"There's a lot of good humor," Daniels said by phone from Kuwait. "They've only been here seven or eight weeks, and maybe near the end of a year's deployment people will be in a slightly different mood.
"Daniels spent Monday and Tuesday in Iraq, visiting with Indiana's 76th Infantry Brigade, as well as active duty units containing Hoosier soldiers. Indiana has 4,133 National Guard members serving in Iraq and Afghanistan -- the most of any state.
"They're really good at what they're doing, they're really proud of what they're doing, and every Hoosier should be, too," he said . . .
"Infrastructure's better," he said. "Still no garden spot, but definitely different. The level of violence is way down.
"Iraqi soldiers have worked in the southern city of Basra to eradicate insurgent militias and in the north, near Mosul, to get rid of members of al-Qaida in Iraq, Daniels said.
"There's a tentative sense of real excitement," Daniels said, "not only getting on top of the security situation, but that it's the Iraqis doing it."
Ronco says Daniels learned a new military acronym during his visit to Iraq. "I learned a new military acronym: SIGO. It means 'significant other,' " he said.
10 comments:
I wonder if he's aware of the significance of "SNAFU" and "FUBAR." Or did he just visit Mike Pence's Indiana-market Baghdad?
Or, Doug, learned about recent successes in Iraq as even the New York Times concedes in a front-page story today. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/21/world/middleeast/21sadr.html?hp
What was the point of this trip, other than to get photos of Daniels with some guys in military gear that I promise you WILL be in a TV commercial, so you heard it here first. Don't get me wrong. Everybody over there deserves the gratitude of this nation. But thank them when they come home by doing something that REALLY makes a difference in their life, such as continuing to remedy the criminally negligent care provided to by many VA hospitals under the watch of the Governor's old boss. I think they'd probably like that a lot better than a handshake from a Governor (who could better spend his time trying to replace all of Indiana's lost jobs so the veterans will have somewhere to work when they come home).
As an aside, I LOVE the hypocrisy of the military. When it comes to gays serving in the military, WE ARE NOT AN ORGANIZATION FOR SOCIAL CHANGE OR EXPERIMENTATION! But when troops start killing themselves at record levels, and they get ground up with repeated rotations, all of a sudden the whole "no fraternizing" rule goes right out the window.
Daniels using our National guard soldiers in Iraq in trying to convince us that it is wonderful makes me question the sanity of Mitch Daniels..Perhaps he should talk to the families of some of those that are there now and get the real story.
I don't question his sanity. Just his motives.
"Daniels using our National guard soldiers in Iraq in trying to convince us that it is wonderful makes me question the sanity of Mitch Daniels..Perhaps he should talk to the families of some of those that are there now and get the real story."
Right - using them, like Howard Dean used video of three of them getting blown up in an anti-war ad. Maybe you ought to talk to a few military families, Wilson. You'll find that though they're sad for their loss, they're immensely proud of their sons and daughters, and certainly not upset at a Governor.
Would we expect the governor to say our soldiers have low morale?
Those families should be proud of their sons and daughters. They have served bravely. The sad thing is that it is a war that should not have happened and that Bush sent them there with the equipment to wage war as safely as it can be [and it is never safe]. Also Dont call me Wilson!!!
"Those families should be proud of their sons and daughters. They have served bravely. The sad thing is that it is a war that should not have happened and that Bush sent them there with the equipment to wage war as safely as it can be [and it is never safe]."
You and I can agree on one thing, at least. You probably meant that Bush sent them there without the equipment to wage war safely. I agree on that point, too.
I did mean WITHOUT.....
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