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06/20/2003 Archived Entry: "'Tell Bush to bring us home.'"
'Tell Bush to bring us home.'
Washington Post has an article talking about the US military's growing frustration with the occupation of Iraq. Check these quotes:
"What are we getting into here?" asked a sergeant with the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division who is stationed near Baqubah, a city 30 miles northeast of Baghdad. "The war is supposed to be over, but every day we hear of another soldier getting killed. Is it worth it? Saddam isn't in power anymore. The locals want us to leave. Why are we still here?""The way it seemed is, once Iraqis got over being grateful for getting rid of Saddam, they found out quickly they don't want the Americans, either," said Sgt. Nestor Torres, a military policeman with the 3rd Infantry Division in the restive town of Fallujah, 35 miles west of Baghdad. "Everyone is blending in with everyone else, so you can't tell the friendly ones from the hostile."
Torres is a bodyguard for the division commander, Maj. Gen. Buford C. Blount III. "When I look around, I've got to wonder who wants to shoot my boss," Torres said.
When the battalion first arrived in Baqubah in late April, "every single person was waving at us," said 2nd Lt. Skip Boston, 24, of Marshalltown, Iowa. Now, he said, "they just stare."
"A man told me the other day that we've been here for two months and nothing's changed," Boston said. "That's not really true, but all they see is us riding up and down the roads and being a nuisance for them."
The focus on crime fighting has annoyed Boston and his men, who said they would rather be blowing up ammunition caches. "It's getting really frustrating," Sullivan said. "We took the city, but what was it for? We took one bad guy out, but now there are lots of bad guys here."
At a checkpoint on the outskirts of Baghdad set up to search for illegal weapons, a soldier sweating in the 110-degree heat told a reporter, "Tell President Bush to bring us home." On a skylight atop Fallujah's city hall, a soldier has scrawled in the dust: "I'll kill for a ticket home."
Replies: 2 people speak up
Why are we still here? - should soldiers be asking this question? isn't this the job they signed up for? i mean, these guys weren't drafted. - btw, we shouldn't have been there in the first place, but we can't just walk out now...
Posted by jb @ 06/20/2003 06:49 PM NY
this is what happens when a bumbling Administration tries to take on a matter of international concern with no real plan in place.
Watching BushCo work this Iraq thing out is similar to watching two children making up a new ball game... no real organization, and the rules change each time one of them doesn't like the outcome. Did they make up the Iraq strategy as they went?
Posted by blunted @ 06/21/2003 01:36 AM NY
