A question for current and past military personnel, your feelings on us still being in Iraq.?

Question

I am being dead serious, I am not here to cause trouble, or even debate. My brother was in the Army for 16 years. He says "this needs to be done" when asked about Iraq. But a lot of the public is pulling to get our troops home. So, I know what the general public says, and what my brother says. I just hate seeing our troops injured and killed. What do people now or previously in the military have to say about this? Should we bring our troops home from Iraq? And also, should we still keep trying to find Bin Laden?
As a civilian, I want our troops home, and I wish like crazy Bin Laden could be found and brought to justice. Should we do an invasion similar to Iraq if we know where Bin Laden is? Does anyone think that will happen?
In advance, I appreciate any answers you can give me that are your honest opinions. I am NOT here to debate if Bush should bring the troops home, I am interested in the feelings of military personnel, past and present, on this subject.
Thanks everyone.

Answer 1

We opened this can of worms, now we need to see it through. If we cut and run, well, you haven't seen anything yet.

Answer 2

When I was in the military, I was rah-rah, support the mission etc. I'm not in Iraq so I can only comment from the past. Vietnam, we did not win the hearts and minds of the people. That is why we eventually lost. While we are making positive strides, the bottom line, 1000 positive things can be immediately wiped out by one insurgent attack. Think of it another way, how many politicians have been slammed dunked because of one slip of the tongue? Or at work, you have sacraficed for the company for years, and then screw up once and its curtains. While those analogies are not really that good, what I am doing is pointing out human nature. There are a lot of people there who want to kill us. While it's maybe only 1 in a 1000, that leaves a huge number to deal with. Since we are the most visible as well as the people who support us, then when more people die because of the guerrilla tactics which includes murdering their own people, then eventually the people get sick of it and turn against the only force that is visible. Which of course is us. The mass thinking is that if we are no longer there, the violence stops. Which eventually ends up even grandmothers throwing Molotov Cocktails. Pretty much what happened in Nam. While we won every battle, we never won the people. I'm trying to look at this from a pragmatic viewpoint. I don't buy it from the press, or the politicians and I don't buy it from the troops there -- I do look at the past and every indicator I can think of, is we will lose this war for exactly the reasons I stated above. ============ The other thing that needs to be pointed out, while the "surge" may have helped, as in Nam, it is a short term band-aid. I remember well, reading about all the positive things being done in Nam, then something like Mai Lai happens and all the good that is done goes up in smoke. Iraq, for a troop, is a stressful situation, and that is when bone headed mistakes are made that get huge press in this country and in Iraq. That is bound to happen. Which of course feeds into the hatred of our forces. Then when we "win" in one area, we go to another to "win" again and the voids are filled up with insurgents, then we must "win" again, and then again, and again, till we are stretched thin and then BOOM, something terrible happens and its back to square one. That is a basic concept of Guerilla Warfare, history proves it works, from the patriots during our revolution, to the ones in France fighting the Germans, to the ones in Nam fighting an invasion, to Iraq. It really is a no-win situation, because even though we disposed of a dictator, we are still the invaders and that my friend is the bottom line. ============= Peace Jim .

Answer 3

The Middle East has oil money gushing forth, yet it has only benefited a few Monarchs and lots of Dictators.

The masses are illiterate, know little of the rest of the world and follow whatever the Imams tell them to do.

Since 1979 Iran has been the single largest source of money to fund Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist activities.

9/11 gives us access to Afghanistan. UN sanctions give us access to Iraq (another problem child).

In the Chess game called Politics we are to the east and west of the real problem. They have no stick so they speak loudly. (N. Korea announced today they shut down their reactor)

So we stay and let Iraq become a self directed Democracy. Our Revolution was from 1775-1783. The current Constitution was completed on 9/17/1787 and the 9th state (NH) ratified it on 6/21/1788. The last was (RI) on 5/29/1790.

Building a Country is not a fast food NOW NOW NOW.

Right now Turkey, Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only elected governments that are working. Lebanon is in shambles.

We left VietNam winning. Now when Helen visits her sister I am told to mention nothing about politics on the phone because they could all disappear. Iraq just got rid of that. Why bring it back?

Iraq is not on either link. Each country reports its own numbers. Guess Sadam did not want to.

SSG US Army 73-82

Answer 4

The republican response has been a disaster for our nation. It's like mopping up water on the floor and telling everyone what a great job we are doing and ignoring the busted water pipe under the kitichen sink.

As I've said in other posts, it takes 8 weeks to train our military, yet the Iraqi's still cannot stand up after almost 7 years?!

They will never stand up so we can stand down, because they are comprised of different religious and feuding sects who will never support this government that they believe is an extension of the U.S...a government about to sell all their oil rights away to Shell, Exxon and Mobil.

If we want to win the war on terror, we need to immediately pull our troops back into defensive positions only...putting most of them back into Afghanistan where our true enemy, AlQaeda, has been growing stronger on the border of Pakistan, while we fight in a civil war in Iraq and waste our soldiers blood while corporations make billions off war profiterring.

