If you could comprehend Mrs. Sherwood's letter, she spoke of "John Kerry telling lies over and over again".

Now, you may not like President Bush, but don't try to twist the words of a woman who justifiably dislikes John Kerry because of his lies to Congress.

I smile when left wing loonies attack republicans for not serving or minimizing Bush's service, when Kerry stood up in the 1992 Democratic Convention for draft dodger/dope smoker Clinton and said that it should not matter who served or how!

Just more double democratic standards!

Shame on you Major Asstired. It is not nice to one-up George W. Bush by saying “I smile.” You should know that Bush never learned to do more than smirk. We have all seen an orangutan that can do a Bush-type smirk and look much smarter at the same time.

As for “draft dodger/dope smoker,” you could have been talking about Bush. Poor Bush got in TANG and then did not show up. I don’t know about your US Army, but the one I got drafted into expected you to show up. And back then the Army was not a home-alone operation. They expected you to go and be where they sent you. I have heard that they may have found Bush’s brave dental records in Alabama.

As for me being “dense,” hey it worked for George W. Bush so why not me? And apparently you made major. But maybe that was the Salvation Army—I have seen George Bernard Shaw’s “Major Barbra.” I wonder if born-again Bush could muster enough guts to serve with her on a soup line. Maybe as a compassionate conservative?

I have been reading a book that quotes some of your fellow officer-and-gentlemen from the Army. “Cobra II” is the name of the book. It does not paint a very brilliant picture of the chicken hawks in the White House that have sent this generation of troops to stand in harms way in Iraq.

As for what you are willing to say about another officer, if you want to frag a fellow officer I could care less. However, I never heard of one officer fraging another—I though you boys had some kind of code of honor. We dogfaces didn’t have a lot of time to consider such niceties.

Commander and Chicken Hawk George W. Bush's lack of forethought, beyond one-upping his father by toppling Saddam Hussein, now has our troops mired in the fourth year of his military misadventure.

Bush's broken-record mantra of justifications, "The world is better off without Saddam Hussein," has left him sounding like the perpetual delinquent that thinks he can talk his way out of anything. If he can find a silver lining in a manmade disaster of his doing, surely he might even detect great purpose in a catastrophe of Mother Nature's making.

To wit, if a tsunami had swept up the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and had gotten Saddam Hussein, but in the bargain also took the lives of thousands of Iraqis, killed over 2,000 of our troops, permanently maimed untold more, seriously damaged our nation's hard-gained reputation, and cost our people billions upon billions of dollars, we might expect George W. Bush to place much value in the devastating wall of water and to take credit for its course.

He talks and talks and turns a deaf ear to the damning question; was war with Iraq our nation's only course? The answer is no.

When presidents of past were faced with the threatening march of Communism from a USSR bristling with real weapons of mass destruction and with agents secreted throughout the world, these leaders opted for containment of this threat until it inevitably fell of its own weight. These courageous Commanders in Chief believed in the indomitable spirit of our people and the superiority of our free way of life.

George Bush thinks he can scare folks to cover up his poor leadership at both home and abroad. When I was young I remember FDR’s words, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” And he uttered them during the not-so-great depression, but they were again repeated at the start of WWII.

As for Clinton, I could give a rat about him and it is sad to say that George W. Bush even makes him look better, but not good.

Of Bush, Islewood writes,

"He talks and talks and turns a deaf ear to the damning question; was war with Iraq our nation's only course? The answer is no.

When presidents of past were faced with the threatening march of Communism from a USSR bristling with real weapons of mass destruction and with agents secreted throughout the world, these leaders opted for containment of this threat until it inevitably fell of its own weight. These courageous Commanders in Chief believed in the indomitable spirit of our people and the superiority of our free way of life."

Reply:

But is an analogy with the Cold War a good one? Detente and "mutually assured destruction" may be effective with a potential enemy that is rational and calculating. I don't see how that applies in this case. The ONLY thing that has prevented Islamic terrorists from discharging a nuke somewhere here or elsewhere in the world is that they either have yet to get ahold of any OR that they have yet to get it past defenses.

I think the jury is still out regarding our involvement in Iraq. I do believe that were we to pull out we would leave a void that would inevitably be filled by radicals bent on the destruction of Israel and the expansion of Islam. And, POSSIBLY, our attempt at establishing a democracy in the midst of a region that is a hotbed for Islamic extremism had all of this in mind from the beginning. I just don't know.

Your suggestion that "the answer is no" is a bit quick and suggestive of knee-jerk, party-line "thinking."

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"The philosophical case against theism is rather easily dealt with. There is no philosophical case against theism."
--G.K. Chesterton

I agree with you Muddle, we cannot just pull out of Iraq. And it makes little difference that it was a mistake to go into Iraq in the first place. True, it made no more sense than if FRD would have called Churchill after Dec. 7, 1941 and said, “Winston, we are coming in and will soon launch an attack against Argentina. We are going to get that Fascist dictator down there.” The folks down there really hated us and wished us no good, but they were not a threat.

How do we make something of Iraq? First, we have to ensure that Afghanistan is a success. And we need the entire world to join in establishing a situation in Iraq where people with differences can compromise in a way that gains them much of what they want. Hard to do? Yes. But, threatening to broaden the war into Iran does not help.

Can we make a deal with terrorists? No. However, we may be able to divide some of them from each other. Are all parties that are not fond of us in the Middle East terrorists? No. And, we need to realize that these people have interests in this world that do not parallel ours. If we want to expand our free way of life, we need to take the time to do so and get what we can get now and move always forward.

