A question about Iraq for my brothers and sisters in the military.?

Question

First, let me start with that yes I am a Vet. 7 years active Army 11B Infantry. I ETSed in '03.
Second, I'm new to this forum and am seeing a large number of either active or veteran service members who vehemently support the war in Iraq. How and why?

I don't understand how there can be this much support for a war that has been sold to us under false pretenses from the beginning.

I lost two friends in Iraq, and don't understand how there can be support for a war that was never and is still not necessary. Yet, we continue to fight a war that is un-winable and everyday more good people die.

I understand loyalty, duty and selfless-service, but I also know that you are supposed to question orders when they are illegal. If someone could help me look at this from another point of view it would be appreciated.

Answer 1

I often wondered this myself. I think, personally, it is a number of things. First and foremost, it is people trying to justify their service. Also, reguardless of why we went into iraq, no one can say Sadam was a good person. People feel as though we are doing good. If not for our time, then for the future. I personally think it is over and we have failed to obtain what we set out to do, not our fault, but its impossible. Im on my way there again in Feb, and will do my job, but im not really sure why.

Answer 2

Did you yourself go to Iraq, or are you passing judgment based on what you've heard here back at home? How many veterans of the Iraq war have you talked to? How many Iraqis? Don't form your opinions of this conflict based on what you see on TV or what politicians tell you. The pretenses for going into this war were approved by both the presidency and the Congress, for better or for worse; but that was five years ago. It's a different war now, and the tired old reasons I hear so many people spewing--oil, WMD's, Osama--are so ridiculously far from reality they're not even worth putting any weight into. The conflict we're in NOW is to provide stability and support to the legitimately-elected Iraqi government and to its people, and prevent that from being threatened or toppled by those who want to establish their own havens within Iraq. The orders to go and serve there aren't illegal, and neither were the original orders to invade; if you have a problem with it, take it up with Congress. They saw the same evidence and arguments for invasion that the president was shown.

Judging a war to be 'unwinnable' while you're still fighting it is both unrealistic and self-defeating. Would you have told that to the troops storming the beaches of Normandy because so many of them were being killed that day? The outcome would speak to the contrary. War can seem pretty bleak when you're in the middle of it; and considering that this war has neither had high American casualties nor has adversely affected the day-to-day lives of Americans back home (compare to the upsets experienced at home during the World Wars, Civil War, etc.), I'd say it's a pretty gross misjudgment to forecast doom and gloom when we've preserved American security and safety from terrorist threats within our own borders and have been very, very effective at hunting it down elsewhere.

Basically it comes down to whether you wish to believe only the worst of yourself and your country and think that the guys who want to bring all that to a catastrophic end are the "good guys"; or whether the opposite is more representative of reality. There's a good reason why most of the actual veterans of this war are supportive of it; they know that there's more to the mission than the rubbish being shown on TV back home.

EDIT: Uhgrant100, I'd say you hit the nail on the head there, dude. Good to see common sense hasn't yet died!

Answer 3

1) The order to Iraq is not illegal, so it is not following an illegal order.

2) Like it or not, we are in Iraq. You can argue if it was right not to enter Iraq, but it doesn't matter, it has to be finished either way. Kind of like, "you broke it, you bought it," to put it in simple terms. Losing at this is not like just walking away from a piece of trash on the ground and it goes away with the wind or someone that does pick it up. This will follow us. AQ is in Iraq. They are not all of Iraq, but they are there. Again you can argue if they were there before or not, but it doesn't matter, they are there NOW. Leaving gives them the victory. That victory will give them momentum into Afganistan, Africa, South East Asia, and other places. Its called Asymetrical Warfare. It something at a higher level then most 11Bs see. 11Bs see the tactical level, things at the operational level and the strategic level are a whole different battlefield. Like I said, you can claim it was the wrong decesion to go to Iraq, and that it gave the enemy the opportunity to make Iraq the "central front" in the war, but since it is the "central front," thats where we must fight them.

3) Most of the Iraqis I met, don't want us to up and leave. They don't want a permanent force in Iraq, but they don't want us to leave today. They want things fixed. I for one will not turn my back on the Iraqi's I met. I often feel better about them then a lot of people I meet in the USA but that is a whole different issue.

4) This is not "Un-Winable." That is your opinion again. In fact things have been turning around. WWII was called un-winable at times also, so was the Civil War. I will admit that mistakes were made, just as they were made in every war. That doesn't mean you give up. I was there when the Golden Mosque was blown up. It looked bad then, things in Iraq look a heck of a lot better now then it did back then.

You are entitled to your opinion, and I know this is just part of my opinion that I typed here, but after 12 years active and 5 deployments and seeing things from the tactical to the operational level, that is how I see it. I have worked in both the lethal side of things, and the non-lethal side of this war, and I have seen soldiers killed as well. We are in Iraq NOW, our enemy is in Iraq NOW.

Answer 4

My daughter was born while I was on my first deployment. All I could think about other than getting home to see her and my wife was how blessed they are for not having to grow up in a place like that. Imagine if you will your family growing up in a place where the leader can execute someone for not agreeing with him. Not only would he kill them but he would brutally torture them in front of their families to teach the rest of them a lesson. So long as I can do my part to help the kids there to grow up with at least a little of what my daughter is able to enjoy I wont complain.

Answer 5

Because its my damn duty.....there is nothing illegal about doing my duty.