What is your opinion of these statements by a former Iraq vet?

Question

http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071111/FEATURES15/71109001

I have my own reasons for opposing the Iraq occupation. What this guy says resonates with me, but I do not really have the background to confirm or challenge his assertions.

I especially welcome comments from members of the military who have been in Iraq.

Kimmy is a hot babe:

Thanks for your opinion. You talk about easily refuting his points. Would you mind doing that? I'm willing to carefully consider your refutation.

Thanks to all who have answered so far. I've gotten a number of things to think about and respond to. I imagine that much will be one person's word against another's.

I do have a couple of observations. First, it is always striking how much anger is directed toward people who challenge the war. The only person that I would give a bonafide pass to be angry would be the person who was disabled in the effort. Yet his was one of the more balanced answers.

Second, a lot of people have focused on his talk of the war being illegal. I don't really like dwelling upon such trivialities. That a group of people made rules justifying war does not necessarily make it a good thing or even moral. The fact is that the stated reason for the invasion was to disarm Saddam. Few people now believe that he had any weapons to disarm. From that view, the invasion does seem illegitimate. Others also object that no formal declaration of war was made by Congress.

Answer 1

Damn Good question and great resource material. Unfortunately you will have bone heads who will not even understand that there are soldiers who are patriotic and loyal to America, but who oppose America's war, because they have been on the ground and seen and in some cases participated in the Horror of killing women and children.

I continue to ask the questions to provoke an intelligent response and most of the time I get hatred and ignorance. as responses. Some people are either to blind or too ignorant to accept that America is conducting a bad war and even worse foreign policies in the middle east, and for what Oil!

Answer 2

The first biggest problem is the repeated assertion that the war is illegal. Its funny that the only answer given when asked, if any is given at all, what laws were broken, is the UN Charter. Beliveing that requires ignoring 12 years of UN Security Council Resolutions which provide ample legal cover.

The assertion that the military was "unleashed on...the people of Iraq" is nothing more than bold hyperbole meant to stir the emotions of those who don't know better. The people of Iraq have not been threatend by us and will not be. We've gone to great lengths to state and demonstrate this, time and again.

CPL Howard is welcome to his opinons, but he ought to get his facts straight. He'd be far more persuasive if he did.

UPDATE: You refer to the question of legality in the war as trivial. I disagree, but that's not the point I want to make.

When some one wishes to persuade me but start off with a statement that is patently and demonstrably untrue, how persuasive can they be? It goes to the man's credibility. Nothing that follows is even believable.

Want more anyway? The CPL has no grasp of his own of history. He's been fed a line about mutiny in Vietnam and believed it--the extent that he's urging other troops to mutiny, something he apparently didn't have the courage to do himself when he had the chance, I might add.

It's little more than a series of anti-war talking points, which have not changed since Heck was a pup, strung together with the words "Iraq" and "Iraqi" substituted inteh correct places and a few, probably apocryphal (or at best, real but misunderstood) anecdoetes thrown in, such as burying a crate of humitarian rations.

In fact, other than granting benefit of the doubt, I have no reason to even beleive that the author is even a veteran, much less a Marine.

Answer 3

You are absolutely correct that the Vets are the ones who can tell you about the war. I bet if you could do a background search on the negative answers you've gotten so far that the answerers have never been near a war or combat zone. And if anyone has a right to speak out about and against the war, I would think that a Veteran should have the absolute right to his freedom of speech.
By the way Joe, if you haven't seen the movie Home Of The Brave then you need to see it.

Answer 4

Im shocked but not surprised. Im sure these thing could have happened whether they did or not Im not sure. If they they are true good on him for speaking out. If he is lying then he is an idiot. The only people that will ever know the truth are the people that fight in the war! I hope what he says is not true for the sake of the Iraqi people but the realities of war can be very different from what we believe or want to believe.

Answer 5

Well as a USMC Iraq Vet who was wounded and permenatly disabled fighting In Iraq I will say this about it. 1st he has the right to say what he wants, but he should stick to facts.

He starts off his article (rant) with statments he wants you to think are facts yet they are no where close to fact. There is no Illegal invasion. Iraq violated 12 UN resolutions and they also violated the cease fire agreement they signed giving us more than enough justification for war, making his later statements about Bush being a war criminal false too as well as many other statements he made in the article.

I agree with a few of his points like how they are telling people they have pre-existing conditions instead of PTSD. Too bad all of his valid points are lost in is liberal rant.

As far as the DU sickness. We have been firing DU for a long time before the Iraq war. It is nothing new that has been implimented for the IRaq war.

As a Marine I am a bit embarrased of his statements. If he was being honest and factual I would have no problem, but he is only supplying the left with ammo by his false statements.

But like Lee Harvey Oswald and Charles Joseph Whitman (who were also Marines) Once a Marine always a Marine. So we will have to claim him.

