Via Brian Leiter, A gripping letter from a U.S. solider about the real situation "on the ground" in Iraq
With permission, I'm printing below a lucid and gripping account from a U.S. solider with a reserve unit of the 82nd Airborne in the vicinity of Fallujah. (This came via a colleague, though I touched base with the solider directly to secure permission. Identifying references have been removed.)Give it a read.
Incidentally, soldiers here become indignant when they hear politicians on television (we purchased satellite TV off of some folks in Baghdad and get lots of US and British news stations--see www.orbit.net) describe the insurgency as "terrorists, killers, or thugs." That's bull$hit, they're a very well organized, smart insurgency. Their strategy is brilliant, and it's like a carbon copy of what we did with the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan in the 1980s, of course adjusted for the nuances of the current situation (like going after any potential ally, like Spain, Turkey, and now Italy, and of course the NGOs like the Red Cross and to some extent the UN). The Soviets tried to dismiss the Afghan insurgents as terrorists, killers, and thugs, also (see Pravda, 1986-89). The Soviet troops never quite figured out who the ghosts were who were attacking them, much like we're not sure who these guys are.
this letter, along with the army war college scholarly articles i linked to, just seems to write "clusterfuck" in huge letters, in the blood of both american soldiers and iraqi civilians, on the fucking wall. it makes me want to go out in the street and scream and scream.
I already tried that last year with the protests. I found no one listens. . .