The War

[Photogrunt]

You know this had to come up.  Since the board has been down, we haven't been able to discuss how it has affected everybody.  

I don't want to talk about weather the war is right or wrong (to everything, there is a season).  What I want to hear is how it is affecting you and your life.  Do you have friends/family there?  How do you handle the images on TV every day?  

For me, this is not the first conflict I'll be 'missing'.  I've been in the Army since 1987, and have been fortunate to be stationed in locations that have kept me out of harm's way.  So I've 'missed' the first Gulf War, Panama, Somalia, Bosnia, and now the current conflict.  In a way, I feel bad because someone else is doing the job I've been trained to do...kinda like I really haven't earned my stripes or done my part...but I have great respect and admiration for my peers.  Don't get me wrong...I don't desire combat duty.  There is a difference in wanting to do one's duty and desire.  God has richly blessed me by protecting me from harm.  It's bad enough I have to fight traffic in downtown DC...now that's combat!    

I do watch war coverage every day.  I want to stay informed about the daily events.  I also want to remember for historical purposes what happened if I am ever asked my point of view.  But I don't spend hours on end listening to the same reports.  I can only take so much of CNN/Fox News.  I have to make time for Traiding Spaces and Friends!  

My prayers are with the troops and our Commander-in-Chief.  May our great Lord and Savior guide their dicisions and actions.  We are a nation of blessed souls...may His Spirit shine through in our actions of mercy and kindness.

[Symphony]

There was a short blurb in The New Yorker magazine a few months ago mentioning a recent show(or book) of war photos of a well-known photographer of the Civil War, remarking it was the most terrible thing he had ever seen.

If you are a combat photographer, do you still get to practice your craft even when stateside?

Do you use some of the latest equipment(digital?).  What's your main film--35mm?  Do you do only stills.  Any video?

Was just curious.  Thanks.

[Photogrunt]

Well, I do shoot from time to time, but mostly for leasure or for friends that are getting married.  I'm currently shooting video on the job (the Army combigned the two crafts into one job discription).  When I do shoot stills, I use 35mm film.  Digital is good for immediate usage, but I don't trust its lasting power.  Images are corruptable, and over time will be obsolete due to technology.  Film in my opinion is the best way to go because it is highly archivable and lasting.

The closest to actual 'combat' I've come to is full flegged exercise.  Except the bullets being shot were blanks and people know they were hit by the MILES gear (that's lazer tag to you and me) they wear.  I think that is as close to the real thing as I want to get.

[Forrest]

                           

[nChrist]

I don't want to talk about weather the war is right or wrong (to everything, there is a season).  What I want to hear is how it is affecting you and your life.  Do you have friends/family there?  How do you handle the images on TV every day?  

My son serves in the Gulf on the aircraft carrier Nimitz. He and I both believe strongly in what he is doing for his country. I had a chance to meet many of his mates before they deployed. They were an outstanding group of the finest young men and women. There was a common denominator among them. They didn't want any more 9-11s, and they felt they were serving their future children and their children's children. They wanted to bring the battle to the turf of the terrorists and hopefully prevent the terrorists from bringing the battle to innocents in America. They didn't want their families to live in constant fear like the people of Israel. They were ready to give their lives for what they believed.

I was very proud of them. I dealt with a different type of violence for 25 years in police work. Completely senseless mass death was an unknown for cops before the Oklahoma City Bombing and 9-11. I was of the mistaken opinion that mass terrorism would never come to America. We've always felt somewhat protected by oceans and an outstanding military. We were right about the outstanding military, but we were wrong that America would never fall to mass terrorism.

I believe the real question must be what changed since 9-11. In my opinion, we can no longer ignore the rampage of terrorists. I feel good about what we are doing to put the terrorists in check. I simply wish the fight had been mine instead of my son's.

[Michael]

  Not that anyone cares about my opinions, especially you BEP, But I will just say, that being a Viet Nam Vet myself, it has really made me happy to see that todays soldiers are treated with the respect and thanks they ought to be given!

And I do pray for the soldiers, I don't know now though BEP, you will probably be offended if I am praying for your son, won't you? Seeing I am such a heathen scoundrel because I reject the OSAS doctrine!

