My Thoughts From Camp Echo Iraq on 26 July 2008

Well here I am again in the desert in Iraq working along side the men and women who serve our great country.  The place that I am at right now is a multi-national base.  At this base we have soldiers from several different countries.  The following countries are represented here: Poland, Ukraine, Mongolia, Latvija, Salvador, Armenia, Romania, Bulgaria, and of course the US.  There are so many cultures that are so diverse that trying to find a common thread can seem like a daunting task.

            I’ve been back here for only a couple of weeks and yet sometimes it feels like I never left.  There have been so many improvements to the country that the American people are just unaware of because the reporters don’t think that it is a story that the people would be interested in.  I think that if the American people had a full picture of what the soldiers are doing here they might understand why we are still here.

            Did the people back home during and following World War II demand that we bring our troops home following the war.  I am not saying we will still be here fifty or sixty years from now like we are in Germany and Korea.  America has a habit of helping countries rebuild following wars in which we are involved in.  We helped Germany and Korea rebuild following those wars.  It is just the same now.  We are helping the Iraqi people rebuild their country.  Unlike following WWII and the Korean War we are having to rebuild from a thirty year occupation of a dictator who didn’t care about the welfare of the average citizen or the economy or the living conditions.  We have an obligation to the average Iraqi citizen to show them the generosity of the American people by helping them learn to stand on their own two feet.

            We have helped them rebuild their schools, hospitals, and roads just for starters.  We have helped to ensure that the children have clothes to wear and the necessary supplies to gain an education.  The things we do for the children will influence what kind of society and country this will become.  Iraq has so much culture to offer the world that we also owe our children an opportunity to see it first hand and the only way that will happen is if we stay the course and finish the job we started.

            I have watched some of the election news since I have been here and wish to share some of my thoughts about what I see happening if our new president changes things too drastically too fast.

            I have heard people say that they are going to vote for a Democrat just because they are tired of a Republican being in office.  I have also heard people say that they won’t vote because they don’t like either of the choices.  Both of these outlooks are wrong in my way of thinking.  Voting for a Democrat just because then are you making an informed decision or just a blind assumption that he will be the better choice.  Choosing not to vote is almost as bad because then you are not letting your voice be heard.  It’s not like you won’t have to listen to the Commander-in-Chief just because you didn’t vote for him.

            Some of the things I have read about the Democratic candidate makes me really question what people see in him.  He seems to be a pacifist because he wants to outlaw guns, he wants to try to talk our enemies into seeing things our way, he wants the American people to learn Spanish (why??) as a mandatory class in school, and on top of all of this he has no experience dealing with international policy.  Don’t get me wrong he does have some good ideas and he is very well spoken.  I just don’t feel like he is the right person for the most important job in America.

            The American people need to understand that the men and women who serve in the armed forces are guarding your freedoms.  They don’t like being over here any more than you like them being here.  All of these people know why they joined the service and they do their job every day working in adverse conditions.  The American people can not picture evil in a physical form.  Terrorist are pure evil.  They don’t care who gets hurt.  If you don’t believe and practice the Muslim religion then you are an infidel and deserve to perish in the most hideous manner they can think of.  They have no regard for human life.

            In America we have shopping malls, strip malls, used car lots, new car lots and sports stadiums.  Americans also adhere to schedules unlike the Iraqi people.  We are constantly looking at our watches because we always have somewhere else to be.  These are just a few of the places that Americans gather in great numbers and they don’t have those places over here.  Now I am going to paint you a picture of what might happen if the troops are pulled out of Iraq before the mission is accomplished.

            It is a Saturday afternoon and you are driving down Range Line with all of those strip malls and car lots.  Every one of those cars on the lot have fuel in the tank for test drives.  Late Friday night an unknown individual placed a small package with a timer under the gas tank of a vehicle located in the middle of the car lot.  At a prescribed time in the late afternoon or early evening this package explodes and in doing so ignites all of the other gas tanks.  Can you picture the chaos and destruction this would cause.  While the people are responding to this attack and helping the injured and dead there is another package waiting to go off that will injure or kill the first responders.  This is a terrorist attack that can be repeated over and over and over again.

            If you think that this can’t or won’t happen then you are not living in reality.  We were attacked before using one means of transportation so don’t think they won’t do it again on a larger scale.  Just think if they planned this like they did the plane crashes they could target multiple cities on the same day.

            I don’t condone war but sometimes you have to fight fire with fire.  America is a great country but a few attacks like what I just described how would you feel about helping your friends and neighbors if they are the ones injured.  Would you rush in there to help or would you hesitate to act out of fear of the unknown?  I for one don’t want to take the chance that this could become a reality.

            These are just a few of my thoughts from here in Iraq.  I would really like to hear what other people think about this.