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Nothing To talk About.

Updated on October 11, 2010

For once I

actually find myself

with nothing

to talk about,

and so I will talk

about nothing.

I spent most of the day

doing nothing but

lying in a hammock

watching the leaves

of green above me flutter

on the quaking Asps

that suspended me

just about two feet

from the earth.

I found myself

wishing for nothing

and praying in a

non-secular way

to someday soon

live in a world

that has nothing

to do with war.

So many young

men and women

reduced to nothing,

young souls who meant

something to so many.

Then I wondered if

old George Bush

was doing nothing today.

The former Commander-in-Grief

who sent them into Iraq

to die for nothing more

than a foothold

in the Middle East

to guard our oil interests.

Was he doing

nothing more today

then chopping wood

or was his mind splitting all

the would have beens

that could have prevented

so many deaths.

I wish for him nothing

more than guilt

for that rush to a war

over weapons of

mass destruction

that turned out

to be nothing.

That could have

been handled

in a much more

proficient way.

Saddam Hussien begged for

diplomacy the night

before the invasion.

How many lives would

that act have saved.

How many kids

were doing nothing

with their Mom's

and Dad's today.

Nothing more then

sticking flags and flowers

over a mound of dirt

not much older then they are.

How many parents sat gazing

with love into the

eyes of a loved one

who stared back at nothing

because all that once was

no longer registers.

How many boys are

sitting in V.A. wards

thinking about

nothing at all

because they

had insufficient armor

on their Humvees

or body to protect

a brain that used

to think about

having something else

to do when they got home.

I'm sure George Bush always

had the proper equipment

when he attacked a load

of wood at the ranch,

gloves thick enough to

protect from callouses,

eye wear to protect his sight,

perhaps some steel-toed shoes

in case the axe slipped.

But our boys went for years

into battles without proper armor,

with almost nothing to

protect them from I.E.D.'s

and got nothing in return

except flag draped coffins

and maimed brains.

Remember what Rumsfield said about

having the proper armor....

"A lot of us are getting ready to

move north relatively soon," said Wilson,

an airplane mechanic with the Tennessee Army National Guard,

according to a transcript of the meeting released by the Pentagon.

"Our vehicles are not armored. We're digging pieces of rusted scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass that's already been shot up . . .

picking the best out of this scrap to put on our vehicles

to take into combat. We do not have proper . . . vehicles to carry with us north."

Rumsfeld replied: "As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They're not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time."

He added: "If you think about it, you can have all the armor

in the world on a tank and a tank can be blown up."

Another soldier, from a logistical support unit based at Fort Bragg, N.C., complained that she was being kept in the Army against her wishes by a Pentagon "stop-loss" order.

"It is something you prefer not to have to use, obviously, in a perfect world," Rumsfeld responded. "It's been used as little as possible." ????? *(Three four and five terms of duty in a war zone???)

When a third soldier, from the Idaho Army National Guard, complained that Guard units were being issued "antiquated" equipment inferior to that given to regular Army units,

Rumsfeld said that the Army is trying to be equitable but that somebody has to get the older gear.

The one question that seemed to give Rumsfeld pause came from a lieutenant colonel who said that many of the soldiers in his unit are having trouble receiving all the pay due them, causing problems for their families back home who are being pestered by collection agencies.

credit to: Thomas E. Ricks

Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 9, 2004; Page A01

MSNBC.com reported earlier this year

that the Army was aware that Humvees

were under-protected as far back as 1993

but was still officially advising soldiers as

recently as March to put sandbags on the

floorboards to deaden the impact of mine explosions.

Rumsfeld promised that steps were also

being taken to deal with explosive devices,

a leading cause of death in Iraq,

where more than 1,000 U.S. soldiers

have been killed in action.

4 years later

Thousands of Army

Humvees Lack Armor Upgrade

Credit to : Ann Scott Tyson

Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 12, 2007

Body Armor Shortage

Wednesday, 03/09/05 12am

credit to : B. Seaman- Norwich, VT

We've heard stories from our G.I.s about a shortage of flak jackets. They said that many troops were issued either leftover Vietnam equipment instead of the latest and more effective ceramic plate jackets - or they were not issued any vests at all. We even heard the stories about how some parents, in desperation, bought the latest jackets at military supply stores and shipped them to their sons and daughters in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The number of G.I.s who died because of the lack of adequate body armor cannot be counted. But the question raised by this sad story is, where did all the knowledge go that was accumulated by the Army War College and Pentagon terrorism experts after years of studying terrorism techniques in Israel and other beleaguered countries? Surely the basic lesson of Terrorism 101 was that the Arab suicide bomber would strike where least expected, and our troops were prime targets wherever they were - not just on mythical front lines.

