Two more area families are acutely aware of the dangers U.S. troops are facing in Iraq — those grieving for Sgt. Jerry W. Mills Jr. of Arkansas City (in photo) and Sgt. Donald J. Hasse of Wichita Falls, Texas, whose mother lives in Wichita. Killed Tuesday when a roadside bomb detonated near their military vehicle in Taji, the soldiers have honored their country and communities with their service, which included two deployments in Iraq. Though no one can thank them enough, south-central Kansans should continue to try to support both the troops and the loved ones left behind.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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56 Comments
Support the troops by defining a clear exit strategy that doesn’t have a 10 year timeline.
Those poor families. I cannot imagine the depth of their grief.
A plague on the house of Bush for sacrificing these young men’s lives.
I try to honor all those grieving families and fallen soldiers by working as hard as I can to bring our soldiers home.
So you all proclaim to support the troops but damn the cause that they chose to give their life for.Pitiful
Honor our troops. Let the ARI do the fighting for their government.
Codie seems to mistake support for the miltary with disdain for those who use the military so cavalierly.
In “The Sand Pebbles”, Richard Crenna says this about the military:
“The trade we all follow is the give and take of death. It is for that purpose that the people ofAmerica maintain us. Anyone of us who believes he has a job like any other, for which he draws a money wage, is a thief of the food he eats, and a trespasser in the bunk in which he lies down to sleep.”
I think we’re all awed and humbled by those willing to undertake this mission..and for that reason we do NOT want the lives of these brave men and women threatened, and sometimes even ended, without good cause. Irrespective of the mission, we respect their devotion to duty and their willingness to put their personal feelings and doubts aside for the defense of the nation.
Respect for the military does NOT imply support for the mission or for those who abuse, either overtly or through ignorance, stubborness, or misguided religious fervor, their oath to protect us.
Here’s some ideas:
How about supporting the troops by paying them decent wages, including adequate “hazardous duty” pay, providing them with body armor and other basic protections from being turned into. . ., allowing them to come home when they’ve served their enlistment terms, giving their families someting a little better than a tiny nest egg when their loved one is killed, and adequately funding a VA that isn’t a completely f**ked bureaucratic nightmare?
Oh, yeah, and bring them home. NOW.
By the way, Codie, one thirtysomething Iraq vet I know didn’t–like most–have anything to do with “choosing” the mission. He was an air force reservist, reactivated after 9-11, sent first to Idaho, then Afganistan, then Iraq. He’s still over there.
You all still sound pitiful. The enemies of this country are not the republicans nor the mainstream democrats. It is you.
Yes, I’ll admit I’m part of the traitorous 66%.
More like 10%
Right, Cootie–I believe that if you should lose one finger, you should cut off all the others so that first finger won’t have “died in vain.”
What have you done to support the war personally? Sent money to the gov’t? Signed up for enlistment?
More like put a magnet on your car . . . The real enemies of America are the ones that send somebody else’s kid to die for their war.
Galahad
Cootie doesn’t get out much, now does he?
Great post Brian, we should send our soldiers to war only when every option to resolve a crisis has been exhausted and there is no other choice. Sending our soldiers to die for the sake of oil and Bush’s ego is criminal. Our country has invaded without provocation, used chemical weapons, killed many innocent people, tortured and abused prisoners, lied and used propaganda to manipulate both the citizens of the US and Iraq, and ran the national deficit sky high with this whole fiasco. This administration is no better than the enemies they fight against.
What you are doing is minimizing these solders death by using them to make your pathetic political statements. There isn’t anything that could show more disrespect for these men and their families than you trying to further your misguided political party’s pathetic losing agenda. These men knew and understood the reasons we are in Iraqi, they were volunteers and willing to put their lives on the line to stop terrorist from coming here and killing us. If you want to blame someone for their death blame the terrorist. These men knew they could lose their lives and they gave them for a noble and just cause, your freedom to be the selfish cowards you are. We are at war with a vicious enemy, and you are on the wrong side.
