Thay may be somewhat liberal for Texas but this is still Texas.

....Congress should not take any action that will endanger United States military forces in the field, including the elimination or reduction of funds for troops in the field, as such action with respect to funding would undermine their safety or harm their effectiveness in pursuing their assigned missions.

Misuse of data only constant in Iraq war
March 20, 2007

In January 2005, General George Casey, then the top US military officer in Iraq, estimated that US and Iraqi forces had killed or captured 15,000 fighters in 2004, three times the estimate by General John Abizaid, then Centcom commander, of the total size of the insurgency barely one year earlier.

In January, President Bush told the nation that an additional 21,500 US troops were needed to quell escalating violence in Baghdad. As of last Friday, that total had reached 28,700.

The UN, using reports from morgues, hospitals and local authorities, put the 2006 figure at 34,000, three times the official Iraq Government count. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's office ordered the Iraqi health ministry to stop providing figures to the UN.

In March 2004, Rumsfeld announced "very good progress" in training Iraqi forces, whose numbers had increased "from zero to over 200,000". Eleven months later, he gave the total as 136,065.

Jeff Miller, a researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said official figures over the years revealed a "clear pattern of overselling the pace and quality of Iraqi force training". One reason for the repeated discrepancies has been frequent changes in the way Iraqis are counted.

The figures offered by Rumsfeld and Myers often bore little relation to tallies in weekly unclassified Pentagon reports. In late 2003, progress towards the Pentagon's goal of 221,700 trained police and military forces was divided into categories of Iraqis "operating" and those "in training". By June 2004, as the goal increased to 259,869, the two categories were melded, and "untrained" forces — more than four-fifths of the police and the army — were listed as "on duty".

In September 2004, the "on duty" category was renamed, and 231,560 Iraqis were described as "on hand". After critics questioned the figures, "on hand" was subsumed into a new category and the total fell to fewer than 100,000: the Pentagon stopped including nearly 80,000 members of Iraq's Facilities Protection Service, untrained guards under the control of Iraqi government ministries.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/misuse-of-data-only-constant-in-iraq-war/2007/03/19/1174152970810.html?page=2

Wearing Red
Last week I was in Atlanta , Georgia
attending a conference. While I was in the airport,
returning home, I heard several peoplebehind me
beginning to clap and cheer. I immediately turned
around and witnessed one of the greatest act's of
patriotism I have ever seen.
Moving thru the terminal was a group of soldiers in
their camo's, as they began heading to their gate
everyone (well almost everyone) was abruptly to
their feet with their hands waving and cheering.
When I saw the soldiers, probably 30-40 of them,
being applauded and cheered for it hit me. I'm not
alone. I'm not the only red blooded American who
still loves this country and supports our troops and
their families.

Of course I immediately stopped and began clapping
for these young unsung heroes who are putting their
lives on the line everyday for us so we can go to
school, work and home without fear or reprisal. Just
when I thought I could not be more proud of my
country or of our service men and women, a young
girl, not more than 6 or 7 years old, ran up to one
of the male soldiers. He kneeled down and said "hi,"
to the little girl then she asked him if he would
give something to her daddy for her. The young
soldier, he didn't look any older than maybe 22
himself, said he would try and what did she want to
give to her daddy. Then suddenly the little girl
grabbed the neck of this soldier, gave him the
biggest hug she could muster and then kissed him on
the cheek.
The mother of the little girl, who said her
daughter's name was Courtney, told the young soldier
that her husband was a Marine and had been in Iraq
for 11 months now. As the mom was explaining how
much her daughter, Courtney, missed her father, the
young soldier began to tear up When this temporarily
single mom was done explaining her situation, all of
the soldiers huddled together for a brief second.
Then one of the other servicemen pulled out a
military looking walkie-talkie. They started playing
with the device and talking back and forth on it.
After about 10-15 seconds of this, the young soldier
walked back over to Courtney, bent down and said
this to her, "I spoke to your daddy and he told me
to give this to you." He then hugged this little
girl that he had just met and gave her a kiss on the
cheek. He finished by saying "your daddy told me to
tell you that he loves you more than anything and he
is coming home very soon."
The mom at this point was crying almost
uncontrollably and as the young soldier stood to his
feet he saluted Courtney and her mom. I was standing
no more than 6 feet away when this entire event
unfolded. As the soldiers began to leave, heading
towards their gate, people resumed their applause.
As I stood there applauding and looked around, their
were very few dry eyes, including my own. That young
soldier in one last act of selflessness, turned
around and blew a kiss to Courtney with a tear
rolling down his cheek.
We need to remember every day all of our soldiers
and their families and thank God for them and their
sacrifices. At the end of the day, it's good to be
an American.
Red Friday
Just keeping you "in the loop" so you'll know what's
going on in case this takes off.
RED FRIDAYS ----- Very soon, you will see a great
many people wearing Red every Friday. The reason?
Americans who support our troops used to be called
the "silent majority". We are no longer silent, and
are voicing our love for God, country and home in
record breaking numbers. We are not organized,
boisterous or over-bearing. We get no liberal media
coverage on TV, to reflect our message or our
opinions.
Many Americans, like you, me and all our friends,
simply want to recognize that the vast majority of
America supports our troops.
Our idea of showing solidarity and support for our
troops with dignity and respect starts this Friday
and continues each and every Friday until the
troops all come home, sending a deafening message
that.. Every red-blooded American who supports our
men and women afar will wear something red.
By word of mouth, press, TV -- let's make the United
States on every Friday a sea of red much like a
homecoming football game in the bleachers.
If every one of us who loves this country will share
this with acquaintances, co-workers, friends, and
family. It will not be long
before the USA is covered in RED and it will let our
troops know the once "silent" majority is on their
side more than ever, certainly more than themedia
lets on.
The first thing a soldier says when asked "What can
we do to make things better for you?" is..We need
your support and your prayers.
Let's get the word out and lead with class and
dignity, by example; and wear something red every
Friday.

