A Junior Officer in Iraq: ‘It Becomes Almost Impossible To Find A Purpose In What We Do’
Via Spencer Ackerman, an honest assessment of US strategy in Iraq from a junior officer serving on the front lines:
[Name redacted],
I agree that the war was a great strategic mistake. The way I see it, Saddam Hussein was a secular leader and therefore a huge stumbling block to the spread of Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East. Yes, he was an evil person and he was our enemy (since Gulf War I) but he was also an enemy of Bin Laden and the Shia extremists etc. If he did have WMDs, he would have used them for regional influence. He never would have given them up to terrorists or risked provoking the US by using them against us. Now, with Saddam gone we have a vacuum that can only be filled by Shia extremists who are more of a terrorist threat than Saddam.
So I agree that coming here was a big mistake for those reasons and others. As far as things on the ground, the outlook isn’t much better. In my opinion, what everyone fails to realize is that this is not a counterinsurgency. If we wanted to stay in Iraq, then it would be a counterinsurgency. But it is clear that our goal is to turn over power and pull out. So, in building our strategic endstate, it’s pointless to set goals that relate to our presence in Iraq. If the “insurgency” is a function of our being there, then it is not an insurgency in terms of our endstate. For example, if one of our goals is to stop IED attacks on US forces, that is pointless. When we leave, there will be no more IED attacks on US forces. So our endstate needs to be different. We need to ask “if we left tomorrow, what would happen in Iraq?” and from there, we need to determine which of those anticipated results are unacceptable to us. Then we must aim our efforts on making sure those unacceptable results do not occur.
When I look at the problem that way, it becomes almost impossible to find a purpose in what we do. Regardless of what we do, the Shia are going to take control. They have completely infiltrated all the security forces. The only kind of leader who could keep them in check was a tyrant like Saddam. And when the Shia take control, as soon as we leave, they are going to be as brutal as they like against the Sunni and there will be little we can do about it. That is what will happen whether we leave tomorrow or in ten years. As far as the foreign fighters, they will leave Iraq when we do. So what are we trying to accomplish here? Train the Iraqi forces? History shows that training forces in the Middle East can backfire. Any training we offer these people will find its way to our terrorist enemies.
Things are heating up as well. The Shia are getting more aggressive. We lost a man the other day and another was seriously wounded a week or so later. We’re facing a high risk with very little potential payoff. We are able to make a difference at the local level. Some of the people are very kind and appreciate our help. That is the only positive thing I can see coming out of this.
Very Respectfully
Junior Officer XXXX
We owe it to our soldiers to keep telling the government that there is nothing more the US military can accomplish in Iraq.
March 31st, 2008 at 6:40 pm
I read your post with great interest. I shared many of these feelings and perceptions when I served in Vietnam in 1968.
I want to share one perception you may have missed. The situation we as a nation face in Iraq is nothing new. America has been at war with Barbary Pirates since the founding of the nation. Quote from wikipedia: “In 1786, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams went to negotiate with Tripoli’s envoy to London, Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman or (Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja). Upon inquiring “concerning the ground of the pretensions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury”, the ambassador replied:
It was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every mussulman who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise.”
The war in Iraq is clearly wasteful with contractors gouging America… but it also seems necessary. America must prevail. You wouldn’t like the alternative.
Andrew Wilson http://www.utvet.com
March 31st, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Andrew, thank you for your comment and I’m going to bookmark your website.
As you might expect, I have a different view of Islam based on my own research as well as two years I spent living in Yemen. Osama bin Laden’s doctrine is one of defensive jihad, which means every attack by western nations on Muslims helps him find new adherents. In strategic terms, the occupation of Iraq is nothing more than a gift to al Qaeda (a pretty expensive one, with an average of 800 American soldiers being killed every year, 6,000 wounded and direct costs of $130 billion a year).
The Quran is subject to different interpretations, and I have never seen evidence of any modern-day Islamic plan of world conquest. Even if there is one, the means to carry it out are lacking. The Soviet Union potentially was an existential threat to America, Osama is not.
March 31st, 2008 at 9:32 pm
Richard;
Thanks for your thoughtful reply to my post. I would like to question several of your statements and try to make one point.
