Will, we will have to disagree on George. Agree on Gore. In my eyes Bush and Clinton were both draft dodgers. It's time to get back to dogs. There needs to be a place to get away from right-left wing media, War- Peace and Religion. That's why I come to this board is to get away from those topics.. I'm going to leave these type post alone in the future.

Agreed there, my friend!
There's room for polite discussion and disagreement always, but you know that doesn't change my respect for you one bit!

Will

In my eyes Bush and Clinton were both draft dodgers.

thanks...my cousin who flew with him and flew for 20 years I'm sure would completely disagree with you.

The youth of our country need to be exposed and more in tune with such a philosophy and way of life. Taking prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance out of our schools has done much harm and certainly done good for no one. It is a far reaching misconception that the founding fathers of this great country founded it upon the prenmise that all men are created equal and free to do as they want,...Unfortunately as great as this sounds it is wholly inaccurate and creates a sickened attitude among americans as reflected in our attitude abroad as the 'Ugly American',...however, the true premise that our country was founded upon is that all men are created equal and free to do as they OUGHT to do which is...
...worship their God
...defend their country and it's supporting allies and
...take care of their family and others
in essence it is the first two that bring the third to it's best level of care with the stronger economies and the pride that it instills within each of us to be an American and yes the dogs of War as well issued to each American.
I remember when that was a standard taught in the curriculum across the country in both private and public schools.
Now I am a retired Master Sgt from the US Army and it is amazing how many troops did not know the Pledge of Allegiance or had never prayed. You can bet that in a short time I had my troops praying and spending more time with families and helping others,...all in addition to the fact they were already serving the most noble of callings which is to stand and defend the God they worship, the ideals and purpose of their people, their country and its allies and do so in direct response to it being the precursor to providing the most stable care to each family member and the famlies of others.
If ya' ever need help, there isn't a soldier, sailor, marine or airman out there thst wont step up and help if he can and likely step up even if he can't he / she will try,...that's what the dog does. Steps up as a soldier to do the impossible and see it through to the end. And the K9 does it all miraculously without the benefit of opposable thumbs.
Thanks again for sallowing my words from the peanut gallery aboard this ship,
Mr. R.W.Brignone

i'm one of those from the "i support the troops, not the reason they're there" camp. i didn't like saddam, or the things i was told about him, despite the fact i took it all with a grain of salt. i'm glad he's gone, just not comfortable with the way it was done. we (as the west, i'm not an american, but my home country of australia is irrevocably involved in this mess too) made complete asses of ourselves.

we, like it or not, did invade a country under false pretenses. colin powell's political career is probably permanently hosed from his involvement in it. it's my personal fear that with iraq all we've done is given the asshole terrorists out there a great "i told you so" to recruit more impressionable idiots. think about it, you're saddam. you've got the kurds, as well as being surrounded by unfriendlies. you may or may not have managed to pick up some nukes or any other "WMD". what on earth would you gain by pointing it at a country that probably posesses a thousand times as much firepower, which is amplified a million times considering that your piss-ant country is smaller than the size of (off the top of my head, i sure hope i'm right!) at least on of their states.

i come from a military family. i have the deepest gratitude for your service and your dog's, wherever your commander decided to put you. i weep for the lives that we've lost, that we're losing, and i weep for the fact that it's not going to stop any time soon. i've noticed in the last couple of weeks a greater number of "leftist" news channels calling iraq a civil war. i'm not an expert of what the exact situation is there, but as an armchair military strategist i suspect that the real action will begin when we leave. five months or five years from now, iraq will probably errupt the moment we leave.

the reason? in my opinion, we took a god-forsaken shithole off of one group of bloodthirsty bastards, and handed it over to another group of bloodthirsty bastards. despite the fact that they share the same religion, don't expect them to forget what happened a in the past. maybe one day they'll all get along, but they have to want it, we can't tell 'em it's a good idea.

and respectfully to mr brignone, who thinks that the lack of prayer in schools is to blame for the USA's woes, and that it's not what the founding fathers had in mind - did you forget about jefferson? saying that the troops are defending "our god" is a great way to ramp up terrorist recruiting (crusades anyone?) and a great way to divide this country up.

again, i thank from the deepest part of my heart the troops who have served their countries, anywhere on the planet, to better my way of life. i don't have to support the men who put you there, or the reasons they had for doing it.