Meanwhile, in the real world

[frogcycle]

Tuesday, January 29, 2008; Page B06

Sgt. Tracy Renee Birkman, an Army mechanic and mother of three from the Roanoke area, died Friday after suffering injuries unrelated to combat in Owesat, Iraq, according to military officials. The incident is under investigation, they said.

In addition to her three sons, Birkman, 41, of New Castle, is survived by her parents, according to officials at Fort Campbell, Ky., where her division, the 101st Airborne, is based.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/28/AR2008012802192.html?wpisrc=rss_world/mideast


http://origin.denverpost.com/blogs/ci_8096518

A Denver West High School graduate — one of two men to survive a deadly roadside blast along one of Baghdad's deadliest roads — has died from complications that resulted from his injuries, the Department of Defense and the soldier's family said Sunday.

Pfc. Duncan Charles Crookston, 19, an airborne infantryman who enlisted after graduating from West High School in 2006, died Friday at Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. He had been fighting for his life since an improvised bomb exploded near the humvee he was in Sept. 4. He was severely burned and underwent multiple amputations.


and NINEWAH, Iraq – Coalition Force Soldiers were conducting a mounted patrol in Ninewah Jan. 28 when insurgents detonated an improvised explosive device, killing five Soldiers.

[Chovexani]

1. How long must this insanity continue?

:cry:

[zabet]

2. This is what is important!

Not the sandbox politics
of who shook whos hand.
:grr:

[SammyWinstonJack]

12. ...

:thumbsup:

[Djinn]

3. American soldier have always died to protect US economic interests

With the possible exception of WW2 that is the ONLY reason US soldiers have ever fought.

I really don't understand all this "not what they joined for", if being a gangster for capitalism isn't what they joined for they were clearly completely ignorant of their own history.

Sorry if it seems harsh but I just can't get too upset when someone who voluntarilly joined an offensive armed service, discovers that war is deadly.

Given the choice of "kill this innocent person or go to jail" what would you pick? Every US soldier has the option to take the only moral route available and do what a large number of desserters alredy have.

Yes, it's not a pleasant choice, jail isn't fun, not having an income to support your family is no fun - murdering children is considered worse by most people.

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

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[frogcycle]

9. well, you are welcome to your opinion

and you are welcome to keep it to yourself. Or start your own thread attacking the troops.

[Terran]

13. Jesus christ

Do you really expect that the average grunt is supposed to understand that they are being used as pawns in a gigantically f*cked-up game? Most people in the military are there out of either economic necessity or an honest feeling that they should 'serve their country', the latter of which is really a positive sentiment when you get down to it, and not something you or I have any right to criticize. Have some compassion. Have some moral common f*cking sense.

[Triana]

6. God. Mother of three and a 19-year-old....

..this just makes me sick. HOW can that psychopath bu$h SLEEP at night.

Oh. That's right. He's a PSYCHOPATH. Zero conscience.

:mad:

[underpants]

7. Not sure where New Castle is

but my wife is from Roanoke. I will ask her about it tomorrow.

We did try to tell them

[Jed Dilligan]

8. Mounted patrol on horses?

[frogcycle]

10. I assume you're kidding

but in case you're not, that means they were in a vehicle when they were blown to bits, vs. "dismounted" which is on foot

[Jed Dilligan]

11. I don't know, cops use horses

Didn't seem that unreasonable. Just a weird image, the new spacesuit soldiers sitting on horseback.

[Virginia Dare]

14. I hate the media with just an unmitigated passion. You . . . lied about me when I was in Vietnam."

Birkman's father, Jerald Griffith, a Vietnam War veteran, said he was angry with military officials for releasing information about his daughter's death and with the news media for its portrayal of soldiers such as himself.

"I didn't want it released. I am so about all this I can just scream," said Griffith, also of New Castle. "I hate the media with just an unmitigated passion. You . . . lied about me when I was in Vietnam."

He said his daughter was on her third deployment. "She's over there in a war we shouldn't even be involved in, on her third tour," Griffith said.

[frogcycle]

15. just learned one of the five was from my hometown n/t