Marine Corps Moms: Stuck in the '60's?

May 03, 2005

Stuck in the '60's?

Sometimes, I wonder who reads this website and how the reports from Marines, who are actively engaged in rebuilding Iraq and supporting Iraqi citizens who are building a democracy, are perceived. Yesterday, I found out. When my Google news alerts popped up a news story on Husaybah, I was taken aback to find one of our first MCM posts quoted by Scott Ritter, former UN Weapons Inspector and also a disgruntled former Marine, in an editorial titled Dereliction of Duty Regarding Iraq published in Al-Jazeerah. He describes his reaction to the "tragic events unfolding in Mesopotamia" in one word. "Vietnam". Here's a snippet:

Recently, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers, insisted, at a press conference, that the US and coalition forces were winning the war in Iraq, and noted that he was confident of a military victory. "I'm going to say this: I think we are winning, okay. I think we're definitely winning. I think we've been winning for some time," Myers said. Myers' statements, mirroring his earlier pronouncements, as well as those of his fellow joint chiefs, represent a posturing for the public that is not matched by the reality on the ground in Iraq. For every general who speaks of 'winning the war', there are hundreds of soldiers and marines, veterans of the harsh reality of ground truth in Iraq, who believe otherwise.

Somebody forgot to tell the troops. On tonight's NBC news broadcast, military analyst Jack Jones who is a Vietnam combat veteran and one of only 124 living recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor described a fact-finding trip he made to Iraq. Here are his words:

"When I was in Vietnam, if you asked anybody what he wanted more than anything else in the world, the answer was to go home. (In Iraq)we asked hundreds and hundreds of soldiers, low ranking soldiers in both Afghanistan and Iraq the same question and the response to a man and woman was, 'to kill bad guys'. And that was startling to me. Morale is just over the top. . . . They perceive that they're making progress. Success will do that to morale."

What Ritter describes as "chest thumping bravado" is simply business as usual for our troops. It's not Vietnam. Not even close. My son spent 7 months in the same border town where the 3/7 Marines, that Ritter describes, won that victory a year ago. He had no way of knowing what was going on in other regions of Iraq, besides news reports, until he returned to the Al Asad base prior to coming home. He described it as night and day from just last August. Iraqis were enjoying a new freedom. He said, "It's the first time I felt like we were really making a difference. A positive difference." And he's not alone. The "hundreds and hundreds of troops that Jones spoke with seem to agree. I don't know where Ritter is getting his information. But he needs to take another look.

Posted by Deb at May 3, 2005 12:14 PM

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Tracked on May 8, 2005 03:30 AM

Comments

It's amazing what some people will say about the Iraq war when they're being paid by Oil for Food money.

Jonah Goldberg on NRO had a great piece recently about Iraq NOT being Vietnam.

Here it is.

Posted by: Kathleen A at May 3, 2005 03:57 AM

Scott Ritter is a pimple on humanity's butt.

Posted by: Carrie at May 3, 2005 06:42 AM