The Iraq War - Chapter 2

[1stwahine]

Re: The Iraq War - Chapter 2

My heart aches and tears are falling. 31 Marines plus four - five on the ground killed in Iraq! Damn! RIP Soldiers! May the LORD, our GOD give your families strength and hope. Someday, we all will be together. Today, mothers,fathers as well as spouses,children,family and friends are in mourning. As well as our NATION, as we do everytime, any of our men or woman dies in WAR! Please take a few moments to pray for them!

momofthreesoldiers,1stwahine!

[Miulang]

Re: The Iraq War - Chapter 2

I hope some of the $80 billion that the Prez wants us to cough up will be used to replace the helicopters (the CH-53E Super Stallion) that are being used now. One of these copters crashed during what appears to be a sandstorm last night and killed 29 Marines and 1 Navy person. The article below says most of the choppers are old technology (a variant of the choppers used in Vietnam); the average age of the 151 copters is 16.

The fleet had been grounded twice before for investigations for crashes, but this crash resulted in the greatest number of casualties during this war.

They are also apparently very delicate pieces of machinery, and being as old as they are and flying in the conditions that exist in Iraq, it's a miracle that more copters haven't crashed. The fleet the Marines use are supposed to be replaced by tilt-wing Osprey aircraft, but the article doesn't say when.

If we're going to keep our troops over in Iraq for another 2 years, we need to do everything we can to make sure they have equipment that isn't going to kill them.

Miulang

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...per_stallion_1

[1stwahine]

Re: The Iraq War - Chapter 2

Twenty-Seven Marines from Kaneohe from this morning's disaster. I'm going to Faith Encouragement (Bible Study) in Ewa Beach...I sure need it! DAMN the Middle East!

[Miulang]

Re: The Iraq War - Chapter 2

Here's a breaking news story from the Hawaii Channel about the 27 Maines from Kaneohe Maine base who were killed in that copter crash today in Iraq. I'll bet many of you will know who some of them are. You know, it's that 6 degrees of separation thing, particularly because Oahu is so small.

My heart grieves for those people. We lost 16 here from Ft. Lewis (Task Force Olympia) last month in that bomb blast that blew up the mess tent.

Miulang

[1stwahine]

Re: The Iraq War - Chapter 2

Aloha Everyone, I recieved the following email from my daughter this morning. My son and daughter were in Iraq at the same time. They know all to well how it is and then some. My son almost lost his life there twice. After coming home to Hawai'i to his new duty station at Schofield Barracks, he told me he was deployed again to Afganistan. Please, pray for all our men and women of our Armed Forces, especially for those on this dangerous mission. Of course, every mission in the Middle East is DANGEROUS!

In Christ,

1st wahine,momthreesoldiers

From : Ligaya *******
Sent : Thursday, January 27, 2005 2:10 AM

Subject : FW: Chaplains Request from Iraq

Hello all- I don't usually send out forwards but this one was especially close to home for me, since some of us have been there and know what it is like too. Please pray for this mission as well as all soldiers currently serving overseas.

Subject: FW: Prayer request from a Chaplain in Iraq

As a battalion, my unit will be delivering the voting machines and the ballots to villages and cities throughout Iraq during the upcoming elections. (January 30/31) Our convoys are prime targets for the insurgents because they do not want the equipment to arrive at the polling stations nor do they want the local Iraqi citizens to have the chance to vote; timely delivery must occur so that the elections occur. Encourage your friends and family members and those within our churches to pray specifically for the electoral process. Historically, the previous totalitarian regime would not allow individual citizens to vote. Democracy will not be realized in Iraq if intelligent and competent officials are not elected to those strategic leadership positions within the emerging government; freedom will not have an opportunity to ring throughout this country if the voting process fails.

Announce this prayer request to your contacts throughout your churches, neighborhoods, and places of business. Those with leadership roles within the local church post this message in as many newsletters and bulletins as possible. There is unlimited potential for God's presence in this process but if we do not pray then our enemy will prevail (See Ephesians 6:10-17) A prayer vigil prior to the end of the month may be an innovative opportunity for those within your sphere of influence to pray. This is a political battle that needs spiritual intervention. A powerful story about God's intervention in the lives of David's mighty men is recorded in 2 Samuel 23:8-33. David and his warriors were victorious because of God's intervention. We want to overcome those who would stand in the way of freedom. David's mighty men triumphed over incredible odds and stood their ground and were victorious over the enemies of Israel. (Iraqi insurgents' vs God's praying people). They don't stand a chance.