And what about Afghanistan

are we still sending them

in there Ill-equipped,

as we did for so long before.

3 years after the war started????

U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan to get new side armor / Pentagon study found lack of plates cost many lives

January 12, 2006|By Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post

(01-12) 04:00 PST Washington —

The Army announced Wednesday that it would soon start producing 230,000 sets of side armor plates and field them over the year to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan after a recently disclosed Pentagon study indicated such plates could have helped prevent scores of troop deaths since 2003.

The Marine Corps has delivered 9,000 sets of the plates to Iraq, a number that will rise to about 30,000 by April, officials said Wednesday. Each set of plates, together with a carrier and soft armor, costs about $450 and weighs about 7 pounds, the officials said.

Army and Marine generals in charge of developing and buying equipment defended the speed with which they were getting the new side armor to troops after a closed-door briefing Wednesday on the matter on Capitol Hill. The generals briefed the Senate Armed Services Committee after lawmakers voiced concern over a classified Pentagon forensic study disclosed last week that for the first time linked gaps in upper torso protection to troop fatalities.

Our troops should

lack for nothing

when they go to fight for us

or they shouldn't be there

until they have

everything they need.

We need to remember

that on this Memorial day,

instead of harassing

illegal immigrants

and throwing pious

tea parties over

health care,

and it's costs.

We should as a nation

be looking into

the current health care

of the troops we keep

sending to die.

Anything else is

much ado about nothing.

How many legs and

arms and genitals

plus so many other

various body parts

were sacrificed by

lack of attention to

such an important

pre-war detail such as this.

How many sections of

brain cells were destroyed

because the supply and demand

for armor was not met.

Thousands were maimed,

and many more

were "named" today

in every small town

and big city

across America.

The roll calls of

the dead were read,

and the names of those who

gave up far more then most

were also honored.

But when it all was over

we were still left

with nothing more

then what was and what will

never, ever be the same again.

There will be many who

will not like this poem

calling it water over the dam

when it is simply

tears over the damned.

They will say I am nothing

more then a fanatic,

but we have fought

wars over nothing before.

We have taken

hills for nothing.

We have men who

are still missing

from all of those wars

with nothing left

to show for them.

They are buried in

some dank jungle

or some sandy, sea bottom

with nothing to mark

their final resting places.

Many were ill equipped

with guns that jammed,

or kill quotas that limited,

Many more were exposed

to deadly toxins: Agent Orange

that reduced jungles and

our troops lives to nothing.

how many thousands

in Korea and Vietnam were

chasing the ghosts of communism

only to become ghost themselves.

We have tried and

failed many times

to make dictatorships

democratic

and they are

still dictatorships.

We raise walls to them

and monuments

that list their names

on black marble

and richly veined granite

long after they have gone on

into the nothingness.

That is why today I

am content with nothing,

and quite disturbed

by our priorities.

We continue to fail to learn

from history, and then

become hysterical

when it repeats itself endlessly

in twenty-one gun salutes.

I have stood and fired

such volleys many times,

I cannot shake the

echoes of those blanks

bullets filled with nothing more

than a tribute to those

who have nothing

left but tributes.

Bring our boys home...

we can do nothing more in Iraq

except to keep dying.

They are Theocratic and nothing

automatic nor semi-automatic

will ever change that.

Let's finish up

in Afghanistan

by cleaning up what

hides in Pakistan.

Let Pakistani troops

surround one side

of where the Al-Quida hides,

and let us surround the other...

letting no food, water

or any supplies

get in or out.

Let those bastards starve

in their hidey holes,

and die of thirst

with nothing to sustain them.

Or better yet,

let us be merciful

by simply air dropping

only pork and pork juice,

and force them to chose between

thier God or their survival.

They are getting

supplies from somewhere.

it is time to cut

that source out.

We must be

far more barbaric

to beat barbarians.

It is long past time.

Perhaps a

religious Hiroshima

just might work.

One cannot be a martyr

and get seventy two virgins

upon their death

if they have been

tainted by pork.

But one cannot

survive without food.

Let the insurgents decide

six months from now

when they all look

like Holocaust survivors

whether they want to

drink pork tainted water

and eat forbidden meat

or die in the desert.

They mean nothing to me

until they all are nothing....

then I will spit on their graves.

Happy Memorial day,

And I hope none of you

ever have to face

the nothingness of

a dead family memeber

that this day recognizes.

Peace to you and yours....

and Godspeed to our trooops

coming home real soon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~MFB III

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