the support our troops want, is the support to come home?
I cut out a large part of this piece, in order to comply with Damo’s copyright rules, but the link to the full story is at the bottom. There’s so much here that was too hard to cut out, and just put the one paragraph that I usually post, followed by the link.
I am so sick and tired of hearing the BS about supporting our troops. Our troops have never been monolithic, and there were always plenty of them who joined after 9/11 to fight in Afghanistan and ended up instead, in Iraq, and who questioned that. Now, polls of the military itself have shown more and more question this occupation. I can’t tell you how many insipid bushwhores have lectured me over the years about the soldiers they claimed to know personally, who literally “couldn’t wait to get back to Iraq.” I always wondered at the simplicity of a mind that didn’t understand the bonding that takes place in battle. I always grasped intuitively that these guys, many of whom were already suffering from survivor’s guilt, did not want to leave their buddies who were still alive, in the trenches. I knew this not because I am a genius, but because you have to be pretty damned stupid not to know it. It is human nature.
While no one understands better than I do, that we cannot take orders from our military, and so, the same way it does not matter if a majority of soldiers support a war, so it does not matter, if a majority do not support that same war...the fact that so many of them just want to get the hell home, goes a long way to proving the bumper sticker slogan of “Support Our Troops, Bring Them Home”. And it brings into question, just whom are you supporting these days? The troops, or this President? And if it’s the troops you support, and you are of a reasonable age, and you are physically fit, why are you supporting them FROM YOUR LIVING ROOM? They’re tired. They haven’t been home. They are on their 3rd and 4th tours. Their marriages have fallen apart in many cases. Many of them suffer from PTSD. They need rest. You want to support them? ENLIST. Give one of them a break. Oh, and they take females these days. Because some of the biggest, most voracious war-mongers and bushwhores I have known, have been women. Do your tough talking from Iraq.
By Michael Kamber
Sunday, May 27, 2007
BAGHDAD: Staff Sergeant David Safstrom does not regret his previous tours in Iraq, not even a difficult second stint when two comrades were killed while trying to capture insurgents.
"In Mosul, in 2003, it felt like we were making the city a better place," he said. "There was no sectarian violence, Saddam was gone, we were tracking down the bad guys. It felt awesome."
But now on his third deployment in Iraq, he is no longer a believer in the mission. The pivotal moment came, he says, this past February when soldiers killed a man setting a roadside bomb. When they searched the bomber's body, they found identification showing him to be a sergeant in the Iraqi Army.
"I thought, 'What are we doing here? Why are we still here?' " said Safstrom, a member of Delta Company of the 1st Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry, 82nd Airborne Division. "We're helping guys that are trying to kill us. We help them in the day. They turn around at night and try to kill us."
His views are echoed by most of his fellow soldiers in Delta Company, renowned for its aggressiveness.
They had seen shadowy militia commanders installed as Iraqi Army officers, they said, had come under increasing attack from roadside bombs - planted within sight of Iraqi Army checkpoints - and had fought against Iraqi soldiers whom they thought were their allies.
"In 2003, 2004, 100 percent of the soldiers wanted to be here, to fight this war," said Sergeant First Class David Moore, a self-described "conservative Texas Republican" and platoon sergeant who strongly advocates an American withdrawal. "Now, 95 percent of my platoon agrees with me."
But in Safstrom's view, the American presence is futile. "If we stayed here for 5, even 10 more years, the day we leave here these guys will go crazy," he said. "It would go straight into a civil war. That's how it feels, like we're putting a Band-Aid on this country until we leave here."
To O'Flarity, the Iraqi security forces are militias beholden to local leaders, not the Iraqi government. "Half of the Iraqi security forces are insurgents," he said.
As for his views on the war, O'Flarity said, "I don't believe we should be here in the middle of a civil war."
"We've all lost friends over here," he said. "Most of us don't know what we're fighting for anymore. We're serving our country and friends, but the only reason we go out every day is for each other."
