Yes, they do. Check out these three examples:
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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Awesome, thanks for posting. I don’t know anyone stationed in Iraq; this will certainly provide a different perspective.
Am I the only one who finds these blogs…depressing? I mean, you have three smart, literate, educated, dedicated, patriotic guys writing about their struggle, how they are trying to do good work, how the MSM doesn’t report it, how they are planting the seeds of democracy and Iraq’s children will build a better Iraq…all that…I guess they are not going to question the necessity of the operation in the first place…but still…
And on that Major K’s blog, a commentor actually used the phrase “Commie pinkos.” And they talk about “false expressions of concern” for the troops. Like if you disagree with the mission, no support is possible.
Yes, I am depressed.
if they were all pessimistic that would be worse.
If anyone wants to tell the major why you care about him FOR REAL, he has a thread where he questions our sincerity.
Maybe filling it with thoughtful, respectful and inquiring posts would be a good way to reach out.
Other Lisa,
Thank you for your words, I only hope I am smart enough to stay alive and to keep my people alive with me. And yes, we question things every single day. I am a firm believer in questioning authority. Don’t pay to much attention to what someone on the right says, just as they don’t pay attention to the left. Concentrate on what you believe, not what they say. I’ve never cared about being called a warmonger. My attitude has always been F–K em if they can’t take a joke. Fight the fight in the way you know how. I do.
Cheers!
Lieutenant C…
It’s not the lack of pessimism I find depressing – I may not have put it too well – it’s the lack of room for any dissent or criticism of the mission. I can understand why, I guess – if I were in that position, I’d want to make the best of it and believe in what I’m doing as well – but I wonder if there is any common ground for a dialog, under the circumstances? I mean, what can I really say to Major K? I honestly can’t think of what that might be. “Wish you weren’t there, hope you don’t die”? If I express doubts about the mission, then I’m not really supportive.
At this point we’ve got to hope that they are successful in rebuilding Iraq and laying the foundation for a new Iraq and all of that…but can this really happen? And if it does, watch the neocons use it to lay the groundwork for their NEXT excellent adventure.
to your questions.
I certainly think we COULD have helped create a democratic Iraq. But it was going to be a dicey and risky venture under the best of circumstances. Now, we have made so many mistakes and the Bush’s have stolen so much money that I’m not sure if we can still prop the country up without going broke.
If you read my article on Friedman you will have a better sense of where I am coming from.
He wasn’t fighting there. He was(is) a producer for CNN. He has always been really sarcastic, and not afraid to say anything, which is a lot of why I like him so much. But when he got back, he wasn’t the same. He has literally been skull fucked. He finds humor in the sickest shit. He had footage that he showed me of 50 US soldiers lined up behind a wall making swiss cheese out of 1 armed Iraqi fighting against them. There is all sorts of fucked up shit going on over there that I personally could never imagine. I dare not say that I understand what these people are going through fighting over there, but I do know that being around significantly changed my friend forever. It sucks. I hate it. I hate the war. But there is nothing that can be said about someone who is over there, positive or negative, or simply just questioning, without having seen that huge steaming pile of Satan’s shit for myself. It scared me to death. There will be a time to talk to these people, but I truly don’t think now is one of those times. We just don’t get it.
you should spend some time reading those blogs. It really does help me to understand better. I know they are censored, and I know they are impatient with people that don’t agree they should be there…but reading what their days are like and how they feel about their jobs is very instructive…which is why I posted the links.
masshol,
This is my 3rd deployment to a bad place. It is all a matter of perspective. It is hard to go from “this” to “the world” I am going home on leave in 9 days, and I am concerned that my wife will find me cold, and distracted. I hate to use the phrase 1000 yard stare. But I am not usually concerned with what I can see, it’s what I can’t that makes me nervous here. I hope you never have to get it. I assure you pal, I hate this war ten-ten thousand fold than you do. Yet, my duty is here, and so here I shall remain until “time served” I can go home. His humanity will return, in time. But the scars will remain. War sucks true, but people grow closer because of the bonds forged here. Keep that in mind…
Lieutenant C
Ironically, Bush said it best.
“You are with us, or with the terrorists,” astonishing billions around the world who had not realized being a terrorist was so respectable.
And make no mistake, there are literally billions of people all over the world who believe unconditionally, absolutely, and unshakably that neither they, nor their land, nor its resources, are US property. They were not US property in the time of Lawrence and Gertrude, they are not now, and they will never be.
That the earth and all it contains is US property is the core, the foundation of US foreign policy. It is so deeply ingrained in the American cultural conscience that many don’t even realize its presence. They just take for granted that of course the US gets to say who can have what weapons, and how many, and for how long. Of course any government that does not put US business interests before the selfish petty concerns of its own citizens is a rogue regime which must be replaced, forthwith with a dollaho.