Where did you get the idea that Osama Bin Laden’s doctrine is one of “defensive” jihad. That seems to me to be a contradiction in terms. Please educate me.
You state that the “Quran” is subject to different interpretations. As is the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and Pledge of Allegiance. Nevertheless, just because YOU have never seen evidence of any modern-day Islamic plan of world conquest does not mean one doesn’t exist.
Expansion is a cornerstone of the Mohammedan religion. Just look how Muslim missionaries spread their empire across India, the South East Asia Peninsula, and even China. And it didn’t take long. When Marco Polo visited China in 1292 he noted that a major port city was Muslim. And what about the conquest of much of Africa and Europe? Spain in particular.
While we are at it, what about the Muslim invasion of Europe that is happening right now? Muslims don’t need an army. They just swamp the population with Muslim culture. For example: Oxford England is now facing a request by the Iman to blast prayer calls five times a day into the quiet English countryside. And do you remember the Iatola calling for the asasination of the European editors who dared publish cartoons critical of the prophet Mohamed? And I just received an email alerting me that in Minnesota a Muslim Charter School is receiving $65,000 tax dollars so little Muslim kids can go to Muslim school tuition free.
The school is sponsored by the Muslim American Society. “According to a 2004 Chicago Tribune exposé found at http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/chi-0409190261sep19,1,6654807,full.story
the Muslim American Society is the name under which the Muslim Brotherhood operates in the United States. And according to a 1992 Brotherhood memorandum about its strategy in the U.S., it is embarked upon a “grand Jihad†aimed at “eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.â€
I remember living 20 miles from the White House during the Cuban Missle Crisis. The Soviet Union was more than an “existential threat.” (Shades of Camus!) We children feared for the life of the planet. Now I worry about the human rights guaranteed by the Constitution. They won’t last long once the IEDs start exploding in America’s streets and hiways. http://www.UtVet.com/trauma1.html It’s a culture war… and finally, my point. You won’t like what happens if we lose.
Respectfully,
Andrew Wilson
http://www.UtVet.com
April 1st, 2008 at 3:03 am
Andrew Wilson:
You said:
How are we going to stop exploding IEDs in America if we’re fighting “over there?” Bush has placed us in a battle with no allies to speak of, and it is HE who already has taken more steps toward taking away the rights guaranteed in the Constitution then any president in modern history. He told us we were with him or against him and is poised to take action against those who are not.
No Muslim has made that threat to me here.
April 1st, 2008 at 7:18 am
Andrew, if the concept of defensive jihad is new to you I suggest reading Michael Scheuer’s book, Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror. Scheuer is a 22-year veteran of the CIA, and headed up the now-disbanded unit dedicated to tracking Osama bin Laden.
I was unaware of the IED threat on America’s highways. This could be a problem because MRAPs don’t get good gas mileage.
April 1st, 2008 at 8:34 am
Hi all,
Quick reply to Larry. Thanks for your comment. I agree with you about the current administration thrashing the Constitution. Where we disagree is about who the opposition is. MLK said “It’s not the Blacks against the Whites. It’s the Rich against the Poor.” I believe that the war on terror is really a war against the American middle class.
Now a reply for Richard:
Thanks for your thoughtful reply. Thanks for the book tip. Somehow I feel that you have made up your mind and that I’ve been writing past you, not to you. I’m sorry for that. One more try.
I’ve read about Michael Scheuer and how he served the Company for 22 years and quit because no one would listen to him regarding Osama Bin Laden. As it happens, I agree with his thesis that modern presidents have been poorly served by the intellegence community. But I also recognize that the presidents have been in service to the ultra-rich; not serving the long term benefit of the American middle class. It’s not about freedom; it’s about a wealth transfer from all of us to a tiny group of them.
The simple reality remains. There are powerful elements within the Muslim world who feel justified to destroy America and all she stands for, Not for the foreign policy or imperial intent of our government, but simply because we will not bow to a religion that enslaves its women and destroys opponents. When Thomas Jefferson asked Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman or (Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja). How could the Barbary Pirates justify “the pretensions to make war upon nations who had done them no injuryâ€, the ambassador replied:
“It is written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every mussulman who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise.†That attitude continues to drive Mohammedism as formented by wicked and perverted leaders more intent on power than faith.
