Some Iraq Veteran

What a difficult decision to have to make, to send Troops in harm’s way.

Sending more people means more U.S Troops will die.  That’s the cold, hard, blunt truth. It means more combat deaths and it means more non-combat related deaths.  Some of those people killed may be friends of mine. All of those people are brothers and sisters of mine.

But here’s the thing, folks: losing or giving up in that region will have a ripple effect that is likely to last a very long time and ultimately cost way more lives.  People who want to hurt us for no other reason than the beliefs we hold dear will be permitted to run amuck – recruiting, building, planning.  Those people have already demonstrated their capabilities and ruthlessness.  If we give up then we should go all the way and effectively remove ourselves from the world stage.  Isolate ourselves.  Because if the bad guys win in that region, God help us if we make a future foreign policy decision that rubs them the wrong way.  (That was sarcasm, folks – I’m not advocating it).

What a PR boon for militant islamists everywhere should the U.S. and its allies run away.  What will that cost us in American lives down the road, I wonder.  It’s not just a loss of face it’s a loss of power.  That power that the U.S. wields is what lets me go to sleep at night and only vaguely worry that bad guys from afar will blow up my family on the way to school tomorrow.  As a Soldier, I considered myself a protector of innocents, and, with the exception of one cowardly field grade officer, damn near everyone I served with felt the same way.  I didn’t want to die, and more importantly I didn’t want anyone I worked with to get hurt or die (that wish didn’t come true).  But even more than not wanting to die, I didn’t want to lose.  Not because of some silly notion of competitiveness, but because I could see the long-term results of loss.  To me the keys to loss included::

• leaving the region to fend for itself
• mistreating civilians so that they hated us
• failing to interact with the local populace with a human face, thus ensuring they perceived us as robotic invaders
• failing to learn as much of the local culture as possible so we could be sure and offend
• permitting bad guys to terrorize the locals
• failing to take swift action against government corruption
• refusing to shore up the local infrastructure so that the people would have no urgent care, law enforcement, clean water or electricity
• basically, anything that turned civilians away from us and on to the bad guys

You see, in my simple little mind a loss degrades the sacrifices my buddies have made.  It’s like “what was the fucking point?”  I know the decision to act on General McChrystal’s recommendations for more troops is a difficult one.  But dammit, small unit leaders in Iraq and Afghanistan are making tough decisions under very hostile and imminent conditions every single day, and many of those decisions by those kids are made knowing there’s a decent chance someone will die or be seriously hurt.

I’ve read and heard so many arguments about what we “should” do: “kill ‘em all,” “pull our ‘boys’ home,” “give everyone over there X-Boxes so they’ll have something else to do.”  (okay, that last one was my idea but I’ll have to explain its origin later).  If we want to win we have to make the people over there feel safe.  Not “American Safe,” but safe within the parameters of their own completely different culture.  Americanizing them isn’t going to work, but we can help.  It’s going to take more Troops, more civilian support, greater assistance from other countries and (most importantly) political will for the long haul.  This is not going to be a war we “win” and then bring everyone home.  This is going to be a commitment.  Deal with it, peeps, the face of the world has changed.

I haven’t been able to post lately for a few reasons, and I was really planning on writing something funny, or maybe tell another Army story where I was the butt of a joke.  But my concern about the decision making process over the future of Afghanistan has taken center-stage in my thoughts lately.  I am truly terrified the wrong decision will be made.  I’m concerned that if we begin to pull out there will be troops placed unnecessarily in danger (my short-term fear).  I’m concerned that my son, who is lying next to me in the bed with the flu as I type this, and his generation will inherit a horrible set of problems should we act short-sightedly (long-term fear).  I wish I was a better writer, more articulate, so I could more accurately express my worries.  I know I was just a peon junior Cav officer when I served, and that my service was in Iraq, but I’m telling you if we (the galactic we) screw this one up we and our kids will pay the price.

Someone more articulate than me put together a good post over at BlackFive.  I know it’s kinda old, but it’s worth the quick read.  Here it is.

Thanks.

-Dacker