Regarding Reichstag911's political threads

[Happy]

‘London's police forces "shoot-to-kill" policy for terrorists’ –
WAS SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED TO PREVENT SUICIDE BOMBER TO DETONATE THE EXPLOSIVES

An explanation which followed, that as long as a SUICIDE BOMBER is conscious he can detonate the explosives is a good enough explanation to me.

The only problem was they’ve got the wrong person, and even if this mistake-error happens again I am happy to live with that.

This was not intentional, stakes were high, and it was known that suicide bombers were at large, area was under surveillance and it was unfortunate coincidence, it was all in the name of saving lives.

Police men and women are human too, they have emotions and fears and it was highly emotional time.

If amongst them was a trigger happy Rambo, if anything there would need to be a little bit of re-training, that’s all.

 

[Knobby22]

Pretty big mistake.

 

[Happy]

Big mistakes happen too, I think bigger one not so recently was Chernobyl.

It was just unauthorised test, which gone horribly wrong.

 

[GreatPig]

The only problem was they’ve got the wrong person, and even if this mistake-error happens again I am happy to live with that.

Even if the victim was your wife/son/daughter or other loved one?

Could you then stand up and say you're happy with the police's actions because at least they're keeping the country a safer place in which to live?

Safer for most people, that is...

GP


[And no, my current avatar is coincidental ]

 

[Happy]

Proverbial Mother-in-law would be my preferred choice, sort of two birds with one stone, but hardly anybody is that lucky.

Your avatar is OK, but wrong skeleton inside.

 

[DTM]

Proverbial Mother-in-law would be my preferred choice, sort of two birds with one stone, but hardly anybody is that lucky.

Hahahahahaha...... LOL, sort of like winning the lotto.

 

[Smurf1976]

Joe,
That ‘smurfed’ version looks better, thanks.

 

[Happy]

Have problem with that?

Grow up then, ha ha ha.

 

[reichstag911]

The ugly truth about Iraq.

08/19/05 "Daily News" -- -- Last week, we wrote about the unspeakably sad story of Gennaro Pellegrini Jr. -- Philly cop, welterweight boxer, and National Guardsman. The 31-year-old's life was hitting full stride when he received a fateful phone call ordering him to serve in Iraq, just two weeks before his hitch was supposed to end. Pellegrini was quite unhappy, but he went -- and he paid with his life, along with three of his Pennsylvania National Guard colleagues who were killed in a ruthless ambush near the Iraqi town of Beiji.

Also slain in that Aug. 9 attack was one of Pellegrini's brothers-in-arms, a Whitpain Township firefighter named John Kulick. Kulick -- a 35-year-old from the suburbs, an avid fisherman who loved too much mustard on bologna sandwiches and was called "Johnny K" -- had become had become fast friends with Pellegrini, the tough, tatooed city cop from a rowhouse block of Port Richmond. But the road that these two salt-of-the-earth guys had taken to Beiji could not have been more different.

As a professional firefighter, Kulick was devastated by the loss of so many colleagues at the World Trade Center in the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. That sense of duty is what prompted him to joined the Pennsylvania National Guard, even though he was already on the far side of 30 and the devoted and involved divorced dad to his daughter, Amanda, who is in grade school. And when his Guard unit from Northeast Philly was called up last December, he told his worried family that he wanted to go, to fight terrorists "over there."

In fact, Kulick's brother Jim -- in a radio interview this morning -- said they watched the movie "Blackhawk Down" just days before his departure for Iraq. After the end of the movie (which depicts the 1993 Somali insurgent attack that killed 18 U.S. troops), John Kulick declared, echoing his commander-in-chief and without irony, "Bring 'em on."

We heard Jim Kulick this morning on the Michael Smerconish show on WPHT-1210. The reason Smerconish invited him on was to talk about the emails that John Kulick had sent home from northern Iraq in the months before he was killed. Over the eight months that the Philly-area firefighter served in Iraq, his opinion of the mission changed radically.

As described by his brother, John Kulick's emails tell the story of a patriotic American who was betrayed -- by his own government. Because it was John Kulick's government that -- after spending more than $100 billion on Iraq -- sent him into hostile territory without the proper armor. And it was John Kulick's government that sent him into a war that lacked a strategy, and that, as a result, not only eliminated the enemy but was waged in a way that created new enemies every day.

