A sequel to Carnacki's "A Father's Anguish"
Released from Prairie State Blue
Eric Zorn follows up his column on the letter of a fallen soldier's father to President Bush with e-mails home from the soldier himself. Kevin Landeck, of Wheaton, IL, was a son, a husband, a brother, and a soldier. He volunteered to defend the United States and was frustrated when the United States government failed to defend him.
I wish they would let us do our jobs. I am looking forward to coming home in April for my two-week leave. I will only have four months left in this hellhole and then I can be home with [wife] Bethany, my dog and pizza.
I'm frustrated. The military wants us to be policemen and not soldiers. I don't feel like we're fighting terrorists or terrorism here. I guess [the commanders] feel like we are replaceable. Keep Mom busy because I know she is worried about me but I'm fine and as long as I stay focused, things should be OK. Happy New Year and hoist a glass for me.
Dad, you asked what I thought about Bush's plan to send more troops to Baghdad...well, he can send as many as he wants but it won't make a difference until the Iraqis step up to the plate. It also means more of us guys are going to get cut to shreds by the bad guys. I don't understand the thinking of Bush and Cheney and the other geniuses running this war. It is senseless.
It is perhaps unsurprising given their responses to the father's letter (more can be found here), but it is still beyond belief to see the Republican response to Zorn (comments can be found here).
Was Capt. Landeck's mental state really as fatalistic as these emails purport? For example, do you have any email from when Capt. Landeck was recently commissioned? When I was commissioned, I was very excited to be able to serve my country, just as men in my family had done for generations. Sure, morale sank when push came to shove during my active duty days, but even then, deep down I knew what I was doing was very necessary.
Perhaps this is one of those 'journalism is more important that individual privacy' things. Don't get me wrong - I am not dogging you...I am just interested in the journalistic ethics of what you are doing.
If this is indeed exploitation, you are committing an act far more heinous than what any Iraqi has done to Capt. Landeck.
Is it any wonder that the Republican members of Congress, including Illinois' own Ray LaHood and Mark Kirk are voting to send troops to Iraq without rest, training, body armor, or equipment? Kevin Landeck's own representitive in the House, Peter Roskam (the freshman Congressman who defeated Tammy Duckworth), is strongly pro-war and supports the Bush-McCain escalation.
There is no question that there has been great difficulty that has gone before us in this fight. There is no question that there have been great mistakes that have been made, and I am wholeheartedly in favor of us acting as a coequal branch of government and calling for benchmarks and demarcation and holding the administration accountable for its decisions.
But...
We owe it to Kevin Landeck and all of our soldiers, to remember their sacrifices and to hold the civilian leadership that sent them into this unwinnable situation accountable.