D-gin
01-16-2007, 05:59 PM
I found this to be a very interesting read myself so I though a few here might also want to read a little bit of how some of our troops are feeling.
By LAUREN FRAYER, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq
Their alarm clocks went off at 3:30 a.m., sending members of the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division reaching for their M-4 assault rifles then trudging from their tents and trailers into six-inch deep mud.
Piling into Humvees, they rumbled through verdant brush along irrigation canals south of Baghdad, which provides excellent cover for bombs. Hundreds of American soldiers have died in these mostly Sunni Muslim villages since the war began
But nearly four years into the fighting, some soldiers say it's getting more difficult to swing their legs over the edge of the cot each morning. With America's Iraq (http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=Iraq) policy in flux, some troops say they're asking themselves for the first time whether the U.S. can win the war — or what winning really means here.
"It's hard to tell what's right here anymore," said Case Dewinkel, a 23-year-old Army specialist from Madison, Wis.
The soldiers said they do their jobs and leave politics to the generals. But the debate in the U.S. over the legitimacy of the Iraq conflict has trickled down to the soldiers patrolling this dangerous area.
Dewinkel and other members of the 1st Squadron, 89th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division gathered one recent rainy morning in a schoolhouse south of Baghdad to set up a makeshift medical clinic for villagers.
While Iraqis lined up in a dank corridor outside, a few American soldiers leaned against desks in a ramshackle classroom, chomping candy, chatting, pacing to keep warm.
They were reticent at first to express their thoughts about the war, but finally said they felt a certain apathy and ambiguity.
"There are a lot of reasons why we're here, but they're complex. This isn't a war like they used to be, like in World War II when there was good and evil and the direction was clear," Dewinkel said, scuffling his feet on the muddy schoolhouse floor. Rain poured outside.
He pulled off his camouflaged helmet and bulletproof glasses, exposing youthful cheeks turned pink from the cold.
"It's hard to tell who the good guys are," Dewinkel said.
President Bush (http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=President+Bush) announced last week that he would add 21,500 more American soldiers to the 132,000 already in Iraq. The plan would cost $5.6 billion, on top of $100 billion Bush is expected to ask Congress for in February for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=Afghanistan).
While soldiers back home prepare for the call to deploy, some here are asking if there was more they could have done. Others fault Iraqis for their slow progress. Some look inward, demoralized. Others dig in their heels, or urge patience.
"People have always said it's a critical juncture, but now we're really about to crest," said Maj. Web Wright, 39, an Annapolis, Md., native also assigned to the 2nd Brigade.
Wright said he worried U.S. public support for the war was waning and that U.S. troops could be withdrawn prematurely. He has worked too hard, for too long to strengthen Iraq just to walk away.
"I don't want to see what we've done go to waste," he said. "What's the solution then? If we pull the troops out, who fills that void?"
Wright said he worries that it is difficult to define what victory would mean in Iraq.
"I've spent two years here, and I want to see us win," he said. "I don't want to rush to get it over with. The problem is, what's a win here, in this a counterinsurgency fight?"
Sgt. Maj. Fred Morris found himself on a blighted Baghdad street corner at dusk, arguing with barefoot Iraqis about electricity.
Six men, surrounded by their children in tattered clothes, pleaded with
Morris for help. They had no power or water or fuel, they said, and they had given up looking for work. Militiamen had infiltrated the local police station. Even their revered sheik left town.
"Look at what I'm up against," Morris told a visiting reporter. "They've got six grown men here, each owns a weapon, and they're complaining to me."
"I'm telling them, `Look, leave your families in the protection of some of the other men in town, and take up your problems with the local Iraqi authorities. Walk down to the nearest Iraqi police station or Iraqi army outpost and tell them, not me,'" he said.
Morris, 45, is on his third tour in Iraq, including Desert Storm. He said he's grown frustrated with Iraqis, who have become increasingly demoralized and more dependent than ever on U.S. troops.
"You guys have got to start figuring this out yourself," Morris said, shaking his head as he turned to walk away.
His Humvee circled through Baghdad's Dora neighborhood, filled with signs of the capital's decline. Women draped in black shuffled in flip-flops across sidewalks littered with broken glass. Downed power lines snaked through the roadside mud, where a black market fuel seller had lined up multicolored plastic gas cans. A boy stretched out his arms and pretended to fly, leaping across mounds of garbage.
Dewinkel, the Army specialist staffing a medical clinic south of Baghdad, pondered the future of the Sunni enclave where he serves, and of Iraq as a whole.
"I don't think it'll get any better. Once we leave, I think they'll go back to killing each other," he said. "They've already started."
