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Chopper Crash Kills 31 Marines

By Jeralyn, Section War In Iraq
Posted on Wed Jan 26, 2005 at 09:03:26 AM EST
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Terrible news out of Iraq today. A helicopter crash is beleived to have killed 31 Marines. Five soldiers were killed in a separate incident, believed to be an attack by insurgents.

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    Chopper Crash Kills 31 Marines | 14 comments (14 topical)
    Re: Chopper Crash Kills 31 Marines (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jan 26, 2005 at 10:26:20 AM EST
    Haven't we had enough, I'm sure our troops have. Bring our boys home now. After the dust settles and the Iraqi's have a new strongman to run things we can put him on our payroll just like old times.

    Re: Chopper Crash Kills 31 Marines (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jan 26, 2005 at 10:36:35 AM EST
    This is sad, but we will see many more political war victims, and people this may become the real next vietnam, and to all you vet's saying no way, start to think for once and ask where in bin laden?

    Re: Chopper Crash Kills 31 Marines (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jan 26, 2005 at 10:39:05 AM EST
    or where is bin laden? "help" and rocky is right. get out and put the next guy on the pay-roll.

    Re: Chopper Crash Kills 31 Marines (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jan 26, 2005 at 10:42:24 AM EST
    (Face in hands) Oh, God, not more...

    Re: Chopper Crash Kills 31 Marines (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jan 26, 2005 at 10:52:33 AM EST
    I wonder what these men were doing during the inaugural balls. Fighting for their country not partying. What a shame. John

    Re: Chopper Crash Kills 31 Marines (none / 0) (#6)
    by kdog on Wed Jan 26, 2005 at 12:07:20 PM EST
    Another 31 families asked to give so much (their flesh and blood). For what?

    Re: Chopper Crash Kills 31 Marines (none / 0) (#7)
    by Dadler on Wed Jan 26, 2005 at 12:07:32 PM EST
    think of all the loved ones of those thirty or forty. you get into the hundreds. think of everyone involved in this violent mess, on both sides, especially the iraqi, and you get chaos and terror and sadness and anger inflicted into the millions. the tens of millions. collateral emotional damage, for the risk management clunks. how many will be further hardened against us because someone they loved was senselessly murdered?

    Re: Chopper Crash Kills 31 Marines (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jan 26, 2005 at 02:10:33 PM EST
    "Bring them on!" (Bush, Feb 2003)

    Re: Chopper Crash Kills 31 Marines (none / 0) (#9)
    by john horse on Wed Jan 26, 2005 at 03:43:44 PM EST
    This was very sad. Doesn't it seem like every other week we have a new "deadliest day of the war"? I've heard that this copter was not downed by fire, but, even so, the loss of these Marines should remind us of how dangerous this war is. Slate has a good analysis showing that duty in Iraq is just as dangerous as Vietnam.

    Re: Chopper Crash Kills 31 Marines (none / 0) (#10)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jan 26, 2005 at 05:33:52 PM EST
    As a Vietnam Veteran and former Marine Sergeant, and as the father of a Marine Captain (JAG Officer), I must admit that I felt like somebody kicked me in the stomach today when I heard about the CH53 going down with 30 Marines and one sailor aboard. My company in Vietnam, Echo Company, 2d Battalion, Third Marines, lost 22 KIA in a horrific ambush on one day in December of 1968, and I still think about that every day, even though it's been almost 40 years. Although Vietnam was a harsh, hot, insane war that killed 58,000 of my colleagues, wounded a few hundred thousand more and left untold numbers psychologically scarred, all for no good reason, it is beginning to seem that our misguided adventure in Iraq, for the soldiers and Marines serving there,is every bit as physically dangerous and probably a lot more emotionally destructive than the War in Vietnam (I'll take the boonies over urban combat any day). As a criminal defense lawyer I spent a great deal of time, especially in the 1970's and 1980's, working with Vietnam veterans who were suffering through the horrors of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I used to think that we'd learned our lesson and that we'd avoid pointless wars in the future. Guess I was wrong. The Iraq War has already guaranteed another generation of equally troubled vets who will be needing all the psychological and legal help they can get in a few years. I can't help thinking that if one of the people running the war from a nice, comfy office in Washington had ever spent the night in a foxhole, listening to all those funny noises out there in the dark, or if one of them had ever heard the terrible silence between the time an enemy mortar round leaves the tube and when it lands nearby, or if any one of them had ever held the hand and tried to dry the tears of a dying Marine, we never would have gone into the madness of Iraq in he first place. Nonetheless, today's horrible loss of life must force us to honestly confront the utter futility of our clueless efforts in Iraq and to bring home our soldiers, sailors, airmen/women and Marines before we do any more damage to them, to our armed forces, to the people of Iraq or to our standing in the world community. Say a prayer for all of them and for all of us, too. Semper fidelis. Terry Kindlon

    Re: Chopper Crash Kills 31 Marines (none / 0) (#11)
    by Kitt on Wed Jan 26, 2005 at 08:42:14 PM EST
    Someone we know has a son who flies the 'new' CH-53 - Marines, a captain. He's being deployed in July or August. Doesn't matter...she was shedding mother tears for all those lost today. And all I can think is what a f*cking waste.

    Re: Chopper Crash Kills 31 Marines (none / 0) (#12)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jan 26, 2005 at 11:10:44 PM EST
    The sandstorm that sources say downed that helicopter have been made far worse by the vehicle traffic of our military, tearing up the desert crust. Those sandstorms are also wafting heavy metals like depleted uranium into the air, where it will poison the generations of Iraqis whose nation Bush has destroyed, for profit. As for our nation, well on its way to being destroyed by Bush for profit, we can only join these latest needless deaths to the pile of corpses the ever-smirking Bush has piled against the castle wall that used to be the White House. Why were these Marines put into a sandstorm? Sources say to aid in the election. I didn't know that was a Marine duty!! But you misuse the troops you have...right Ronald Dumbsfeld? Semper Fi? Fidelity hardly matters, when the music is all wrong, and the troops are being played for the guffaws of Bush's corporate friends.

    Re: Chopper Crash Kills 31 Marines (none / 0) (#13)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Jan 27, 2005 at 12:10:32 AM EST
    God bless our troops and God bless President Bush. Like those soldiers that have died in the name of freedom before, these soldiers will not have died in vain. In World War II, we had the ability to stop Hitler's aggression well in advance but our naivety and ignorance resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of additional soldiers. Today, we are out in front of the situation which will result in less loss of life in the long run. While any loss of life is unfortunate, this up front cost must be paid in the name of freedom. "Bringing the soldiers home" and turning our back on the inevitable will result in more loss of life in the long run. At some point you liberals need to face reality and recognize the longer term benefits of being pre-emptive versus reactive.

    Re: Chopper Crash Kills 31 Marines (none / 0) (#14)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Jan 27, 2005 at 08:54:47 AM EST
    You dumb liberals. Saddam was bad. Especially after he flew all those planes into 9/11 and sent Bush that goat book to distract him while his blood brother Osama built nukes in the Defense minister's rose garden. We are right. Just ask president Bush, the greatest presnit I ever saw in my whole life. I know this for a FACT cause Sean Hannity told me and he never lies except that one time but who cares?

    Chopper Crash Kills 31 Marines | 14 comments (14 topical)