"Brian" <olinshooterxx@erols.com> wrote in message
news:3F063B66.AF67B226@erols.com...
>
>
> abracadabra wrote:
>
> > "harold" <harold.no.spambrashears@deletethisyahoo.com> wrote in message
> > news:a34bgv8h0s8df8fi0ddu0nu7enr4rm3msp@4ax.com...
> > > On Fri, 04 Jul 2003 08:40:05 -0400, Harry Hope <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > >From The New York Times, 7/4/03:
> > > >http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/04/national/04FAMI.html
> > > >
> > > >Anger Rises for Families of Troops in Iraq
> > >
> > > I wonder is this reporter went to Fort Hood? He is publishing in the
> > > NY Times.
> >
> > Sadly on this July 4th you don't give a shit about the suffering of
folks in
> > the military and their families.
>
> Liar.

Nope. The entire Republican leadership loves to use the military for
political purposes, but none of them ever served their country. They "had
better things to do"

Frustrations became so bad recently at Fort Stewart, Ga., that a
colonel, meeting with 800 seething spouses, most of them wives, had to
be escorted from the session.

"They were crying, cussing, yelling and screaming for their men to
come back," said Lucia Braxton, director of community services at Fort
Stewart.

The widening chaos in Iraq means that their husbands will stay longer,
and the women do not need a poll to tell them that public opinion is
shifting.


From The New York Times, 7/4/03:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/04/national/04FAMI.html

Anger Rises for Families of Troops in Iraq

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

FORT HOOD, Tex. --

Luisa Leija was in bed the other morning, she recalled, when her
9-year-old daughter bounded in the room, saying, "Mommy, mommy,
there's a man in uniform at the door."

Ms. Leija, the wife of a young artillery captain in Iraq, threw on a
robe and took a deep breath.

She dashed to the door, thinking:

"This is not happening to me. This can't be happening to me."

A soldier in full camouflage was on the doorstep.

It was a neighbor locked out of his house.

Ms. Leija is still upset.

The panic has passed, but not the weariness.

Or the anger.

Anger that her husband, Capt. Frank Leija, has not come home yet, even
though President Bush declared two months ago that "major combat
operations in Iraq have ended."

Anger that the end of that stage has not meant the beginning of peace,
that the Army has assigned new duties for her husband and his men that
have nothing to do with toppling Saddam Hussein.

And anger that the talk in Washington is not of taking troops out of
Iraq, but of sending more in.

"I want my husband home," Ms. Leija, a mother of three children, said.

"I am so on edge. When they first left, I thought yeah, this will be
bad, but war is what they trained for. But they are not fighting a
war. They are not doing what they trained for. They have become police
in a place they're not welcome."

Military families, so often the ones to put a cheery face on war, are
growing vocal.

Since major combat for the 150,000 troops in Iraq was declared over on
May 1, more than 60 Americans, including 25 killed in hostile
encounters, have died in Iraq, about half the number of deaths in the
two months of the initial campaign.

Frustrations became so bad recently at Fort Stewart, Ga., that a
colonel, meeting with 800 seething spouses, most of them wives, had to
be escorted from the session.

"They were crying, cussing, yelling and screaming for their men to
come back," said Lucia Braxton, director of community services at Fort
Stewart.

The signs of discomfort seem to be growing beyond the military bases.

According to a Gallup poll published on Tuesday, the percentage of the
public who think the war is going badly has risen to 42 percent, from
13 percent in May.

Likewise, the number of respondents who think the war is going well
has dropped, from 86 percent in May to 70 percent a month ago to 56
percent.

The latest poll was based on telephone interviews with 1,003 adults.
It has a sampling error of three percentage points.

News this week has not helped.

Today, eight American soldiers were hurt in hit-and-run attacks, and
an enraged crowd of Iraqis stomped a burned Humvee.

"The soldiers were supposed to be welcomed by waving crowds. Where did
those people go?" said Kim Franklin, whose husband is part of an
artillery unit, 3-16 Bravo, also known as the Bulldogs, commanded by
Ms. Leija's husband.

In the postwar and pre-peace phase, it is not Green Berets or top-gun
fighter pilots who are being killed.

The casualties have been mostly low-ranking ground troops who are
performing mundane activities like buying a video, going out on patrol
or guarding a trash pit.

Those are the types of missions that the Bulldogs are on.

With major battles over and little use for field cannon that can shoot
15 miles, the unit has been running checkpoints and searching houses
north of Baghdad, rarely firing a shell.

The Bulldogs took up their assignment in April along with 20,000 other
soldiers from Fort Hood.

Yellow ribbons now droop from the trees where they used to meet at
dawn and stretch before exercises.

The grass is long and dead.