Unfortunately, our children have been sent die for the right of Bush-Cheney et al. to make a bundle off other people’s oil, not to protect democracy! The hundreds of billions we’ve sunk into the Iraq effort should easily have been enough to turn it into a showplace of democracy; instead, rather than going to Iraq, it’s simply been transferred to the coffers of corporate interests such as Halliburton.If you really want to honor the sacrifice our troops have made, use it to fill in the bomb craters and build a good, safe place for the Iraqi’s to live on top of them!
Right DAV.Except they are the enemy. No American talks that.We have several Tokyo Rose types in this BLOG and every other one. Much easier to find useful idiots than it was in Nam.
Fred,
That’s because some of us ‘useful idiots’ are smart enough to have learned the lesson of Vietnam: wars create their own momentum, and have their own constituency among the ruling classes who don’t have to fight them.
The other lesson: by occupying a country that was NO threat, you create your own enemy among individuals who might otherwise have been your allies.
It’s a truism that armies always fight the last war. It seems that Fred, DAV, and Codie are hell-bent on reclaiming their masculinity by getting Vietnam ‘right’ in Iraq. What an insecure bunch of little boys you are. And to immunize yourselves against this insecurity by branding me and others as ‘traitors’–how sad.
I wear your denunciation like a medal.
All of our brave military men and women volunteered to serve their country. And none of us knows how the families of these soldiers feel, other than that they are grieving. The large majority, I would venture, supported the war effort and will continue to do so.
Those who are advocating immediate pull out are myopic. Even admitting that getting in was a big mistake, we are still where we are. Yes, get our troops home as soon as possible. But we cannot leave an unstable Iraq to the terrorists. And the noise from the left is giving encouragement to our enemies, and the implied message that they can just wait us out.
Outlander,
‘All of our brave military men and women volunteered to serve their country.’ That’s right. And they did so under the assumption that their leadership would be neither sane nor brutal. We, the voters, have obviously failed our troops.
The ’stay the course’ fantasy has nothing to do with reality. The sooner we get out, the sooner domestic elements within Iraq eject al-Zarqawi and other foreign fighters, and get down to sorting out the power arrangement that will ultimately come about whether we like it or not. It’s going to be a theocracy, whether that happens next week or ten years from now. I hate to invoke truisms, but when you’re in a hole, the first thing to do is to stop digging–not to call those who want to stop digging ‘traitors.’
We haven’t made Iraq safe for democracy. If we have done anything, it has been to make Iraq safe for Iran. We’ve done a bang-up job of that.
CF:
“The sooner we get out, the sooner domestic elements within Iraq eject al-Zarqawi and other foreign fighters, and get down to sorting out the power arrangement that will ultimately come about whether we like it or not.”
That just does not make sense to me. Why would the the domestic elements of Iraq suddenly be able to eject al-Zarqawi and all the other foreign fighters when they, plus the US military have not completed that job to date? (although more progress has occurred than has been reported in the press) I think that we owe the Iraqi people more than to leave them in potential anarchy.
Here’s your answer
When an Israeli speaks………
“Costly Withdrawal Is the Price To Be Paid for a Foolish War”By Martin van Creveld
Martin van Creveld, a professor of military history at the Hebrew University, is author of “Transformation of War” (Free Press, 1991). He is the only non-American author on the U.S. Army’s required reading list for officers.
http://www.forward.com/articles/6936
CF & EdI am sorry your country could not learn to live with the rest of the world.The only reason we are still there is that we know most of you are worth saving thus the Bombers have gone home. We could have reduced all you terrorists to hamburger but our leaders chose to TRY to save the civilians. You are a useful race if you would get civilized.
Are some of you so stupid, to honestly believe, that Bush/Cheney are promoting this war in Iraq, to line their own pockets? That’s aboutlike me, stealing a hundred dollars from Walmart. I don’t need it and neither do they!
Yeah, I wish we weren’t in this war.I wish the troops, would come home as soon as possible.
But, If we pull out now, we have abdicated our role in the war on terrorism, we have left a country vulnerable to the whims of a malicious terroristic minority and we have told the world, that WE are not a power to contend with.
