A letter to the President...

[+pcpilot 181]

My figures Ranger were off a bit, not sure were I got the 400 number, please pardon me, getting addled...

 

Combat Deaths.......148

Wounded................458

Noncombat deaths...121

 

You are essentially correct Ranger. However I might point out that even the accidents and fratricides would not have happened if we had not had to deploy because of Saddam. In my mind, they are still war related, just not all "Combat casualties".

 

Source...http://www.historyguy.com/GulfWar.html

[+pcpilot 181]

LOL! Saw this a minute ago at another website as someones sig, thought you all might like it. Cracked me up...

 

"Politicians and diapers have one thing in common. They should both be changed regularly and for the same reason."

 

 

...cant...stop...laughing...*gasp*....

[vercingetorix 0]

Back in 1991 I went ‘across the pond’ to go and play in the big sandbox, I was full of piss and vinegar and felt that 7.56 would just bounce right off my ‘southern skin’ because I was raised on John Wayne, Clint Eastwood and more than ½ of my family had served our nation in some capacity, My Mothers father was a captain in the 82 Airborne who served in the Philippines during the second World War, my Dad’s father still has the distinction of being the youngest 1st sergeant in the 101 airborne. (How Mom and Dad ever got together god only knows, Officers Kids and Enlisted kids didn’t mix in those days. My Uncles flew in Korea and Vietnam for the Air Force and Navy (Air force F-105 Thunder Chiefs, Navy A-6 Intruders among other A/C) and these were the family in the states, I wanted to also tell you about the family I have in a little patch of sand known as Israel. I never knew very much about my Mothers family outside of the Grandparents but I heard stories when I was little, the kind that adults tell to other adults when children were to be in bed, I head of places like Birkenau and Mauthausen ( not as ‘famous’ as some but do look them up). I heard of family that went in and never came out and I learned of some of my people going ‘home’. I never gave much thought to being a Jew, it was not practiced in my house for my fathers people were about as Jewish as the Pope is, but as I got older and learned more I must say I am very proud of my little known family and the nation that they helped rediscover because they may have insured my ability to come back home because….

 

On June 7th 1981, IAF planes attacked the Iraqi nuclear reactor and destroyed it in a single bombing run. The attack was carried out by the new F-16s, which had joined the IAF less than a year earlier. The plant, which was intended for the production of nuclear weapons, was destroyed before it became operational; had Israel waited much longer, an attack would have caused radioactive fallout in the area around Baghdad. The attack removed the nuclear threat to Israel - and its necessity became doubly clear when Saddam Hussein launched the Gulf War and lobbed missiles into Israel, a decade later”.

 

Israel was ‘blasted’ by the press and world opinion but I am glade that they did Saddam wanted the processed uranium that that plant would have been able to deliver. I still wonder what ‘could have happened’ to all of us in Desert Shield/Storm. I am a staunch patriot, I love my country and its people, I disagree with ‘some’ of our leaders, but men (and women) who came before me fought and died to give me that right to disagree. I refuse to listen to the Sean Penn’s (this AssH*& is no better than Hanoi Jane to me!) and many other so called ‘Peace Loving People’ Yes I did go to ‘see the elephant’ (that is a VERY DATED phrase) and I would not want to send my son or my daughter to such a place as Iraq or Panama (Played there also) , PC I am not criticizing your views but I do not see this president being a LBJ or Nixon, I view Saddam as a great threat, I feel that it was a mistake by the elder bush to allow him to live, (no matter the political ramifications) I feel that the United States must assert the fact that if you ‘screw with us” woe unto you. Teddy Roosevelt used to like to use an African Saying “Speak Softly….etc” I think that we need to show the big stick every once and a while perhaps we would have less problems if other countries understood that the lives that would be lost would not be those of the faceless masses out side their ‘presidential gates’ but there own and there families. Am I Barbaric, Neanderthalic in my thinking? I may be but remember the truism of ‘never leave an enemy behind you’.

Well I guess that this old ‘foot-slogger’ has rambled enough (sorry about that) I just wanted to rant may rant also

 

 

-Vercingetorix

 

1/75 1985-1993

[+pcpilot 181]

Your points are well taken vercingetorix. This whole business with Iraq has put me in a great quandry. I remember the strike by Israel on that power plant. I always thought that it was justified. I never did think ill of Israel. Matter of fact, My ship, the David R. Ray DD-971 was in the Persian gulf at the time playing radar picket and gathering intell at the mouth to the Shaat el arab, (Iran-Iraq war, remember?). We "saw" the strike go in on our radars, which were data linked with the local airborne radar, cant recall his callsign, though at the time we had no idea what was happening. It wasnt until the next day we heard that Israel had made a pancake out of that plant. I dont recall hearing a single negative comment by any of the sailors. We were concerned for our own butts as that was a real tense area at the time and we figured someone might decide to try to whack us in retaliation, but we were ready.

I am not "against" the war per se. I too feel Saddam and others like him must be contained. But the past has shown that America often enters into these things not clearly focused and under the influence of a lot of emotion and rhetoric. I am pleased that the American people have learned to love their military again. One lesson learned from Vietnam. But what about the deeper issues like having a focused mission and a plan. I really wish we had marched all the way to Bagdad back in '91. But we didnt for political reasons. Now we are expected to finish the job? What are the other reasons behind all this if any? Sometimes people die in war, thats a sad fact of life. I just dont want a single person to die needlessly. If we are to do a job, then lets do it for the right reasons with a plan. If we go about this wrong without due consideration of the people over there, we will leave even more enemies behind us. A lot of people say to hell with the arabs and what they think. But if we are to live in peace ever on this planet, we have to learn to live with them too. We cant just go over there and smash everything then come home wondering why they hate us so.

Let me say this too, while on the USS Independance CV-62 in the Med 1979, we visited Israel. I never felt a place in 3 deployments at sea around the world more like home away from home. The people there loved us and made us as welcome as any family. Ill always remember that... I hope the peace they pray for is one day realized.

[MadJeff 3]

Say folk lets save the forum for the SFP1 issues this realy isent the place,speacking as one who may be going back to Iraq Id reather see SFP1 stuff then what I may be doing in real life If I want stuff like this CNN has a forum!

 

Actually, this is the Pub, it's wide open for off-topic discussion. Of course as long as people don't get too wild, politics is one thing I learned long ago not to discuss with people as my views will never change yours... 8)

 

So have at it, just keep it non-personal. We don't want a SimHQ-type dustup.