87 Billion Are you Kidding.

[DOGS THAT BARK]

Your memoery is short my friend. Do I have to dig up the stats on homicides in Watts and DC in same time frame again. GEEZ We went thru full blown conflict,conquered a country been in querrilla warfare for months and less than 220 casualities. I am now going to have to ask you what was your MOS in service and what part of Nam were you in.--and Viet Nam was nothing compared to korean war where more died from weather elements than casualities will ever be be in both Iraq conflicts combined---then try world war 11 where when they left the amphibious units and stormed the beaches they knew that 1/2 would never make it too cover.
You should be familiar with Star and Stripes for those that are not it is news paper put out for military by military. They did recent poll on morale, It came out as no surprise.
They reported morale very low among National Guard and Reserves-good for Army enlisted - superior for special forces and marines. Chief complaint among NG and reserves was they wanted to home with their familys-granted who would not.
Biggest complaint among marines and specials forces was the whinning(spl) of folks in U.S. and having their hands tied in many instances(no fire zones) Now I am not dissing the NG and reserves because they had no idea of situation they were throw into--but gee whiz I take my chances with a week in military in Iraq any day then spending night in Watts.---

 

[djv]

I guess if we spent 87 Billion in Watts we might even clean it up.
Iraq is just abigger Watts. 15 more wounded today and 3 more deaths. If I just had someone give me agreat idea of why were even there or went there. Most reasons are used up old history and were just not true. Somebody tell me how were getting out. There is a answer but our adminastration wont use it. In any case 61 Billion 8 months ago now 87 Billion more. Man we used some of that cash here at home. We could be on our way to real safty and protection for us big time.

 

[TonyTT]

djv,
I doubt anyone can tell you HOW we're getting out, but for sure the conflict will eventually wind down like all the others we've had over the decades. It just seems to be a way of life for our nation. Can you really recall the last decade when we didn't have a war or military conflict? I'm thinking maybe back in the 30's, could be wrong though.
With all the conflicts though, bottom line is that it affords us a pretty good living in these United States. Many think of us as the "worlds policemen", I see us more as the "strongarm" of the international bankers (not a bad position to be in though in my opinion).
Many folks fall for that repub vs demo crap, but I really think that at the higher levels they all work for the same folks (and it aint us). They play the old "good cop , bad cop" game with the Amercian people.
Anyway, that's the way I see the "system", and all in all I think it works quite well for us.

 

[djv]

Tony TT you are right the world is ran from behind doors. Not in front of TV's or News Papers. And yes we have not walked away from any fights. It did take Peral Harbor to get us in WW II. But we were about ready anyway. And of course the Civil War the worst of all of them. 606000 dead. Another 400000 wounded. So we dont like getting along with our selfs sometime either. And some of that continues today. But most behind doors. Just think all the wars we been in. We killed off more of our selfs then all the other wars togeather.

 

[djv]

DTB forgot to answer your question. Explosives. And I was regular not reserve. After discharge came home. For some extra cash went into the reserves about 7 months later. As long as I could keep my E-5. Hey it payed for car insurance and afew beers. They were short instructers about a year later. And with training in another area of Engineering I had. And they were nice enough to give E-6. They came and asked if I would help out for 3 to 6 months. I went for the bait of 3 to 6 months and spent 7 months. And of course I thought state side. But you can bet your butt when I got back and my inlistement was up 3 months later. And with a new Baby Boy. That was enough.
And were still spending to much money on Iraq. Regardless what I did or anyone else did years ago. Lets face it we were BS about Nam to. Just took afew extra years to find it out.
Korea there was no BS. Them SOB attacked us. Just like WW II.

 

[DOGS THAT BARK]

My MOS was 91b40 (field medic) however I was assigned to 1st Cavs company E which was split between motor patoon and recon and I worked with the latter.Being mostly 5 & 6 man teams I had to pack M-60 ammo and radio batteries like every one else.so basically I was regular with 1st aid supplys. Did dabble in your field of explosives a tad as we used c4 to blow trees for extraction from boonies. Got where we could drop em in any direction we wanted--also C4 heated food much quicker than the blue heat tabs