The blacktop that once echoed with roll call and the stomp of a
thousand combat boots is hot, quiet and empty.

Army bases can be drab places in the best of times.

Fort Hood right now is downright depressing.

Even on the Fourth of July.

"I tried every trick in the book to get out of this," said Maj.
William Geiger, the commander of the rear detachment for the artillery
soldiers who has remained here.

There is not much glory in helping single mothers have their cars
repaired or overseeing insurance benefits.

But that is the work of the officer left behind, and in the last few
weeks, that effort has become harder.

"The anxiety is way up there," Major Geiger said.

Seven soldiers from Fort Hood have been killed.

More and more people are dreading that knock on the door.

But there are other worries, too.

War can find the weakest seam of a military marriage and split it
open.

After the Persian Gulf war, divorce rates at certain Army bases shot
up as much as 50 percent, an Army study showed.

"That's my biggest fear," Valerie Decal, the wife of an artillery
sergeant, said.

"That my husband will come back different. Even if you're G.I. Joe, if
you have to kill someone, that's not something you just forget about."

Ms. Decal is stumped about what to do when the doorbell rings and her
19-month-old son runs to answer, saying, "Dada, dada."

"What do I tell him?" she asked.

Yeshica Padilla, wife of an artillery lieutenant, said her toddler
daughter threw a tantrum the other day, saying she wanted to eat pizza
on the floor "with Daddy."

And Ms. Padilla keeps having the same dream.

"I can see my husband, but he is hiding from me," she said.

No Bulldogs have been killed, but their wives are constantly bracing
for it.

" `Names pending release, names pending release' -- I hate that
expression," Ms. Decal said of the way the military announces
casualties and being told who they are.

The women console themselves by making bracelets for their husbands
and sending care packages.

Ms. Padilla included a Best Buy circular in a recent box at her
husband's request.

Winter Travis shipped the latest issue of Parents magazine, not at her
husband's request.

Ms. Travis is seven months pregnant and married to an artillery
sergeant.

"And whether he likes it or not, he's coming back a daddy," she said.

Great efforts are made to stay upbeat.

On a recent day, a group of Bulldog wives chatted in Ms. Leija's
living room, popping cheese cubes in their mouths and swigging
lemonade.

But things are becoming more intense, they said.

The widening chaos in Iraq means that their husbands will stay longer,
and the women do not need a poll to tell them that public opinion is
shifting.

"When my husband first deployed, the people at work were so sweet,
giving me days off, saying take whatever time I need," recalled Ms.
Franklin, who answers telephones at a financial institution near the
fort.

"But it's not like that today. Now they look at me kind of funny and
say: `Why do you need a day off now? Isn't the war over?' "

__________________________________________________ ____

"My answer is: Bring them on."

Georgie W. AWOL Bush

Harry

On Fri, 04 Jul 2003 08:40:05 -0400, Harry Hope <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com>
wrote:

>From The New York Times, 7/4/03:
>http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/04/national/04FAMI.html
>
>Anger Rises for Families of Troops in Iraq

I wonder is this reporter went to Fort Hood? He is publishing in the
NY Times.

Regards, Harold
------------------
"... You almost get the feeling that every Democratic congressional
candidate is handed a fire alarm with the instructions: 'In political
emergency, break glass and scream, Social Security.'"
----- USA Today columnist Walter Shapiro

On Wed, 2 Jul 2003 22:39:45 -0400, "abracadabra" <abra@hotmail.com>
wrote:

>
>"harold" <harold.no.spambrashears@deletethisyahoo.com> wrote in message
>news:a34bgv8h0s8df8fi0ddu0nu7enr4rm3msp@4ax.com.. .
>> On Fri, 04 Jul 2003 08:40:05 -0400, Harry Hope <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> >From The New York Times, 7/4/03:
>> >http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/04/national/04FAMI.html
>> >
>> >Anger Rises for Families of Troops in Iraq
>>
>> I wonder is this reporter went to Fort Hood? He is publishing in the
>> NY Times.
>
>Sadly on this July 4th you don't give a shit about the suffering of folks in
>the military and their families. Typical Republican.

I am not a Republican. Typical Dem, you substitute a personal attack
for argument.

Regards, Harold
-----
And you didn't think Al Gore was funny:
We all know about Whitewater and the alleged shredding
of documents. Responding to an interviewer's question
about evidence, Al said, "Bill and Hillary have provided
the special prosecutor with every shred of evidence they
have."

