Response to Dominik and "Anonymous"

My apologies to the Milblog community for this late response. I went on two weeks R&R at the beginning of October. Went back to my hometown, Orlando, and had a great time. Was never sober enough to take writing this post seriously. Got back to Iraq after a long wait in Kuwait. (Internet access costs 5 dollars an hour on Kuwaiti bases.) Got back to Baghdad. Had a lot of work to do. Went through a post-R&R depression for a few weeks. (Guys who've been on these deployments, you know what I'm talking about.) Anywho, enough with the excuses. This post is actually a reply to two responses made in the comments section of my last post from Dominik and an anonymous poster.

Dominik wrote:

Dear Graham,

I stumbled upon your blog, since there was some news in a german paper referring to mil-blogs in general and your blong in particular.

I served my time in the german air-force in 1993-94.

Two things come to my mind when I read your blog:

Since there is no draft in the US right now, all US soldiers have decided to serve their country voluntarily. You get paid for what you do, be it out with the troops in the front line or in some army office somewhere in the US.

You referred to a bombing of one of your convoys by terrorists causing not only deaths in civilian lifes (children getting sweets from the US troops) but one of your comrades was killed as well.

From the view of an outsider, it strikes me to note, that since the war on Iraque unfolded, probably more Iraquis have died and definitely more US soldiers have died than would have, if the war had not happend.

I try to see things from your perspective (I am 32 now) and come to the following conclusion:

I think I could never get over the things you saw and will see in Iraque. I would be afraid that these things would haunt me for the rest of my life. My grandpa was haunted by the things he witnessed in WWII until his very end.

Would I do what you do for the money? I think not, and I strongly doubt you do it for the money. I assume you do it to serve your country and to defend your country.

But yet, I would always choose to serve my people in a different way than to fight in another country, given, that the country in question has NOT declared war on my country and has NOT harmed and attacked my country.

US troops will stay in Iraque for a long time. Blood will be spilled I am afraid and I feel for the loss of any life on the civilian side and the US side.

I do not feel for the terrorists, but as matter of fact and sadly enough, the war has made things easier for them.

I hope you will get out of this mess soon and be with your family. And I hope you will not loose too many comrades and hope you will be able to cope with what you have witnessed during your time in Iraque when you get home.

I know there always will be wars (that is human nature I am afraid), but I am ever so happy, I am not involved in a war like that.

Since you were not drafted, I hope you knew what price you might have to pay.

It is good, that Saddam Hussein and his regime have been removed. It might have been better, if his own people would have overthrown him. The "thread" posed by Iraque has been removed (WMD!?!) but other countries are lurking to be the thread of tomorrow.

I just simply cannot see how this war is an answer to this thread.

God bless you and your comrades.

Get home safely!

Cheers,

Dominik

First, let me say thank you for your service. Germany has been a great ally for us in the past. I wish that they had agreed to help us with this war. But, whatever.

You have mentioned the thing that troubles me most about this war. I don't think anyone could argue that having Hussein removed is not a good thing. But the fact that the insurgency has taken such a toll on our soldiers really upsets me. And that we cannot provide adequate protection to the people whose country we occupy is insanely frustrating. The Iraqi people have suffered so much under Saddam. Now they are having Jihad fought in their backyard. All of us who have served here are maybe asking ourselves if ultimately, we did the right thing, or if the "cure" ends up being worse than the "disease." I personally think that leaving Saddam in charge would have been unacceptable. Even for as long as we did leave him in charge. But for me, the question was never whether America should have invaded, but rather how well we conducted the war and following occupation.

I think that I'll be able to live with the things I've experienced here. Some of the guys who came here are going to have some mental issues to work out when they get back. But I'll be alright because I was already a little bit messed up in the head before I enlisted. 8-)

Thanks for good thoughts. God bless you and yours also.

I received this response from an anonymous poster:

I oppose the Iraq War and believe that the U.S. will soon have no choice but to leave that country. I'm thinking of writing a series of postings on a blog I have created to further explain my views. If I do, I will post the links here at a later time.