The soulless have always been willing to use religion to justify their reign of blood. To imagine that today these people only wish to practice their religion in peace is blindness. Bottom line is, as we agree, the war in !raq stinks to Heaven. (See the 97 minute documentary “Iraq for Sale” at http://www.UtVet.com/IraqforSale.html) But the terror spreads across the world. Now in Europe. When in America? You won’t like it if we lose that war.
Regards,
Andrew
April 1st, 2008 at 8:42 am
Andrew, I commend you for not trying to oversimplify what’s going on. Our foreign policy is a mess, and Bush has made a much bigger mess of it. I think most Americans don’t understand the issues you bring up.
However, because a few fanatics want to go back to the Middle Ages does not mean that the rest of us have to. We can be more sophisticated than our enemies, and the vast majority of the people in this world will be with us because they want to live in the 21st Century.
April 1st, 2008 at 9:14 am
Huzzah! We agree. There’s little doubt that nearly all of us wish to live in the 21st Century.
What I continue to share with my readers is that Neo-Feudalism seems to pervade America. Bush has not made a mess of foreign policy. He is doing exactly as he is told.
No one seems to notice because they are too wrapped up in Brittany Spears not wearing panties. Little doubt in my mind that we stand on the abyss of another Dark Age, with a few Lords and Ladies who will vote, and the great mass of serfs who can’t vote, who work all their lives at meaningless tasks - then die hopeless. Not what I want for my children.
Thanks for your clarity and keen writing.
Andrew
April 1st, 2008 at 11:58 am
To all: In the hands of the powerful of the USofA, the Monroe Doctrine and the Project for a New American Century, etc, look suspiciously like attempts to rule larger and larger spheres, perhaps even the world. Our god seems to be more of the Mammon sort, which is where we and the Muslims differ some.
Secondly, however aggrieved the general Muslim populace may be after the manipulation and death they’ve been put through so we can keep the battles over there instead of over here and still get our OIL, I guarantee than the vast, vast majority of all peoples seek only PEACE, that those who would carry the Jihad beyond expelling ‘heathen murderes’and into our streets, would become fewer and fewer if the restoration of peace and local dignity were established. There will always be those, and besides; all radicals will not necessarily be born ‘over there’. (see: our present leadership, if there’s any doubt - but we already are coming to realize this).
The idea that it has been decreed - ‘if you are not a practicing Muslim…you must die’, is pure bunko. Learn to live with that, though it will cost you one scapegoat and one boogie-man.
As for Brittany, while a born and bred ‘Yank’, she has a Buddhist pube and she’s kissed Madonna! You can’t get more worldly than that. I’m sure one of the many Gods, if not the Big Indivisible One, will see her through.
April 1st, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Don’t misunderstand me Andrew, I don’t want you to think I trust all Muslims. Hell, I’m not so sure Bush isn’t in cahoots with Bin Laden for some kind of population control on both sides, (Oh my God, did I really say that!), but that’s something thats been washing around in my head. No decent body armor for our own troops or their vehicles seems awfully suspicious. I’m really glad to find out you’re not a fan of Bush! I’m not the smartest guy around, but I can’t see us winning anything against anybody with somebody as intellectually, and morally compromised as he is.
The true war against the middle class here has it’s roots planted deeply in the drug war, culminating in things like the Rockefeller drug laws which would automatically put completely, constitutionally, innocent people in jail for 20 years. This sort of action has the effect of not only putting some of your political enemies, (poor people who can’t afford a good lawyer and might vote), in jail, but puts a general chill on everything because people are afraid to speak up, just as if music had been made illegal and the guy with a violin in his closet is afraid to say how outraged he is about anything for fear of losing his freedom. To paraphrase a wonderful old adage, “first they came for the potheads, but I wasn’t a pothead.”
The middle class has to be redefined into something more sustainable though. Unchecked consumerism is not the way to the future. That is my high school educated take on things.
