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Are American soldiers in Iraq dying in vain?

Results so far:

Yes
58% 249 votes Total: 428 votes
No
42% 179 votes

Yes

by Shadesdown

Created on: April 15, 2008

Yes, I feel American soldiers in Iraq are dying in vain. Granted American Heartland received a heart felt blow to not only millions of families across the country but to its ego on September 11, 2001. It began to make American Citizens second guess the strength of security the American Government had for its citizens.

Bush at that point, did the next best thing and retaliated by sending our heroic military troops over seas. American Citizens at that point, especially those who had to say goodbye to their loved ones, had the hopes of the war to only last approximately one year or so and our troops would be able to come home and continue their lives with their loved ones on American soil.

Bush continuously broke through regular TV broadcasts promising American Citizens that our troops were making progress and the war on Iraq would end sooner than originally planned. Countless times, those loved ones prayed for their family heroes over seas to have a safe and fast return back to their homes in America.

By the end of the third year of the ongoing endless war, Bush began to lose support and the respect from his American followers and American citizens began to feel the pressures of not being able to contact nor hear from their loved ones over seas. Agitation started to set in throughout America as more and more of their military loved ones began to fall victim to war as Bush continued to show no remorse for their loss.

After the capture and the execution of Saddam Hussein on December 30, 2006, American Citizens began to breath a sigh of relief and hope began to run through their veins believing that Bush would be satisfied and he would call the war as won and begin sending American soldiers home.

At this point, more than seven thousand troops and counting had lost their lives while serving their country.

To the dismay of American citizens, the execution of Saddam Hussein only made President Bush even more blood thirsty and refused to allow the American soldiers to come home.

Now that the war on Iraq is hitting its eighth year and as more and more American soldiers continue to lose their lives, it seems to the American citizens that no more progress has been made since the execution of Hussein, the answer is YES, I feel American soldiers are losing their lives in vain.

And those who still continue to serve their country have missed, the birth of their children, for many who were born during the beginning of the war, are beginning to start school and these troops still to date haven't even been able or allowed to see them during the past seven years of their lives.

Troops while over seas, have also lost loved ones like their mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and extended family members and were not allowed to come home to attend their funerals and pay their last respects.

The respect for the President of the United States continues to plummet even by some of those who voted for him and supported him through his term and the War on Iraq.

Learn more about this author, Shadesdown.
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No

by Ted Sherman

Created on: January 11, 2008

I was 17 when Jed and I joined up with Colonel Washington's boys just outside Philadelphia in the fall of 1777. We got our new uniforms and muskets and paraded around near the courthouse, much to the delight of the ladies. Then we all marched out and went into winter camp in Valley Forge. It was nothing but cold and wet. First Jed caught the cough, and then me. We both died without every hearing a British musket fired at us. I believe I died to help give birth to a new nation.

I was 18 when the Union sergeant came to our Indiana town in 1861 and said he was forming a regiment to fight the Rebs. We got our uniforms, all neat and blue, and were soon on a train on over to Pennsylvania to a place called Gettysburg. After three days of real rough fighting, I was hit by a minie ball and fell in a place called Cemetery Ridge. I believe I died to preserve my nation.

I was 22 when my New York National Guard unit was activated in 1917 just before the Germans sank the Lusitania. I was a senior at Columbia and looked forward to going to law school. However, I was a patriotic man, and proud to put on my first lieutenant's uniform. When the President declared war in April, my unit joined Regulars and National Guard from all over the US at Camp Yaphank to form the famous Rainbow Division. We trained for six months, then sailed for France. I was leading a patrol in the Rouge Bouquet when a German sniper killed me. I believe I died to make democracy strong in America and elsewhere in the world.

I was 19 when the Japs hit Pearl Harbor. I was so pee'd off that I was at the Navy recruiting office the next day and signed up. In a few weeks, I got my orders to Newport for boot camp, then to boatswain school in San Diego. In 1943 I was assigned to a troop transport, and my landing craft got hit as I was steering it to land Marines on Tarawa. Most of the Marines and I didn't make it. I believe I died because Japan attacked us and Hitler declared war on it, and those guys had to be stopped.

I was 38, a National Guard master sergeant serving my second active duty tour in Iraq in 2007. One morning in December, after a relatively quiet night in Baghdad, a bunch of us guys were handing out Christmas toys to some kids in the neighborhood. You know, I have three of my own at home, and it made me feel good, right up to the moment the booby trap on one of the kids went off right next to me. I believe I died because it was my duty to defend my country from terrorists who would kill kids in America, maybe my own.

Tell us, please. Did we all die in vain?

Learn more about this author, Ted Sherman.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.


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