Posted on 01/07/2014 6:14:28 AM PST by shortstop
I have a friend who fought in Fallujah.
He is boisterous and confident and full of life. He has the can-do spirit that defines himself and all who have worn the blue cord of the Army Infantry.
But yesterday he was broken.
As he talked about the Iraq war, and specifically the fight for Fallujah, there was a sadness that doesnt come out in the speeches and books. There wasnt the never-say-die confidence of a veteran non-commissioned officer, there was instead the dazed uncertainty of a man who looks back and wonders what the hell it was all about.
Why did he face death, why did he inflict death, why did he and his buddies bleed and die on that Godforsaken soil for it all to come to this.
To this?
To an al Qaida win.
Last week Fallujah fell to al Qaida. This generations Normandy now flies the Nazi flag. The most intense urban fighting the world has seen since World War II has ended up with the good guys gone and the bad guys triumphant.
Our Iraq transition plan boiled down to us out and al Qaida in. In the political vilification of the president who launched a war our nation and its leaders have disavowed the war itself and, consequently, the men who fought it.
And the prizes they claimed.So the al Qaida flag flies. The Syrian rebels Washington wanted to arm slunk across the border and, their jihadist passions embroiled, sought to defecate on the American legacy by claiming our bloodiest prize.
And my friend wonders what the hell it was all about. He has come to taste the bitterness of the Vietnam veteran, in which the shifting sands of public opinion have turned his days of glory and sacrifice into an expedition of waste and shame.
Iraq is shattered, we have gained nothing, and enemy boots now trod soil bought with American blood.
Thats how it looks.
But thats not how it is.
Thats not how it is at all.
Because the Iraq war was a resounding win, and every effort there every life lost there directly protected the safety and freedom of the American homeland.
America must never forget that, and Americas veterans must never forget that.
The war in Iraq was a diverting effort, a changing of the venue in the war with terror, it was to this war what the Italian campaign was to the Second World War.
Lets review.
Americas awareness of extremist Islams war against Christians, Jews and democracy began on September 11, 2001. Some 3,000 defenseless civilians were killed by that war in the American homeland that day.Extremist Islam had declared the war and chosen the battlefield and the combatants. Their fanatic savages against our wives and mothers, stewardesses and office workers, in our country and on our planes.
That was their choice.
Thats where they wanted to fight.
They wanted to slaughter our unarmed families in our homeland.
And we didnt stand for that.
We hit them with the left and we hit them with the right. We quickly took down their Taliban protectors in Afghanistan, and then we chose a diversionary fight to attract the scum of the Muslim pond the steady crop of jihadists and destroy them.
To be blunt, we needed to bleed them down, to draw them into a fight and etrit them. We needed a grinder for the enemys passion, and Iraq was that grinder.
They wanted to fight unarmed civilians in America, we got them to fight our trained soldiers in Iraq. We changed the target of their ire from mothers to Marines and we changed the battlefield from our home to theirs.
And we stacked them up like cordwood.
And we called it the Iraq war, though it really had nothing to do with Iraq. Yes, there was talk about weapons of mass destruction and Saddam Hussein, and maybe leaders actually did think those things were important. But the guiding hand of Providence, which has stood around the American campfire from the days of Valley Forge, had another agenda.
It was a strategy of diversion, to misdirect and blunt the jihadist hate, in order to achieve an overriding objective to secure and protect America.
My friend and his comrades did not fight and die for Fallujah, they fought and died for America. It wasnt about that soil, it was about this soil. And it was not a loss, it was a win.
Yes, the al Qaida flag flies over Fallujah today, but it does not fly over America.
There was a mission, it was accomplished. And though there may be a new mission today, and tomorrow, it does not diminish or negate the mission of yesterday.
The purpose of the Iraq war was to keep them busy, to draw them away from our families and homes, to let them bleed into their own soil instead of into ours. The verdict of the Iraq war is not what happens today in Iraq, its what happens today and over the last decade in America.
