Obama to troops: “I will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm’s way”

Sad, this is so sad. The best part of America is dying over in Afghanistan, while Obama does photo ops…I can’t imagine what those young men and women are feeling–it must be such a feeling of hopelessness, knowing they have a pu$$y for a CoIC.
Give a clear vision of the mission, or get the heck out! Give our troops the support they need, or bring them home!

lovingmyUSA on October 27, 2009 at 9:56 AM

Ah, the Cindy Sheehan look alike contest page? By the way, John Bernard is a civilian and has been one for many years. He’s doing the Cindy Sheehan thing with the blind anger attacks because he thinks his son was lost for nothing. I’m betting his son is looking down and just shaking his head, much as Casey Sheehan must be doing with respect to his mother. It must be really sad to think your son died for nothing, but those demons are entirely self-inflicted.
unclesmrgol on October 27, 2009 at 9:47 AM

YOU HAVE A LOT OF FREAKING GALL, COMPARING THIS FATHER TO CINDY SHEEHAN!!!!! He is nowhere LIKE that b*tch!!!
Bernard, 55, joined the Marines in 1972 and served 26 years on active and reserve duty, leading a platoon as a scout sniper in the first Gulf War in 1991.
He and his wife, Sharon, raised Joshua and their daughter, Katie, 25, in New Portland, population 800. The family attended Crossroads Bible Church in nearby Madison.

Fallen Marine’s father wants change

It was the last way John Bernard would have wanted his voice to gain prominence in the national debate over the war in Afghanistan.

The retired Marine had been writing to lawmakers for weeks complaining of the new rules of engagement he believed put U.S. troops at unacceptable risk in the insurgency-wracked country. He got little response.

Then Bernard’s only son, 21-year-old Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard — a Marine like his dad — was killed in an insurgent ambush in Afghanistan’s volatile Helmand province, the latest victim of a surge in U.S. combat deaths.

Three weeks later, Joshua became the face of that toll when The Associated Press published photos of the dying Marine against his father’s wishes and John Bernard was thrust into a national debate about the role of the press in wartime.

Suddenly, for all the worst reasons, John Bernard’s voice was being heard.

Bernard’s criticism is aimed at new rules of engagement imposed by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the senior American commander in Afghanistan, five weeks before Joshua Bernard was killed. They limit the use of airstrikes and require troops to break off combat when civilians are present, even if it means letting the enemy escape. They also call for greater cooperation with the Afghan National Army.

Under those rules, John Bernard said, Marines and soldiers are being denied artillery and air support for fear of killing civilians, and the Taliban is using that to its tactical advantage. In a letter to his congressman and Maine’s U.S. senators, Bernard condemned “the insanity of the current situation and the suicidal position this administration has placed these warriors in.”

“We’ve abandoned them in this Catch-22 where we’re supposed to defend the population, but we can’t defend them because we can’t engage the enemy that is supposed to be the problem,” he said in an interview with the AP.

Bernard says the battle that claimed Joshua’s life was just one example of all that’s wrong in Afghanistan.

When four Marines were killed in another ambush, near the Pakistan border, a McClatchy Newspapers reporter embedded with the unit wrote that its request for artillery fire support was declined because of the rules of engagement. The reporter quoted Marines as saying women and children were replenishing the insurgents’ ammunition…
“We’ve got guys in harm’s way getting shot at and getting killed,” he said. “To me, it’s immoral that anybody in this country wouldn’t have that first and last on their minds.”

http://www.wavy.com/dpp/military/military_ap_maine_Fallen_Marine_father_wants_change_in_Afghanistan_20091013

lovingmyUSA on October 27, 2009 at 10:22 AM

Hold on — I’m checking John Murtha’s Marine bio even as we speak.

Gee, he seems to have a wife and kiddies and a distinguished service record too. Gee, he’s so famous he’s got an airport named after him!

Now, what point were you making?

unclesmrgol on October 27, 2009 at 11:40 AM

WTF are you talking about??? John Murtha–what does that have to do with John Bernard? Those are some serious drugs you are on!

lovingmyUSA on October 27, 2009 at 3:05 PM