On 4 Jul 2003 14:49:14 -0700, fugacious@yahoo.com (mark) wrote:

>harold <harold.no.spambrashears@deletethisyahoo.com> wrote in message news:<a34bgv8h0s8df8fi0ddu0nu7enr4rm3msp@4ax.com>. ..
>> On Fri, 04 Jul 2003 08:40:05 -0400, Harry Hope <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> >From The New York Times, 7/4/03:
>> >http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/04/national/04FAMI.html
>> >
>> >Anger Rises for Families of Troops in Iraq
>>
>> I wonder is this reporter went to Fort Hood? He is publishing in the
>> NY Times.
>
>How typical, you're sitting at home watching TV and sipping beer and
>you couldn't give a rats ass about either the people you were supposed
>to liberate (Iraquis) or the young service men and women sent to do
>the grizzly work.

Typical Dem. Personal attack, substituting for thought. Thanks for
the illustration of the utter lack of thought.

Every once in a while, it can be helpful to see how little
intelligence you have.

Regards, Harold
-----
And you didn't think Al Gore was funny:
We all know about Whitewater and the alleged shredding
of documents. Responding to an interviewer's question
about evidence, Al said, "Bill and Hillary have provided
the special prosecutor with every shred of evidence they
have."

abracadabra wrote:

> "harold" <harold.no.spambrashears@deletethisyahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:a34bgv8h0s8df8fi0ddu0nu7enr4rm3msp@4ax.com...
> > On Fri, 04 Jul 2003 08:40:05 -0400, Harry Hope <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > >From The New York Times, 7/4/03:
> > >http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/04/national/04FAMI.html
> > >
> > >Anger Rises for Families of Troops in Iraq
> >
> > I wonder is this reporter went to Fort Hood? He is publishing in the
> > NY Times.
>
> Sadly on this July 4th you don't give a shit about the suffering of folks in
> the military and their families.

Liar.

> Typical Republican.

Typical blind ignorant left wing extremist partisan hatemonger.

abracadabra wrote:

> "Boomer" <nospam@nospam.com> wrote in message
> news:vgbenbg7c1f610@corp.supernews.com...
> >
> > "abracadabra" <abra@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> > news:be4ba7$29h$1@slb2.atl.mindspring.net...
> > >
> > > "harold" <harold.no.spambrashears@deletethisyahoo.com> wrote in message
> > > news:a34bgv8h0s8df8fi0ddu0nu7enr4rm3msp@4ax.com...
> > > > On Fri, 04 Jul 2003 08:40:05 -0400, Harry Hope <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com>
> > > > wrote:
> > > >
> > > > >From The New York Times, 7/4/03:
> > > > >http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/04/national/04FAMI.html
> > > > >
> > > > >Anger Rises for Families of Troops in Iraq
> > > >
> > > > I wonder is this reporter went to Fort Hood? He is publishing in the
> > > > NY Times.
> > >
> > > Sadly on this July 4th you don't give a shit about the suffering of
> folks
> > in
> > > the military and their families. Typical Republican.
> > >
> >
> > Now there's a rich one. A liberal claiming to give a shit about military
> > people, or the U.S. for that matter.
>
> Sadly you seem to believe in that lying idiot, Ann Coulter.

LOL, still trying to use name calling to distract from your inability to refute
her?

> Of course we on the left care about military folks

As he said, when it suits your needs.

> . THey are common
> Americans, and they deserve a lot more respect then assholes like Dubya and
> "herold" are giving them.
>
> ROTFLMAO. The only time that liberals
> > gives a damn about anything is when it suits their parasitic agendas.
>
> I see you are incapable of any rational debate.

Hypocrite.

> No surprise there.
> You lose, as usual!
> LOL

mark wrote:

> harold <harold.no.spambrashears@deletethisyahoo.com> wrote in message news:<a34bgv8h0s8df8fi0ddu0nu7enr4rm3msp@4ax.com>. ..
> > On Fri, 04 Jul 2003 08:40:05 -0400, Harry Hope <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > >From The New York Times, 7/4/03:
> > >http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/04/national/04FAMI.html
> > >
> > >Anger Rises for Families of Troops in Iraq
> >
> > I wonder is this reporter went to Fort Hood? He is publishing in the
> > NY Times.
>
> How typical, you're sitting at home watching TV and sipping beer and
> you couldn't give a rats ass about either the people you were supposed
> to liberate (Iraquis) or the young service men and women sent to do
> the grizzly work.

And what facts do you base this attack on?

> Shame on you Harold, you are doing a great disservice to the American
> ideals of democracy and accountability of elected representatives.

And what have you ever done for anyone but yourself?

>
>
> > Regards, Harold
> > ------------------
> > "... You almost get the feeling that every Democratic congressional
> > candidate is handed a fire alarm with the instructions: 'In political
> > emergency, break glass and scream, Social Security.'"
> > ----- USA Today columnist Walter Shapiro