Jim Kulick said his brother's emails showed a man who was becoming more and more worried. John Kulick said the insurgents were using increasingly sophisticated IEDs -- improvised explosive devices -- and were firing rocket-propelled grenades, or RPGs, into their camp. "They had to hide under their cots -- there was nothing they could do," Kulick's brother said. "The Humvees weren't armored, or lightly armored -- they were basically useless. At first they were sending them out in pickup trucks. They weren't really equipped to fight this war."

Kulick told his family that troops were taking police vests that had been donated to them and putting them on the floor of the Humvees instead of wearing them. Jim Kulick noted that at the same time his brother was reporting this, two of his friends who are area police officers serving in Iraq told him they had needed to bring their own sidearms. In his emails, John Kulick had begun to describe the war as "a quagmire."

As disturbing as those reports were, what Kulick had to say about the conduct of the war was even more troubling. He told his family that the Iraqi police "were corrupt and inept and there was no way they could ever train them to the degree where they could keep order." And when his unit went out after insurgents, far too many innocent iraqis were killed in the crossfire. And, Kulick reported home, "the more hate that created." When the Americans left an area, the insurgents came back the next day.

Eventually, when Kulick saw Iraqi citizens kneeling in the street in prayer, his interpreter would tell him they were praying for the Americans to leave. "They would rather live with evil they knew rather than live with us," Kulick said in his emails. "We were killing them as much as the insurgents were."

Kulick and his fellow Guardsmen were riding in a Humvee, reportedly armored, on night patrol on Aug. 9 when a large bomb -- containing as much as 25 to 30 pounds of explosives -- that was hidden in a drainage culvert under the roadway exploded and killed them. Just hours earlier, Kulick had called his father to tell him where his will was located and that he would want a full military funeral.

It's too early to say whether the tumultuous events of the last few weeks -- the deaths of so many Guardsmen from Pennsylvania and Ohio, the groundswell of support for grieving anti-war mom Cindy Sheehan -- will be remember as a turning point. Jim Kulick said this morning that the U.S. needs to set a timetable for getting out, and host Smerconish -- a political conservative who supported the war from early on -- was surprisingly sympathetic. Said Smerconish: "We're adrift."

Yesterday, John Kulick received the type of funeral he had asked for. His flag-draped funeral procession along York Road in Montgomery County drew firefighters from 61 local departments, and featured all the pomp and circumstance that is appropriate for a true hero like John Kulick.

But today, the cameras are gone, and flags are folded up -- and Kulick's family will continue to live with the loss. Jim Kulick said his family is "devastated" by what happened in Iraq.

None worse than his 9-year-old daughter. "Amanda is in denial," Jim Kulick said. "She said her father promised her he would come back from the war, and she still believes that."

Amanda Kulick doesn't understand what happened to her father.

Neither do we.

All contents ©2005 by The Daily News

 

[sam76]

Proverbial Mother-in-law would be my preferred choice, sort of two birds with one stone, but hardly anybody is that lucky.

that reminds me of a joke.

Q: What's the definition of a mixed feeling?

A: Watching your mother-in-law drive of a cliff in your new porsche!

 

[Happy]

Joe,
I think time comes to tighten the screw a bit.
R…1 had a request from our B Board owner and was asked to make a short quotation and a comment.

Do I remember it right?

What we get is as always v. long quotation and no input from the poster.
Stubborn, cannot follow the orders, or just down right arrogant.
Reminds me some recent comments that some young people will never integrate.

Correct me if I am wrong, but the time slowly comes to pull the plug.

Cannot play by the rules, go and play somewhere else.

 

[Joe Blow]

Joe,
I think time comes to tighten the screw a bit.
R…1 had a request from our B Board owner and was asked to make a short quotation and a comment.

Do I remember it right?

What we get is as always v. long quotation and no input from the poster.
Stubborn, cannot follow the orders, or just down right arrogant.
Reminds me some recent comments that some young people will never integrate.

Correct me if I am wrong, but the time slowly comes to pull the plug.

Cannot play by the rules, go and play somewhere else.

Reichstag911 will be taking a break from the forums for a while. Lets just leave it at that.