I do thank God that My son will not have to go, he is the sole surviving son, of a war veteran so he is exempt from all military duty, and I would not want him to be a part of any of it at all!

[Forrest]

             Michael;
        Is that very loveing?
              EPH 4:2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
                EPH 6:23 Peace [be] to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.:24 Grace [be] with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen.
                 GAL 5:14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, [even] in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
                 ROM 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? [shall] tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

[Michael]

            Michael;
        Is that very loveing?
              EPH 4:2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
                EPH 6:23 Peace [be] to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.:24 Grace [be] with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen.
                 GAL 5:14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, [even] in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
                 ROM 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? [shall] tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

I meant absolutely nio offense to you personally, But, I am absolutely certain that Blackeyedpeas, Pilgrim, and Ambassador4Christ all hate me for my refusal to accept the once saved always doctrine, and so I said what I did.

I do not hate them, I just do not, and will never agree with the doctrine they follow after, is that so wrong?  

No matter what I post in these forums, I am the heathen as far as they are concerned, I get ridiculed, and insulted, so what do I do, I respond in the same manner, is that right, No, but I did it, so I apologized, and asked their forgiveness, but do these who are so perfectly right in everyway respond to that apology at all, or do they forgive my trangressions, NO, they do not, they only reject my apology!

They speak of how we will all sin, and we have no choice and they think God automaticvally forgives our sin, whether we confess the sin and ask Gods forgiveness or not, well if their example is the exact example as what they think Gods way is, then I am very very glad none of them is God, else I would certainly be in hell right now suffering the eternal torments forever!

BEP,  PILGRIM, AMBASSADOR4CHRIST, IF ANY OF YOU ARE READING THIS I AM SORRY ALRIGHT, SEE ME HERE CRAWLING ON MY KNEES LIKE THE DESPICABLE HEATHEN YOU WANT ME TO BE, AND NO DOUBT CONSIDER ME TO BE!

SEE ME GRUBBLING AND GROVELLING IN THE DIRT LIKE A PIG, BEGGING YOU TO FORGIVE ME!

SO WHAT MORE DOES IT TAKE TO OBTAIN YOUR FORGIVENESS, AND FAVOR?

WHAT DO I HAVE TO SAY OR DO TO BE ACCEPTED BY ANY OF YOU?

WHAT DO I HAVE TO SAY OR DO TO BE CONSIDERED AS A SINCERE CHRISTIAN BY YOU?

DOES IT TAKE ME ACCEPTING YOUR THEORY AS SOUND BIBLICAL DOCTRINE?

WELL I CAN'T DO THAT BECAUSE THE THEORY YOU FOLLOW IS NOT A PERFECTLY SOUND BIBLICAL DOCTRINE!

I HAVE NOT COME TO THAT CONCLUSIONJ LIGHTLY, I HAVE STUDIED GODS WORD EXTENSIVELLY FOR 13 YEARS!

I AM NOT SOME BRAND NEW CHRISTIAN WHO GOT SAVED 5 MINUTES AGO, ALRIGHT, I HAVE NOT POSTED A LOT OF SCRIPTURE BECAUSE THERE IS NO USE IN DOING IT, THIS WAS DONE, AS YOU ALL WELL KNOW, MANY TIMES IN THE PAST BEFORE THIS SITE CRASHED, BUT THAT EVIDENCE WHICH ABSOLUTELY PROVED YOUR DOCTRINE TO BE COMPLETELY WRONG WAS IGNORED BY YOU ALL SO WHAT AM I TO DO, GO THROUGH THE EXACT SAME GARBAGE AGAIN, NO I WILL NOT WASTE MY TIME TRYING TO SHOW PEOPLE WHO DO NOT WANT TO SEE GODS ABSOLUTE TRUTH, THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH OF GODS WORD.

Forrest, I sincerely apologize, you have not made me in the least angry, nor have you offended me in anyway, and I sincerely pray I have not offended you, or in anyway angered you, if I have, I apologize and beg your forgiveness.

