A Soldier's Story

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061211/soldiers_story ^ | Major Bill Edmonds

[ventanax5]

For just a minute or two, step into my life. I am an American soldier in the Army Special Forces. I have just returned from a one-year tour of duty in Iraq, where I lived, shared meals, slept and fought beside my Iraqi counterpart as we battled insurgents in the center of a thousand-year-old city. I am a conflicted man, and I want you to read the story of that experience as I lived it. In the interest of security, I have omitted some identifying details, but every word is true.

Routine and Ritual

I wake in the cold and dark of each morning to the sound of a hundred different muezzins calling Muslim men and women to prayer. These calls reverberate five times per day throughout a city the size of San Francisco. Above this sound I also hear two American helicopters making their steady patrol over the rooftops of the city and the blaring horns of armored vehicles as they swerve through dense city traffic. As a combat adviser and interrogator, I find these contrasts very appropriate for the life that I now lead.

This morning, on the Iraqi base in which I live, I walk 100 feet from my bedroom to work and back again. These are the same 100 feet I will travel month after month for one year. During every trip I smile, put a hand to my heart, sometimes a hand to my head, and say to every passing Iraqi the religious and cultural words that are expected from a fellow human being. In Iraq, one cannot separate Islamic culture from the individual. They are intrinsically woven into the fabric of daily life, but for most Westerners, they seem abnormal.

[Slings and Arrows]

IBTZ!

[Rembrandt]

Reading the reports on "what Americans did to women at Abu Ghraib" convinced me that this was nothing more than a nicely constructed hit piece.

[rlmorel]

heheh...I saw www.thenation and I didn't bother to read any further.

The moonbat left is extremely efficient in showing their hand when they present a point of view...you can see it a mile away.

I find that I can tell from the first few words exactly what they are going to say in the article.

[Criminal Number 18F]

Interesting article from an unlikely source. I hope it does not get zotted. Instead, let's talk about it.

I have people checking on the gentleman's bona fides. It will take a day or two. Holiday, you know.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[BARLF]

mark

[pandoraou812]

Funny but none of the soldiers I have met and I meet plenty when I have to go on PGR rides say anything like this. They want to go back and they feel they are doing a good job in Iraq.....I meet ones who are called home to bury their own brothers and don't even have to go back , yet they all have told me thats what their plan is. To go back and finish their mission. To go back so that the terrorists never come here . So I think this story is just plain nonsense.

[padre35]

It doesn't please me to say this, but I do wonder if the man hasn't been compromised.

He may be in the wrong line of work.

[Mr Rogers]

I'm skeptical.

1 - I've talked with a number of Army guys who tell me the Iraqis they've worked with will say, "Don't trust us. Like us, maybe - but if my family is kidnapped and their lives in danger, I may become a danger to you." So the idea that we just need to trust Iraqis seems false.

2 - Nothing in the article explains why the Iraqis hate fellow muslims (sunni vs shiite). If their hatred was born of Americans disrespecting their culture, why do they kill so many of their fellow muslims?

[pandoraou812]

He may be in the wrong line of work.

I think you are exactly right. Someone ought to look at him very closely to see if he has been compromised.

I have met plenty of soldiers and none of them told me anything like this guy in this story does. I think he needs a long rest.

[oldenuff2no]

These guys "get it". The blood on the street in Iraq is not a good thing but these young men want to stop it over there and not have to fight these same battles on main street USA.

[Felis_irritable]

"If their hatred was born of Americans disrespecting their culture, why do they kill so many of their fellow muslims?"

Rhetorical question, right? They kill each other, they kill us, they kill each other, they kill us, it's been that way for 1300 or so years. There's something wrong with these people between the ears.

And I saw thenation.com too and read a little, but they are so totally compromised I'm not wasting my time. I have a book to finish in the family room and I'm headed back rat now.

[pandoraou812]

Yes they do and I am so thankful for them. May God Bless them and watch over them. I am amazed when I talk with a soldier who has lost his brother and he tells me he can't wait to go back to Iraq. I used to ask if it was due to anger over the loss of their loved one and the answer was always the same....my brother would want me to go back and finish what we are there to do. I hear very different stories from theses soldiers then what I hear in the media.
Merry Christmas to you...~~Pandora~~

[KantianBurke]

"They kill each other, they kill us, they kill each other, they kill us, it's been that way for 1300 or so years. There's something wrong with these people between the ears."

If the above is true, the neoconservative idea of "civilizing" that region of the earth has been and is idiotic. Contain the savages, buy oil off of them and make sure their blood lust doesn't spill onto our shores.

[F.J. Mitchell]

This Major may be legit. In most Military outfits, same as in civilian situations, there is always a few pompous kissie a$$ed bastards.

[gusopol3]

buried in the middle is a pretty good story: "Last night the Iraqi Army captured Ibrahim's cell leader and brought the two together in the same small room. For Ibrahim, this was a very traumatic moment, for he saw that the pious Muslim man, whom he followed but had not met, was in fact a 27-year-old tattooed common criminal. Ibrahim began to weep when he realized he had been deceived. A greedy and immoral man who killed for money while pretending to be religious had skillfully manipulated Ibrahim's anger at Americans."

[killermedic]

Very few of us never want to go back. We know what is at stake and the more we kill there the fewer will make it here to wreak their hatred bred dissedence on our families. I find it hilarious that the soldiers, sailors, or marines who don't want to go back usually ETS after their initial tour so it really doesn't matter what they want.

[AndrewWalden]

Major Bill is certain that if our soldiers act with complete perfection then the Muslims will be good and we can go home. Wrong. Islam is not a moral code, it is a system for taking power.

[BIGLOOK]

"There is no such thing as a non-Muslim suicide bomber."

I've heard that said several times before and read it again today. Speaks volumes of their nihilistic mindset.

This article is from The Nation and belies the empathetic mindset of the left.

[Caesar Soze]

I have people checking on the gentleman's bona fides. It will take a day or two. Holiday, you know.

Thanks. I think he'll turn out to be legitimate.

A lot of replies to this thread follow the form, "I've talked to a lot of soldiers, and they say otherwise!" What these respondents may not realize is that "Mr. Bill" isn't just another soldier, and that SF and other military advisers bring a different perspective to the table. A perspective that is especially suited to carrying out the President's intent in Iraq. Doesn't mean he's necessarily right, but the article's worth reading.

The most distressing aspect of the situation is on page four. The author has the linguistic and cultural skills to move easily through Iraqi society, but most soldiers do not. Even if Private Snuffy learns to passably pronounce assalam aleikum and the other usual "cultural awareness" tidbits, that's not enough for him to make any real connection with the local civilians, or to read potential threats. To him, the populace is still inscrutable, alien, and very threatening. Evidently, the reverse is true, as well. The two groups are stuck in a Clausewitzian reciprocity, or as the Untouchables put it, one brings a knife, the other brings a gun.