So, we might as well return to isolationism, turn our back on the rest of the world and fight the terrorist in our front lawn, each morning as we go to work.
There is probably justification, against every war the U. S. has been involved in , since WW-2. Ther are those, that believe that was a mistake.
But, If you turn tail and run, from the situation in Iraq and the war on terrorists, you’re life is gonna be a constant daily wake up of violence and calamity, right in your own backyard.
I back you, Outlander!!
Codie, You are one stupid thing. your name should be “nonsense”
The jeck is threatening us. What gall.
“Terrorism” is a farce. It’s what the Zionists named the Palestinian Resistance. Haven’t you figured that out yet?
There is no such thing.
Read “The O(ther Side of Israel” by Susan Nathan. It’ll make your blood boil.
A review.http://www.calitreview.com/Reviews/otherside_064.htm
This war is not about oil or revenge for Bush. These soldiers know it about fighting terrorists and you are wrong to politicize their deaths to make a statement like that. CF, Should we expect to see you protesting at the funerals wearing your cowards badge, with the Phelps?
Um, guys….You know how I am about noticing details.
Posters Codie and Fred list the same e-mail address. This isn’t a serious contributor…just another troll.
Notice how Friedman, likes to call people “stupid,” if they disagree with him. Ever notice, that in most of his posts, he refers to the Zionists, in some form or fashion, like they’re the Antichrist.
Does this man have a life? Or is his sole purpose just to antagonize?
I would gather, the latter.
Outlander,
At the moment, al Zarqawi serves a semi-useful function that parallels the project of the indigenous resistance to American occupation. We’re the only thing holding together these disparate elements. When we go, so does their marriage of convenience. And while I agree that we owe the folks of Iraq more than leaving them in potential anarchy, I think we can be most useful making our contribution from offstage.
Codie,
You’re right: my country couldn’t learn to live with the rest of the world.
My citizenship? American. The land of my birth? America.
You, however, are an anti-Islamic racist. I hope the other folks on the Right who post here find your racist slurs as distasteful as I do.
DAV,
Weren’t any terrorists in Iraq until we got there. It’s that whole ‘Bush flypaper strategy.’ As for politicizing the deaths of American service personnel, spare me. Want to see someone politicize their deaths? Do what Bush does: refuse to allow their coffins to be photographed. ‘Out of sight, out of mind’ isn’t my idea of the right way to honor their sacrifice.
Bush has ‘disappeared’ our fallen veterans in the same way we’re ‘disappearing’ foreign nationals into our gulag system.
As far as my ‘cowardice’ goes, I’ve been standing up against this war and the Bush ‘doctrine’ since 2003, and I’ll go on doing it. The best way to support American troops is not to put them in impossible, futile situations in the first place. Failing that, it is to be big enough men to admit we were wrong and get them out of harm’s way.
DAV, your manhood isn’t what’s at issue: Bush’s lack of manhood is.
james
Zionists squeal about being flushed-out.
I do like that sound, sounds like victory.
DAV–Politicizing American deaths . . . you mean like the Republicans did last August when they held their convention in flipping NEW YORK CITY? And mentioned 9-11 about thirteen thousand times in a thirty-six hour period?
You mean when Bush invaded Iraq even though it HAD NOTHING TO DO with the national tragedy of 9-11 but justified it on that basis?
You mean that kind of politicizing, Hank?
*****
Cootie–Bush should give you the Presidential Medal of Idiot.
What have you done to help the troops, other than parrot whatever Rush Limbaugh tells you say?
I’m against this war in Iraq not because somebody tells me to be against it but because I can see it’s UNAMERICAN. “Preemptive attacks” violate everything decent that America stands for.
I support the troops by trying to get them out of flipping war zone and dying for nothing.
BTW, I support the action in Afghanistan, so I’m not against fighting terrorism. I’m against fighting wars so Halliburton can get no-bid contract and “misplace” billions of taxpayer dollars.
Cootie–google Fallujah and white phosphorous.
