rigorousintuition.ca

Words from the front-lines<br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.traveling-soldier.org/7.05.words.php">www.traveling-soldier.org/7.05.words.php</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>“Will we have another wall for Iraq like we do for Vietnam? I’m not gonna wait for another damn wall for Iraq to be filled with the names of my fellow soldiers, and I hope you’re not either. The cause we fight for is noble and just, it is to save the lives of American soldiers who are tragically dying over here needlessly.” – Leonard Clark, 860th Military Police, Arizona Army National Guard <br><br>“I have no idea what we’re doing here, mom. I don’t know why we’re here. We’re not helping anyone – there’s no rebuilding. The Iraqis don’t want us here, they want us out of here.” – Patrick McCaffrey, California National Guard, in a conversation with his mother before he was killed on June 22, 2004. <br><br>“We were sent there, and boys are coming back in coffins, all because of a massive lie. … I’m not politically minded in any way, but I’ve got a brain. I’m not anti-regiment or anti-military, but now I can see that we should not have been there in the first place. … We shouldn’t be there and we shouldn’t have gone there. I think it’s important that someone like me says that. I think there should be someone who was a soldier saying that, not someone in a suit and tie, saying it for their own ends, but saying it for the sake of the men and women left out there.’’ – Corporal Dave Corrigan, British Parachute Regiment , 16th Air Assault Brigade. <br><br>“Let’s trust the President – about as far as we can throw him. … There was no more hard-core Republican than me until I went to Iraq. I’m against abortion and gay rights, and don’t mess with my guns, but I have grown up a lot. When you have spent a year in hell and you have seen the waste of money I have seen ... I’m neither party now. … What I don’t understand is how we can rebuild everything we are rebuilding over there, but here in America our infrastructure is falling apart. I had to borrow $776,000 for this city for water. They are spending it just like nothing over there. That’s reckless, and that’s wrong.” – Staff Sgt. Paul Bunn, 39th Infantry Brigade, Arkansas National Guard. He is also the mayor of Bradford, AK. <br><br>“Nobody really knows what the soldiers are going through. They see on TV two soldiers get wounded today and they think, yeah, he’ll be all right. But that soldier is scarred for life both physically and mentally. … All the reasons we went to war, it just seems like they’re not legit enough for people to lose their lives for and for me to lose my hand and use of my leg and for my buddies to lose their limbs. I just had a big conversation with my buddy the other day and we want to know. I feel like we deserve to know. – Specialist Robert Acosta, 1st Armored Division <br><br>“Don’t bash others because they think this mission is complete crap, because it is. It’s stupid and we’re risking other soldiers’ lives. For what? Iraqi liberation? Weapons of mass destruction? Neither one of those has been even close to being found. Bring soldiers home to protect what we’ve come to love so dearly — the United States, to protect those freedoms we take for granted, to protect our people, our children, wives, sons, daughters and husbands.” – Pfc. Bradley Robb, Camp Striker, Iraq. <br><br>“To this day I still think about that raid, that family, that boy. I wonder if they are attacking us now. I would be. If someone took the life of my son or my daughter nothing other than my own death would stop me from killing them. I still cry when the memory hits me. And I cry when I think of how very far away I am from my family. I am not there, just like the boy’s father wasn’t there. I have served my time. I have my nightmares. I have enough blood on my hands. Just let me be a father, a husband, a daddy again.” – Sgt. Zachary Scott-Singley, 3rd Infantry Division. <br><br>Sources: <br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://leonardclark.com/blog">leonardclark.com/blog</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br>Interview with Nadia McCaffrey May 18, 2005, member of the Brussells Tribunal Advisory Committee (Inge Van de Merlen), <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.worldtribunal.org/main/?b=57">www.worldtribunal.org/main/?b=57</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br>Ed Vulliamy, "Fighting mad," The Guardian, May 4, 2005, <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://politics.guardian.co.uk/election/story/0,15803,1475960,00.html">politics.guardian.co.uk/e...60,00.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <br>Cathy Booth Thomas, "Finding The Way Home," Time Inc., May. 31, 2005, <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,1066914,00.html">www.time.com/time/magazin...14,00.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <br>North Carolina Peace And Justice Coalition Organizing Committee 3.19.05, quoting from interview in "Purple Hearts: Back From Iraq," by Nina Berman <br>"Letters to the Editor," Stars and Stripes, April 14, 2005, <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=28400">www.stripes.com/article.a...icle=28400</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <br>www.misoldierthoughts.blogspot.com <br>***<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.traveling-soldier.org/7.05.mail.php">www.traveling-soldier.org/7.05.mail.php</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br>--excerpt from Mail Bag--<br><br>But if you want the one experience that sums up my feelings of being over here, it goes back to Kuwait. We were sent to the range one day with very vague directions. Well, we became lost, not seeing the dirt road we were supposed to take......in the desert. <br><br>What we did find, however was the end of the road as we call it. No lie, the road just stopped as if cut off by a saw. Past that was a set of steps and the frame to a building on top of the slab the steps went up. When one went up the steps and looked past, there was nothing but desert. <br><br>That’s how I sum up how I feel here. I’ve hit the end of the road and guess what, there’s nothing there.<br><br>For a solution to the war we’re in, I don’t see one now. The best one would have been prevention. But now that we’re here, what can we do? <br><br>Some of the locals want what we’ve promised them. They want a more western style life, they want hi-speed internet, 2 cars in their garage, and they want stability without fear of a tyrannical ruler. <br><br>Don’t get me wrong, there are people that want to kill us too. Mostly they really want us gone, they don’t want “big brother” and his guiding hand shaping their new government. We’ve ousted their former ruler, let them take charge of themselves. <br><br>I love America and I’m sorry to say it, I love Iraq. These are a proud, intelligent, and friendly people when treated as such. I joined the National Guard because I love the U.S. and will re-up because of such. <br><br>I would also do anything in my power to help any Iraqi should they ask me. We need to concentrate on getting them ready for their own government and get out of the way. <br><br>Thank you. <br><br>– Sgt. C.C.<br>FOB Kalsu, Iraq <br>(check out the url link <br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.traveling-soldier.org/7.05.mail.php">www.traveling-soldier.org/7.05.mail.php</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br>for *interesting* photo and message of/by an on-duty serving grunt: dunno if it's the Sgt. -- I still don't know how to post images here.)<br><br>Starman<br><!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :smokin --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/smokin.gif ALT=":smokin"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <p></p><i></i>