Not only do I support our troops, but I believe in what they are doing. That's just as important. How can you fully support the troops and not believe in their mission?

How can you fully support the troops and not believe in their mission?

It's the Government that sent them there that I have an issue with.

- 23,000 soldiers have been wounded. (when this study was done)

- Evacuating an injured soldier to the USA can cost as much as $ 1,000,000 (when all costs are figured in)

- More than 4,600 Iraqi vets have suffered severe head or brain injuries. It may cost 19 BILLION dollars to treat and care just for these vets, for the rest of their lives.

- More than 1.300 vets have lost a limb. Probable cost of treating and caring for them for the rest of their lives ? 200 million dollars.

- The cost of one prosthetic limb ? Up to 100,000 dollars.

- 20 percent of Iraqi vets are developing PTSD.

- 22 men serving in Iraq commited suicide in 2005, double the rate of 2004.

- the cost of veteran's disability benefits for those having seen combat in Iraq could reach as much as 127 billion dollars (based on Desert Storm statistics).

- It costs $275,000 to deploy a soldier in Iraq for a year.

- It costs $5,840 to feed him.

- Some military equipment used in Iraq has experienced the equivalent of 27 years of use in 3 years.

- It costs $17 billion a year to replace worn and lost equipment.

- Deploying reservists in Iraq costs the U.S. economy almost $4 billion in lost productivity annually.

- The Pentagon has ordered the National Guard to transfer $1.76 billion worth of equipment to the Army.

- Transferring gear overseas has left domestic Guard units with 1/3 of their essential combat equipment.

- 7,040 Army National Guard soldiers were deployed to Vietnam; 126 died.

- More than 100,000 have served in Iraq so far; 392 have died.

- Between 2003 and 2005, Army divorces increased by 14%

- The Miles Foundation reports that calls to its domestic violence hot line for military spouses jumped from 50 to 600 per month after the start of the Iraq War.

-In 2004, 1 out of 5 military spouses said they had signed up for government assistance to make ends meet.

-The wife of a New York National Guardsman deployed to Iraq applied for food stamps while raising three kids on $19,000 a year. “His monthly military salary does not cover one monthly mortgage payment.”



What these men and women have experienced ?

- 94 percent have been shot at.

- 86 percent know someone that has been seriously wounded or killed

- 77 percent have shot at, or directed fire, at an enemy

- 68 percent have seen dead or seriously injured Americans

- 51 percent have handled or uncovered human remains.

- 48 percent say they were responsible for the death of an enemy combatant

- 28 percent say they were responsible for the death of a non-combatant.

http://www.motherjones.com/news/featurex/2007/03/aftermath_II.html

Pick up a paper, jemue. Fewer than a third of Americans see any value in this occupation.

Americans want our kids out of that meat grinder, because no one can identify anything to be gained by our staying there

While you're reading that paper, look for stories about American financial support for Sunni militants in Iraq and Iran - Sunni militants, as in armed factions sympathetic to al Qaeda.

The evidence is mounting that this administration has blundered into financing the real enemy, and still refuses to be held accountable.

I'm willing to believe you really thought these guys knew what they were doing. You were wrong.

Suck it up and try again, will you?

Our kids are dying for nothing.

Suck it up and try again, will you?