2008 Woodie Awards
Why Are We Blaming the Troops?
Do we appreciate our troops for the job they do, or take them for granted?
Bernard Chery
Issue date: 11/5/04 Section: Opinions
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Our troops are doing a tremendous job in Iraq and everyone should be very proud of them. When they sign up for military services they agree to follow the orders of their commander in chief. I believe they expect him to be trustworthy and have at least common sense. They went to Iraq in search for weapons of mass destruction, but later found out that it was not the case. Happy or not, under the military code, they are required to be apolitical and do the job that they are asked to do and they are doing just that.
The key to success is proper planning. In the past couple days I really came to the conclusion that this war in Iraq is not a success for our troops because of one reason: poor planning of the administration. Our military are doing more than their best. It is both sad and funny to hear the President says in one of his campaign stumps last week, responding to Senator John Kerry's attacks regarding the missing explosives in Iraq, that someone who jumps into conclusion without the all facts cannot be trusted to be president of this great nation. Was he referring to himself or to Senator Kerry? It is hard to tell. It is sad because the President still cannot acknowledge his mistakes, and funny because he seems to have a problem with getting his thoughts together.
In the latter case, I cannot forgive the President for reading his own speech wrong so many times. He said to a group of supporters at a stump speech, "We are not going to have an all-volunteer army." But when he realized that the audience was shocked or maybe received a buzz from his radio backpack monitor, as always, (remember the first presidential debate), he said, "No! We are going to have an all-volunteer army." Excuse me Mr. President! We already have an all-volunteer army. Oh! Maybe he was justifying the back-door draft that his opponent, John Kerry has been accusing him of doing since the beginning of the war in Iraq. Oops! Another buzz, I got it wrong again! He might say to himself, and finally said, "Let me rephrase it! We are not going to have a draft as long as I am the President." How can someone who has to give this simple sentence two tries before getting it right tells me that he cannot think of any mistakes he might have made over a three-year period.
The key to success is proper planning. In the past couple days I really came to the conclusion that this war in Iraq is not a success for our troops because of one reason: poor planning of the administration. Our military are doing more than their best. It is both sad and funny to hear the President says in one of his campaign stumps last week, responding to Senator John Kerry's attacks regarding the missing explosives in Iraq, that someone who jumps into conclusion without the all facts cannot be trusted to be president of this great nation. Was he referring to himself or to Senator Kerry? It is hard to tell. It is sad because the President still cannot acknowledge his mistakes, and funny because he seems to have a problem with getting his thoughts together.
In the latter case, I cannot forgive the President for reading his own speech wrong so many times. He said to a group of supporters at a stump speech, "We are not going to have an all-volunteer army." But when he realized that the audience was shocked or maybe received a buzz from his radio backpack monitor, as always, (remember the first presidential debate), he said, "No! We are going to have an all-volunteer army." Excuse me Mr. President! We already have an all-volunteer army. Oh! Maybe he was justifying the back-door draft that his opponent, John Kerry has been accusing him of doing since the beginning of the war in Iraq. Oops! Another buzz, I got it wrong again! He might say to himself, and finally said, "Let me rephrase it! We are not going to have a draft as long as I am the President." How can someone who has to give this simple sentence two tries before getting it right tells me that he cannot think of any mistakes he might have made over a three-year period.