Marines grow wary of even friendly faces

Chicago Tribune ^ | 9/16/2004 | Mike Dorning

[Ben Chad]

Marine Cpl. Travis Friedrichsen, a sandy-haired 21-year-old from Denison, Iowa, used to take Tootsie Rolls and lollipops out of care packages from home and give them to Iraqi children. Not anymore.

"My whole opinion of the people here has changed. There aren't any good people," said Friedrichsen, who says his first instinct now is to scan even youngsters' hands for weapons.

...

[Ben Chad]

Since the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, deployed in the area six months ago, 34 Marines have died and more than a quarter of the 1,000-member unit has been wounded. Now, as the battalion nears the end of its deployment, virtually every Marine in Ramadi has been shot at or seen a bomb or rocket-propelled grenade explode, and many have had several such brushes with death, commanders said.

This seems like a decent sobering read.

I was dubious of the winning-hearts-and-minds strategy from the start. So where do we go from here?

[Carsigliere]

From "Meals on Wheels"? We have to shift into "No Soup For You" mode. It is all the jihad vermin understand.

[tdadams]

I'm afraid this will be a multigenerational task. Look at Japan. It used to be our mortal enemy and the Japanese were savage, ruthless, and power hungry. Now they are among the most peaceful and civilized people on earth, 60 years later.

[skyman]

It would be darned hard to be friendly towards the Iraq people when you feel that any one of them could be trying to kill you...and they aren't trying to help themselves.

This really doesn't look good.

[WestTexasWend]

Dropping 5 MOABs to every smart bomb mighta prevented this.

[Dad2Angels]

The left will take stories like these and try to use them as proof that "W" took us into an unwinnable war for dubious reasons.

I, like most thinking people, understand that the Iraq operation is just part of a much bigger effort to clean up the cesspool that is fomenting in that part of the world. He knows that if we don't do it now our children will be faced with that task later.

If there is a later.

[Redbob]

"...Let God sort 'em out..."

[Redbob]

"Look at Japan. It used to be our mortal enemy and the Japanese were savage, ruthless, and power hungry."

But today, they're no longer our mortal enemies...

[tdadams]

Exactly the point. It may be 60 years down the road before we're at peace with Iraqis.

[NavyCaptain]

This is not an unusual reaction to continued attacks. When in Vietnam, I trusted no South Vietnamese. To me they became all VC. I knew they weren't, but could I take the chance?

[2banana]

"When they first came, I was able to discern . . . some glimmer of hopefulness that we would be able to make a difference in the lives of Iraqis," Son said. "I do see that glimmer of hope has dimmed. What some say is maybe there is a reason that the previous regime controlled the country in such a heavy-handed way."

Time for a troop rotation before something really bad happens...

[Fyscat]

In the words of Al Qaeda second in command Ayman Zawahiri, "In the two countries, the Americans are between two fires: if they remain there they will bleed to death, and if they withdraw they will have lost everything."

This has always been an Islamic military tactic, this is how they defeated the Soviet Union. It is how they will defeat the current stratigy of US forces.

Here's the key most Americans don't want to deal with: When you have ideas that are put into religious absolutes, there is no political processes that will compromise those ideas.

If we are to win, we have to change the thinking of the people. And that, is probably impossible in any near term time line. Thats why McCain came out and said we'll be there for twenty years.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I was dubious of the winning-hearts-and-minds strategy from the start. So where do we go from here?

Omigod!

You mean it didn't happen in fifteen minutes?

Just because we are still in Germany and Japan fifty years after WWII, doesn't mean we should have to spend more than fifteen minutes in Iraq.

It's all a failure.

[68skylark]

I'm afraid this will be a multigenerational task. Look at Japan. It used to be our mortal enemy and the Japanese were savage, ruthless, and power hungry. Now they are among the most peaceful and civilized people on earth, 60 years later.

Thank you for making this kind of sensible comment. There are way too many people here who want a quick fix with large bombs -- even nukes. That kind of strategy isn't going to be used by the US.

In the end, the Iraqis may never like us. They may never thank us for our good works. Heck, there are plenty of ungrateful citizens here in the US who don't like their own country. But we don't do military operations for thanks -- we do them to make the world better for us and others.

[DirtyHarryY2K]

Japan, Look what it took to get their attention primarily.

Hiroshima and Nagisaki

[Rakkasan1]

same reason cops get burned out. you get jaundiced eyes
after you arrest the same 2% of the population 20 times
a year for the same crap.

[babygene]

The answer to this is to take firm military action against ALL countries who supply terrorist for this conflict.

Countries who aren't with us, are against us. We need to get down to the business of stamping out terrorism at it's source.

[TexKat]

Ping

[onedoug]

Islam must have it's collective face jammed into the muck until not a shread of Islamism is left. If it will not then yield, it is going to have to be destroyed as well.

That is what the war is about, regardless our leadership's attempts at soft-soaping it.

[Darkwolf377]

If some other country invaded us and liberated us from Dictator Hillary, I'd be grateful but I owuldn't want them to stick around, either. But once I'd elected a leader myself,, I'd be more interested in stopping terrorists, because they'd be attaking MY armed forces at that point.

It takes time. There is no one-to-one comparison with the Iraq situation and another country in modern times.