The Secret Letter From Iraq: A Marine's Letter Home

[miketheidiot]

Originally posted by: cwjerome
The not-so-subtle snipes at the people now in the US military by some of those around here make me... a little sad.

Such people simply have no idea...

Stop being so politically correct.

 

[M00T]

Members of the armed services might bicker and banter about politics off duty, but all that goes right out the door once they get into the sandbox.

Want to know my friend's opinion of the war?: "I wanna go back there and shoot the ragheads that blew up my friends"

No party affiliations, no propaganda, no logical fallacies, no shills... just survival and an occasional mix of revenge.

fvck this war.

 

[Tangerines]

Originally posted by: ericlp

Originally posted by: jrenz

Originally posted by: Lemon law
Young men are easily indoctrinated---thats why the draft age cutoff was set at 26. After that its hard to brainwash.

You're an ignorant piece of filth. I'm sorry I can't say it more eloquently, but that's the bottom line.

How RIGHT he is... Just ask any church, the younger the better...

You're an ignorant piece of filth. I'm sorry I can't say it more eloquently, but that's the bottom line.

 

[1EZduzit]

Originally posted by: cwjerome
The not-so-subtle snipes at the people now in the US military by some of those around here make me... a little sad.

Such people simply have no idea...

Well, if North Korea really has tested a nuke some of them may get an idea, via the draft.

 

[imported_Aelius]

What some of you advocate is that it's not the military's responsibility to dictate policy and they are simply a tool for the job. If that job is pooched it's the civilian leaders that must be accountable and not the military.

Who holds these people accountable? I haven't seen one ounce of accountability for the war. Zero, nada, zip....

There's about a dozen dead/executed German generals from WWII that would strongly disagree.

 

[Ulfhednar]

Amazing letter, really provides a lot of insight and even funny in parts. Good to see that this guy has managed to keep his sense of humour after all he's been through and I hope he makes it home in good health.

 

[conjur]

Most Profound Man in Iraq ? an unidentified farmer in a fairly remote area who, after being asked by Reconnaissance Marines if he had seen any foreign fighters in the area replied "Yes, you."

Most Surreal Moment ? Watching Marines arrive at my detention facility and unload a truck load of flex-cuffed midgets. 26 to be exact. We had put the word out earlier in the day to the Marines in Fallujah that we were looking for Bad Guy X, who was described as a midget. Little did I know that Fallujah was home to a small community of midgets, who banded together for support since they were considered as social outcasts. The Marines were anxious to get back to the midget colony to bring in the rest of the midget suspects, but I called off the search, figuring Bad Guy X was long gone on his short legs after seeing his companions rounded up by the giant infidels.

Worst City in al-Anbar Province ? Ramadi, hands down. The provincial capital of 400,000 people. Lots and lots of insurgents killed in there since we arrived in February. Every day is a nasty gun battle. They blast us with giant bombs in the road, snipers, mortars and small arms. We blast them with tanks, attack helicopters, artillery, our snipers (much better than theirs), and every weapon that an infantryman can carry. Every day. Incredibly, I rarely see Ramadi in the news. We have as many attacks out here in the west as Baghdad. Yet, Baghdad has 7 million people, we have just 1.2 million. Per capita, al-Anbar province is the most violent place in Iraq by several orders of magnitude. I suppose it was no accident that the Marines were assigned this area in 2003.

Coolest Insurgent Act ? Stealing almost $7 million from the main bank in Ramadi in broad daylight, then, upon exiting, waving to the Marines in the combat outpost right next to the bank, who had no clue of what was going on. The Marines waved back. Too cool.

heh heh

Biggest Hassle ? High-ranking visitors. More disruptive to work than a rocket attack. VIPs demand briefs and "battlefield" tours (we take them to quiet sections of Fallujah, which is plenty scary for them). Our briefs and commentary seem to have no effect on their preconceived notions of what's going on in Iraq. Their trips allow them to say that they've been to Fallujah, which gives them an unfortunate degree of credibility in perpetuating their fantasies about the insurgency here.

Through the eyes of a frontline fighter: The Marine captain asked for a tougher assignment. The one he got seemed all but impossible.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15458906/site/newsweek/page/3/

His mood had dimmed when he wrote again to his friend Peter on April 23:

Whatever "good" is happening in Iraq, isn't happening here. The bright side is there is no sectarian violence here like in Baghdad. In other words the insurgents around town don't target civilians. And there are even established warning signals so civilians know not to be around.

My 3 month informed opinion (based entirely on what I see in the Hit region) is that this war is futile. Even the Iraqi soldiers tell us that when America leaves, they'll quit. They trust us because they know Americans can take care of them, but they don't trust their government, or the Ministry of Defense, and they especially don't trust their officers ... Funny, I feel the same way sometimes.


...


As the summer wore on, his frustration deepened. On July 23 he wrote to friends:

Hello everyone,

Tomorrow will be our 6 month mark, and then only 6 more months to go! Everything is fine and works in cycles. Some weeks see more activity than others based on the insurgents' cycles of regrouping and refitting ...

The biggest lesson I have learned over 6 months here is that the Iraqi culture is incapable of maintaining a western style military. The Arabic-style military ... is distasteful to western soldiers: officers who hit their men; officers and senior enlisted men who regularly steal from their men; using leadership to openly grant yourself more food and 'standard of living' items while your men go without ...

Many of our [Iraqi] soldiers went AWOL; new food supplies came in yesterday from Ramadi but were grossly insufficient; new soldiers arrived but their initial military training is substandard and you can tell they are really just here for a paycheck ...


...


As summer ended, Secher was leading Iraqi soldiers on house-to-house searches for insurgents. He described the process in a Sept. 30 e-mail to his father:

We went out with the IA to do cordon-and-searches, where we cordon off a city block [and] then go in small groups from house to house, initially knocking, but we had to kick in a few doors and gates. I had to shoot the lock off of one house. ... The Iraqis I was with did a really good job. I had Mathan [an IA member] and our interpreter Joe, who are both good soldiers. We did the searches at night between 2300 and 0500, so it was a rude awakening. It caused some people to freak out, some were more calm, no one threatened us. We did take some sniper fire, but nothing sustained. I was surprised at how beautiful some Iraqi houses were on the inside. Not at all what I was expecting. ...

The whole thing felt kind of weird. Especially when you have kick in a gate, go charging in, weapon on fire, finger on the trigger, charge to the front door start banging on it, and then some old man comes to the door ... That was about the least enjoyable thing I have done here. As an American it really feels odd to enter peoples homes and question them, and with the authority that if they don't want to cooperate, I can detain them. This is what martial law would be like.

 

[noni]

Originally posted by: Aelius
What some of you advocate is that it's not the military's responsibility to dictate policy and they are simply a tool for the job. If that job is pooched it's the civilian leaders that must be accountable and not the military.

Who holds these people accountable? I haven't seen one ounce of accountability for the war. Zero, nada, zip....

There's about a dozen dead/executed German generals from WWII that would strongly disagree.

You are completely wrong. Actually I don't even know what you were trying to say. In any case you're wrong.

You failed to distuinguish between crimes committed against humanity and crimes against peace.

The military can't be charged for crimes against peace, only for crimes against humanity according to international law.

The german generals were charged in connection to inhumane acts against civilian population.

The civilian leaders can be charged for both kinds of crimes.