There’s a parallel with Israeli politics following the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin:
“If Rabin’s assassination revealed one thing to Israelis, it was the depths of divisions within their own society, and that those divisions could yield far more dangerous outcomes than any threat from Israel’s neighbors. Though there are many complex reasons for Israel’s rightward shift over the past 20 years — the bloody second intifada and Hamas rule in Gaza among them — the Rabin assassination also played a role. The Israeli left and center ceded the country to the right in order to keep the peace, said Yaron Ezrahi, a professor emeritus of political science at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Israelis chose permanent battle with the Palestinians over civil war.

“The Israeli public was shocked by the conflict between right and left,” he said. “The public was willing if not to reconcile, to not exacerbate the conflict by choosing a right-winger as a certain kind of appeasement to the aggressive right.”

Read more: http://forward.com/news/323621/murder-and-a-legacy-interupted/#ixzz3qLngM2aR

Yeah. I’ve got no doubt that it there was currently a Republican president, this wouldn’t be an issue. They might discuss mission creep, which would be fair, but they wouldn’t tackle it this way imo.

Yes, unless you blinded by partisan politics. As Heather says, the left do this to a degree, but far more the right, who’s knees jerk at anything the Obama administration does even if their guy would have done the same.

Why would anyone but the military care whether it’s called a combat operation or not? It’s one of the better things we’ve done over there, and the guy deserves to be honored. I’m no military expert, but I would think that when you set out to free prisoners from the enemy, you expect there will be some resistance.

Ok, the reason for one’s presence as opposed to what might actually happen on the ground, got it. Seems a simple matter of fact, then. But nothing is simple with Faux News.

Maybe it’s because I was brought up with an ex-military/current territorial father. I spent a lot of time as a kid around military people and watching training exercises. So, the different terms are unconsciously clear to me. The operation is training Iraqi soldiers. It is not combat. These are clear categories in the military. The Iraqi mission was to rescue the hostages. The US soldiers were there in an advisory capacity, to assist with tactics. There was no plan to engage. It was not a combat operation.

Fair enough comment about bravery and not really knowing what was in their minds. I was thinking that if it was me I couldn’t just sit back and watch friends being attacked while I did nothing, and I think most people are the same, but there would always be a certain level of fear to overcome.

The poppy comment is your own though. NZ and Australia’s poppy day is 25 April. It hadn’t even crossed my mind. I don’t know if the US even has a poppy day, but they usually get particularly soppy around Veteran’s day, which isn’t for a couple of weeks yet.

And I’ve never been a poppy fascist, and people who are piss me off big time. I’ve even had an argument in the street with a poppy seller who was trying to shame someone else into buying one, and took off the one I was already wearing and gave it back to him as a result.

The Americans come with the latest weaponry, there is much more chance they will live than die – if anything, the ISIS guys they are fighting are the brave ones, because they are so poorly equipped and there is a much higher chance they will die.

It’s that time of year again when groupthink kicks in and we must all sit there worshipping the military, and anyone who refuses to wear a poppy gets attacked by the poppy fascists – reminds me of the Seinfeld episode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iV8X8ubGCc

Indeed!

Heather, I’m glad your autofill is working 🙂