The Iraq War is over. The MISSION is complete.
It is wrong to ask wonderful soldiers that stood up for their country and completed their mission to 'stand down' for a welcome home with a parade.
This generation of soldiers have sustained absolutely cruel war conditions. They have sustained it, returned to fight with artificial limbs after losing their own.
They have suffered in ways no other soldier in any generation has suffered. They need to come home in a real way that says thank you and by the way if there is anything you need simply ask. They need to be home, loved, engaged in life and enjoying a life they fought to have. They have won the right to be proud and home. They have won the right to live a life they fought for. We, as the recipients of their gift are grateful and we have a right to thank them.
The mission is complete and the parades should be conducted with vigor so they can feel it!
...Bloomberg (click title to entry - thank you) said he had discussed it with military brass, including General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dempsey, and Army Secretary McHugh and Army Chief of Staff General Odierno made it clear - we talked about it - they do not think a parade is appropriate now,” Bloomberg said on WOR radio’s John Gambling show.
“They think a parade would be premature while we still have so many troops in harm’s way around the world.”
The revelation disappointed Staten Island Councilmen James Oddo and Vincent Ignizio, who were calling for a ticker tape parade down Manhattan’s “Canyon of Heroes” for Operation Iraqi Freedom vets....
