Scoop’s Views

While you and I are sitting at home, enjoying all the creature comforts, American fighting men and women are in distant lands, including Afghanistan and Iraq, sweating their butts off, literally, while going on patrols, doing raids, and other duties, and their performance – or responses – could be the difference between life-and-death.

As for Sen. Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic presidential candidate who is doing a tour of specific areas in Afghanistan and Iraq, supposedly getting a first-hand look at the situation on the ground, things are much different. His environment will be hot, sandy, dirty, but secure, for the most part. Because Obama, like McCain and others during past trips, are members of Congress, the military will provide a shroud around the “dignitaries” – ensuring, to the best of their ability, the survival of the elected officials, even at the expense of service men and women.

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BALAD, IRAQ — 4th Iraqi Army Division Scouts, advised by U.S. Special Forces, detained one suspected insurgent cell leader in an operation in Kirkuk province.

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While listening to the the Senate hearings last week on the conflict in Iraq, I became sick to my stomach by the way the politicians were demanding clear cut answers, but also by comments that were made.

Tags: Bagdad, Baghdad, Bath, bombings, combat, deaths, Delta Force, families, homefront, IEDs, insurgents, Iraq, Kirkuk, Life, Malaki, Marines, SEALs, shootings, soliders, Special Forces, suicide attacks, suicide bombers, Sunnis, Tikrit, tour of duty, troops, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Marines, U.S. Navy, United States