I can hear it now from conservative mouths such as Ann Coulter’s and Bill O’Reilly’s: “They are traitors to our country! They’re hurting the morale of the troops!”
Sunday, an editorial piece was published on The New York Times editorial page. The article was authored by seven noncommissioned officers of the 82nd Airborne Division who are nearing the end of a 15-month deployment in Iraq.
The officers, who acknowledged that their views were personal and not a formal statement within a chain of command, questioned the skewed media portrayal of the war in Iraq and gave their account of an unstable government, unwavering sectarian tension and “routine” lethal violence. They wrote about the Iraqi view that our forces are an army of occupation that, in trying to please all sides, has yet to make any headway in the fight for a more stable Iraq, and if things don’t change our presence will end up being resented by all.
But through all of their discouragement, the soldiers said that in the end morale is not a question and they will see the war through.
Hearing their account reminds me of my uncle Glorn. He is a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army and in the near future will be returning for his third tour of duty in Iraq.
My uncle is a very smart man and someone whom I have a great deal of respect for, as he has put his life on the line to serve his country not only in this war, but during the Gulf War. He tells it like it is, and his accounts of the violence in Iraq are somewhat similar to what I read in the paper — and so is his resolve to fulfill his duty to serve his country.
Glorn once said that being there on the day the Iraqis had their first election and seeing the people come out to vote in the face of terrorist threats made him believe that what the troops are trying to accomplish is worthwhile.
There are so many armchair critics of the war — people who will sit back and say how long we need to stay in Iraq or whether we are accomplishing what we are supposed to be accomplishing fast enough to constitute a presence. The Sean Hannitys of the world are saying “stay” while the Bill Mahers find the idea of democracy working in a place such as Iraq laughable.
The situation could be summed up by the word quagmire, but I have my doubts that the solution will come from the mouths of media ponies. Perhaps we should be taking note of what the troops have to say — their accounts of the day-to-day problems — instead of listening to a comedian’s vague idea of what we are doing wrong.
It is only the troops on the ground, the authors of the editorial piece and people such as my uncle who will really be able to tell us what works, what has gone wrong and what course of action we should be in support of.