And there you have an unbridgeable gap, between US warlord loyalists and their gunmen, and the terrorists.
Perhaps it is manifest in his destiny for Sahib to lay the burden down.
Booman,
My perspective is much like yours. I didn’t think there was a chance in hell we could stop BushCo from going into Iraq – I did protest, but I felt it was futile. And it was clear that they had no plan for the post-invasion, and they have screwed it up so badly I don’t know if it’s redeemable either. Means create end, all that.
Ed (? – poster at the end, missed your name) – yeah. I think one of the main reasons that we have so much violence in America is that we keep sending generation after generation to war. And it comes home, and we keep fighting. There was a great, scary article in the LA Times recently about DVDs made by troops set to music – Snuff music videos as it were….
Thunder 6 is a really good writer too.
Thunder 6 and Major K are both mobilized National Guard from California. They’re infantry grunts who get to do the patrols around the cities.
They’ll be over there for a year, trying to make sense of what’s going on around them and trying to stay alive. They’ll see plenty of action and do their fair share of shooting. Then they’ll come home and try to go back to being civilians.
I’ll give Major K credit. He’s at least trying to learn what is going on around him. Unfortunately, he and the rest of our soldiers haven’t gotten much in the way of cultural awareness or basic language training. They are trying to do a job while stumbling blindly in the dark.
They want to create something like California on the Tigris. They are hopeful of teaching the Iraqis to treat their country better. They see the kids and think they can grow up to great little Americans. But they have no sense of the history and communities they are dealing with. In the Shi’a neighborhoods, the kids play occupier and mujahedin – guess which ones are the bad guys?
I’m reminded of the scene in Catch-22 where the old Italian man is laughing at the U.S. airmen, reminding them that Italy has been overrun by armies for over 2000 years. The old man says that fighting is pointless, because he knows that these soldiers will go away like all the rest.
Booman,
Greetings, thanks for linking me to your site. I DIG the frog! A little about me. I am a Republican. Before you tune out, I am a liberal Republican. Libertarians don’t win elections(YET). I plan to run for Congress when I get out/if I get out of Iraq. I am pro-choice, anti-gun ( to a degree), and I didn’t vote for President Bush the first time, the second time I did. I didn’t support the invasion of Iraq, but after meeting the children here I am in it for the long haul. If I was in the house in 2003 I’d have voted against it, but I’d have apoligised after I toured here. MAJ K, is my boss. Thunder6 is my friend, I have known and called MAJ K friend for over a decade. We don’t always agree on politics, but when I run (he’s on my campaign). Thunder6 and I have been forever cahnged by these children, and this land. To the 11 who posted I’d say this, as Einstein said we cannot simoultaneously prevent and prepare for war, hence the name of my blog. I and others like me exist here in this world so that those who believe so desperatly in peace that they would never pick up arms may protest as much as they like without fear. I have been in uniform my entire adult life, and remain one of the biggest skeptics of the government of almost anyone I know in uniform or out. I may not agree with “dissent” but I will fight to the death so that the voice of dissent can be heard with equall footing. I think that protesting is largely a waste of time. I worked for Cogressman Brad Sherman (D) CA, I worked in getting Dems to vote, because I believe in the system, I plan on running against Rep Maxine Waters because I think she represents what is wrong in American Politics, and she is just plain bad for her district, and her constituents. I cannot tell your readers what to believe, but here is what I believe because I have seen it with my eyes. People here are better off than they were, children here are the only hope for this embattled nation, we have poured billions of American dollars into this place, but that is irrelevant compared to the blood we, American men and women, my brothers and sisters in arms have spilled here.