We won. The Iraq conflict was noble, purposeful and successful.
And the Iraq veteran is an American hero. He bought us a decade of American security, and his successors are buying another decade today.
Well done and well put!
Better be broke than DEAD! The article, as much as I appreciated it missed something just as important. We also sent a message to our more powerful enemies that there will be a heavy price to pay if you wage war against our us. Forget about using 9/11 as a precedent. It must never happen again or we will bring down the full wrath of U.S. military power on your ass!
We are losing Iraq now because the current administration dropped the ball.
our us = us
That might be a good idea. When the Mongols--who might arguably be considered Chinese--took over the country in 1258, they implemented a program of urban renewal and population management.
Change "Al Qaida" to "Vietnamese Communists" and you've got the people.
Insert "Marxist Traitorous Liberals" to "Marxist Traitorous Liberals" and you've got the culprits.
Been there, done that, seen that. This is nothing new and Lonsberry's NCO friend feels exactly as I felt 38 years ago.
Whether we have bought another "decade of security" is quite another question, though. If that might be the case, we'd better find and elect another Reagan, fast!
I would give my life and soul to defend this great country. It is true our taxes are unfortunately wasted on useless programs but I have no problem using our tax money for defense of this country.
I am sorry you feel different but you have that right and we have paid in blood and $ for you to have this freedom of expression.
You’re a progressive coward is what you are.
You’re cowering in fear of people thousands of miles away and wanting to take taxpayer money and send someone else to go deal with the source of your fear.
If you really cared about America you would be screaming for border control and an end to our suicidal immigration policies. Unfortunately your kind generally supports amnesty as well.
How long before our billion-dollar embassy in Bagdad will need to be abandoned?
Your friend must be crestfallen about what is happening in the US considering how Islam is received with open arms by government and spreading unchecked in the country while Christianity is being suppressed.
I know, he did not fight Islam but mainly Al-Qaeda — at least, that’s the theory.
What an idiot.
Don't you get it? IRAQ WAS FOR NOTHING. 4500 dead, tens of thousands of irreplaceable young men maimed, trillions of dollars flushed FOR NOTHING.
And, although there is no bad thing you could say about "Obama" that I would not agree with, this pathetic ending in Iraq was determined the very day our incompetent and wholly inadequate "war" plan was hatched. Wrong enemy, wrong battlefield, wrong means, delusional ends - there was nothing about the misadventure in Iraq, which took longer than WW II and left the enemy center of gravity untouched that was worthy of the slightest praise.
And Afghanistan is just as bad, and may yet turn out even worse.
You are wrong on all counts!
Those people thousand of miles away attacked us right here in NYC just about 10 miles from where I live. It is not fear but an acceptance of reality.
In any case I will end this discussion now because I have work to do. I still love FR, good luck to you!
A NY “Conservative” well that explains a lot.
I supported going into Iraq.
I was wrong.
I supported Desert Storm.....I was wrong.
Especially leaving Saddam in power afterwards, that’s when he really radicalized.
If Arabs want to fight each other, let ‘em, I say.
Yeah only to have Kuwaitis protesting and even attacking our soldiers during Gulf War part II.
There was a nearly identical article about Afghanistan in this month’s Legion magazine (Canadian Legion).
Pathetic how our politicians have destroyed the morale of our fighting men.
Saddam lost, but we sure as hell didn’t win anything.
The terrorists started this war on terror.
“The terrorists started this war on terror.”
News flash, Saddam had nothing to do with 911 and in fact was fighting those same terrorists and doing a darn good job of suppressing them. We attacked him on some trumped up charges of having “weapons of mass destruction” remember? In reality it was because Bush jr had his panties in a bunch about Saddam trying to put a hit on his dad.
So evidence has come out that it was the Saudi government (and Bush knew this at the time he attacked Iraq) that was behind the attacks, are we going to start a war with them? No? Gee what a surprise.
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