Soldiers letter

knuckle · Young Wolf Joined: 18 Sep 2006 Posts: 501

From a medic in Iraq .

Following the article I sent about Bush's national address and planned troop increases, I thought it was a good idea to let you all know what the perspective is over here. I'm tired of hearing the media's skewed version, the politicians squabbling over what they read in a report, and
the average ill-informed American ranting about things he knows NOTHING about.

I've been over here a couple of months now, and I've learned more about this country than a year's worth of watching CNN. I've sat in mission briefs with Colonels, talked with village elders, had tea with Sheiks,
played with the kids. And I agree with the President. We need more troops and we need to take greater action.

There are 3 major factions here. The Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds. The Shiites are in the majority, but Saddam was a Sunni, so he kept the Shiites in check. Everyone hates the Kurds, who are Christian and in the vast minority. The Kurds received the brunt of Saddam's murderous
tyranny. Now that Saddam is gone, the Shiites have taken control of Baghdad . The largely peaceful Sunnis are now the victims of radical Shiite terrorism. So the young Sunni men, who can no longer go to work and support their families, do what all young men would do. They join
the Sunni militia and battle the Shiites. And thus the country sits on the brink of civil war.

But this war is between them. They largely do not concern themselves with the U.S. troops. The insurgents who battle the Coalition Forces are from outside the country. And the biggest problem down here isn't the insurgents. It's the politicians. The local politicians. Even though the
country is controlled by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, downtown Baghdad is controlled by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The Shiites follow al-Sadr and thus the Prime Minister does what al-Sadr says. Think of it as if a warlord controlled New York City and who has blackmailed the President into diplomatic immunity.

When 1st Cav (mainly 2/5 Cav) came here in 2004, they took downtown Baghdad (known as Sadr City ) by force. It cost many lives, but after a year, we held an iron grip on the largest insurgent breeding ground in Iraq . The insurgents were afraid of the Horse People, and rightfully so.But when 1st Cav left, al-Sadr influenced the Prime Minister to kick out the Coalition forces from that area of Baghdad . He said the Iraqi military forces could hold the city. But all that happened was al-Sadr regained control of his city, and it is now a heavily guarded fortress. A
place where insurgents and terrorists can train and stockpile arms. And we cannot go back in because the Prime Minister won't let us. Our hands are tied.

So where does al-Sadr get his backing? From Iran and Syria . Iran supplies him with money and Syria supplies the terrorists. The insurgents that battle the Coalition Forces are from Syria , Somalia and dozens of other places outside of Iraq . Iraq is literally a terrorist breeding ground. They have terrorist and sniper schools here. Why not?
They train by teaching them to attack the military forces here. And they have an endless supply of these training tools.

They have factories setup in Sadr City to build bombs. Both Iran and Syria have openly proclaimed their number one goal in life is to destroy the great Western Devil and the little Western Devil ( America and Britain ). Iran
wants to control Iraq to further this purpose. Al-Sadr will get to "run" the country and live like a king, but in reality Iran will pull the puppet strings. Iran will have access to thousands of radical Shiites who will do whatever al-Sadr tells them to. And Iraq will be used as a breeding ground for terrorism. Terrorism that will be targeted directly
at America and Britain . The Iraq Study Group advised we should let Iran and Syria help with rebuilding. Bravo to President Bush for striking that idea down and vowing to keep those two countries out of Iraq .

So how do the Iraqi people feel about everything? Of course they don't want the Americans here. But they would far rather have us here than the Iranians. My platoon visited an average Sunni village on a patrol a few days ago. Their only source of income was to farm, as they could not go
to the city to work for fear of violence. Many of the young men had already run off to join the militia for no other reason than to feed their families. They had no school or hospital near them and the community was dying. The village elder's granddaughter was very sick and
I was able to treat her. Afterwards he invited me and my Platoon Leader to sit in his house and have tea with him , and we talked about the situation.

The people want peace. The Shiites kill the Sunnis because al-Sadr tells them to do so. The Sunnis fight back because they have no choice. They are glad Saddam is dead (Sunni or not), but do not want to replace him with another dictator in a politician's clothes (which is what al-Sadr will become). And they especially don't want Iran in charge.
Many innocent Iraqis will die if this happens. These are the words that came out of the elder's mouth:

"We do not want America here, and America does not want to be here. But you cannot leave because the militias control the country. America must use the might of its giant army and sweep through, root out and destroy
the militias. Then Iraq can be free and you can leave."

What appears to have happened within our diplomatic community, is that the Prime Minister finally realizes that his days are numbered. If al-Sadr remains, he will be kicked to the curb. So hopefully he is about to allow us to reenter Sadr City , to root out and destroy the enemy. A
dramatic troop increase will allow us to do this. And the Horse People are back and ready to finish what they started over 2 years ago.

If we leave now, it will be a failure for democracy. Iran will control Iraq and the end result will be more terrorist attacks on America . The American people don't want soldiers dying over here, but its better than American civilians dying over there. Do NOT forget 9/11. They will do it again. The moment we loosen our grip on the noose, they will do it
again. And the only way to root out the evil here is to stop beating around the bush, increase troops and destroy the insurgents once and for all. The Iraqi government cannot do this on their own. The Iraqi security forces are inadequate for this task. We are the only ones who can stop al-Sadr.

Feel free to share this with whomever wants a real soldier's opinion about the war.

SPC "Doc" 2/5 Cav, 1st CB

thought this might be of interest

much love-----------knuckle

P1234567890 · Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 2:52 pm Post subject:

Maybe increasing the number of troops would work, but Bush only wants to send another 20,000. If you actually wanted to get the job done, you'd have to send more like 200,000.
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"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction."
-Blaise Pascal
"...with or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil -that takes religion..."
-Steven Weinberg
"I would bless my children with your destruction instead."
-Someone who shall remain anonymous.

theseldomscene · Banned Joined: 17 Mar 2005 Posts: 7817

45degreeN · Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 4:14 pm Post subject:

Not without a draft. The military has just about run out of volunteers who want to go. Or more accurately the ones who want to go will do it as citizens making truly big bucks as private security forces. To do it right would require a Vietnam sized force of 500,000!

Don't get your hopes up though Bush and his Walmart War (war on the cheap) will not go that way they don't want to require real sacrifice from the many citizens of the USA he knows it will cause them to reject his policies faster than ______ (fill in the blank).

Trinity1 · Emperor of the World Joined: 02 Apr 2006 Posts: 3123

Trinity1 · Emperor of the World Joined: 02 Apr 2006 Posts: 3123

P1234567890 · Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 5:46 pm Post subject:

P1234567890 · Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 5:48 pm Post subject:

Trinity1 · Emperor of the World Joined: 02 Apr 2006 Posts: 3123

P1234567890 · Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 5:57 pm Post subject:

Trinity1 · Emperor of the World Joined: 02 Apr 2006 Posts: 3123

lone-traveler · Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 7:08 pm Post subject:

thankyou knuckle for passing that on...
Lone
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Joh 15:12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

knuckle · Young Wolf Joined: 18 Sep 2006 Posts: 501

you are most welcome

much love-------knuckle

RevJP · Moderator Joined: 18 Apr 2003 Posts: 7000 Location: USA

I agree with Trin on Les Aspen. The worst in decades. Somolia was not a pleasant situation and if the leadership involved with the operations had any clue it was not evident to those of use on the ground. They took the intel given to them by those of us risking our lives to get it and wrapped fish in it or something...
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P1234567890 · Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 4:25 am Post subject: