Michael Yon, former soldier and current journalist has been traveling back and forth to Iraq over the last three years. His website has a link on our blogroll.
He has seen Iraq when we were losing and told people about it. Now he has seen Iraq when we are winning. Unlike most of his American journalist counterparts, he is telling people about it.
His opinion commands respect. Read this editorial in the WSJ if you care to know more about Iraq than most U.S. Senators.
Planet Augsburg 
April 17, 2008 at 6:19 pm
You’re doing this to goad me, right? 🙂
Prediction: the Iraq war will end on the same day that Israel and the Palestinians become friends.
Sampling of today’s headlines:
“20% of Iraq, Afghanistan veterans have depression or PTSD, study finds”
“Lethal day in Iraq, 69 dead”
As one of my favorite wags wrote, “I find it hard to believe that America and the UK watched Russian kids being killed in Afghanistan and then thought they’d have a try too. What a ludicrous idea. But they did it.”
Stats: half a trillion dollars so far. $2Billion per week. Estimated 600,000 civilians dead. ~4000 US deaths. About 29000 US wounded.
Cause: Iraq had chemical and biological weapons WMDs and was building a nuclear capability. Turns out Iraq had none of these.
April 17, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Boy Janky-0, I thought we had lost you! I don’t we’ve seen you in about 4 or 5 posts. 🙂
April 17, 2008 at 7:27 pm
(sigh) Janky-o, there probably is no way to convince you that post-9/11 allowing Saddam Hussein to continue supporting terrorism and threatening the development of WMD was unacceptable. I believe invading was the right call and stil do. If you disagree, fine.
But, your aping the idiotic comparision between what the Soviets did in Afghanistan with what we are doing in Iraq is beyond the pale.
It is a slander to our troops and demonstrates complete ignorance of the history of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
There is a fundamental moral difference between the use of force to conquer and enslave and the use of force to liberate and free.
Janky-o, conside just two facts. 1. the morale of our troops (reenlistments are up and they overwhelmingly support what they are doing) and 2. the sense of the Iraqi people who have made it very clear our presence is needed. The minute they ask us to leave, we will leave. Could you say the same thing about the Soviets in Afghanistan?
Janky-o, we still have troops in Germany and Korea, does this give you pause? Should we have never invaded Normandy knowing we would still be there 60 years later?
Without question this war has been costly in blood and treasure, but by any historical measure, this has been among our least costliest in terms of blood ad treasure. Ever heard of Okinawa? Iwo Jima?, the Ardennes?, Omaha Beach?, Shiloh? Read up on those battles and then compare our efforts in Iraq and get a little perspective.
So, disagree if you will. But, don’t ape the lies and distorted perspective of the left. Most critically, don’t compare our troops to soviets in Afghanistan.
Here endeth my rant.
April 18, 2008 at 2:31 am
We may certainly agree to disagree.
All (the quote) said the soviets, americans and british did in Afghanistan was die – there were no moral judgments, nor did I provide any. I didn’t disparage soviets, or the US, or the Afghans, or the Iraqis. I didn’t even say that anybody’s soldiers were bad, nasty, or oppressive. The point was simply that Afghanistan is a tough country to occupy (in the most neutral of terms), and I would add that pacifying (in the most neutral sense) competing ethnic and religious populations in Iraq is akin to what has been going on in Israel – that is, expensive, and slow.
My church seems to have about 20 young men and women in the military, more or less. I imagine them to be excellent, confessional Christians. I would never disparage them. I might even crack weird jokes about Lynndie England, but I wouldn’t even disparage her – she is no more of a sinner than I, and had difficult circumstances.
Anyway, I hope I haven’t aped any lies from left or right. A goodly number of people have in fact died in Afghanistan after the soviets lost a goodly number; the war has been expensive in blood, stress, and money; there were no WMD programs; and I didn’t make moral judgments about our troops.
Peace be with you.
[catechismatic95: Hi! I just don’t want to look like a confessional fanboi].
April 19, 2008 at 3:42 am
Hey, there ain’t no shame in being a fan boy! 🙂 Now just buy one of our t shirts and then you’ll be a cool fan boy.