Chief,
Once again, my full post to you was lost when I tried to submit it so I'll give you a condensed version as I'm tired.

I agree with part of your perception of President Bush (43) as far as he is not the President his Father was. Actually, he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer. I think he went to Washington with the belief that no one would dare lie to the President. My CIC was President Kennedy and then, President Johnson. Now, I didn't agree 100% with their policies but as a soldier, I knew that they, as President, represented the Government, good and bad, who represented the people who directly represent the mission of our armed forces which is comprised of our soldiers in harm's way. If I disagreed with policy, I did not ever put the entire blame on my CIC. Anyone can be deceived, Lord knows I have been, but I give the President all the support he needs as long as our kids are in harm's way. I think President Bush was elected two times because the American people saw him as the best choice after eight years of President Clinton.

You and I have ideas about the President which are 180 degrees out of phase but I just wanted to make myself clear on how I feel about supporting the President directly affects our troops.

I agree that we as "active" military have to support our president 100% to ensure that there is direction and purpose to any mission we are involved in, even if we disagree with the CIC. We owe it to our troops and the citizens we vowed to defend.


Where I have a minor disagreement with you is, that as a fully retired military man (30 yr obligation fulfilled) and no longer subject to the discipline of active duty, I now have the right to voice my disagreements with the CIC's policies if I think they are wrong (and I do). I don't believe this will have the impact that it would have had if I were still on active duty and it is not a put-down of the mission itself or the forces on the ground. If I could go back on active duty I can guarantee you that I would either be in Iraq or standing offshore, awaiting bombardment orders and I would not be posting negative postings in this forum about the CIC (Bush or otherwise).

I will continue to give 100% support (any way I can) to the ground troops who are in Iraq and in harms way (the troops not Bush). Even though I strongly dislike the man who is presently CIC and believe he elected to go to war for reasons that were more personal than he will admit, I realize he is NOT entirely responsible for the situation vis-a-vis Iraq.

But ultimately he is responsible - it took place on his watch and at his orders and for his reasons.

You seem to see either white or black and I see some shade of dark gray -maybe battleship gray? (Naval allusion).


As I said before - Can we agree to disagree?

[quote=Chief Bones]

Originally Posted by Chief Bones

But ultimately he is responsible - it took place on his watch and at his orders and for his reasons.

I agree with the buck stops here and Presidents should remember that. If they believed it as much as President Truman, they would be more careful.

Originally Posted by Chief Bones

You seem to see either white or black and I see some shade of dark gray -maybe battleship gray? (Naval allusion).

Originally Posted by Chief Bones

As I said before - Can we agree to disagree?

Sure, that's what makes horse races.