KIRKUK, Iraq- Captain John McLaughlin's company of U.S. combat veterans has returned to Iraq. His paratroopers have brought far fewer illusions this time around, exchanging unalloyed enthusiasm for the war in Iraq in the spring of 2003 for a mix of professionalism, resignation and cynicism.
The enlisted men from the 101st Airborne Division now know much more about the country, confidently factoring in competing ethnic agendas as they navigate the claims of Kurds, Sunni Arabs, Shiites and Turkmens.
Most dismiss the debate over the merits of the war as irrelevant, many of them saying they fight out of loyalty to the U.S. Army even if they think its mission in Iraq is unrealistic. Most profess no love for Iraq or its people.
>>>>Some returning soldiers said that while they once believed they could quickly train the Iraqi police to replace U.S. troops, they have now set their sights much lower, hoping perhaps to set a decent example for police officers and soldiers they train but do not entirely trust.
full article:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/01/08/news/troops.phpNot much of a portrait of victory. The mercenary nature of the mission is disturbing. This is war for war's sake. There's little left of the high-minded rhetoric about protecting the US from WMD's, or spreading democracy, just blind loyalty to their military unit. The only purpose left for these soldiers in Iraq is to play their roles as political game pieces for their leaders back home. Training the Iraqis has become a futile exercise, rebuilding the country we bombed into a pre-industrial state has been all but abandoned, and the notion of our forces protecting Iraqis was a lie from the start and irrelevant in the face of our own collateral killing of innocents there.
As for the fate of our own forces, those who manage to make it home alive and in one piece from Iraq will have a difficult time distinguishing between the lawfulness and respect for human life that we struggle to maintain here at home from the anarchy and indifference they've learned to endure in this occupation. All of the rationalizing and lies from their leaders doesn't help. Here we go again with another generation of warriors who will expect the rest of us to understand those behaviors and justifications they picked up from war that we are loath to tolerate in our own ordered society.
And they don't even have John Wayne and his crew to clean it up for them. What we'll get are these imitations of Bush and Rumsfeld in their idiotic blustering about freedom and democracy, neither of which are reflection in Iraq of anything we defend here in America. I fully expect this attitude to trickle down to the conservative masses. They won't try to make things better. After all, they don't really like us. They'll just concern themselves with loyalty to the ruling authority.
Seig Heil!