18:22:11 +0000

I love your website.

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By: micmarine

micmarine — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 07:02:38 +0000

mopckoe, God Bless your uncles. That is one hell of a long time away from home. I also like the way you corrected the mercenary thing with the proper PC terminology.
If you don’t mind I would like to add an interesting clarification, by way of providing some statistics from the Department of Defense and outlined in Lt. Col. David Grossman’s book entitled , “On Killing.” It is a bit startling so, brace yourself. The average number of days engaged in combat, with the strict definition of engagement as shooting at and shooting back, in WWll, was 44 days. Many soldiers were forever in the arena of combat but not engaged. Much of the time was involved in troop movement. Iwo Jima, for example was one the several exceptions at about 32 days continues. As was Guam and Battle of the Bulge. Pearl Harbor was over in 18 hours.
The average length of time in “engaged combat” for the Vietnam Grunt, was 241 days. Five times the amount. So please be kind, but these are true blue D.O. D. stats. The numbers are not in yet on OEF, OIF.

By: Mark B. Evans

Mark B. Evans — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 21:49:08 +0000

Nicely done, Mike.

By: mорское

mорское — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:59:03 +0000

“mercenaries” are non-existent, there are only PMCs.

WWII …….. uncle 40 months combat – no leave – europe,
WWII …….. uncle 37 months combat – no leave – pacific
WWII …….. father 38 months combat – no leave – pacific

mike, as in vietnam, our soldiers in iraq/afghan are reined back by “civilized” ROEs. politicians get out of the way and stay out of the way. tell the world to kma. one order …. win.

health care? this is on combat and its’ impact. take your health care soap box elsewhere tippy.

By: sunshinesuperman

sunshinesuperman — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 06:37:00 +0000

You may recall from your Intel days, Mike, that the only way to cut off the head of the snake is with the assistance of the private contractors. You know, the ones the voters know nothing about?
Last year about this time, we had maybe 180,000 troops in Iraq. Well, the powers that be love to leave out the 140,000 private contractors, including mercenaries, that will always and forever have a presence in this war of shadow cells and internet ammo. Black Water just changed their name, that is all. Assassins are part of the game, and probably need to be, so as to address the drug trade that is the sole financing of the enemy machine. That is the head of the snake, along with the corruption in Pakistan. That is not the job for the military, and really cannot be. So when Obama says he is inserting these troops and the pulling them out in 18 months, that does not address the private contractor census, which will most likely rise in 18 months.
I think our National Security Adviser, General Jones. the first former Commandant of the Marine Corps that has ever served in this capacity, knows his game. I think we will succeed.
You are right about the Talk Show folk, they are on the edge of sedition at times. Not to mention the pretzel logic of a man like Rove, who essentially allowed the Taliban 8 years to build a team.

By: tiponeill

tiponeill — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:09:37 +0000

Not only are we sending our National Guard on five tours so as not to actually have to raise the troops, we are refusing to tax ourselves to pay for it and borrowing from the Chinese instead, so the war is “Free”
Of course, we can’t afford to pay for healtcare

By: leftfield

leftfield — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:51:42 +0000

A very thoughtful piece, Mike. Keep up the good work.

By: Carolyn Classen

Carolyn Classen — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 08:28:29 +0000

Thanks Mike for your thoughtful comments as a Marine who served inVietnam. That was not a popular “conflict” and neither is our presence in Afghanistan now, though I think the American people were in favor of the original intent of invading that country back in 2001, post 9/11. President Obama promises a pullout in 18 months, but that’s still a long time for many of our troops to get wounded physically and emotionally (as you noted above) and die.

By: Gerry

Gerry — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 07:39:08 +0000

Thank you for this article. How on earth are we supposed to get our minds around this horror? This is not skirmish. It is not a TV or video game. They should keep a 24 hour web cam on the unloading bay at D0ver AFB where the flag draped bodies of soldiers are offloaded. Then everyone could observe on their laptops what the price really is . Our previous president outlawed even pictures of that to keep the war hidden,ie “out of sight out of mind.”