[Grovenet] Peace in Iraq

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

You mean, "...did all those American troops really serve and die for nothing
after  all?"

Not until it's over. The day another vicious dictator takes command of Iraq
I'll say the answer is "yes". 

Something they taught me in the Army was that no soldier should die for his
country. Patton was right. A soldier's job isn't to die or even to bleed for
our country. The soldier's job is to go wherever the politicians send them
and make the "...other poor dumb bastard die for HIS country" (if I recall
General Patton's words correctly). 

At least in WWII they had the very real specter of foreign armies invading
our homeland. And it turned out that both the Japanese and Germans had plans
to attack the contiguous 48 directly if not actually invade and occupy
sections of our country. 

But that hasn't been a credible threat since WWII. 

It wasn't the soldiers job to bring peace to Iraq. That's the politician's
job: President Bush and the Congress. The soldier's job was to remove the
military force that would interfere with their efforts. But the soldiers had
the right to expect a force equal to the threat, not a paltry force 100,000
or 200,000. It's clear to us civilians now that this required a million
person commitment. It was the President's job to know that in advance or at
least to recognize it when his expectations weren't met. He still won't
admit it. 

Soldiers have enough to worry about without having an enemy in the Oval
office who keeps making speeches about supporting them. Three years they've
been in Iraq. I don't believe they've failed because they weren't good
enough. They are failing because they don't have the manpower and resources
and the time. This never was a short war. To win, history showed us, this
required a war of epic length. An occupation of decades length, at least.
Maybe we can't afford it. In that case maybe their lives were squandered. 

Maybe us civilians will give this country a leader who can make their
efforts mean something. That's our job; all of us civilians. Soldiers are
very limited in how they can express themselves besides at the ballot box.

That's a lot of maybes Ed. But I'm not a pessimist enough to call the
outcome a loss before it's over and there's no where else to turn. Indeed,
perhaps the worst thing the USA can do is get out in a way that we can
pretend it wasn't all our fault. Perhaps we need to have our noses rubbed in
the blood and gore we have created just as we did with the Germans at the
end of WWII. 

Serving in the military is a dirty, crappy job with lousy life expectancy
that no human being should ever have to do. That's why I believe that as
long as the USA needs soldiers, every citizen should serve for a period of
time.

Ron D'Eau Claire



-----Original Message-----
From: grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com [mailto:grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com] On
Behalf Of Ed Davie
Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2006 6:16 PM
To: Forest Grove local interests list
Subject: Re: [Grovenet] Peace in Iraq


Ron, Can you answer you own question now, 
honestly?
Ed