Fallen Marines

[Carcounter]

Nailed it Notes!

[notes1]

Nailed it Notes!
 CC, thank you.  everyone on this site enjoys VP. but, you can bet there is some person, some group, some cause, and their sole purpose in life is to eliminate VP from the face of the earth. somehow they were harmed, maybe a family member lost everything playing the game and to 'protect' the rest of us, VP must be banned.   

[Carcounter]

Maybe that former San Diego mayor or Bill Bennett will take up that cause.

[olds442jetaway]

Our prayers go out to all of the families our fallen heros and the heros still serving in all of the branches.
     Just one quick story about my father in law who passed at a fairly young age about 25 years ago. When the girls ( my wife, his wife, and my wife's sister) weren't around, he would share first hand with me some of his WW11 experiences. I am sorry I never taped them. Mixed in with the awful war stuff, were some really humorous moments too. He was a young Irish Marine who like many lied about his age to join up early. He turned down the Congressional and reluctantly accepted the Silver star. He was also wounded several times and often sweet talked the Dr's or even bribed them with a bottle of good Scotch to sign off on letting him get back into action with his buddies. He was a Marine Scout and often ended up behind enemy lines for most ot the battle.
     On Guadalcanal, his company was pinned down badly by a machine gun nest and were being cut to pieces. After seeing one of his best friends killed right in front of him, he pulled the pin on 2 grenades and charged the nest. He knew he would be hit, but hoped he would have the strenght to make it there and blow them up. Somehow he succeeded. He took 5 rounds in his torso from the luckily small caliper Japanese machine guns and none of them hit his vital organs. What was left of his company was therefore saved. Of course he downplayed to me his actions and just said anyone would have done the same thing if they had the grenades. I asked him how he made it after being hit. He just quietly said, well you know I was quite the football player in high school and could zig and zag quite well and I was thin and very fast. I just pretended I was carrying that football to the goal line and had to make it. This is a true story that I heard first hand around 1970. Again prayers out to all those who so proudly serve.
     

[DaBurglar]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial ... aq_WarRead this info.......appalling!Personally, I adhere to the more responsible and grounded CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE (CRS), a organization that provides non partisan info and analysis to the so-called "leaders" in Washington to help them make better decisions........According to the CRS, the total "general" cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars thru 2014 is around 1.6 TRILLION Dollars (US)!!!!     This does not include the interest on the money borrowed, since both wars were financed with BORROWED funds, and as such, the total cost ends up being around 2.3 to 2.5 TRILLION Dollars (US)!!!!!!!!     Still, the difference(s) between the CRS numbers and the info provided on the above referenced wikipedia website is stark.......wiwkipedia references many "hidden" or unaccounted costs when calculating the cost of the wars!Let's all contemplate the various problems that could have been solved using the 2 TRILLION plus Dollars that went into the Iraq and Afgahnistan  BLACK HOLES  between 2001 thru 2014........everyone post a list of the things they think at least SOME of the 2 Trillion plus dollars should have been used to address:  Keeping in mind we blew so much money on infrastructure in these two countries (i.e. we sought to rebuild and replace the things we destroyed when we prosecuted the WAR starting in 2003, and then insurgents and civil war blew up the NEW things we built), and keeping in mind the blatant and abject corruption the USA tolerated within the regimes in Iraq and Afghanistan the past decade and a half such that much of the money given to the two countries for infrastructure instead went making select individuals filthy rich.......WE COULD HAVE FIXED ALL THE MAJOR INFRASTRUCTURE PROBLEMS IN THE USA  over the last 10 years, and we would all now be enjoying brand new smooth roads and highways, new (and SaFE) Bridges, new (and SAFE) Nuclear Power Plants, and we would all be secure using and operating a new, modern, SECURE and EFFICIENT national Power Grid!!!!Yep, instead of completely wasting the 2 plus TRILLION dollars on two countries who will never change and who will always resent, or HATE, us, we could have taken that money and made America into a brand new, FUNCTIONING Economic Super power with the brand new infrastructure to perpetuate and validate the position of foremost economic superpower......but nooooooo, we instead STILL have decrepit infrastructure which is getting worse.What is even more sick:     The United Nations and the World Health Org.  estimate that global hunger could be eliminated for less than 60 BILLION dollars......with the money blown in Iraq and Afghanistan, there could have been FORTY or more Global Hunger campaigns with enough left over to match Bill Gates' net worth.