April 1st, 2008 at 9:06 pm
To MC Banana;
You wrote: “The idea that it has been decreed - ‘if you are not a practicing Muslim…you must die’, is pure bunko.” Sorry pal. You are more politically correct than me… but wrong. History of the Holy Land is filled with religionists (including Mohammedans) who gladly slaughter the innocent for their own gain. Christians might consider the Spanish Inquisition. The idea that “if you are not a practicing (insert denomination here) you must die!” is alive and well. Learn to live with that, though it will cost you constant vigilance and strife. Freedom is costly.
To Larry;
I share the position of the late great Frank Zappa who insisted that the quality of your education is independent of your diplomas or degrees… it resides in the ideas that fill your mind; the books you study and the effort you invest in learning.
I’d rather follow a Lincoln with no formal education than a president with a “gentleman’s ‘C’ degree” from Yale.
And about oil: The National Science Foundation, NASA, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration are among the finest research institutions in the world. The internet had it’s roots in one of these federal government’s advanced research programs. NASA took us to the Moon in a decade.
So why are we, as a nation, not pursuing the knowledge necessary to commercialize the two and a half Trillion barrels of oil locked up in tar sands in Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado? That’s twenty five hundred, thousand million barrels of low sulfer oil. (2,500,000, 000,000 barrels) America could be totally energy independent — no oil imports at all.
I completely agree that unchecked consumerism can’t be the way to the future. That’s inhumane. We need to learn to learn to live in the world without destroying its people, or raping it for its natural resources. For example; I’m convinced that technology will be found to convert that petroleum to hydrogen and carbon that will release energy without pollution. That’s my prayer.
It’s not the Muslims against the Christians. It’s the ultra rich against the poor.
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:51 am
I’m a topography freak. Some of the best times of my life have been spent looking out over Utah landscapes that I could believe were there for millions of years. I’m very frightened about oil companies starting to dig up Utah looking for energy. That’s why I’m so distressed that we haven’t been working towards using less energy and looking towards renewable resources. We’ve wasted so much time. Once these precious landscapes have been changed, they are gone forever.
I saw that huge picture of the earth on your website. I never get tired of looking at the earth from space and think NASA gave us our finest moments as Americans. We can do so much better.
There are actually some ultra rich people that have come forward to help us. One is Paul O’neil. Lee Iacocca has also shown some guts. I’m willing to forgive anyone who will help us out of this mess, but it’s sure happening slowly. Time is running out.
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:07 am
“It’s not the Muslims against the Christians. It’s the ultra-rich against the poor”. Andrew Wilson
Having written that (more than once), where is the beef against Muslims coming from. Do you know any Muslims?
Constant vigilance and some strife are a given, it’s just that a focus on ‘Them’ removes more properly placed attention from our own behavior. So, it is with some dismay that I perceive such inconsistancy… as well as the ‘let’s strip the tar sands v unchecked consumerism and the subsequent destruction of the planet.
Help us out here, Andrew.
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:29 am
Seems we’ve come a long way from “‘It Becomes Almost Impossible To Find A Purpose In What We Do’.
I don’t want to fight. I only wish to serve, especially veterans. I want to honor the planet by living in harmony with nature. I’m a flawed human being who suffers from a brain injury sustained in the defense of liberty. Somethimes I may become strident or even pompous. Sorry for that. It’s the natural result of being right - almost all the time. hahahah
Let’s focus on what we have in common and try to serve our fellow beings.
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:31 am
Andrew wrote:
Why not scrape the bottom of the barrel for the last drop of oil? I don’t want to lose any more Utah wilderness than we already have. Tar sands mining would make millions of acres ecologically defunct. Have you seen the pictures of what they did in Alberta?
Previous post: Bush’s Synfuel Assault on Utah
April 2nd, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Richard;
Truthfully I had not seen pictures of tar sands extraction in Alberta. Your point is well taken. Clearly I have a lot to learn about tar sands.
I’ve put a thumbnail of Alberta that links to one utah and Wasatch Watcher on http://www.UtVet.com. You can click on the link below to see a larger picture at http://www.UtVet.com/Alberta.htm. This big picture again links back to one utah and Wasatch Watcher.
Hope this is helpful.