I will pray with my soldiers before they leave on their convoys and move outside our installation gates here at Tallil. My soldiers are at the nerve center of the logistic operation to deliver the voting machines and election ballots. They will be driving to and entering the arena of the enemy. This is not a game for them it is a historical mission that is extremely dangerous. No voting machines or ballots. No elections.

Your prayer support and God's intervention are needed to give democracy a chance in this war torn country.

Thank you for reading this e-mail. Please give this e-mail a wide distribution.

Thank you for your prayer support for me and my family. Stand firm in your battles.

Blessings,
v/r

Lyle

CH (CPT) Lyle Shackelford
Battalion Chaplain
HHD, 57th Transportation Battalion
Providing With Mobility
"Keep Em Moving"
vernon.shackelford@adder.arfor.army.mil
vernon.lyle.shackelford@us.army.mil
833-1264

"Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be
discouraged,for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."
-Joshua 1:9

Happy moments, praise God.
Difficult moments, seek God.
Quiet moments, worship God.
Painful moments, trust God.
Every moment, thank God.

[pzarquon]

Re: The Iraq War - Chapter 2

I wish them success and safety, although I do not pray. Interesting to see such a passionate invocation of a Christian god to help a decidedly non-Christian nation in a military (war-making as well as peace-making) operation. I suppose Buddhist, atheist and Muslim soldiers are still a minority in our armed forces.

I believe in democracy and freedom, but know those virtues and values are not exclusive to any religion or culture. Many Muslims in the Middle East value them as well. Ironically, many of the insurgents behind the attacks on Iraqis and Western occupation forces also think they're fighting for freedom.

[Miulang]

Re: The Iraq War - Chapter 2

With the Iraqi election only 3 days away, the final roster of candidates running for office in the provisional government has finally been published in Iraqi newspapers.

Can you imagine this scenario and then honestly believe that it will be a fair election?

It's 3 days before the election. You don't know who you can vote for, except for the main guys (al-Sistani, Allawi). Then that day, you read in the newspapers who the other candidates are...except there are 7,000 names! How do you, as someone who has never voted before, know which candidate to pick? Lessee...7,000 names, on a regular sized broadside newspaper, that would be about 70 pages! Does one vote straight party line? Probably. Demographically, who has the largest population? The Shia. Who will win the election? The Shia Party. Where does that leave the Sunnis and Kurds? Up the creek! Can you say "civil war"?

http://www.thehawaiichannel.com/news...53/detail.html

Miulang

[Miulang]

Re: The Iraq War - Chapter 2

Every single one of us, whether we voted for George Bush or not, whether we believe that the war in Iraq is just or not, is responsible for the sanctioned genocide of a civilian population, who, after the deposing of Saddam Hussein, just wanted to be left alone.

Each and every one of us is responsible for the occupation of a country whose idea of freedom and democracy may never coincide with ours. Why are we all responsible? Because we continue to allow the Bush Administration to meddle in the business of another sovereign nation, even as we warn other sovereign nations not to meddle in Iraqi politics.

I am ashamed to say that the Bush Administration is telling other nations to do one thing and then through our policies do something absolutely contrary to those words. We are virtuous hypocrites being led by an Administration that doesn't know how to admit it has made mistakes and is certainly not doing anything to correct those mistakes.

Right now, the only power I have is through words. When the time is right, and if we "stay the course" in Iraq as I fear we will (because the Prez and his neocon advisers say we must), I will also dust off my walking shoes and join the thousands of other people marching against the tyranny of democracy that we are trying to shove down the throats of sovereign nations. I participated in the marches against the war in Vietnam, including the largest one in Washington, DC and swore back then that I would never allow what happened to that country and to our troops to happen again. History is repeating itself, and sadly, I must take up the cause again.

Miulang

http://www.informationclearinghouse....rticle7892.htm

[Miulang]

Remembering Auschwitz

There was a dark moment in history 60 years ago, in a country now called Poland, that the Russian allies liberated Jewish prisoners being held in the death camp.

