davidmac Loc: Corydon,Indiana

Bob THANK YOU.

marmesto Loc: Hamburg, NY

I agree about Iraq, but Afghanistan was necessary. The type of war may not have been needed, though. We fell into the same trap as the Russians. No war can be "won" there. But something had to be done about the Taliban , Al-Qaeda, and Bin Ladin. I believe that President Obama has handled the Middle-East situation well, but I know others will strongly disagree.

JimH Loc: Western South Jersey, USA

...and Alexander, and Darius the Great, and Genghis Khan, and Tamur-i-leng, and Babur, and the British (3 times!), and, for that matter, the Uzbek, Pashtun and Persian tribes that are there now. Since 1600, only ONE Afghan leader has not "died in office". That country has been unique across the entire planet in it's populations' inability to get along with themselves or outsiders. And the US and the West blew our one chance to help out when the Russians left 20 years ago, and rather than stay and build roads and schools and run some electricity here and there, every country in the world turned their back on Kabul. Enter the Taliban. In a country where armed robbery and murder are Olympic sports, they started shooting anyone else with a gun and cutting off the hands of 5 year old bread thieves. One murderous mob replaced 40 small ones. And it will be the same when we leave, because Karzai is as corrupt and venal as any other Afghan leader has been in the last 5 centuries. All that's changed is too much of our blood in their hills.

marmesto Loc: Hamburg, NY

Well said!

Bobgattshall Loc: Shawnee. Ks

Bob

I was in collage in the late 60's and then got married and had a family so I did not go into the service. Our Vietnam vets treatment was just plain wrong. I want to THANK YOU for your service. You have every right to be a little bitter about your experience but I hope, for your well being you have let it go or can.

I do not think we will be able to judge the rightness of the thoughts behind the Iraq war for many years. I was in general in agreement with the Iraq war but only time will tell the result. I hope the Iraq people can live in freedom and peace and I pray that we do not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. I know that feelings are strong and opinions are varied. That is ok and as it should be. This is an important aspect of our country. What bothers me most is that we often form our positions from "facts" that are simply unknowable. I stand on you beliefs and convictions and seek enough truth to hopefully get it right.

Again Thanks to all who served and may passions and politics not exclude reason and good will.

TxBureaucrat

I'm a Marine Corps veteran who was injured in the line of duty in Southeast Asia to the point that I suffered a medical discharge. I was in at the end of Vietnam and came home to former classmates calling me a "baby burner". I worked in Special Intelligence, and still cannot tell everything I know, but I do know that Vietnam was a politically motivated war by Lyndon Johnson (the "peace" candidate). Knowing how the intelligence community works, I can say with some authority that we WERE RIGHT to take on Sadam. Facts available at the time the decision to go to war was made -- a history of using "special" weapons, purchase of nuclear weapons technology from the French, Germans and Russians and a government that harbored terrorists and terrorist training camps -- were sufficient justification to take out a dictator with the fourth largest standing army who had plans to take over the entire middle east. Just because the weapons that intelligence data suggested were present were not found does not mean that the war was a mistake.
Learning from history is not something that Americans do well. We were attached in 1941 while many of the citizens were saying that Hitler's war or Hirohito's war was too far away to ever affect us. Fifty years later, our homeland was attacked again when many citizens were saying that the terrorist attacks in Europe and Africa were too far away to be of any threat to us. There is a great deal of evil in this world, and ignoring it will NOT make it go away. Yes, serving in the military during times of peril is dangerous, and yes, parents lose children, children lose parents, and we all know people who won't be coming home.
I will be happy for the folks currently serving who will return home, and I'll celebrate their return. Nonetheless, it is a mistake to "cut and run". To leave without repairing a country that has been broken for so many years will almost certainly guarantee that that country will return to the despotism that we removed by force. That will be a poor epitaph to those who fought and died there. Slowly and surely, we are winning the hearts and minds of the Arabs. The bulk of the population is functionally illerate, and since they cannot read Arabic, all they know about Islam is what those in power tell them. If we can build schools that all citizens of Iraq can attend, the next generation will learn that Isam is a relgion of peace and acceptance, not hatred. By having our brave and well educated service people in country interacting with the people of that region, they will come to know Americans as the people we are: friendly, loving and forgiving. Having a President pulling our troups out of a country in turmoil for political gain (Obama) is as bad as having a President putting troups in a country in peril for political gain (Johnson).

JimH Loc: Western South Jersey, USA

Neither the Iraqi nor Afghan populations are Arabic.

You misspelled illiterate. Iraq actually has a fairly high literacy rate. Their conflict is between the two main branches of Islam, Shi'a and Sunni. Hard to teach peace and acceptance when cousin kills cousin because of which messiah they follow.

I don't doubt our services persons' bravery or education. I however, have little faith in our ability to turn 500 years of hatred, prejudice and blood lust around with a Milky Way and copies of "Yes We Can". The people there did not come to the world stage and say "Oh, please,we are being oppressed by an evil and dangerous gang of thieves and cutthroats. Please come and save us." A large portion of the Afghan people SUPPORT the Taliban, for crying out loud.