Friday, September 07, 2007

A message from a U.S. soldier


Visitors here may have noticed that I've recently added the blogroll of the Out of Iraq Bloggers Caucus to the sidebar. This a group of blogs that agree on some simple propositions:
  • Opposed to Iraq Supplemental Appropriations Bills.
  • Opposed to funding Bush's Iraq Occupation Debacle.
  • Committed to getting the troops home as soon as possible.
  • Determined to end George W. Bush's Iraq and Mid-East Debacle as quickly as possible.
  • Determined to restore some sanity to the world.
You know, the basics. Check some of these folks out; we all approach things differently, but we try to keep it real.

New blogs sign on to OOIBC frequently. Today Army of Dude joined up. The author has just completed a tour of duty as a grunt in Iraq. He's on his way home after 400 days. He's got a lesson he wants us to understand:

Do not wage war unless it is absolutely, positively the last ditch effort for survival.

I was a struggling senior in high school when the invasion took place, and I supported it. I was mesmerized by the way we raced across the desert and took Baghdad in less than a month. War was a sleek, glossy commercial on TV, and we always won at the end. It’s easy to be for a war when you have absolutely no connection with it. Patriotism lead me to believe what we were doing was right and noble. What a difference a deployment can make.

The public can do something about this. It doesn’t have to be a hopeless cause forever. Write your Congressmen, go to a rally, read as much as you can about Iraq to see it for what it is: a place men go to lose their minds and their lives. And most importantly, love your children. Teach them that war is not honorable, it’s no plaything cast with an indifferent hand. It’s the most terrible thing man ever brought to the world.

If you are not sure about that, read the archives at Army of Dude.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

i went through the OOIBC, everytime i read such stories about the "hell" of iraq and see horrible pictures for american injured there, i think that may cause hate to american families against iraqis! even with knowing that american government is the responsible about this war... the case should be driven to how american army is the "criminal", i should say it in clear because to american the army is "national" or in it's best term is "occupation", i just recall abu ghraib and the end of the trial with just reprimand for not following "orders"!!!


"The media have largely followed the Administration’s myopic approach to the war, and there is likely to be intense coverage of the congressional testimony. But the inadequacy of the surge is already clear, if one honestly assesses the daily lives of Iraqis."
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/09/17/070917fa_fact_packer