See if our military spared the terrorists because they were concerned about civilians.
Friedman: You Suck!
Opps, Should have been Friedmann.
My Mistake!
Eyewitness account from a soldier who was part of the assult on Fallujah (for payback of murder of American hired mercenaries):
“I heard the order being issued to be careful because white phosphorus was being used on Fallujah. In military slang this is known as Willy Pete. Phosphorus burns bodies, melting the flesh right down to the bone,” says one former US solider, interviewed by the documentary’s director, Sigfrido Ranucci.
“I saw the burned bodies of women and children. The phosophorous explodes and forms a plume. Who ever is within a 150 metre radius has no hope,” the former soldier adds.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1108/dailyUpdate.html
And here’s the video–who are you going to believe? Bush or your own eyes?
http://www.notinourname.net/war/fallujah-video-low-20nov05.htm
We may be losing the war in Iraq, Cootie, but it’s not because of too much mercy toward civilians.
The blame rests solely on one man, and his name is Bush.
To go to war is to admit failure.
XXXFred and I loved all the junk Email sites you sent us to. The viruses were delightful too. Good to know who.
Codie,Didn’t you know? Viruses are God’s punishment for reading forbidden knowledge, and virus blockers and firewalls are an immoral attempt to evade God’s wrath!
What is Gods punishment for lying? Treason? Sending viruses to conservatives?
Christian Science Monitor–yeah, that’s a left wing rag for sure.
And the video? No reason to believe all the photographic proof . . . it could have been INSURGENTS who used the white phosphorus.
Being conservative . . . it’s easier than thinking . . .
And BTW, Coot, hackers can give you a virus anytime you’re on-line. It’s not the websites that you visit, per se.
But again, factual knowledge is not your strong suit, obviously.
codie, don’t know much about the internet, do ya? Is this your first computer?
“What is Gods punishment for lying?”
You’ll find out soon enough.
CF, I will take your statement clarifying the manhood cut as an apology and in turn I will apologize for the coward statement. This is a war to save and preserve the whole free western civilization as we live and know it now. Anyone that remotely challenges the need for this war, as far as I’m concerned, is willing to accept giving up and losing our freedom by allowing the terrorist to survive and continue to kill. I am not willing to give up one iota of my freedom and I’m not willing to let you or anyone else compromise it either. All this noise about oil, revenge etc, is compromising the real reason for the war which I’ll restate: it is to stop terrorism. This anti war political showboating is going to cost us our civilization and our freedom.You stated “Weren’t any terrorist in Iraq until we got there.” Saddam Hussein was one of the most brutal despicable terrorist in recent history and there should be no disputing that he was a tyrant. He attacked and invaded neighboring countries, he violated international law, he supported international terrorist, and he was seeking weapons of mass destruction. He had used chemical weapons, in the war with Iran and against his own citizens. The only way to adequately deal with Saddam was to use force. Taking Saddam out was a necessary and strategically sound thing to do against the war on terrorism. A preempted strike was the only way to prevent him from supporting more terrorist activities and being even more dangerous in the future. It was only a matter of time before he had WMD capability; nothing was going to prevent that except to remove him from power.We don’t have a problem with our leadership, the problem is with those that refuse to let the leaders do their job, get your priorities straight, support the effort now and debate the process when it over and we still have our freedom. Otherwise we won’t have the freedom to debate weather it was a justifiable war or not. I don’t have any interest in posting again, so don’t expect any more responses from me, I’m not interested.Galahad, flake off, I am not Hank.
You need to be careful who you let program you.
You do know the “line.”
Chalk up another one we won’t miss. We lose more nutcase conservatives…..
It’s scary to think this could happen to someone.
DAV,
Well, that’s quite a cop-out on your part, isn’t it? Post a global interpretation of world history, declare it sacrosanct, and then dismiss any disagreements as treasonous.
To begin with, I wasn’t apologizing to you. I didn’t say anything that merited an apology. I was just clarifying what the real issues were, so as to avoid some of the machismo posturing and dick bumping that goes on all over this place–and in which I have been known to participate. I do appreciate your reciprocating my attempt to state things assertively rather than aggressively.
