why we fight ?

[islandermyk]

That's a good one... What ever happened to them billions of dollars that Sadam stashed away and was found by the US military?

[Ronin13]

Cold war is over... so I don't think Afghanistan is no longer needed for a strategic spot for the US...

OIL?

Only thing Afghanistan has to do with Oil (since they have almost no oil) is pipelines... a big thing though that was discovered years ago that the rest of the world is finally getting into over there is Copper... look up the Anyak Copper Mine, acquired by China (beat out us and the Germans). That will help their infrastructure so they don't have to rely on heroin so much (poppy is the #1 crop, heroin is the #1 export).

[cstone]

That's a good one... What ever happened to them billions of dollars that Sadam stashed away and was found by the US military?

Didn't George Clooney find that money, or was that gold? Seems like that was a little like Clint Eastwood in Kelly's Hero's.

The idea that 10 soldiers, not to mention 10,000 soldiers, keeping a secret gold mining operation hidden is just plain funny.

[ray1970]

The idea that 10 soldiers, not to mention 10,000 soldiers, keeping a secret gold mining operation hidden is just plain funny.

I thought so too. That's why I said it.

[islandermyk]

Only thing Afghanistan has to do with Oil (since they have almost no oil) is pipelines... a big thing though that was discovered years ago that the rest of the world is finally getting into over there is Copper... look up the Anyak Copper Mine, acquired by China (beat out us and the Germans). That will help their infrastructure so they don't have to rely on heroin so much (poppy is the #1 crop, heroin is the #1 export).

Where there is copper... there is GOLD

Didn't George Clooney find that money, or was that gold? Seems like that was a little like Clint Eastwood in Kelly's Hero's.

The idea that 10 soldiers, not to mention 10,000 soldiers, keeping a secret gold mining operation hidden is just plain funny.

On a serious note... It just sucks how things are being ran here and how we actually allow these freaken asses to make these choices of what is better for us. as a country and nation... but whatever.. who am I to talk

[cstone]

I pray for our military everyday. It doesn't matter to me if they are in Iraq, Korea, Okinawa, or South Carolina. People in uniform die every day. When you train hard, accidents will happen. If you take up arms against a citizen of the USA, you should be prepared to have your life taken from you regardless of where you are or where you hide.

Good training at the NTC leads to even better prepared soldiers in the sand box. Experienced soldiers from the sand box will defend our nation in the next conflict. Have no doubts, there will be a "next conflict." Defending our nation, means taking the fight to our enemies, both foreign and domestic.

God Bless our military members and as the quote from Marcus Luttrell goes; "Once you get me over there...turn your back, close your eyes because I'm gonna frickin' wreck shop."

[Mazin]

Good read about it is "inside the revolution" by Joel C Rosenberg

[Ronin13]

I pray for our military everyday. It doesn't matter to me if they are in Iraq, Korea, Okinawa, or South Carolina. People in uniform die every day. When you train hard, accidents will happen. If you take up arms against a citizen of the USA, you should be prepared to have your life taken from you regardless of where you are or where you hide.

Good training at the NTC leads to even better prepared soldiers in the sand box. Experienced soldiers from the sand box will defend our nation in the next conflict. Have no doubts, there will be a "next conflict." Defending our nation, means taking the fight to our enemies, both foreign and domestic.

God Bless our military members and as the quote from Marcus Luttrell goes; "Once you get me over there...turn your back, close your eyes because I'm gonna frickin' wreck shop."

And bless you sir for quoting one of America's most badass fighting men! I pray for our soldiers on two fronts- one for their safety and two so maybe, just maybe the policy makers can untie their hands with the ridiculous ROE. These guys we're fighting don't give a hoot about the Geneva Conventions or rules of war- they execute POWs for crying out loud!
Best quote on fighting terrorism comes from 1998's Denzel great "The Siege":
"You don't fight a junkyard dog with ASPCA rules. What you do is you take the leash off your bigger, meaner dog."

[SA Friday]

We are in Iraq and Afghanistan because of oil. We are in the rest of the middle east because of oil.

No political and geographical stability in the middle east, less or no oil exported. The less oil, the higher the prices of everything petroleum based. The higher the gas, the tighter the economy. Got pretty fricken tight right after the oil companies decided to play the "let's see what the market can take as a price" game, didn't it. Still reeling from it too.

We are there because of oil, period. Does Rowanda or any of the other shit hole countries in Africa that have had a mass genocide within the last couple of years have oil? No. Are we there in-mass stopping the genocides? No.

If you don't think we are so heavily involved in SWA primarily because of oil, you are completely lost. In comparison, ethanol fuel is inefficient. But, some day, we might find it efficient enough for us to stop giving a shit about the middle east and we can stop paying money to the middle east and watch them de-evolve back into a beduin camel riding based society. Sooner would be better IMO.

[Bailey Guns]

A couple of points:

1. Doesn't anyone remember what happened when we went to Viet Nam and made promises to all the groups that helped us that we would be there for them in the end?

Well, we packed our shit and left early, before finishing the job we could've easily finished. We had an administration then, just as we do now...one that didn't have the will to win the war because they let it be fought in the media. Shitheads like Walter Cronkite and the like were allowed to form the war in the minds of the public and the public didn't like what they were seeing. That's because war is a dirty business and people get killed and shit gets broken. Anyway, we left before finishing what we went there to do and left a lot of allies hangin' out. Then, next thing you know millions of innocent people were killed by the commies, Khmer Rouge and others. If we'd just put the fuckin' smackdown on N Viet Nam and told the Chinese they'd better stock up on SunBlock 1,000,000 if they came across the border things would've turned out differently. Notice the Viet Cong kinda lost their will to fight after having their asses pounded unrelentingly by B-52 bombers for days on end. All of a sudden they wanted to talk peace. We stopped bombing, they talked peace for a bit and then went back to doing what they were doing until we bombed the beejeezus out of them again.

The point being, I'm not necessarily opposed to nation building, especially if it meant bringing a stable democracy or two to that region. What I'm opposed to is sending our warriors over there year after year and then telling them they can't kill people and break stuff. That's just Viet Nam all over again.

2. Don't mean to offend anyone, but I don't really care if I do.

If there's any one thing worth going to war over these days, it's oil. Period.

Oil is required for almost everything we use on a daily basis and there's no replacement for it on the horizon.

We should make sure that everyone that has it, knows our national strategy involves kicking their asses to take it if we can't get it through peaceful means.

OK...3 points.

3. The more Muslims we kill, the better. You never know which one you killed might've grown up to be the next Mohammed Atta, or Nidal Hassan, or Osama bin Laden.