Anyone who supports this war in Iraq is a fool and a traitor, and supports a president who has lied, and subverted our constitution and believes in the creed.."IN Greed We Trust."

From a former SatCom tech who served under a true republican, Reagan....and not this current brand of traitorous neo-cons.

Answer 5

I don't think that the views of the public are as well known as you think they are. Their polls are weighted for population, so there are a lot of respondents from both coasts and very few from the area known as "flyover country".
As for me, they are doing noble work. Schools are re-opened, as are hospitals. In less than five years the Iraqi people have voted on a new Constitution and voted in a representative government, much to the dismay of the Ba'athists and the consternation of the nay-sayers in the U.S. Though they are still beset by internal attacks that are killing innocent people, the U.S. itself was not the homogenous, all-together country in the first ten years of its independence from the British Crown.
We already invaded Afghanistan which was serving as Bin Laden's place of refuge. if he is alive and well, he's probably in the northern reaches of Pakistan. In any case, he was merely the financier for Al Queda, not the chief strategist or philosophical leader.
It will take time to train the new Iraqi army so they can assume the bulk of the security effort in their country. It took from May of 1945 until May of 1955 until post-war Germany was built up enough to become a member of NATO. It took about the same amount of time for the post-war occupation of Japan to be concluded. The people of the U.S. have to realize that patience is not just a character in Arthur Miller's play "The Crucible".
While regrettable, the death rate in Iraq is well below that of the period of 1980-84, when over 9,500 men and women died on active duty and no one was shooting at us.
I think that there can be some significant withdrawals of troops beginning next Spring, if the gap is compently filled by Iraqi forces. But, I see a five-year plus commitment beyond that for personnel to train and equip those new Iraqi forces.

Answer 6

Honey, Bin Laden is the tip of the iceberg! Liberals all know who wants their heads on sticks which are Muslim terrorists but do not want to fight the bully! They will leave it up to your children! You feel secure about that right? Just go on an Islam website and find how the world really is! Dont ask Liberals cause they are ignorant and leading you into destruction! Jesus is King and God Bless my AMerican fighting soul!

Answer 7

Yes, it is a necessary war and I've been quite objective in why I believe so in my blog. I have given the facts of the situation as well as the groundtruth. I quote from independent organizations as well as the enemy and soldiers.

Bin Laden is an important target but he is only one man. Taking him out would not stop the need to continue the war on terrorism.

There are none that want peace more than our soldiers. None that feel the loss of their brothers more than our soldiers. But soldiers (overwhelmingly) understand the risk and continue to support the mission, even if they feel tired and choose to leave the service. It is a difficult life, even without a war, but moreso when an ungrateful nation undermines their mission and the media refuses to report anything but the negatives.

I am an independent, politically speaking, and my interests are national security as opposed to a political party, but I am very offended that certain politicians along with the media have trampled the graves of my fallen brothers to further their political agenda.

I have been there to both places more than once.
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-DfkctJU7dK5B7LcNROoyVQ--;_ylt=AiNXZokI1G6zowgYXNnJS9mqAOJ3?cq=1

Answer 8

The simple fact is that ANYONE who says we should give up and pull out of Iraq is a COWARD. Because all they are saying is they would rather igonre the current situation and let our children and grandchildren fight this war in the future. I have already been there once and prefer to not return. But if needed I would rather spend another year there to finish the job instead of passing the buck to the next generation.

Semper Fi

"America is NOT at war. The U.S. Marines are at War. America is at the mall>"

Answer 9

We have freedoms in this country that most other countries don’t have. We have those freedoms because we are willing to fight to keep them. Regardless what people say most of the world wants to live in and to be American, that’s not BS it is fact, we are even building fences trying to keep people out. “No one hates war more than a warrior.” Those soldiers don’t want to be there or anywhere else but home; but someone has to take the responsibly to defend our freedoms and as you can clearly see by reading these boards there are not a lot of people with the balls to stand up and be counted. If you want to give up any freedoms you have and live by Islam law like the Taliban, fine move to the Afgan border. I’m one of the Old Guard now but I will still fight for what America stands for. USMC 66-69

Answer 10

We need to leave that stink hole now. I lost a close friend and a good portion of my skin and sanity over there. All service members should come home. We cant solve this chaos with more chaos. I saw it happen over and over.
No more invasions of any country should occur. but im just a peon among the big wigs that dont acutally do the killing. I just take orders.

Answer 11

I hope with what you are learning you are able to preach to those who are blind and think they know; people will degrade the war because Bush commenced it, but you can not forget that it was also Congress -he is just the escape goat, because he is our r president, which is sad. Don't you know that freedom isn't free? and that in order to have peace, sometimes we have to fight for it?..We are not quitters, no matter what anybody else says-we will finish what we started! Don't say that you support the troops but not the mission, that is hypocrisy!