But as long as you’re going to say that this is a war to ‘preserve freedom,’ I agree. It’s just that, in my opinion, the proximate risk to MY freedom comes not from a few thousand Muslim fanatics: it comes from the oligarchs running the American state, and by extension, the world.
Is al Qaeda a threat? Well, duh. They’re state of the art terrorists who know, at a genius level, how to conduct asymmetrical warfare. Obviously. That’s part of the reason that conventional military actions such as the colossally stupid invasion of Iraq play into their hands. It forces soldiers to perform the political task for which they are least qualified: determining who the enemy is. And their lack of training for this task guarantees that their military efforts will boomerang. Happened in Vietnam, is happening now.
Are they so serious a threat as to justify the abandoning of all our democratic principles and values? No way. No threat is worth that. It’s George Bush, not Osama bin Laden, who’s the chief threat to “our civilization and our freedom,” as you put it. And it is the case that a majority of the American public is coming around to agree with me, and not with you. Gotta love that poll response, where 60% responded that the next president should be NOTHING like George W. Bush. HEEEE-LARIOUS.
I have nothing to say about your fantasy version of Saddam Hussein. It’s propaganda and nothing more. He was NO threat to us. HE did not attack us on 9/11. Al Qaeda DID. The fact that Bush took the 9/11 attacks as a pretext to attack a leader–admittedly a tyrannical and despotic one, by the way–who was in fact the ENEMY of our ENEMY shows that the war on Iraq has NOTHING to do with the ‘Global War on Terrorism.’ Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Bush had his eye on Iraq since the first Gulf War–oil? a utopian remaking of the Middle East? who knows what the motive was–and this was just a convenient pretext.
So, DAV, yes, in fact, the problem IS with our ‘leadership,’ who don’t have a clue as to what they’re doing in Iraq. They’re as delusional as they are dishonest. And I don’t know about you, but when my leaders spend years LYING to me and MAKING stuff up about what is and is not a threat to MY country, I get, well, a bit upset. I want them impeached. I want them in jail. Why? Because if they can hijack the institutions of American democracy, then THEY are terrorists. They’re FASCISTS. And decent people, who actually DO love their freedom, have always made it their business to resist FASCISM.
Because if we don’t, as you say, we won’t have ‘the freedom to debate whether it was a justifiable war.’
I used to want to see Bush impeached, but then I thought about it.Who would take over?Cheney, unless he’s indicted over Valerie Plame.After Cheney isn’t it Dennis Hastert?
Back to the topic for a moment, of honoring the troops (regardless of your views of the war).
A brave soldier will be laid to rest in Wichita this Friday, and the Patriot Guard will be there in force to honor his sacrifice, support his family, and be a human shield to block out the efforts of that wacko cult from Topeka.
Loss of life is tragic regardless of political views. Mocking it as the phelps crew does is repulsive. I am proud to say I will be there standing shoulder to shoulder with my brothers to honor a fallen soldier.
Ray, As well you should, and my thoughts will be with you from Texas. Best, Ed
Sum1
If we impeach Bush the next one will have a pretty good idea what we’ll do to him……right?
Yes, Rhonda, support the troops. But are we fighting so that an Iraqi policeman can kill his female cousin who had been kidnapped by terrorists to force her brother to resign from Iraqi polic academy? So when the brother resigned and the terrorists released her, the Iraqi policeman (her cousin) killed her because her capture and possible rape brought shame on the family. Is this a mentality that can understand democracy, not to mention, law, order and justice, Rhonda?
I am a Aunt of SGT Jerry Mills and I will miss him very much. He was loved by all his family. He was fighting for what he thought was right and was a very brave young man. Him and all our guys and gals there are Heroes to us. They are there so we have our freedom. If they wasn’t there we would have those crazy people here killing people in the USA. You all should be very proud of them. It breaks my heart to know how he was killed and never to have him in our lives anymore. I just want all you to know how much he meant to his family.