In the past I have found myself in some intense Internet verbal battles that I think wound up as exercises in talking past each other, so I think the way to go is to write those postings in a hope that I say what I really mean and manage to stay away from flights of hyperbole. But I'm only going to do it if I think there's a possibility of rational conversation as opposed to a mere exchange of epithets.

For now, I'll make the following points.

1. I think the U.S. will fail in Iraq because of a series of strategic and tactical blunders. I don't hope for this, but I think it's almost inevitable as the result of the mismanagement of the war by this country's civilian and military leadership.

2. As for Cindy Sheehan, I briefly had a somewhat positive view of her activities but I think she has made a series of very unwise statements. In particular, if she really sympathizes with the Iraq insurgents who do the things you've described then she's lost me.

I would like to think that she made those comments in the heat of the moment;or that they were lifted out of context to make it appear as if she holds views that she does not hold; or that she has been manipulated by people around her. But it's impossible for me to really know.

3. I think Sheehan's detractors are treating her, and those opposed to the war, as caricatures. I think they're following a political strategy of portraying opposition to the Iraq War a remnants of the anti-Vietnam War radical movement. I think this is wrong at a variety of levels, but unfortunately Sheehan has been manuevered (or maneuvered herself -- again, it's impossible for me to say from this distance) into a position where she's vulnerable to being cast in that light.

4. Wars do a variety of things, and one of them is to test the societies that fight them. The Iraq War is testing this country's social and political integrity and bringing to light some deep problems. One of them is a serious erosion of our ability to sustain a rational conversation between political opponents.

5. One critical test of a person's intelligence and maturity is to see whether they can integrate their experiences into a longer view of the issues at hand. Nowhere is that task harder than when the experiences are of the kind that are seen in war. The ability to cut through the fog and blood of battle and see the large picture is rare.

Graham, when you make political comments that's the challenge you face. The comments you've posted will instantly get fulsome praise from a certain contigent, but what I've seen so far is primarily emotion. I say that as someone who has been through some intense emotions on the other side.

6. I genuinely appreciate your military service and that of everyone there. No one asked your opinion before sending you to fight. There are 300 million Americans and there are bound to be crazies among us. But I have yet to personally encounter anyone who disdains our troops. I wish for success and a safe return, but at the moment I am doubting the possibility of either.

Finally, I'll check back here to see the reaction to what I've posted. In particular, I'll be looking for [i]yours[/i] as opposed to that of others, and then I'll decide how to proceed. Ball's in your court.

To "anonymous" I say, first of all, I really hope you're wrong about America ultimately failing in Iraq. We won't be forced to leave Iraq. We will only leave when we want to leave. And of course, we want to leave. But the question of "failure" depends on what state we leave Iraq and the Iraqi security forces when we do leave. If we leave too soon, the Iraqi people are screwed.

It is impossible for me also to tell what Cindy Sheehan's deal is, whether she is being manipulated by people around her, or if she is purposely allowing herself to be made into the type of anti-war icon she has become. However, this question is not really interesting to me. If one were to examine her words at face value, free of all emotional bias, then one would see that she is an enemy propagandist spreading absolutely insane rhetoric. It's easy to associate Sheehan with the Anti-Vietnam War movement when she teams up with Jane Fonda and makes the same type of "anti-imperialist" comments that were made in the sixties.

Go HERE to read some of Cindy Sheehan's quotes.

You are correct when you say that this war is testing Americans' ability to be rational when conducting this national conversation, and that one must make their political comments with maturity and perspective. Surely you must realize that the whole Cindy Sheehan phenomenon is based on emotion. No one would be listening to her if she had never lost her son. Anyone who criticizes her is hit with that "moral authority" BS.

Truthfully, there is nothing wrong with using the emotionalism tied to experience when making a point, as long as that emotion is backed up with rational arguments. I think I do this when I make my points. And I challenge anyone to show me differently.

I haven't heard much about Cindy Sheehan in the news lately. Maybe that's because moderate people in the middle of this issue are ignoring her, realizing how shallow her message really is. Time will tell.

Good luck with your blog.