Posted on 10/18/2006 9:55:49 AM PDT by Dick Bachert
The Secret Letter From Iraq A Marine's letter home, with its frank description of life in "Dante's inferno," has been circulating through generals' in-boxes. We publish it here with the author's approval
Written last month, this straightforward account of life in Iraq by a Marine officer was initially sent just to a small group of family and friends. His honest but wry narration and unusually frank dissection of the mission contrasts sharply with the story presented by both sides of the Iraq war debate, the Pentagon spin masters and fierce critics. Perhaps inevitably, the "Letter from Iraq" moved quickly beyond the small group of acquantainaces and hit the inboxes of retired generals, officers in the Pentagon, and staffers on Capitol Hill. TIME's Sally B. Donnelly first received a copy three weeks ago but only this week was able to track down the author and verify the document's authenticity. The author wishes to remain anonymous but has allowed us to publish it here ¡ª with a few judicious omissions.
Go here http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1543658,00.html for complete story
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Nope. No bias there.
How convenient. Another "fake but true" story ala Dan Rather.
These people at Time are leftists, through and through. They have demonstrated to me time and again they do not have the best interests of the USA at heart, to the contrary, they have shown they wish to deconstruct any idea or icon that is vital to the well being of our country.
I see no reason to trust anything about them or this.
You mean war is hell? Say it isn't so!
Highest Temperature — I don't know exactly, but it was in the porta-johns. Needed to re-hydrate after each trip to the loo.
Do many Americans go to the loo? Sounds a little British to me.
lol.
Mostly a long rant/whine about how tough it is to be at war. I don't doubt that it is tough, but there are thousands of other dedicated men and women working hard right next to you, bud. Suck it up.
Coolest Insurgent Act — Stealing almost $7 million from the main bank in Ramadi in broad daylight, then, upon exiting, waving to the Marines in the combat outpost right next to the bank, who had no clue of what was going on. The Marines waved back. Too cool.
This should give you an idea where this "soldier's" heart is.
It's disgraceful.
Best Chuck Norris Moment — 13 May. Bad Guys arrived at the government center in a small town to kidnap the mayor, since they have a problem with any form of government that does not include regular beheadings and women wearing burqahs. There were seven of them. As they brought the mayor out to put him in a pick-up truck to take him off to be beheaded (on video, as usual), one of the Bad Guys put down his machine gun so that he could tie the mayor's hands. The mayor took the opportunity to pick up the machine gun and drill five of the Bad Guys. The other two ran away. One of the dead Bad Guys was on our top twenty wanted list. Like they say, you can't fight City Hall.
Actually, the letter has good and bad in it. The Marine misses home and is working 20 hours a day. All in all, it is pretty much just a regular letter from a grunt on the ground...
Oops! I meant "Marine's".
Highest Unit Re-enlistment Rate — Any outfit that has been in Iraq recently. All the danger, all the hardship, all the time away from home, all the horror, all the frustrations with the fight here — all are outweighed by the desire for young men to be part of a band of brothers who will die for one another. They found what they were looking for when they enlisted out of high school. Man for man, they now have more combat experience than any Marines in the history of our Corps.
The letter is pretty good and hardly MSM-friendly.
Indeed, it's reasonably encouraging.
Oh, GMAFB.
Complaining is what troops do.
I was first told in OCS that, if my men were bitching about food and conditions and making these types of observations, morale was bad.
I doubt that...
Semper Fi
Thanks for pointing that out...I should qualify my disparagement.
I do not read Time anymore. That was a comment directed at Time, not really the individual anonymous letter. It is likely genuine.
It is their motivation in printing it that I take issue with.
Biggest Surprise — Iraqi Police. All local guys. I never figured that we'd get a police force established in the cities in al-Anbar. I estimated that insurgents would kill the first few, scaring off the rest. Well, insurgents did kill the first few, but the cops kept on coming. The insurgents continue to target the police, killing them in their homes and on the streets, but the cops won't give up. Absolutely incredible tenacity. The insurgents know that the police are far better at finding them than we are — and they are finding them. Now, if we could just get them out of the habit of beating prisoners to a pulp...
Highest Unit Re-enlistment Rate — Any outfit that has been in Iraq recently. All the danger, all the hardship, all the time away from home, all the horror, all the frustrations with the fight here — all are outweighed by the desire for young men to be part of a band of brothers who will die for one another. They found what they were looking for when they enlisted out of high school. Man for man, they now have more combat experience than any Marines in the history of our Corps.
Best Chuck Norris Moment — 13 May. Bad Guys arrived at the government center in a small town to kidnap the mayor, since they have a problem with any form of government that does not include regular beheadings and women wearing burqahs. There were seven of them. As they brought the mayor out to put him in a pick-up truck to take him off to be beheaded (on video, as usual), one of the Bad Guys put down his machine gun so that he could tie the mayor's hands. The mayor took the opportunity to pick up the machine gun and drill five of the Bad Guys. The other two ran away. One of the dead Bad Guys was on our top twenty wanted list. Like they say, you can't fight City Hall.
The author also talks of irritating VIPs and talking heads (mentions O'Reilly) who over simplify and cast the wrong perception on the real situation. However, he doesn't go into detail re: who the VIPs are and in which manner the wrong perception is cast (ie we're winning/losing/inbetween etc). Nevertheless, judging by his comments re: the Marines (reenlistments etc etc), Iraqis, and 'insurgents', I feel he has a postitive outlook and, obviously, would prefer to be home.
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