Waste of Life or Six Months to Another Disgrace.

The ghost of Vietnam rises from the grave again to feast on the flesh of other wars and conflicts who have received a parade and favorable press. I have been hearing that John Kerry wants to pull troops out of Iraq within 6 months after being elected. I have been searching around his web site and can't find anything about that but for arguments sake let's go with it.

I had a good friend die a few weeks ago in a drive-by machine gun attack in Mosul. He was assigned to the Cavalry unit within my brigade after having been shifted over from my battalion. His death, though tragic, was something that happens in war. He was an infantryman, that's his job. Not to die but to be placed in a situation where he MAY die. The death of one soldier is not the end of the world, it pains me as his friend but in the long run Iraq and America are more important than one or even 100 soldiers.

Pulling us out of Iraq and having the country fall into revolution or theocracy will negate the deaths of all soldiers and civilians. The death of over 50,000 men has been for nothing since the country was lost in 1975. The failures of policy and the unwilling nature of the American electorate gave them Vietnam. Now John Kerry would resurrect that ghost to tack it onto this war. No thank you Mr. Kerry, don't sacrifice my friends just because yours were. We want this war to end well and any unwillingness on your part will have made the death of all my friends for naught.

So on Veterans Day go out and bitch about not getting your parade, cry about the military-industrial complex with Jane Fonda, but let my guys win this thing. I'm an operator not a policy maker but this war has started and we want to finish it. Iraq is now free and remember I just came back so those of you who will throw out the rhetorical "Is it?", it is. I was there.