Monday, January 6, 2014

Dissappointed? Sure. Surprised? Hell no.

So, this happened: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/al-qaeda-force-captures-fallujah-amid-rise-in-violence-in-iraq/2014/01/03/8abaeb2a-74aa-11e3-8def-a33011492df2_story.html

and

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/world/middle_east/battles-intensify-for-control-of-fallujah/2014/01/04/5ef4d3a8-9166-4037-af56-4ed6822a8609_video.html

   Apparently al Qaeda has taken back Fallujah in every real sense of the word; national flags torn down and replaced, no ISF, IA, or IP's anywhere to be found (no real change there), large scale firefights,  it's like someone got into their flux capacitor enabled blue Bongo truck (or maybe it's a maroon Opel?) and went back in time to 2004.

And you know what? Fuck 'em, they can have it. I don't know anyone who deployed to Iraq because they genuinely wanted to help the Iraqi people and give them freedom. Save that shit for interviews with people who have more stars on their collar or stripes on their sleeves than brains. And you know what? They don't believe it either. Speaking for myself, at no point in either of my deployments did I shoulder on my 60 pound med bag on top of another 60 pounds worth of armor, ammo, water, and other assorted gear to wander around the 100+ degree night and splash oh-so-playfully in a canal whose express purpose was less "irrigation" and more "open air feces conveyance," while getting shot at and hoping like hell that the piece of concrete I'm kneeling on isn't camouflaging an IED because I wanted the Iraqi people to be able to get a 10 piece extra crispy on the way home from the local al Walmart.

Sure, there was talk down at the street level of the war about "winning hearts and minds," but no one took that seriously. Come on, we may have been filthy, uneducated enlisted men, but even the cannon fodder knows that giving some guy a generator and case of JP8 tainted water after blowing up his house, shop, friends houses, and car is a lot like giving your wife gas station flowers and half a box of chocolates as an apology after she catches you defiling her sister and best friend at the same time... in your shared bed... with all of her co-workers watching. Its so half-assed its worse than no apology at all.

No, I didn't leave the comforts of America and spend two, 7 month all expenses paid vacations in the largest cat box around because I wanted to give the Iraqis freedom, or because I wanted "fight the terrorists in Iraq so they don't come to America," or because I believed it was making the world or my nation safer. I did it because I was ordered to, and that's what you do after you sign on the dotted line and raise your hand. I did it because I wasn't about to let a platoon of men that I had grown to love (and hate) like my own family go without me, because I didn't trust anyone else to take care of them, and I wouldn't want to go with anyone else. And I doubt I was alone in that.

Its an old cliche` that you don't fight for a flag or a country, you fight for the man next to you. And just because its a cliche` doesn't mean it isn't true. That Iraq has become a bloody shit hole and all of the gains made by the men and women who fought and bled there are being lost doesn't come as a surprise. Hell, even the most boot Marine around in 2005 thought it would all go to hell when the US left. And that's coming from someone whose capabilities are trusted so little that he's required to have dummy cords on his other dummy cords and has to inform a superior when he goes to the head. 

The sting of having fought in a war that was initiated by lies, managed by fools, and paid for with the blood of our nations youth doesn't lessen much with time, but it becomes more bearable. Seeing the ground we fought for retaken by the enemy just freshens the feeling. It also brings up anger, disbelief, and at least a little bit of betrayal considering the governments treatment of veterans lately, but if this development is going to spawn anything other than a few more drunken nights of "no shit, there I was..." war stories, then it should be action. Action to educate, remember, and prevent things like the Iraq war from happening again.

OIF and OEF has created an incredible segment of American society. We now have hundreds of thousands of young men and women who are more educated, informed, and trained than generations of American warfighters that came before them. We have a generation that has the means to achieve great things in life and the drive to do so. The battles in Fallujah, Ramadi, Nasiriyah, Baghdad, Kandahar, Bagram, Sangin, and Gardez weren't fought by the meek. They were fought by the very finest our nation has to offer. And the fight isn't over yet.

As it stands many of our fellow vets are homeless, jobless, suffering the physical and mental pains of war, behind bars or headed there soon. We have elected officials who seem to want to forget the Iraq war, the actions that lead to it, and the consequences that came as a result. I find it hard to watch senators screech and flap their arms on TV in an effort to get American troops sent in to Syria or Libya, it would seem that the McCain's of the senate and house have forgotten what it's like to have fought in a needless war. Perhaps they need a reminder.

Perhaps they need to see the men and women who have fought in Iraq or Afghanistan leading from the front in local, regional, and national politics, challenging the embarrassment our national legislature has become. Perhaps they need to see modern day veterans creating organizations that not only help their fellow warriors in need, but bolster our collective voices. Perhaps they need to see vets as something other than a talking point or line item, or political weapon, and instead see them as the most powerful force for potential change in our nation that is out there. Perhaps they need to see that while most of America is willing to sweep this whole bloody mess under the rug and pretend it didn't happen, her veterans, the men and women who agreed to be the pointed tip of our nations spear with no questions asked, are not willing to "go gentle into that good night."

Losing Fallujah and Ramadi hurts. But losing our memory of how we got there will be lethal.

Yut, err, kill. Blah, blah, blah.