So, the President says we need more time in Iraq to give the soldiers there time to work towards fixing the unfixable? Well, then, what about my 13 long months I spent there?!!!
So suddenly it's all about what the soldiers on the ground now are doing, not what any of the hundreds of thousands of soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines, like me, who have already deployed and come home have done. Our contribution is worthless, I guess.
I spent 13 long, hot, miserable months trying to help piece together the village after village in the Kirkuk area in 2004-2005. My fellow soldiers and I attempted to mediate disputes, get Iraqis to stop stealing their own transformer lines, get them to stop killing each other, get them to guard their own oil pipelines, and finally get them to polls and vote in the January 30, 2005 elections.
So now what? All of that was worthless? Well, informed people already know that's the truth, but seriously, the President and his lackeys are basically saying nothing we've done before matters, it only matters what the people on the ground now are doing. And, basically, my effort and the effort of all of those troops from the first rotation and the second rotation and the third rotation and the fourth roration of troops has been demeaned because it only matters what happens now.
Forget that many of us sacrificed and made the ultimate sacrifice, all 3003 Americans and the countless Iraqis who were killed and maimed. Thanks, Mr. President for demeaning the sacrifice of all of us who have served before, for insulting our service and the time and effort and blood and sweat and tears we shed to try and build something. Your words basically say we failed in our mission because it is only the troops on the ground now who matter in this war.
Oh by the way, Mr. President, thanks for throwing away more lives of those troops who are there now. You say its getting better, but since October of last year, our troops have faced the single highest sustained casualty totals of the entire war. If you do the math, a full 24.8% of the casualties of this entire war have occurred since last October. That is frightening. This war is a complete debacle, and the one thing we are supposed to be there doing, supposedly: fighting terrorists, isn't working, because Al Qaeda is stronger than it ever was. Smooth, real smooth.
Thanks for telling me my 13 months in Iraq was pointless, Mr. President, but I already knew that. Hope you can figure out someway not to throw away the sacrifice of all the rest of our troops. And, just so you know, honoring the sacrifice of those already lost doesn't mean sending even more troops to die, too!