If it was up to just our military troops to make the decision as to?

Question

stay a little longer in Iraq, leave soon, or stay until 'the job is done', what do you think they would decide? If anyone of you are soliders, please answer this and give me your reasoning.

I'm asking this because I've seen reports on various channels that have shown some soliders in Iraq being interviewed by American reporters and it looked like 50% think they should leave son & let Iraq deal with their own issues and the other 50% say that they should stay another year or two so they can make sure the Iraqi military is ready to be on their own. I would personally like to have all the soliders vote and see what the results are and have it handed to Congress.

Answer 1

Others have made this point clear already, but they're correct--the vast majority of soldiers out there have no say in policy, nor in where they're sent. That isn't their place, and that is not the way an army works. It is NOT a democracy. Soldiers, in fact, sacrifice much of their individuality and most of their rights so that the democratic rights of others may be preserved; selfless service is one of the core values of the Army. Still... to directly answer your question, the vast majority of soldiers does not believe cutting and running--ESPECIALLY for petty political reasons--is the right answer. One of the most important things for a soldier to accomplish is to accomplish the mission, to finish the task assigned to him. Yes, you'll find soldiers who say they disagree with the war or what have you... but the majority would never say that. In fact, the soldiers who DO say that (and who are active service) land themselves in a lot of trouble, because legally they aren't supposed to make comments on policy. To some people that might sound harsh, but think about it--the average soldier isn't involved in policy, and isn't aware of all the pieces, all the factors involved--and neither is the average civilian couch potato who thinks he knows everything about the war. People always say they're for the soldiers, they care for the soldiers but hate the war, etc etc... but when they hear soldiers saying something that they personally don't want to hear, they tune it out. They only want to hear what they want to hear, whatever fits into their idea of what the world is like... and soldiers know better, especially those who have been in a combat environment. That sort of thinking will get you killed and will get your buddies killed, and has no place in the real world. People allow themselves to influenced on TV far too easily--so much so that they actually allow what they see on TV to shape their values. If it's on TV, it has to be real, right? As a soldier who was deployed to Baghdad and was there during the Abu Ghraib mess, I've seen the results of the meddling of the international media and the fruit it bears. Civilians might not like to hear this, but all the anti-war racket going on in the states and in Europe and other places seriously, seriously helps those who are trying to kill us. It emboldens them, it gives them hope, it shows them that their tactics are working--the tactics of perpetrating chaos and souring the public's support of their OWN TROOPS. Frankly, the media needs to severely restricted, if not shuttered out entirely, to allow the military to do its job and finally start making some progress. The media tendency to only show what they want you to see--and they do, I've seen myself how they pick only the goriest, unsafest neighborhoods--does NOT help us. Civilians have absolutely no idea how much more danger the media's presence has put us in, and how much their interference has exacerbated this conflict... no idea at all. But what does that matter, if images on TV help your political agenda, after all? So what if millions more Iraqis die, unable to defend themselves, if it means your party wins the popularity contest, right?

There's an old saying, that goes something like "What is popular is not always right, and what is right is not always popular."

Answer 2

In my job, I interact with and read messages from a lot of soldiers. Right or wrong, the troops are the LAST people who want to pull out of Iraq before it is stabilized. Yes, you will find some who want to and some who don't really understand why they are there to begin with. By and large, however, you will hear the same refrain over and over, namely: "We have a mission to do, and we shouldn't leave until it is done."

Even if you don't believe in the war and never did, think about it like this. If you are a soldier and have lost comrades-in-arms and we pull out now, leaving Iraq to (possibly) descend into chaos, what did the sacrifice of your comrades mean or accomplish? Not much.

On the other hand, if we finish the job (hopefully better than we've managed it so far), even though those lives will still have been lost, most of the soldiers will feel that there was some meaning behind it.. Sacrifice for something vs sacrifice for nothing.

This is really hard for a lot of people because they are soft-hearted (that's not a criticism) and the prospect of lives lost is so overwhelmingly horrifying to them.. but the fact of the matter is, the type of people who become soldiers typically don't think like this.

Answer 3

The majority would stay until the job is done. Less than 1% of the total force want out. All you have to do is look at re-up rates.

The media can skew anything in hopes of ratings not the truth!
60 minutes had a big show on the petition for redress that was started. It is mainly AF and Navy personnel which I don't get (most AF aren't deployed longer than 6mo and unless you're a Navy Medic you're on a ship......). This is where I get the less than 1% figure based on how many in the armed forces have signed it. And actually it's less than 1% of the forces currently in Iraq much less the total force.

Your idea of voting would certainly be interesting..... I think the Dem congress and Ms. Pelosisi would be very SURPRISED!