Millions of people died in that camp and others. Although their numbers have diminished by the passage of time, the survivors of the death camps gathered today, and remembered.

VP Dick Cheney represented the United States at the ceremonies. I do not understand how he could stand there, in front of the place where many innocent people were gassed to death, talk about "the message of intolerance and hatred must be opposed before it turns into acts of horror", and not see the comparison with what the coalition forces and the insurgents are doing today in Iraq to the innocent civilians in towns like Fallujah, Ramadi or Baghdad. We may not be gassing them, but they are dying because we cannot distinguish them from the enemy.

Miulang

http://www.thehawaiichannel.com/news...20/detail.html

[1stwahine]

Re: The Iraq War - Chapter 2

[I]
Right now, the only power I have is through words.
Miulang

http://www.informationclearinghouse....rticle7892.htm

WORDS ARE POWERFUL! You go girl!

[Miulang]

Re: The Iraq War - Chapter 2

For all of you rabid believers that the only reason we went to war in Iraq was to establish freedom and liberty for the country, please take some time to read this article.

In it you will find direct quotes from people you admire, like George Herbert Walker Bush, the President of Chevron, and the current Finance Minister of Iraq, Abdel Mahdi, who is on the same ticket as the Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani and so will more than likely be part of the new interim government. All of them say that oil IS an important reason for us to be in Iraq. And since we have pledged $24 billion to aid in the country's "reconstruction", it means we (meaning the US oil companies) would have an edge in owning shares of Iraqi oil.

Pretty pathetic and totally transparent.

Miulang

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/21100/

On a more amusing somewhat related front (oil being the topic), tonight on TV I saw a news clip about a new kind of tire that was invented by Michelin that will never go flat and will reduce the use of rubber (it uses none). Imagine how much oil we could save if companies didn't manufacture 60 million rubber tires every day????? Not only that, but they said one downside to the rubberless tires was they started to make noise if you went faster than 50 mph. Again, more benefits: at slower speeds, you would consume less gas, and at lower speeds, fewer people would be killed on the road. Sounds like a win-win-win situation to me. Unfortunately, because something like this makes sense, it would never fly in mass production.

[Miulang]

Re: The Iraq War - Chapter 2

Now we've got it officially from the horse's mouth...George Bush is now on record as saying that if the new Iraqi government, which will be elected on Sunday, asks the coalition forces to leave, that we will start pulling our troops out of danger.

But in typical Bush-I'm-really-convinced-that-the-new-government-will-ask-us-to-stay-to-help-train-more-Iraqi-soldiers-
which-means-keeping-the-majority-of-our-troops-there-for-another-two-years thinking, he's not even considering the possibility that if Allawi doesn't win and al-Sistani's roster of candidates does, that the new Shia government might ask us to leave.

Will the Administration then claim success and that our mission is accomplished, even if it means we can no longer influence their government, and even if it means the Iraqis become more friendly to Iran? Methinks we should be prepared for a "Ukrainian" style election on Sunday where, miracle of miracles, the minority Sunnis led by Allawi win the majority of Parliament seats. That's the only way the US can legitimately remain in Iraq.

Miulang

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...bush_troops_dc

[Miulang]

Re: The Iraq War - Chapter 2

You have to admire the tenacity of the Iraqi people. This morning on the radio, I heard an interview with an Iraqi exile who lives in Seattle who has organized a caravan of 15 cars to make a second roundtrip to LA (last weekend they were there to register) to vote in their first national election in 50 years. That's a drive of more than 1600 miles one way!

How many of us would go that far to cast a ballot for people we know nothing about because everyone was too afraid of campaigning and risking death? And the guy said he had talked to his relatives in Iraq yesterday and told them when they shouldn't all vote at the same time, in case something bad happened at the polling place. He just didn't want to lose his whole family.

Kinda puts us in the US to shame when it comes to our own elections, doesn't it? We crow about having a 60% voter turnout with only things like bad weather to dampen turnout. How many of us would make those kinds of sacrifices that the Iraqi people have made over the past 2 years, even knowing that the election will probably not give them the results they want?You have to respect the Iraqis for all that they have suffered, all the grief they have endured, under risk of death, going to the polls.

