massive disrespect

Originally posted by Thomas Crowne
That was a well-written response, Skadi; it made me want to salute the flag and hoist a mug to the memory of George and Ben and Tom and Patrick and the rest of the Founding fathers.

However, just to make sure that I understand, you are stating that you have seen the intel and know for a fact that the United States Airforce was not just striking SA stations and radar stations after the first war, and that ALL of those places that Scott Ritter said that Saddam was playing shell games (Before he curiously changed his tune after returning) were destroyed by bombs, and that everyone manufacturing facility, including mobile ones (except, of course, the mobile labs for the highly secretive weather balloon project) were destroyed?
You are also saying that you, as a single soldier stationed in Saudi Arabia, knew more about the onsgoings in Iraq than did the intelligence services of not only the U.S. (The same ones who were caught unaware by the fall of the Iron Curtain, I admit) but also the intel services that were briefing the leaders of other countries that also stated the dangers from Hussein and his chemical and biological weapons?
I would have to ask you how you know such detailed information and how you can say for certainty that this be the case as I have never known one soldier to have all the pieces before. Also, why, since this is totally contrary to what has been released to the press, would you state that which would be totally classified as it is obviously something "they" (and you know who they are) prefer us not to know. Seems they would not enjoy the release of information stating that we continued to bomb the Iraqi military, other than SA sites and associated radar stations.

Of course I do not have all the pieces of intel. I did not say that. Nor am I saying anything that is top-secret classified, either.

But one does not need every single little piece of intel to get a good picture, either.

I know for a fact we went on some bombing runs of certain facilities in Iraq that were suspect, to say the least. This is pretty common knowledge. A grey area in our enforcement of the no fly zone. We werent totally restricted to bombing their Scuds, Radars, and such. It was an area of leeway during our enforcement.

I am not saying Saddam NEVER had WMD. He did. After all, we sold him the crap when he was our golden boy during the ten year war with Iran. He even lobbed some nerve gas presents at our boys and girls when they were chasing him out of Kuwait.

But by the time 2003 had rolled around, the only "stockpiles" of WMD Saddam had were some seriouslyly degraded and impotent chemical weapons covered in bat guano and some out of date gear
that wouldnt have made it to the repair shop, let alone Israel. The pretense we were told to go into Iraq with was that Saddam had nukes, or nuke capabilities, all sorts of doomsday juice, and more germs than a barroom toilet seat. This of course, was false.

Even the powers that be have already admitted they dont expect to find any WMD, and the intel that led us there has been under so much fire.

No, one does not need to see every single classified document to know what we were doing during operation Desert Eagle. Word gets around fast in the ranks. And sometimes having friends in certain places helps.

Its not classified anymore. Its simply not spoken about. Odd, that.

I don't believe I have ever heard that we had any discretionary leeway in bombing targets inside Iraq. This is big news to me, as well as the news that we continued to pound the Iraqi military as a whole all during these years.
So, you are saying that, even though countries were selling him the equipment that could be used to coninue chemical and biological weapons, even though many well-informed leaders around the world and all of our political leaders on both sides of the aisle believed that he had these weapons, and not simply outdated stocks, you are saying for certainty that this is not true, and you say this because you were stationed in Saudi Arabia with the Air Force.

We both knew in our hearts that no weapons would be found. You for one reason, and me for another. I knew they would no longer be rthere because we gave Hussein such an incredibly long time to insure that if we did attack, we would find nothing. Remember the satalite photos (Air Force photos, I'm sure. Most of us Army ground-pounder types wouldn't know how to operate a camera unless we were strolling down the less reputable parts of European cities, if you know what I mean) showing convoys heading into Syria? I couldn't believe the reckless amount of time wasted talking to other countries in the U.N. even after it was coming out that many countries had financial reasons not to attack Hussein.

As I said, that was a well-written post, Skadi. I don't agree with a lot of it, I don't see your inside info that would allow you greater knowledge to make such definitive statements, and after reading this, I do not feel I have anymore information that would cause me to agree with your opinions.

No, i wasnt in the airforce silly.

I was in a missile unit. Army. We just basically got stuck covering the Chair Force all the time

And this is news to me that every leader on our side knew Saddam had WMD. As a matter of fact, I distinctly remember quite the opposite. The intel that the supposed WMD stockpile relied on was faulty, and even before the war people were questioning the validity. The UN, for whatever they are worth, even questioned the intel. Politicians of many stripes in our own government even aggreed that the intel was not strong enough. Not just our governemnt either. The British were skeptical, and so were the French and Germans, although those two power we shall ignore for the sake of this arguement because of many questions about their own motives.

Im not basing the fact that there were no WMDs in Iraq simply because of my experience in Saudi. I use my experience, knowledge from that time, plus all the facts and data that were present before the war started from many different sources.

Its not just one experience. But like any smart person, I always combine personal experience when it does support a very strong possibility. In this case I am right.

If you are refering to that UN resolution that was passed against Iraq, even it did not state that Iraq did indeed have WMD. The issue was Iraqs failure to cooperate with the UN inspectors, and their rather spoiled brat behavior about the issue.

Originally posted by caseythegeek21
as far as division, i was a hospital corpsman with the 3rd marine division out of camp pendleton in oceanside, Ca....

3d Marine Division is based out Okinawa, Japan, not Camp Pendleton California....that would 1st Marine Division.

caseythe geek...in another thread here on ATS you state that you were in an emergancy room working when the 911 attacks happened...while on this thread you state you were in a school????????????????????

[edit on 4/20/2006 by Cherish]

Originally posted by Cherish
caseythe geek...in another thread here on ATS you state that you were in an emergancy room working when the 911 attacks happened...while on this thread you state you were in a school????????????????????

[edit on 4/20/2006 by Cherish]

CTG is a fraud, nothing he says will ever be taken seriously, he is obviously just a kid. He said the attack on Pentagon and WTC happened on different days.

Never Mind....

[edit on 21/4/2006 by ANOK]

Just curious cause the Marines don't have corpsman, they use Navy corpsman.

Correct, Marines don't have corpsman. They use navy corpsman. But many corpsman are with Marine units.....not only attached, they are part of the unit. FMF (Fleet Marine Force) corpsman are different than hospital corpsman....FMF corpsman belong to the corps, they fall under Marine commands and for all administrative purposes....they are Marines (not really, but you get what I'm saying).

Sporty

[edit on 21/4/2006 by SportyMB]

Thanx Sporty, I went back through the thread and he did say he was in the Navy, my mistake so I deleted the thread.

Sry ya'll cary on now...