Our blogs aren’t censored, they are monitored but not censored. So, let’s crush that rumor here and now. “one man’s conspiracy is another man’s business plan”
DuctapeFatwa please allow me to opine, We the United States aren’t always right we do make mistake, and often they are horrific mistakes. But we didn’t start this war (terrorism) it began nearly 35 years ago in this region, where this BS was allowed to go unchecked. Now it is being checked, and better here, yes FAR better here than in our backyard, your back yard. The US dollar has helped kee stable the entire world circa 1945, until about oh, now. You can pontificate and moan about how evil the US is, but who did the world look to when a tsunami wrecked Indonesia, who does the world look to each and everytime something goes wrong. It is not by mistake it is the United States. The earth is not US property, we are but a member of the global collective, would you prefer that we don’t get involved? If we didn’t 9/11 may have been a nuclear attack, with the former USSR not accounting for about 3% of its arsenal, and the dissapearance of weapons grade plutonium for three of its former Republics. The plan for post war Iraq was GARBAGE, I give you that. But daily it is hammered out block by block, and we are winning the peace one child, one citizen and if need be on bullet at a time. I value and cherish every opinion for and against this war, the reason why many in uniform are so brutally rude to those who “support the troops, but not the war” have never single step in our shoes here in lovely B’dad. We have simply grown tired of the same “catch phrases. Someone has to put up or shut up. Yet I hear you, and I get it. There are jerks here who do dumb things, but also that is likend to me saying all muslims are bad because of a few jerks. Get it! Catch phrases and slogans work on both sides argument. I am not a sadistic murderer, would I kill here yes. Would I put it to music, no. What generalizations would you make of me? You oppose the war here, fine I won’t generalize that you are weak pascifists. I don’t have enough information to make a judgement like that. And I won’t just because I read it in an article, or hear it on a talk show. Here in B’dad we protect the Shi’a from the Sunni, and play cop in between. We protect the Christians from harm as well, we deliver babies, and feed the homeless. We get shot at daily and daily we lose our friends. Yet we stay, and keep coming, complain surely. We have earned that right, but we keep coming, becasue we believe in our cause. I offer my email to any who wish to engage in open frank and honest dialogue. Although I am a Republican, I value above all other rights in our society the right to be heard. rdcurrie@comacst.net
It is not my intention to fuel your emotions, as I am not an overly emotional man, nay I am not an emotionless killer who makes videos. I am just in a place here in B’dad where my emotions would lend to me not being able to do my job. So, as I said email me, with your thoughts and feelings, and moreimportatly your questions. I’ll give you an honest and blunt truth about Iraq, from a perspective you wouldn’t normally have access to. I look forward to hearing from you.
Regards,
Rusten D Currie
LT C
I posted a new thread for you to answer questions on the front page. However, we’re slow now because it is nearing the end of the workday on a holiday weekend. But check back in soon, and see what the community has to say.
I understand that many westerners are quite sincere and well-intentioned in their belief that only westerners are endowed with the resources, intellectual and otherwise, to bring light to the darkness of the Majority World.
And they are to be commended on their recent accomplishments in the areas of written language and mathematics. The ancient lands of the Majority World is most impressed. All those millennia, who knew?
Now it is time to move on to the intermediate class, where the west learns that freak blip of military dominance of the last few centuries notwithstanding, there is no need for anyone to pick the burden up.
These ancient lands, from the Jordan to the Nile, from the Euphrates to the Indus to the Yangtsze, were here long before Wallace bled, long before Romulus and Remus tumbled in the Mediterranean sun, yes, long before Pericles.
Sneak peek at the advanced class – there is no burden. Do not underestimate the works of M. Night Shyamalan.
The “mess” you refer to began long before 35 years ago, and I can assure you it was not started by the people of Mesopotamia, or Arabia, or Afghanistan or Palestine, for that matter. Anglo-American adventurism in the region has quite a long history, and proceeds apace in the proud condition of brave Leopold and his Congo.
All wars are, in the final analysis, about money. This was true in the days of Og the maker of fine stone axes, and it true today.
It may be wrapped in other banners, in fact, it must be, if the enterprise is to be profitable. If I come to you and say, “give me your son and your gold, for the king wishes to seize the kingdom over the hill, as it has many fine fig trees, and he has promised me an ingot for every man and bag of gold I bring him,” it is unlikely that you will entertain my proposition even for a minute, but if I say to you, “The despicable populace of the evil den of rogues over the hill has said that your god is a scab-legged spawn of a syphilitic goat, and furthermore, they have pledged to burn down your house and shame your daughters,” I have a very good chance of walking away with your son and gold in tow, and visions of how I will spend my ingot in my head.
My personal preference is for non-violent resolution of conflict, but when the core of the conflict is my conviction that I should hit you on the head and take your food, because you are smaller, and you hold an equally strong view that I should hasten back to my own cave and leave you alone, we have, as stated above, an irreconcilable disconnect that is unlikely to be solved either with or without violence on both sides. Violence always wins as the method of choice because it generates revenue and makes Og the stone axe-maker smile, whereas if we sit and talk, the only guy who takes home cash is Ug the purveyor of water-filled goat skins. Just not a high ticket item like stone axes.
I am an immoderately old man, and I have seen many young men march off to many wars, believing all manner of things, some noble, some not, burning with zeal, smooth brows furrowed with purpose, or as your ceremonial figurehead likes to put it, Resolve. Despite their best, and frequently quite successful efforts at population reduction, the world today is not better for those wars, indeed it is worse.
Wars do not solve problems, they postpone them or move them around on the plate, like a desultory child with a despised forkful of peas.
As I stated in my previous post, the gap is unbridgeable.
I do not expect you to take my words to heed, at least not for a great many years, and you will note with studied indifference that I do not call you to task for your activities.
You are not accountable to me for the blood you spill; one day, you may be accountable to some earthly body or other, but you will definitely be accountable to yourself, and to your God.