By the way I was shot 4 times by an Insurgent who was dressed as a civilian and hidding among women and children while he was firing. I never saw civilians intentionally targeted by our troops, never saw them mistreated. Did it ever happen? Yes but they are isolated inncidents and the people who were involved were delt with. Cant say the same for the other side.

By the way some people see being a vet and going against the war and administration the way this guy has as a way to gain 15 minutes of fame and a foot in the door to positions and jobs they would never have if they didnt do this. I know many will say how can you beleive this about one of our soldiers yet you easily beleive what he says about our soldiers.

Addition: If we (the US) wanted oil, Bush could have just ordered drilling in the Anwar and offshore in Florida and Cali. He would have his oil with a lot less hassle. To say the war is about oil is just ignorant and show a lack of grip on reality and a grasp at straws.

By the way if I was given my health back today I would go right back. I beleive in the mission.

ADDITION: For those defending him saying "he is a Vet leave him alone" Trying to evoke shame for questioning a Vet. He attacked currently serving troops and Vets with his statements.

I see him as the JOHN KERRY of today. All he needs to do now is go throw his medals over the whitehouse fence so that he can deny it later when he wants to run for public office

Answer 6

Okay, let's see... the article says (way at the bottom) that this guy was a corporal in the Marine Corps. Doesn't specify whether that was an actual corporal or a lance corporal (since most civilians don't know the difference); but in the DoD payscale, he's an E3 or E4--the same as a private first class or a specialist in the Army. Not a captain... not a sergeant major... not a lieutenant colonel... a CORPORAL. Do you really think that someone of that rank is qualified to speak on the behalf of all other combat veterans (most of whom, by the way, are NOT in agreement with him) or on the greater reasons for the war? Did it occur to anyone that this kid might be bitter about having been deployed? If his unit shot at farm animals, it's not because George Bush directed them to do so--it's because he and some of his buddies were trigger-happy idiots. It might also be that they were shooting at dead farm animals in the road to see if there were any explosives hidden underneath them. Anyone who takes this kid at face value is gullible, and hopeless. Soldiers at that rank don't usually have all the information about what's going on, nor do they need to. They go on patrols and kick down doors in a small area of responsibility, sit for days and weeks on end on guard duty, escort Iraqi day laborers around as they sweep sidewalks. The ones in the intelligence field, or other fields like Psyops, Special Forces, and Civil Affairs, generally have a bit more of a clue what's going on in the greater picture. This kid has a political agenda and is parading himself to be a voice for all other veterans, who do NOT agree with him. We used to laugh at guys like him when we saw some "former Iraqi vet" parading himself around on the news denouncing the war, because we all knew he was full of sh**... laugh at him, or shake our heads wondering what his former military buddies would do to him if they saw that and got their hands on him. Most veterans see that sort of behavior as being traitorous and self-serving, and as a ruse for grabbing attention--little more.

Answer 7

I didn't even make it past the first line. He presumes to know international law? He was a lowly enlisted puke who hid in a tank! Come on, we all have opinions and some of us even do a little investigating to make sure ours are founded on fact. Clearly he has not. I might also add that as an enlisted, unless he's upper echelon, he's mired down too far in the trenches to see the BIG Picture and to truly know the score.
How much credibility do you lend a guy who chose an MOS with no civilian market counterpart? Not a big demand for tank drivers... No, I suspect this is a classic example of the myopic thinking that he used when he opened with a quip about an illegal invasion.

Answer 8

He obviously had no idea just what he signed up for, if he wanted to join the peace corp. he really should have. But instead he joined the Marines. The guy is a fool, and is jumping on the "band wagon" of hating just about everything anyone in our govt says or does. That and he has no proof, they are words on a web page, just about as truth full as anyone who starts their own blog or writes for a web page. To further prove him wrong is that, Radical Islamic groups have known about our American weakness to women and children on the battle field. They take advantage of this ideology. Just like the Vietnamese did so in the Vietnam conflict.

Answer 9

I think he's retarded. No wonder he's not a marine anymore. No consideration for what the insurgents are doing, and no mention of the original purpose: to remove Saddam from power. It's like he conveniently forgets all of that and just says "Oh, we just killed women and children". Funny, because I know many people in Iraq, and that's not what they say is happening.

Answer 10

I read it, it's a liberal rant. Democrat talking points are repeated, I really don't see anything original. Every one of his points can be easily refuted. Too bad the drive by media is so biased and never gives us any good news about all the good we're doing in that part of the world.

We've won the war in Iraq, we build a nation that is our ally and is a democracy in a part of the world where none exist. The democrats and liberals are too invested in our defeat in Iraq to back down now. The democrats have tried their best to secure our defeat, in too many ways for me to list here, but they've failed.

Answer 11

The guy has his right to speak out in any way he sees fit. He knows that he is lying about the atrocities he claims the US military has perpetrated but only he can decide if he can live with himself over that. Being a Vermonter and a veteran myself, I am ashamed that such a piece of trash not only shares residence in VT with me but that he allegedly wore the uniform that so many of us wore so proudly. In short, the guy is a piece of S...