LINK: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070116/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_soldiers_reflect
By LAUREN FRAYER, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq
Their alarm clocks went off at 3:30 a.m., sending members of the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division reaching for their M-4 assault rifles then trudging from their tents and trailers into six-inch deep mud.
Piling into Humvees, they rumbled through verdant brush along irrigation canals south of Baghdad, which provides excellent cover for bombs. Hundreds of American soldiers have died in these mostly Sunni Muslim villages since the war began
But nearly four years into the fighting, some soldiers say it's getting more difficult to swing their legs over the edge of the cot each morning. With America's Iraq (http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=Iraq) policy in flux, some troops say they're asking themselves for the first time whether the U.S. can win the war — or what winning really means here.
"It's hard to tell what's right here anymore," said Case Dewinkel, a 23-year-old Army specialist from Madison, Wis.
The soldiers said they do their jobs and leave politics to the generals. But the debate in the U.S. over the legitimacy of the Iraq conflict has trickled down to the soldiers patrolling this dangerous area.
Dewinkel and other members of the 1st Squadron, 89th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division gathered one recent rainy morning in a schoolhouse south of Baghdad to set up a makeshift medical clinic for villagers.
While Iraqis lined up in a dank corridor outside, a few American soldiers leaned against desks in a ramshackle classroom, chomping candy, chatting, pacing to keep warm.
They were reticent at first to express their thoughts about the war, but finally said they felt a certain apathy and ambiguity.
"There are a lot of reasons why we're here, but they're complex. This isn't a war like they used to be, like in World War II when there was good and evil and the direction was clear," Dewinkel said, scuffling his feet on the muddy schoolhouse floor. Rain poured outside.
He pulled off his camouflaged helmet and bulletproof glasses, exposing youthful cheeks turned pink from the cold.
"It's hard to tell who the good guys are," Dewinkel said.
President Bush (http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=President+Bush) announced last week that he would add 21,500 more American soldiers to the 132,000 already in Iraq. The plan would cost $5.6 billion, on top of $100 billion Bush is expected to ask Congress for in February for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=Afghanistan).
While soldiers back home prepare for the call to deploy, some here are asking if there was more they could have done. Others fault Iraqis for their slow progress. Some look inward, demoralized. Others dig in their heels, or urge patience.
"People have always said it's a critical juncture, but now we're really about to crest," said Maj. Web Wright, 39, an Annapolis, Md., native also assigned to the 2nd Brigade.
Wright said he worried U.S. public support for the war was waning and that U.S. troops could be withdrawn prematurely. He has worked too hard, for too long to strengthen Iraq just to walk away.
"I don't want to see what we've done go to waste," he said. "What's the solution then? If we pull the troops out, who fills that void?"
Wright said he worries that it is difficult to define what victory would mean in Iraq.
"I've spent two years here, and I want to see us win," he said. "I don't want to rush to get it over with. The problem is, what's a win here, in this a counterinsurgency fight?"
Sgt. Maj. Fred Morris found himself on a blighted Baghdad street corner at dusk, arguing with barefoot Iraqis about electricity.
Six men, surrounded by their children in tattered clothes, pleaded with
Morris for help. They had no power or water or fuel, they said, and they had given up looking for work. Militiamen had infiltrated the local police station. Even their revered sheik left town.
"Look at what I'm up against," Morris told a visiting reporter. "They've got six grown men here, each owns a weapon, and they're complaining to me."
"I'm telling them, `Look, leave your families in the protection of some of the other men in town, and take up your problems with the local Iraqi authorities. Walk down to the nearest Iraqi police station or Iraqi army outpost and tell them, not me,'" he said.
Morris, 45, is on his third tour in Iraq, including Desert Storm. He said he's grown frustrated with Iraqis, who have become increasingly demoralized and more dependent than ever on U.S. troops.
"You guys have got to start figuring this out yourself," Morris said, shaking his head as he turned to walk away.
His Humvee circled through Baghdad's Dora neighborhood, filled with signs of the capital's decline. Women draped in black shuffled in flip-flops across sidewalks littered with broken glass. Downed power lines snaked through the roadside mud, where a black market fuel seller had lined up multicolored plastic gas cans. A boy stretched out his arms and pretended to fly, leaping across mounds of garbage.
Dewinkel, the Army specialist staffing a medical clinic south of Baghdad, pondered the future of the Sunni enclave where he serves, and of Iraq as a whole.
"I don't think it'll get any better. Once we leave, I think they'll go back to killing each other," he said. "They've already started."
LINK: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070116/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_soldiers_reflect