Answer 4

i'm a war vet, so i feel i should toss in my two cents:

i think they'd know that leaving right this moment would cause chaos, so they wouldnt want to do that. BUT, any time you do any job you should have a goal as to when you should be done. you dont just go to war and say "we'll leave when its over", you say "we're gonna try to do this, it should take this long roughly, and if that doesnt work then we'll try idea 2, and if that doesnt work in such and such a time, we'll try idea 3".

so far, the men that have run this war have said "uhhh, hmmmm..... i know our idea didnt work the first time, but if we do the same thing about 15 more times... then maybe......"

and to the guy who said that we shouldnt ask the soldiers..... i cant believe you'd think that the opinion of the men that are doing the job shouldnt count, and in my opinion, that train of thinking might mean that you need to greatly rethink your ideas, or you might need some type of full time care.

lets say your boss at work is sitting in his office and gets a report that things arent going right.... dont you think that all the people doing the things he commands should be the ones to tell him whats going good, or going bad? and if that job was orginally stated as "might take 6 days, might take 6 weeks, doubt it'll take 6 months", but you've been at it for FOUR YEARS, then yeah, in my mind their vote counts more than some guy behind a computer. a lot of the boys i know dont want to go to war, but the military is their only way of affording education, just like it was for me. i had good grades, i had a strong work ethic, but i was poor. sad but true.

and if there was a vote, and a high percentage of the soldiers said they felt the war wasnt working and they wanted to come home, the support at home would be overwhelming. it wouldnt take long, they'd be back.

this war is political, theres nothing going on here other than Dick Cheney's political agenda, which has nothing to do with anyone's safety, american or otherwise.

Answer 5

See here's the thing, it's not up to us. We volunteered and swore to uphold the lawful orders of our superiors. Of course we're still going to have opinions but they play no part in the master decision making. Just because I'm a soldier doesn't mean I have any idea what the right decision is about when to leave Iraq.

The average soldier doesn't have access to anywhere near the amount of information required to make an informed decision, not to mention that not being an elected official granted the privilege of speaking for others in an official capacity means that lawfully a soldier's opinion doesn't matter regardless of how many times the media parades it in your face to boost their ratings.

What most people don't get is that the people with the least amount of freedom in the USA are the ones providing and protecting it, we know it and we accept it that's what makes us soldiers.

Answer 6

I'm not a soldier, but I think most of the other answerers here who think soldiers shouldn't be able to decide whether or not they want to fight, and should just follow all orders regardless... they don't believe in true freedom.

The Nazis also thought that orders were orders, should be followed at all costs, never questioned or refused. Anyone who did was an unpatriotic traitor, and either discharged, court-martialed, or executed. In any case, no dissent was tolerated, and any soldiers who did were made examples of.

Is such a military appropriate for a democratic country based on the ideal of Freedom?

Soldiers should be able to decide whether or not a mission or war is moral or just, & truly in the best interests of the country. They should have the right to refuse deployment if it goes against their conscience. They have the right to know why they are being sent into war, and to question the reasons they've been given. It is, after all, their country as well. Soldiers who are not given this freedom, are at the complete mercy of our leaders who may not really care about their sacrifices - as the armor & Walter Reed fiascos attest to.

You might say that giving soldiers a choice & a voice, undermines the morale & effectiveness of the military. You're right, it definitely will... especially when it comes to fighting unjust & immoral wars - which is why the military won't even consider giving soldiers freedom to choose. But choice is not going to be a problem in just wars that have personal, national & global consensus.

That's why you didn't hear any anti-war protesting during WW2, the First Persian Gulf War, or the beginning of Afghanistan. They were more or less just wars, and nearly everbody supported & backed them. Most soldiers & civilians didn't question that those wars, for clearly obvious reasons.

Anyone who thinks that US leaders, politicians & military commanders ALWAYS has the best interests of America in mind in every single war it engages in, is extremely politically & militarily naive. Grenada, Panama, Haiti, Vietnam, Laos, etc. etc.? Those invasions & interventions were to "protect America"????.... my a**.

Answer 7

Keep the fighting in Iraq, not on American soil. Let's stay till the job is done. Not have to start over to fight the same war.

Answer 8

I think there is a job to do, and when I do get sent over I will serve proudly. People seem to talk a lot about how the soldiers feel, yet they don't seem to ever ask a soldier. Well in my way of thinking, I feel we know what we were getting into when we sign that contract, and if someone signed one with out knowing, well then they have know reason serving. WHOO! RAA!

Answer 9

No one is pro-war, but it is my job to fight wars, and why would I not want to win?

I didn't think we should come to Iraq to begin with, and when we came, I felt we should bomb the hell out of everything and then rebuild it. It worked in WW2. Part of me wants to do that now, but we would have to get the coalition out first, and the insurgents might figure out that somethig's up.

I still feel that we should show absolutely no mercy for terrorists, and that we can't leave until Iraq can take care of itself.

Answer 10

I was in Iraq a few years ago. I am out now, but if the Army called me back, I'd shave my head in a heartbeat. You never quit being a soldier.