Note to a Marine on the front lines.
this is a copy of a comment i posted on a marine's blog.
From one vet to another, i salute your service to our country. I'm glad to hear that your morale continues to be high in the face of what must be a very difficult conflict. In honesty, I do not believe the civilian leadership knows why they are there or how to get out. I draw this conclusion from the frequent changes in their stated goals, the frequent changes in their stated desired troop levels, and the cost over runs that General Zinni was fired for predicting at the start of this conflict. He was not alone. Many Generals and Admirals including General Schwartzkopf had serious reservations about the execution of this war, and still do.
But you are absolutely right when you say it's a done deal. Can't go back.
Let's bring this down to earth. We, all of us, the USA ect., we're like a 14 year old who's got his dick wet for the first time. Our reasons for doing it may not have been the best, but here we are and our options are few.
Do we:
1. Wipe off our loins, grab a bus home and pretend this all didn't happen?
2. Light up a cigarette, put on our best James Dean, and prentend like what just happened was all according to plan.
or.
3. Rush Iraq down to the drugstore for a box of chocolates and some emergency contraceptives. Then go home hoping things work out, but treat the downside like our rightful heirs if it doesn't.
Common, guys. We're not 14 year olds. We're a 200 year old country that once in a while gets it's dick wet "due to intelligence errors". Lets at least act our age while cleaning up this mess.
From one vet to another, i salute your service to our country. I'm glad to hear that your morale continues to be high in the face of what must be a very difficult conflict. In honesty, I do not believe the civilian leadership knows why they are there or how to get out. I draw this conclusion from the frequent changes in their stated goals, the frequent changes in their stated desired troop levels, and the cost over runs that General Zinni was fired for predicting at the start of this conflict. He was not alone. Many Generals and Admirals including General Schwartzkopf had serious reservations about the execution of this war, and still do.
But you are absolutely right when you say it's a done deal. Can't go back.
Let's bring this down to earth. We, all of us, the USA ect., we're like a 14 year old who's got his dick wet for the first time. Our reasons for doing it may not have been the best, but here we are and our options are few.
Do we:
1. Wipe off our loins, grab a bus home and pretend this all didn't happen?
2. Light up a cigarette, put on our best James Dean, and prentend like what just happened was all according to plan.
or.
3. Rush Iraq down to the drugstore for a box of chocolates and some emergency contraceptives. Then go home hoping things work out, but treat the downside like our rightful heirs if it doesn't.
Common, guys. We're not 14 year olds. We're a 200 year old country that once in a while gets it's dick wet "due to intelligence errors". Lets at least act our age while cleaning up this mess.
posted by chuckamok at 1:55 PM
3 Comments:
I would opt for a choice #1.
That would have been my choice two years ago, and it still comes in a close second for me. I can't help but feel responsible for the damage and destruction we've cause the citizens of Iraq. From the looting of the Antiquities Museum to the current infant mortality rate (now higher than under Hussein) no one has benifited from this war but Haliburton and Al Keda. We have to make some reparations for the sloppy mess we've made of things.
We've done it before. We felt so bad about the paultry sum we paid Mexico after the Mex-Ami war 1846($15 million for essentially what amounted to the entire southwestern continental US) that we gave them an additional $10 million for the gadsden purchase (south new mexico and south arizona).
There's also a serious threat of them being taken over not only by Iran, but Turkey and Syria. This may be a willing act for some factions, but very unpleasant for others, e.g. the Kurds who were just as oppressed by Turkey and Iran as they were under Hussein.
(Remember the Kurds, we told them to revolt then let Hussein gun them down with heliocopters we let him keep after the first war?)
Get home *ASAP*, yes indeed. But we need to continue offering humanitarian support and make some sort of diplomatic effort to protect the oppressed minorities. Looks like a job for the Arab League or maybe the U.N.
Murtha was right, we're a target and making things worse. 6 mos. sounds like a reasonable timeframe to get some safegaurds in place. Rmember it took us just about that long to move the troops and equipment there in the first place.
You speak the truth with honor. Unfortunately what you say could not be further away from what your government does. If I was an american, I would vote for you.
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