Islewood...I don't know who you are or why you post here other than post your idiotic statements in an attempt to "spam". You do not speak the truth; you make up stories and state them as if they were facts; you'd argue with a rock; and you have no respect for the others that post here. The old saying is very true where it concerns you....You can identify a fool best when he opens his mouth and speaks. Of course, in this case, it's when you use your fingers to type. A little advice...if you don't know what you're talking abut, it's better not to say anything at all. So far, my impression of you is that you are ignorant of the subjects upon which you comment and just about each time you post a comment, you tend to digress. If you stick to facts and the truth, your messages would be much more interesting(just a little constructive criticism). Soooo, please stop posting fiction...and be nice to the others here. Notice, I did say "please".

Lawdawga

Have you not heard that truth is stranger than fiction and fiction is truer than truth? As for your pronouncements about truth—do you think that your words affect what hey are words about? You use pejoratives much like a drunk in a bar who calls another a name, or as the drunk who insists that a name that they have been called must be taken back.

Neither adjectives nor laws of science affect what they are laws about. So, you hurl your words to little affect. Now your use of please is a bit different than a pejorative, it is a request that may or may not be answered.

You may not know it, but Citizen has one of the better newspaper web pages in the country. I am not sure that your comments add much to it, but then you do not think that mine do either. So, if one of us is to leave, be my guest.

Well it didn't take long for intellectual debate to hit the gutter thanks to you. Insults and rants may amuse you, but like wrestling with a pig, everyone gets dirty and the pig loves it, so here goes porky.

Number one: Are you saying that anyone that served in the Guard dodged the draft or are you really that STUPID?

Number two: The Army that I VOLUNTEERED ( they didn't have to order me to serve) in learned alot of lessons from Vietnam. I was proud to serve with Colin Powell in Germany, then in Iraq during Desert Storm. Big Red One CIB Bronze star so shove that salvation army nonsense where the sun don't shine.

Number three: What in your warped little world would have you think I condoned fragging? The fact that Kerry gamed the system has been written about by fellow swift vets!

Number four: Try this quote out for a change: Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty. - John F. Kennedy

Get a life, you have wasted enough of my time and effort.

You wrote: “Are you saying that anyone that served in the Guard dodged the draft or are you really that STUPID?”

Oh me, oh me, I should have made it clear. ‘Twas bug-out Bush that was a disgrace to the guard, not the other way around. Imagine it, Bush could not even show up for TANG.

As for “sticks and stones,” I know that your use of the term “STUPID,” is but a term of endearment.

In the old army, most of us troopers got drafted and were given US rather than a RA serial numbers. We were a bulk of the army back then, and when the Sarge wanted a volunteer you could expect to hear, “Hey, Sarge, let Asstired do it, that stupid sob asked for this, we didn’t.” So poor Asstired might try to hide the RA on his serial number, however when his ass got in trouble we would bust ours to get him out, and most of the time step up and just get done whatever the hell had to get done. So I can see how you regular guys would make light of use GIs, and prefer the guard and maybe even no-show Bush. We use to say about our being drafted, “The country must really be in trouble if it needs us.”

Funny, none of my buds were very much into telling war stories—but I can see that it is good hand with the new generation of heroes.

I would not think of wasting your time, you certainly are capable of doing that on your own. In the old army we use to “hurry up and wait,” thus we became quite good at wasting time. If you want some of the time I wasted, I would be gland to share it with you.

Major,

Thank you for your service for our country! I did not have the opportunity to serve in the military, but I have a great respect and honor for those who have and still do.

It does not matter how much logic you present to anti-Bush people, they are upset they lost the election, there is a tyrant removed from power and the economy is growing. They fail to see the favorable pictures of soldiers helping those in Iraq, of people walking proudly with blue fingers and of the homecomings of service men and women.

Unless people like yourself continue to contribute well informed and logical ideas to this board, it will fail to serve the community as a place to exchange ideas and bring REAL issues to the attention of fellow citizens of this county.

The debate over Kerry, Dunn, Jordan, stormwater, yellow traffic signs and the Onyxx will continue to be discussed. But we have to take this to the next level and offer solutions. These solutions cannot be given any credence unless the presenter is well informed and willing to think out of the box. Debate with problems only and no solution are simply complaints. Let the ignorant complain, but let the intelligent solve.

Have a great day.

Islewood, my posting offering thanks was for ArmyMAJRetired. I hope I didn't confuse you too much.

Oh my, I should have known, but … oh but. Maybe you could draw me a picture. But now let me see … you were thanking the Maj. for his service and not me for mine. I got it and excuse me for my presumptiveness. I assume you will not be thanking Kerry either.

I don’t know how you decide who to thank and who not to thank, but I think your recognition might be important to the entire nation and thus mankind in general. Maybe the Defense Department can come up with a new award, “WakeUp’s Thanks.”

And, rather than your award of recognition being lost in a bunch of fruit salad on the front of a uniform, it could be something for the back. Like the spread-out fingers on a palm of the hand-—a real big and black-and-blue outline of a hand to designate that you really pat the recipient of your award on the back.

But you could have other colors of hands too, and give them for other heroic reasons. Maybe a white one for …. No that would be a bad idea. A spread-fingered hand of white on the back might look too much like the white feather associated with cut-and-run. However, since you most assuredly would honor President Bush and V.P. Cheney, a feather-like white hand might be appropriate—-in honor of two bug-outs, one that did not regularly show up for duty and the other that had better things to do than go at all.

WakeUp, I am sure my comment is of no of import to you, but it got stuck up top. Ah, to be last but then first--sounds a bit Biblical.