Originally Posted by sgtdmski

Well did you read the transcript????

Yes and to me it appears that the second conversation was but a reaction to the 1st one Rush had with the Anti-Iraq War Republican war veteran. The second caller and Rush were just venting over the fact that a Republican war vet had said about the Iraq War not being winnable. When Rush uttered the phrase "phony soldiers", I think he was talking about people like the previous caller, war vets who disagree with the mission in Iraq. I certainly hope though that it is not the case.

This situation to me though, isn't as clear-cut of a case as what happened to O'Reilly last week. Reading the entire transcript of that and listening to him and Juan Williams speak, it's pretty clear that Bill-O wasn't being a racist, he was just commenting on the ignorance of some. His choice of words may have been poor, but the context was there and anyone who read the transcript would understand that O'Reilly wasn't actually genuinely surprised at what he saw at Sylvia's. He was trying to make the point that race is irrelevant, contrary to what some ignorant, sheltered whites may believe.

When I served in the Army time and time again I read quotes in the paper attributed to soldiers serving in Saudi Arabia (during the first Gulf War). I always wanted to know who these guys were, because their views were not mine, nor the rest of my fellow soldiers. I always wondered why the press never came to talk to us, the grunts serving on the front line. We were the 11B's the bullet catchers, the cannon fodder, yet time and again the quotes were attributed to some soldier serving in a rear-echelon unit, sitting on their ass in the comfort of air conditioning. Oh how they hated being there, well the rest of us loved it. We had a chance to do our duty and we were proud.

We all wanted to go home, nobody wanted to be there, but at the same time as a soldier we knew it was our place. We did out duty, the duty we swore to do. We hated the waiting, we were ready to drive in guns ablazing to accomplish the mission and get out.....

Unfortunately, we had rules of engagement that we had to follow, and UN directives, and political implications that handcuffed our actions, so we waited and when the time came we drove in to Kuwait and continued on the the Euphraties where we stopped and watched the long trail of the Iraqi Army walking home begging for food.

Again where was the press???? No where near the front lines.

Would you like the press at the front lines? I'd think they'd be more of a a hindrance than anything.

It is easy to find soldiers who don't want to be in Iraq, they are the ones willing to line up in front of the cameras to say it. The soldiers who accept being in Iraq and want to do their duty are usually busy doing it, or spending their off-time thinking about friends and family and home. Interview the soldiers who don't want to come to the camera, for they are the ones that will tell you not what it is you want to hear, but rather what they really believe.

Are you saying about soldiers who do take interviews, that their opinions are invalid? You don't believe that there are soldiers fighting in Iraq right now, who believe that this war was a mistake? War changes people, as you're probably aware. What of the kids who felt so gung-ho about going into Iraq, and then a few months into actually being there, come to the realization that maybe we shouldn't be there?

dmk