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The Abu Girab matter was an anomoly.  The second shift guards were not regular army and weren't properly trained.  Much hay was made out of it by the media and certain politicians *purely* for political reasons.  The fact is, by the time the pictures hit the media, the military had been several months involved into the investigation with the goal of prosecuting the culprits.  Yet the media and certain politicians made it look like they discovered the army doing bad stuff and it was them who were forcing the military's investigations.  They have lied to us, for political purposes.

And your reference to the Band of Brothers must but put into it's proper context.  Sure, regular conscripts were just regular folk caught up in the events, but the Waffen SS and the Hitler Youth, they were truly the kool-aid drinkers.  They believe in all the Nazi hype, especially the Hitler Youth.  They were psycho about the propaganda.

And Full Metal Jacket, it's a movie.  Viet Nam was an ill-prepared war with unclear goals, poor strategies, and no domestic support.  What steams me is watching media and certain politicians who clearly do not support our Iraq effort are the ones who keep trying to convince anyone and everyone that Iraq is another Viet Nam.  It's like a self fufilling prophecy.  If they keep saying Iraq is like Viet Nam enough, they attempt to convince the polulation, then the population will enu up withdrawing support and it will end up like Viet Nam.  This is dispicable to me.

All this hype of "We don't support the war but we support the troops" is nonsense.  The troops are defined by their mission.  The sooner and more successfully they complete their mission, the sooner they come home.  By not supporting their mission, morale IS affected.  No amount of explaining and theorizing can change that fact.  The soldier is defined by his/her mission.  Period.  Heck, we're still dealing with Viet Nam vets who are still having issues.  Why?  Because it was an unpopular war and they got no support.  Imaging, they killed, adn watched their buddies die around them, only to have some bunch of politically motivated activists tell them that they suffered hardship and pain for, in John Kerry's words, "A big nothing".  Is that what we want for our service personnel in Iraq to deal with when they come home?  That's exactly what certain segments in society are trying (albieit unknowingly) to set up for them.

Now is Iraq easy?  No.  Is any war?  No. So, when it get's difficult, do we dig in, or do we cut and run?  These media and politicians want us to cut and run, thus fulfilling their prophecies.

And I'm aware how the Japanese had attempted to sanitize thei ractivities in WWII.  But to equate that with Iraq is to ignore the facst.  The Iraqi's were a suppressed people.  How can you say they weren't?  And you know what comprises the insurgents?  Ex-Bathists and foreign jihadis.  Now, the ex-Bathis have been rethinking their actions considering they're killing their fellow Iraqis.  But the foreign jihadis?  They could care less who they are killing.  In fact, they are targeting Iraqi's because they make easier targets.  To equate all this with what Japan did to China during WWII is to ignore large sums of current facts and historical facts.

...but we are moving off the subject of WWII fighters in a very big way at this point.

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I agree about Iraq being more like Viet Nam that WWII.  The WWII generation became one mind in winning the conflict.  There was much debate pro and against the war prior to us entering the war.  But once we joined the conflict, all debate stopped.  With Iraq, as was in Viet Nam, the debate continued, without regard to the harm to morale of the troops that is created by many of the things that were and are being said.

And I can understand recruiting going down.  All you have to do is watch the evening news and anyone would become depressed about matters.  There's positive news regarding Iraq, just you're not going to get it from the networks.  Also, regarding active duty personnel, re-up's are going through the roof.

Your points regarding the educated soldier and using kamakaze's as an example are not clear to me.  Can you explain what you mean?

You have got to remeber the way they though back then was different that the way we think to day.

What many writters forget is that most of the time the truth is more interesting than created Myth.

Military Myth are created to reduce fear and create confidence. Sometimes Goverment need to do this.

But Historian given the appropiate time. Should exclude them from actual historical records.

I blame our present day Historians for not been more critical.

This is only a opinion

James007

Please do tell us Bomberman   would love to hear what those tactics are?   interesting names.


And your right on about the support our troops but not the war thing.  Thats how ive felt all along and meant to address that with DC.   Im a big Pearl Jam fan, and they cought MAJOR flack back in 03 for voicing up against Bush.  Suddenly because they did not support the presidents decision to go to war,  they were un-american, un-patriotic, and wanted the troops dead?   Which makes no sence really,  how can people who dont support war, because they want PEACE want troops dead?    and so on,  i could go on forever about the subject.  And i do think the best part about Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam through that whole thing,  Is that Eddie V is very well knowledge on the subject, and isnt just another celebrity wind bag.