I have the tendency to believe Sergeants and Staff sergeants as they normally have between 5& 10 years of service, the mid-level platoon NON-Commissioned Officers that make the Army work, the same ranks I held in the Infantry for 15 years of active Army and National Guard Service.
My guess is they will pay for writing this and they shouldn't the public deserves the truth, these are American hero's.
New York Times Letter to the Editor for Sunday
At the same time, the most important front in the counterinsurgency, improving basic social and economic conditions, is the one on which we have failed most miserably. Two million Iraqis are in refugee camps in bordering countries. Close to two million more are internally displaced and now fill many urban slums. Cities lack regular electricity, telephone services and sanitation. "Lucky" Iraqis live in gated communities barricaded with concrete blast walls that provide them with a sense of communal claustrophobia rather than any sense of security we would consider normal.
In a lawless environment where men with guns rule the streets, engaging in the banalities of life has become a death-defying act. Four years into our occupation, we have failed on every promise, while we have substituted Baath Party tyranny with a tyranny of Islamist, militia and criminal violence. When the primary preoccupation of average Iraqis is when and how they are likely to be killed, we can hardly feel smug as we hand out care packages. As an Iraqi man told us a few days ago with deep resignation, "We need security, not free food."
In the end, we need to recognize that our presence may have released Iraqis from the grip of a tyrant, but that it has also robbed them of their self-respect. They will soon realize that the best way to regain dignity is to call us what we are — an army of occupation — and force our withdrawal.
Please write your congressmen and Senators and demand these men NOT be punished for writing this, we should give them medals, they should not be held to account by the UCMJ.
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