Do We Really Support the Troops?
Do We Really Support the Troops?
By Colonel Ray
As the news coverage of Sir Paul McCartney’s trashy soon to be ex-wife and Madonna’s new purchase of a child, or the other titillating news items all over the news, I have a question; Does America still know we are at war?
As of October 17th, in Iraq there have been 69 soldiers killed in the month of October and the month is just a little half over. This month is on track to have one of the highest killed in action totals since the war began. It will easily surpass the 76 killed in April (The highest total in 2006) and will pass last months total of 71 before the coming weekend. The media cannot name one of these brave men or women who gave their life in the defense of this country, but they all know the name of the baseball player who while playing with his “toy airplane” flew into a 50 story building in broad daylight.
Recently the government in Iraq has fired hundreds of police, soldiers and government workers because they don’t trust them. The Iraqi Legislature is considering splitting the country into three parts. Iraq has established almost full diplomatic relations with Iran. Last month over three thousand Iraqis were killed in the streets with bodies being dumped every day all around the capital city of Baghdad. In Afghanistan, after five years of warfare, opium production is up 200%, Drug Warlords and the Taliban control large sections of the country and violence is increasing all over the land.
Yet I don’t hear much about the war anymore? Maybe the media does not want to give us the “bad news” everyday. Maybe the Info Babes or the Pretty Boys with the blown dried hair and heavy make-up at the mainstream media don’t understand that military stuff. Maybe it is just too much trouble to research those military terms and names of the Iraqi towns. It is however funny that they all can pronounce the name of the Iranian President just like it is a close relative.
Again I ask, do we really support the troops?
Does the media know that last week the Republicans in the Senate with approval of the White House and after significant lobbying from the Drug Companies pulled a proposal from the Defense Budget that would have allowed Military Members Dependents and Military Retirees and Veterans using the VA system to get prescription drug discounts?
The budget for the Veterans Administration is a few billion less than everyone says it needs to be and Congress had to force the administration to put more money it it. Almost every Army Base right here in the Unites States that supports the wives, husbands and children of our brave soldiers in the combat zone are falling apart and have had services cut. The unemployment rate for military personnel returning from the war is four times the national average.
But the stock market is up and gas prices are down so all must be well? Yet the war goes on and on and on. Not only is there no end in sight but you can be ridiculed for even asking when will the war end?
I am ashamed that the media is ignoring the War, ashamed they are ignoring our Soldiers, ashamed they are ignoring our Veterans. I am also ashamed that Americans are not speaking up.
Many brave, Conservative Talk Show Hosts, Republican Congressman and other heroic Conservatives who have never worn or considered wearing a uniform, have called those who want this war in Iraq to end as people who just want to Cut and Run.
Generation “X” law school types, like Laura Ingram or Ann Coulter who think war is a video game, call baby-boomers with battle scars from real wars, cowards and worse for wanting to end the War in Iraq. Self-appointed military experts, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity ridicule real Generals who have commanded the 1st Armored Division (Big Red One) and the vaunted 82d Airborne Division and a slew of other three and four star generals as cry babies because they have criticized the conduct of the war. Of course neither one of these internet warriors would say such words in person and face-to-face to these combat veteran airborne infantry officers ……… well maybe only once………
The White House strategy on Iraq seems to smear critics as favoring “retreat and defeatism”. To quote President Bush: “It is important to have members of the United States Congress who will not wave the white flag of surrender in this war on terror”.
Well Mr. President why don’t you have the guts to wave the Checkered Flag of Victory. When the War is won the day is done, bring our troops home now to parades and cheers instead of waiting until the parades are gone and the cheers are jeers.
If you stay on the victory lap too long eventually you will run out of gas. The stadium will be empty, and the people who own the track (Iraqis) will push your car off their track.
Every President wants to be a wartime Commander in Chief. The praise, the glory, the place in history. Every soldier, every wife, every mother, every father, every brother, every sister, every girlfriend of a soldier wants a President who only sends their loved ones to fight when they must and when the reason is just, and then brings them home when the mission is over and the newly freed (Iraqis) must take over.
Well I guess I am a Cut and Run kind of guy…….Lets Cut away the chains that are holding us from claiming this historic victory we have achieved, and let our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsman, Active and Reserve, Run as fast as they can from a country that hates them, back to their own country and those who love them.
Ray Coughenour
Colonel US Army Retired
Colonel Ray is an Iraqi War Veteran where he received
a Bronze Star and Former Talk Radio Show Host of
The Daily Briefing Radio Show.
He can be reached by email at: [email protected]