When the dust settles, I hope the world will recognize the new provisional government and work with them to rebuild a strong, sovereign nation, even if it means the US and the coalition are asked to end their occupation.

[jayvinton]

Re: The Iraq War - Chapter 2

Miulang,

If you truly beleive that as an average American we can some how change the course of our government policy, you are possibly mistaken. Write all you want to your congressmen and women, protest all you want in public. The real decisions were made by us at the election of a president, not once, but twice. We do not live in a Jeffersonian democracy any more than the Iraqi's do.

I am no Bush fan, and I am a proud Transplanted Texan, however this war is wrong. Wrong reasons, wrong place. I honor the Troops that do as they are told and saddle up to fight where they are told, I've been one of them long ago, but they are chasing the wrong illusion.

This war on terror is like two school yard bully's pushing each other around, only the other kids on the play ground are the ones getting killed. Had our purpose been pure, had we remained on the proper track and hunted the one that actually hurt us, found him and done what ever was necessary to bring him to justice or to the maker, then the US would be in a position much as it was at the end of WWII, almost invincible.

But our president diluted the hunt with a personal vendetta against a man who was cornered, and defanged, and coincidentally, kept order and law in his country. We may not agree with the method, however the outcome is undeniable. It is chaos and death and the loss of our sons and daughters for a dubious cause at best. And he is telling me that I must spend another 80billion on his hobby???

[Miulang]

Re: The Iraq War - Chapter 2

Aloha e, Jay:

We are not in disagreement. However, to just "give up" because the outcome appears inevitable is not something I personally will stand for. I have been against this war (and all wars) since before it started. But way back then, I said, "this is not MY war, I have already protested against the Vietnam War, the US incursion in El Salvador, the overthrow of a popular government in Chile with assistance from the CIA." I wanted THIS war to be for the generations after me. Unfortunately, my generation never did teach the generations after us what it was like to be in such heated disagreement with the policies of our administration that hundreds of thousands of us took to the streets in protest. And so, unfortunately, us old anti-war horses have to saddle up again, so that the generations after us will hopefully never have to deal with the consequences of a war fought on foreign soil for a dubious cause.

All wars are unconscionable. All wars cause grief and tragedy for both sides of any conflict. Some people will never understand the human condition enough to realize that there but for the grace of god, there go we. What would we feel like if we put ourselves in the shoes of the Iraqi civilians who, for the last 2 years, have been subjected to constant peril even while living in their houses?

I also think it utterly foolish for us to spend another $80 billion in Iraq, especially since it is NOT all earmarked to protect our troops. If you read an earlier post of mine, you will note that some of that money will go to pay off the government of Pakistan and the new Iraqi government, to "keep them on our side." $1.5 billion will be used to build a Ft. Knox-like American Embassy in Baghdad.

When the Augosto Pinochet debacle in Chile was occurring in the late 1960s, I had a friend who worked with Charles Horman, the American who was captured, tortured and murdered by Pinochet's gang of killers with help from our Christians in Action. Charles Horman's family appealed to the American Embassy in Santiago to help them find Charlie, and our Embassy did nothing, in fact they did less than nothing. They stonewalled and pretended they never knew Charlie was even in the country.

That was when I realized that the only reason American Embassies exist anywhere in the world is to stimulate trade with that foreign government and to make sure they don't stray too far from our span of influence, and NOT to help American citizens who might be in trouble. So that $1.5 billion American Embassy in Baghdad is being put there so we can make sure our supply of oil flows unrestricted and for no other reason. And I bet the contract for the construction will be awarded to Halliburton or one of its subsidiaries without having the contract go out for bid.

And you know what? I don't feel powerless. So long as I can make people reconsider their beliefs (but not necessarily change them), I will have done my part. Sure, it is cathartic (better than punching holes in walls) but hopefully some people out there will learn something that they did not know before. I don't mind heated debates or differences of opinion, but I do get angry when people defend their position without having evidence to support their claims. I guess it must be the post-Watergate journalist in me.

Miulang

P.S. in all elections, not everyone agrees with the people in power, and therefore we cannot all be broad brushed as being part of the nation of sheep. And I did not vote for Bush or his neocon conspirators. Did you? I support our troops, but I don't support the policies that put them in Iraq to be used as cannon fodder. I support the Iraqi civilians because they are human beings, too.