Remember the Grunts in Iraq

[thedrifter]

12-24-2003

Remember the Grunts in Iraq



By Patrick Hayes



Although the pontificators continue to pontificate about how wonderful it is that Saddam Hussein was captured without a shot being fired and that the way is now clear to build a new democratic Iraqi society ? the question is, so what?



At what cost have we finally arrested Saddam Hussein? What about the mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, girlfriends, wives, sons and daughters who are just a few of the people affected when the men in uniform come to the front door to report that a loved one has been killed or is missing in combat?



Every time I hear that another American has been killed in Iraq ? virtually every day ? I become angrier and question why and how. Why did Americans have to go into harm?s way in Iraq and how the hell are we going to get out?



On Sunday, Dec. 14, another soldier died as he attempted to clear a mine from a telephone poll. Obviously command detonated, it blew as he approached and he was killed. The media and the talking heads say, ?a small price to pay.?



Politically, militarily, even economically, maybe the hundreds of American lives that have been lost during Operation Iraqi Freedom so far don?t mean much to the ?big picture? view of Washington politicians and generals. After all, it?s not a large number ? just a few soldiers, airmen, sailors, and Marines who paid the ultimate price.



But a price for what? So that other Americans could live free? No.



Yes, the overall objective in Iraq has been partially won. Now we finally have Saddam in custody and maybe a good number of Iraqis are happy. The question again is, so what? In the final analysis, was it really worth one American life? Who in their right mind can see a functioning ?democracy? in Iraq this side of the 22nd century?



For the people he leaves behind at home, that one dead soldier is a major number. It means that their son, brother, fianc?, husband, or father won?t be home this Christmas or any other Christmas. It will mean another American family grieving their loss through the Christmas season instead of rejoicing ?peace on earth.?



Also, as was recently acknowledged by a number of people, by defeating the Iraqi system and knocking down whatever questionable political structure they had, haven?t we let the Shi?ite genie out of the bottle? The Shi?ites make up a large number of the Iraqi population. They are also closely tied to bordering Iran, a predominantly Shi?ite country, which is up to its neck in the support of Muslim terrorism.



On the northern border, we have also let loose the Kurds, who have a longstanding conflict with our sometimes NATO ally, Turkey. Just how much stability have we actually brought to the region?



The war was fought, as we are told, so that an unstable, Third World hotbed of corruption, death squads, dictatorships, political expediency, and rapidly-changing loyalties can earn a right to be free ? when most Iraqis have no comprehension of what ?freedom? actually means, much less democracy. Also, it does not take a great deal of research to see that Iraq has had a long and brutal history, but especially over the past 40 years or so when, much of the time, they were puppets of the Soviet Union, regardless of who ruled in Baghdad.



There?s no denying that there are times when Americans do need to go into harm?s way and do what is right to protect other American lives and the American way of life. However, since World War II, those reasons seem to have become not only less clear, but also less palatable.



The Americans who went to Korea to stop the Communist hordes were fought to a political stalemate at the cost of 54,246 American lives. Given recent activities within North Korea, what exactly was achieved for this cost in American lives? In retrospect, when Gen. Douglas MacArthur asked then-President Harry Truman to use nuclear weapons to wipe out the hordes of Communist ants swarming down the peninsula from the north, he was fired. Then, after so many American and other U.N. deaths, nothing was achieved but an unstable political stalemate in hostilities with a state run by a madman.



As soon as I turned 17, I was one of the first in line to join the Marines and then went to Vietnam ? a couple of times. But more than 58,000 American lives later, not counting the thousands of maimed and wounded veterans, what did that fight against Communism and the ?domino theory? achieve? In the final analysis, economics defeated the Soviet Union. The Soviets just couldn?t keep up with American spending. However, Communist North Korea, Communist China, Communist Vietnam, and our old friend Communist Cuba are still very much in the picture.



The point, as I have argued previously, is that without clear military and political objectives that directly affect the United States, in addition to a clear and honest exit strategy, I fail to see the need to put the lives of young Americans in jeopardy. This belief obviously takes nothing away from the members of the military now serving in Iraq who, like other generations have done before them, are doing their duty, doing the best they can, following orders, and trying to stay in one piece.



Although targeted daily by rabid terrorists, these young American men and women must work within constricting rules of engagement designed by rear-echelon JAG lawyers who have never seen a shot fired in anger on the battlefield, but who have excellent 20-20 hindsight and Monday morning quarterback abilities. Lt. Col. Allen B. West discovered this recently when he might have stepped on the toes of a potential terrorist, but saved American lives.



Politicians, economics and JAG lawyers aside, this Christmas, let?s remember our fallen comrades and hope they have not died in vain.



Patrick Hayes is a Senior Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at gyrene@sftt.org.


http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/...5.4877912851555

Sempers,

Roger