
Originally Posted by
Impartial Bias
Oh, and one more thing to mention, since you love talking about age.<br><br>I was 5 and in Kindergarten when I watched, just as you did, airplanes crash into the world trade center buildings,* the pentagon, and that field in Pennsylvania. I was 5 when I began to realize how ****ed up this world truly can be. I was 5 when my grandfather explained to me why people would do things like that to innocent people.<br>I was in first grade when I watched Coalition forces invading Afghanistan. I was in first grade when I realized what war looked like, when I saw NATO planes bombing Taliban positions on TV.<br><br><br>I was 8 when I watched as Coalition forces invaded Iraq, live on TV. I was 8 when I first saw dead bodies on TV. I was 8 when I watched the the main column of tanks rolling into Baghdad. I watched as Saddams statue was torn down. I watched Bush's victory speech. I watched as the war started to deteriorate. I saw suicide bombings. I saw people burning US flags in the streets of Iraq. I saw Saddam get captured. I saw his several year long trial. I saw Blackwater employees bodies get dragged through the streets of Iraq. I watched the battle of Falluja. I watched the 2004 elections, and how much all of this before it had affected it. I watched Bush win the election. In 2006, I watched as the insurgency exploded in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2006, I watched the Lebanon War. In 2007, my cousin came home missing an arm. After this, I stopped watching for awhile. <br><br><br>In 2008, I watched as Russia invaded Georgia. I also watched the increasing intensity of the war in Afghanistan. In 2008, I watched the 2008 elections. In 2008, I watched at school as Barack Obama was inaugurated. In 2008, I watched as our country plunged into recession, which has effected my family personally.<br>Last May, I watched live as Barack Obama gave his speech, confirming the death of Osama bin Laden. The man that had planned the attacks I had watched 10 years before, was dead.<br><br>Last December, on my birthday, December 19th, I watched as the war I had grown up with came to an end. I stayed up late that night just to watch live as the last US convoy crossed the border into Kuwait, ending the war. 8 1/2 years before, I had watched as first airstrikes hit Baghdad starting the war.<br><br>Now, I know the last war from my childhood will end in 2014. 13 years I will have grown up with this. There's even a chance I might be there before it ends. This is the world I was born into. I grew up with all this. Just as you have watched the events unfold, so have I. This will always be a part of my life.<br><br>Don't insult me by saying I don't understand any of this.<br><br>Of course I understand what an insurgency is, I ****ing grew up with one and saw the direct consequences it had on my family members. Did Bush understand what an insurgency was, because he clearly did not prepare for what should have been the obvious. And no, the Iraqi army was not defeated, because they were the roots of the insurgency. We took so many prisoners, that most we immediately just turned over. Others just decided to take their uniforms off, blend in with the populace, and live to fight another day. Just because they decided that they weren't going to fight the conventional way, doesn't mean they ceased to be an army.<br>