[sumo] FW: Tide Turns in Ramadi [off-topic]

[Ben Howell]

Aloha, SML!

I think I was probably banned for life from posting to this forum when I 
freaked out as the consequence of taking a presrcibed medication that had a 
very negative impact on me, so I don't really expect to see this post show 
up on the SML. In the unlikely event that it does, I would suggest that 
posts to this list should be confined to ozumo, and that outside events, 
such as what is happening in Ramadi, be discussed elsewhere.

My personal perspective is informed by our war in Vietnam; for those who say 
that drawing parallels between the current conflict in Iraq and the war in 
Vietnam is off the mark, I would encourage you to go back and read some 
history: anything by the French historian Bernard Fall, for starters. 
Another good primer is the book Dispatches, by Michael Herr.

I have friends, young enough to be my children, serving in the Middle East, 
and I worry about them everyday. I worry for them not only because I fear 
for their safety, but because I don't wish to see their lifes sacrified on a 
fool's errand. I am also grateful, on the one hand, that the draft is no 
longer in effect. On the other hand, I feel a sense of outrage for our 
"all-volunteer" army which has been compelled, over and over again, to serve 
above and beyond the call of duty.

According to reliable sources in the media, a third of our troops who have 
served in Iraq and Afghanistan now suffer from PSTD or brain injury, and the 
numbers are only expected to increase.There's a limit to what our military 
and or Veteran's Administration can (or is wiling to do for these troops); 
those who are untreated, and there will be many, will be expected to make it 
on their own. Their abandonment by the Bush Administration  seems to me yet 
another example of how the people at the top are completely disconnected 
from those at the bottom, the folks who are actually fighting the war, 
risking life and limb everyday.

Ben Howell,
Hilo, HI

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Leigh Solland (on Webmail)" <solland at telusplanet.net>
To: "Sumo Mailing List" <sumo at webtrek.com>
Sent: Saturday, May 05, 2007 3:58 PM
Subject: Re: [sumo] FW: Tide Turns in Ramadi [off-topic]


> Quoting smk1 at columbia.edu:
>
>> Actually, it is a mailing list, and I think the welfare of posters
>> and personal experiences when properly labeled, as they were, are
>> to be welcomed.
>>
>> Sukubidubidu
>
> I really don't want to do this, but if you insist on saying that Emmett's
> posting was about a "personal experience", you are misleading the list. 
> The
> attachment to his message was an article from the U.S. Cavalry's "On 
> Point"
> magazine, written by their reporter Andrew Lubin.  It was apparently
> disseminated to Emmett as part of a mailing to "Mini 1 LARs" by a Major 
> Joseph
> Greenlee.  This IS political propaganda, or at the very least, the US
> Military's semi-official point of view on the war.
>
> It is NOT appropriate on this forum, any more than repeating an Al-Jazeera
> account of the dead babies in Iraq, or publishing a description of the
> consequences of spreading radiation via "depleted uranium" ammunition.
>
> Nobody (especially me) has attacked Emmett for doing this, but I feel that 
> this
> is not the place to debate these matters.
>
> So can we please end this now?
>
> Leigh
>
>
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