Candy Minx (bless her heart) actually went back and read posts of mine from way back when, and brought my attention to "the post that started it all." Until I made this post, I had maybe ten hits a day, and I believe the only reader I had outside of my family was Richmond. After this post somehow gained popularity, I was featured on news websites and some of the bigger Military websites. The rest is just kind of history.
The big news at the time was that Congress had locked themselves into the Capitol and were debating setting an exact withdrawal date from Iraq, or whether we should pull out immediately. All we saw in the CAOC for a week were numb-brained pundits sharing their opinions on TV--while Marines were dying in Fallujah.
Anyway--the desert is far in my rear-view mirror at this point, and I thought it would be interesting to re-visit this dissertation of what my views were on the War when I had a front-row seat to it every day. My feelings haven't changed at all--though my readers certainly have. I am very interested in what people have to say about it now.
So Here's My First Rant...
My Views on the War (Rant)
Ok...before I begin I need to reiterate that this is strictly my opinion (like everything else on here) and my opinion only. I’ll surely hear from someone higher ranking than me about this one.
I’ve been watching what news I can about what is going on back home. In particular the political battles that have been waged over the past few months over how long we’ll be here, how many troops have died, what the original reasons were for us getting into the fight, etc. I’ve mentioned a few times on here what my overall feeling is about the American politics and how it seems to have been working for a long time, but I won’t go into depth on that here. What I do want to offer is my view as to why we’re here, when we need to go home, and how much the political wrangling has helped us over here.
I have honestly no idea what happened with the Intel issues or whatever it is that the media and politicians seem so hell-bent on focusing on before we got over here. I don’t know, or care, if Iraq had WMD in theater before we showed up. What I do know is that Saddam Hussein was a very bad man. He did very bad, unimaginable things to people. To women and children. To celebrate he would go out on his porch and fire his rifle in the air in a display of his power. To this day, he is still an arrogant, delusional, psychotic killer. That was enough for me to go to war over here. What a lot of people seem to forget is that after the first Gulf War, we never left. My buddies and I have been deploying over here, flying over here, and getting missiles shot at us over here for 15 years. With really no end in sight. So to hear that we had finally had enough and were going to go finish what we should have 15 years ago was a relief to me. WMD? Added bonus in my eyes.
The media hasn’t really gotten on board with the whole Global War on Terrorism issue. What they seem to not understand is that this isn’t an “Iraq War.” It is a front in a global war. People think that if we just up and go that we’ll be happy and safe at home and the reality is that that’s probably not true. These psycho’s are everywhere in the world. And we are going to have to find them and get them everywhere in the world. If the bullets stopped flying in Iraq today my guess is that we’d be off to somewhere else real soon, to fight the same war, against the same enemy, on a different front. During World War II there were many fronts, but you didn’t see politicians protesting the war in Japan, or women chaining themselves to the White House’s fence because they’re son died on Iwo Jima. They understood that we were fighting a battle that needed to be fought, and because we were the only ones that could do it. It wasn’t about American pride or arrogance or money, it was much simpler than that. Bad people in charge equals a bad world. I am not bragging about the US Military (as I will occasionally do)—I am merely stating a fact that we have the largest, most hi-tech, sophisticated fighting force on the planet. And as such, it is our moral obligation to fight the bad guys in this war. That’s, in my opinion, why we came here in the first place and why we’ll go on to the next front when it pops up.
Timeline for us to leave? That’s an easy one. I’ll start by disclaiming that again, I’m sitting in a cold CAOC hundreds of miles away from the marines (man they are so badass) fighting up range. I am, however, thousands of miles from a family that I love very much and miss with all of my heart. Every soldier up there has his opinion, and I would imagine that a few of them would really like to go home today. But I really think the vast majority of them, including the ones that have fought and died in this war (global war—not just Iraq) so far, would say the same thing I would to the president if I had the chance:
“Mr. Bush, I miss my home and my family. Bring us home when the job is done, and not one second sooner.”
Ok. The political wrangling. I saw somewhere that people believe in Washington that slamming the doors of congress for a closed session, or holding an emergency “should we come home today?” vote portrays to the American soldiers over here the undying support and loyalty of congress. What it actually makes me want to say is “grow up.” You want to support us? C’mon out here and say hi on Christmas Day when it will be just like every other day for us instead of staying with your family. Donate as much money as you can to the thousands of young guys up there that volunteered to be here even though they barely make enough money to feed their wife and baby waiting back home. I am so tired of seeing CNN, Fox, MSNBC, broadcasting whines and complaints about how much they know what is right for us. Think about it guys. How much do you think a guy wearing combat fatigues, a 60-pound rucksack, covered with mud and carrying a rifle gives a sh*t (sorry) about a bunch of people bickering and complaining in suits and ties? What cracks me up is that, like always, their opinions are conveniently split exactly down party lines. What a coincidence. You want to support us? Stop fighting. Unify like we claimed to have done after 9/11. I was never prouder of my government than when I saw all of them unite behind the president after the terrorist attacks. Where is that unity now? Drop the whole party line issue and vote/speak your conscience. Watching this on TV from over here is heartbreaking because it doesn’t portray support, it portrays a divided group back home that can’t decide if what we’re fighting for is worth it.
Sorry for the ramble—didn’t mean it to go on this far. I’ll cheer it up a bit for tomorrow.
politics, military, rant
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