portrait of a liberator
A remarkable letter in today's edition of Stars and Stripes:The bottom line up front (BLUF) is this: If the United States leaves Iraq before the job is at least 90 percent done, it would be catastrophic on a biblical scale ("War based on a lie," letter, Nov. 28). First, you would have civil war and ethnic strife. Then would come the genocide — if I offended anyone, I apologize; I meant "ethnic cleansing." After all that, another Taliban-style regime would take hold. Then another "coalition of the willing" would have to be assembled and we would be right back in Iraq.It takes time to force change on people you despise. And the baffling part is, they don't even seem to appreciate it.
Sometimes you have to look at the bigger picture. What would have happened if the U.S. had prematurely come home during World War II? This is no easy task. It takes time to force change on people.
Personally, I hate this country. I hated it the first time I was here. I will despise it and most of its ungrateful people until the day I die. Regardless of the reason we are here — weapons of mass destruction, Saddam Hussein’s alleged ties to al-Qaida, or whatever — the BLUF is that we are here and have a job to do.
Staff Sgt. David J. Wallach
Forward Operating Base Summerall, Iraq
posted by Chris Bray @ 2:18 AM
5 Comments:
I love the reference to post-WWII occupation. I guess if we'd prematurely ended our occupation, Germany would have turned into a hell-hole of civil war like Austria.
And I love the "or whatever" in the list of reasons for being here in the first place. Ahh, and the argument that, if we leave, an Islamist government will come to power. I gather that Staff Sgt. David J. Wallach hasn't really been paying much attention to Iraqi political developments.
Chris,
This is off-topic (but related in a way, I think): I just read that Hugh Thompson
passed away on Friday. It just reminded me of the piece you wrote at
suck about Thompson and Colburn -- and how often I've thought about that piece since the current war began. I haven't searched for other obits yet, but I'll be surprised if anything captures the Army's...let's be charitable and call it ambivalence...towards those two brave men as sharply as you did.
I'm glad to discover that you're blogging, and I hope you remain safe.
Anon
Interesting that you mention it -- I've been thinking a lot about Hugh Thompson, and remembering the day he came to Benning. William Calley is still alive, and -- last I heard -- still living in Columbus. I wonder if he noticed the news. Maybe a reporter somewhere will ask. Wonder where Lee Ridenhour is.
But, yeah, Hugh Thompson. Hope to live with even half the integrity and the decency.
Ridenhour passed away in 1998. The Ridenhour awards were established in his name.
Good point about Calley. Bet no one has the balls or the sense to give him a call.
Anon
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