"I don't want any more of my guys to get hurt or die. If it was something I felt righteous about, maybe. But for this country and this conflict, no, it's not worth it."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/27/news/delta.php
I cut out a large part of this piece, in order to comply with Damo’s copyright rules, but the link to the full story is at the bottom. There’s so much here that was too hard to cut out, and just put the one paragraph that I usually post, followed by the link.
I am so sick and tired of hearing the BS about supporting our troops. Our troops have never been monolithic, and there were always plenty of them who joined after 9/11 to fight in Afghanistan and ended up instead, in Iraq, and who questioned that. Now, polls of the military itself have shown more and more question this occupation. I can’t tell you how many insipid bushwhores have lectured me over the years about the soldiers they claimed to know personally, who literally “couldn’t wait to get back to Iraq.” I always wondered at the simplicity of a mind that didn’t understand the bonding that takes place in battle. I always grasped intuitively that these guys, many of whom were already suffering from survivor’s guilt, did not want to leave their buddies who were still alive, in the trenches. I knew this not because I am a genius, but because you have to be pretty damned stupid not to know it. It is human nature.
While no one understands better than I do, that we cannot take orders from our military, and so, the same way it does not matter if a majority of soldiers support a war, so it does not matter, if a majority do not support that same war...the fact that so many of them just want to get the hell home, goes a long way to proving the bumper sticker slogan of “Support Our Troops, Bring Them Home”. And it brings into question, just whom are you supporting these days? The troops, or this President? And if it’s the troops you support, and you are of a reasonable age, and you are physically fit, why are you supporting them FROM YOUR LIVING ROOM? They’re tired. They haven’t been home. They are on their 3rd and 4th tours. Their marriages have fallen apart in many cases. Many of them suffer from PTSD. They need rest. You want to support them? ENLIST. Give one of them a break. Oh, and they take females these days. Because some of the biggest, most voracious war-mongers and bushwhores I have known, have been women. Do your tough talking from Iraq.
By Michael Kamber
Sunday, May 27, 2007
BAGHDAD: Staff Sergeant David Safstrom does not regret his previous tours in Iraq, not even a difficult second stint when two comrades were killed while trying to capture insurgents.
"In Mosul, in 2003, it felt like we were making the city a better place," he said. "There was no sectarian violence, Saddam was gone, we were tracking down the bad guys. It felt awesome."
But now on his third deployment in Iraq, he is no longer a believer in the mission. The pivotal moment came, he says, this past February when soldiers killed a man setting a roadside bomb. When they searched the bomber's body, they found identification showing him to be a sergeant in the Iraqi Army.
"I thought, 'What are we doing here? Why are we still here?' " said Safstrom, a member of Delta Company of the 1st Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry, 82nd Airborne Division. "We're helping guys that are trying to kill us. We help them in the day. They turn around at night and try to kill us."
His views are echoed by most of his fellow soldiers in Delta Company, renowned for its aggressiveness.
They had seen shadowy militia commanders installed as Iraqi Army officers, they said, had come under increasing attack from roadside bombs - planted within sight of Iraqi Army checkpoints - and had fought against Iraqi soldiers whom they thought were their allies.
"In 2003, 2004, 100 percent of the soldiers wanted to be here, to fight this war," said Sergeant First Class David Moore, a self-described "conservative Texas Republican" and platoon sergeant who strongly advocates an American withdrawal. "Now, 95 percent of my platoon agrees with me."
But in Safstrom's view, the American presence is futile. "If we stayed here for 5, even 10 more years, the day we leave here these guys will go crazy," he said. "It would go straight into a civil war. That's how it feels, like we're putting a Band-Aid on this country until we leave here."
To O'Flarity, the Iraqi security forces are militias beholden to local leaders, not the Iraqi government. "Half of the Iraqi security forces are insurgents," he said.
As for his views on the war, O'Flarity said, "I don't believe we should be here in the middle of a civil war."
"We've all lost friends over here," he said. "Most of us don't know what we're fighting for anymore. We're serving our country and friends, but the only reason we go out every day is for each other."
"I don't want any more of my guys to get hurt or die. If it was something I felt righteous about, maybe. But for this country and this conflict, no, it's not worth it."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/27/news/delta.php