May your erstwhile comrade in arms Camilo Mejia live long and prosper, and men and women of good will whose names I do not know, who share his courage and his decency, as well as
Israeli Heroes
Profound words. I just have one small, but significant quibble.
All wars are, in the final analysis, about money.
Some wars are about zealous beliefs. Those are the worst of all.
Don’t make the mistake so many of us Americans make of interpreting the entire world through Marxian lenses.
Money struggles can, and largely are, resolved non-violently these days, through trade, commerce, competition, cooperation, cooption, exploitation, etc.
Faith-based conflicts are the ones that bleed the most.
In my experience.
Dang… I already want to be billmon, digby, and jeanne when I grow up… now I want to be DuctapeFatwa too.
Wonderful presentation of a needed reminder.
You can pontificate and moan about how evil the US is, but who did the world look to when a tsunami wrecked Indonesia, who does the world look to each and everytime something goes wrong. It is not by mistake it is the United States.
Fact: In terms of percentage of GNP contributed for tsunami relief, the US ranks 20th.
Fact: In terms of per capita contributions, the US ranks 18th.
Fact: In terms of absolute dollars, the US ranks 11th.
So, any way you look at it, the world may have looked to the US, but the US was barely there – and only after public embarrassment and pressure did Bush raise the original amount pledged from a pathetic 35 mil to 350 mil – and the higher figure was the basis for the facts listed above. Source: Wikipedia.
You need to get your facts straight if you wish to have an intelligent discussion rather than throw opposing knee-jerk blind sloganeering back and forth (yes, the Left can and does do it as well as the Right does).
A bit more humility (ok, a great DEAL more humility) on the part of America, both administration and people, would go a long way to returning us to our traditional constructive role in the world.
Otherwise, all this flag waving off old glories is just like people who still think the Yankees are the only team in baseball 🙂
Galiel,
I applaud your passion, many would do well to articulate it with the fire in which you brandish your argument. I was not attacking you, your position, or your beliefs. I was simply using this medium to state my own from a perspective I suspect is not often heard in this space. My point is that no matter what the global crisis, that this nation, my nation is almost always there. When it came to the tsunami relief efforts we were there, there was a US carrier group that evacuated wounded nearly without permission, and provided nearly immediate humanitarian assistnce. I rarely fly my flag at home for anyone can jump on the band wagon of patriotism, I have worn a uniform my entire life and during the worst years of my life when I hated the government for the things I saw in Somalia and Rwanda, I still put my boots on and did my job. I agree you more than I can say that we need to mend fences with our Euro neighbors. Our role in the world is indeed changing. There are more to “facts” than just the sights you chose to go to on a regular basis. That’s how I ended up here. And a fact is far different from a hard statistic. I try not to let my heart interfere with what logically I can see or has been proven. Just being mad about what we, yes we as AMericans have done isn’t enough. I have become so bitter about what our government has done that I am running for congress literally seconds after I return/if I return from ths place. Oh, and I have been a Yankees fan since I was 4 living in Syracuse NY. There are others teams in baseball, the Yankees had to beat someone over the last 90 years. Oh, but I also love Detroit, I do so love an underdog. Respectully engaged and submitted…I await your retort.
Pax Romana,
Happy Easter, if that is your flavor, if not have a good weekend.
There are more to “facts” than just the sights you chose to go to on a regular basis.
If you have refuting evidence, please present it. Otherwise, you are telling people to ignore reality when it doesn’t match your ideology and to trust instead in patriotic slogans and demagoguery.
You could simply have said, “I was wrong, my assertion about the tsunami was incorrect”.
Instead, you seem insistent on defending your beliefs in the face of contrary evidence. Each time I present specific facts, you ignore them and just resort to patriotic cliches.
You have no idea what sites I go to on a regular basis.
You should examine the stereotypes and prejudices you have about “the Left”. I’m not treating you like a knee-jerk freeper, you would do well to try to keep an open mind about the people you are interacting with here. Focus on the arguments I make, stop making insulting assumptions about my motives.
when you respond to a recital of facts and evidence with a snarky comment about “passion” and “brandishing” “fire”, you are damning with faint praise.
You are trying to deflect attention from the facts, and discredit their objective value by imputing motive and irrational fervor to the person who presented them.
These are all familiar rhetorical tricks and I’m afraid many here will not fall for them.
Let’s stick to debate on the issues, without making remarks about the people presenting them.
That is what marks respect and honor, not a lot of nice words stuck at the end of the post.
As I said above, I can hardly persuade you to fatten my pocket unless I can convince you that your blood is to be spilled for something you value, whether that something is real or false does not matter. All that is required is that you believe it.
The war’s authors, however, have a different motive, and when stripped down for its bath, that motive is invariably money.
and a moving testimony to your tolerance for typos.
If only we could edit comments, I might even convince people I am not a anti subject-verb agreement hardliner 😉
Seriously, thank you very much, you have made my evening!