[Forrest]

          Michael;
      You have not angered me, it's just responding this way to your detractors is not Christian, or loveing. I know it is hard not to, but Christ does comand us to love our enemys, He never said it would be easy, or that it wouldn't hurt us. The best way to respond is in love, or just ingore them they will be showen that you truly do love Jesus and follow Him.
       I'm not trying to anger you or say that you are wrong in your belives just that there is a better way to handle it.

[Sammy]

This War does Deppress me.  So many people seem to be under the impression that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11 or was involved with terrorist threats against America.  This is untrue.  There is no doubt that Saddam is a Villain  But does that justify bombing his people when you consider he poses no threat to us?  
For all of his problems, he was a unifying force in Iraq.  Was he better than Anarchy?  I dont know.  
If you look at things from an Iraqi point of view.  atleast most people were Literate and reasonably well off, the price they paid was that they could not speak their mind.  I would Imagine they Hated Saddam.  
What did we do to them.  The trade Embargos killed more people with starvation than Saddam did, and then there was radioactive materials that the coalition forces left behind after the first gulf war.  These killed many more people and caused birth defects.  
Who do you think the Iraqi people hate more?  Saddam who brutalised them?  or the foreigners who starved and poisoned them.  This is what they must be thinking.  It is what I would be thinking.  If my town was overrrun by evil Madmen, and the police got rid of them they also accidently killed my family, would I be grateful to the police?  The answer is no.  
As a Christian I am having a different time trying to reconcile this.

[Forrest]

In light of the French stating that they would Veto any action against Iraq
that we may propose before the Security Council of the UN, I thought this
email from a US Marine serving in Bosnia would put things in perspective.

From a Marine in Bosnia. (Note the signature)

A funny thing happened to me yesterday at Camp Bondsteel (Bosnia):

A French army officer walked up to me in the PX, and told me he thought we
(Americans) were a bunch of cowboys and were going to provoke a war. He said
if such a thing happens, we wouldn't be able to count on the support of
France.

I told him that it didn't surprise me. Since we had come to France's rescue
in World War I, World War II, Vietnam, and the Cold War, their ingratitude
and jealousy was due to surface at some point in the near future anyway.
That is why France is a third-rate military power with a socialist economy
and a bunch of faggots for soldiers.

I additionally told him that America, being a nation of deeds and action,
not words, would do whatever it had to do, and France's support was only for
show anyway. Just like in ALL NATO exercises, the US would shoulder 85% of
the burden, as evidenced by the fact that the French officer was shopping in
the American PX, and not the other way around.

He began to get belligerent at that point, and I told him if he would like
to, I would meet him outside in front of the Burger King and kick his ass in
front of the entire Multi-national Brigade East, thus demonstrating that
even the smallest American had more fight in him than the average Frenchman.
He called me a barbarian cowboy and walked away in a huff.

With friends like these, who needs enemies?
Mary Beth Johnson Lt.Col, USMC

--DON'T YOU JUST LOVE AMERICAN WOMEN!!!!--

         I recived this today an E-Mail from a friend I first heard this on AFR just before the US Military went into Iraq.

[Photogrunt]

No offence Forrest, but as a US Army Non-Commissoned Officer, I'm appalled that...if the quotes are true...a commissioned officer in the US Marine Corps would say such things.  She should be diciplined and informed that statements such as that could provoke a international incident, further eroding our good relations with a country the US conciders a ally, regardless of the position their government takes on our actions and issues.

Instead of diffusing the situation, that Fench soldier was given further reason to resent the US.

When we service members are in foreign countries, we are 'ambassadors' of our countrys ideals.  The Lt Col needs to be reminded of this resposibility.  She sets a bad example for her troops to emulate.

[Forrest]

        Photogrunt;
     I personaly don't consider the French An Ally, and think that if this realy did take place We need to realise that the French Officer aproched her first.

[Photogrunt]

Then she should have let it go rather than agervated it.  

In a day where we still have people protesting against our troops and their conduct, stories like this give them more ammunition.

[Serving Him]

Thank you for "standing ready" to defend God's Country and this family's freedom to Worship.

It amazes me that some Christians seem to think their freedom to Worship in this great Nation was FREE. Always peaceful, without battle, never defended.

The people in Iraq now have the same freedom to worship that most Americans take for granted.

I thank God, our leaders who carryout His will and giving, sacrificing, wonderful people like you.

Bless you