thedrifter
02-19-08, 07:45 AM
A Friend's View from the Front [Pete Hegseth]
I recently received an email from a childhood friend—1LT Nick Denny—who is wrapping up a tour as an infantry executive officer in Baghdad. Nick spent the last nine months "inside the surge" and has witnessed events in Iraq first hand.
Nick is one of my best best friends on the planet, and if I know one thing about him, he tells it like it is. Nick has been skeptical of the American approach in Iraq, as many of us have at one point or another. But now, having nearly completed a tour in Iraq, he is convinced of the need to complete what we've started.
His words below represent what I hear from most Soldiers and Marines in Iraq today. Please take the time to read his honest, insightful, and refreshingly brief assessment:
"...Before coming over here I was asked what I felt about the War. Should we have gone into Iraq? When should we leave? I didn’t have a good answer to many of these questions and still feel it would be impossible for anyone to claim to have a definitive answer. Only history can provide us with an answer but what I can now offer is just one Soldiers insight gained from a small seat in a big arena.
Throughout our time here we have had Iraqi’s cheer us, throw rocks at us, hug us, shoot at us, lie to us, smile at us, and everything in between. In all of this I have met Iraqi’s who are intelligent, charismatic leaders who will sacrifice everything to make this new concept of democracy work and these leaders need to be given the conditions to succeed.
With the security gains made over the past seven or eight months these leaders have finally been given this opportunity and have accomplished great things especially at the local level. In Arab culture it is crucial to have a stable local government that has the trust of the people in which the higher levels in the government can use to build on, and over the past six months we have started to see this.
As Americans we tend to make the mistake of comparing our way of life and democracy to others without realizing the deep cultural differences that make every area of the world different. That being said, the democracy in Iraq will never resemble the one we enjoy in the United States but that does not mean it cannot succeed.
The question is, when can Iraq have a FUNCTIONAL democracy? I don’t know, but it is closer now because of the surge and the change in strategy and since we had a big hand in creating many of the security issues here due to a failed strategy early on in the War, I feel we owe it to the Iraqi people, and more importantly, in my opinion, to the thousands of Americans who have given their lives to ensure we continue setting the conditions for the people of Iraq to succeed.
Some Americans also seem to forget that throughout the World terrorists are engaged in a Jihad against the United States and would like nothing more than to kill innocent Americans. While in Baghdad our Soldiers met a juvenile detainee who was 12 years old and was caught by American Soldiers after planting an IED along one of the major routes used by the military. One of our Soldiers asked him if he felt bad about what he had done and he said “No, and as soon as I get out of here I will try to kill more of you.” This kid is only twelve.
We can’t begin to imagine how deeply engrained this hatred towards American is in some people at such an early age, and is just one example out of Iraq but to me shows what America is up against, globally. To sit back and do nothing while radical Muslims throughout the World plot against America I feel is ignorant and it is our governments’ duty to protect Americans from these threats. A stable Iraq, to me, is a step towards that protection..."
Ellie
I recently received an email from a childhood friend—1LT Nick Denny—who is wrapping up a tour as an infantry executive officer in Baghdad. Nick spent the last nine months "inside the surge" and has witnessed events in Iraq first hand.
Nick is one of my best best friends on the planet, and if I know one thing about him, he tells it like it is. Nick has been skeptical of the American approach in Iraq, as many of us have at one point or another. But now, having nearly completed a tour in Iraq, he is convinced of the need to complete what we've started.
His words below represent what I hear from most Soldiers and Marines in Iraq today. Please take the time to read his honest, insightful, and refreshingly brief assessment:
"...Before coming over here I was asked what I felt about the War. Should we have gone into Iraq? When should we leave? I didn’t have a good answer to many of these questions and still feel it would be impossible for anyone to claim to have a definitive answer. Only history can provide us with an answer but what I can now offer is just one Soldiers insight gained from a small seat in a big arena.
Throughout our time here we have had Iraqi’s cheer us, throw rocks at us, hug us, shoot at us, lie to us, smile at us, and everything in between. In all of this I have met Iraqi’s who are intelligent, charismatic leaders who will sacrifice everything to make this new concept of democracy work and these leaders need to be given the conditions to succeed.
With the security gains made over the past seven or eight months these leaders have finally been given this opportunity and have accomplished great things especially at the local level. In Arab culture it is crucial to have a stable local government that has the trust of the people in which the higher levels in the government can use to build on, and over the past six months we have started to see this.
As Americans we tend to make the mistake of comparing our way of life and democracy to others without realizing the deep cultural differences that make every area of the world different. That being said, the democracy in Iraq will never resemble the one we enjoy in the United States but that does not mean it cannot succeed.
The question is, when can Iraq have a FUNCTIONAL democracy? I don’t know, but it is closer now because of the surge and the change in strategy and since we had a big hand in creating many of the security issues here due to a failed strategy early on in the War, I feel we owe it to the Iraqi people, and more importantly, in my opinion, to the thousands of Americans who have given their lives to ensure we continue setting the conditions for the people of Iraq to succeed.
Some Americans also seem to forget that throughout the World terrorists are engaged in a Jihad against the United States and would like nothing more than to kill innocent Americans. While in Baghdad our Soldiers met a juvenile detainee who was 12 years old and was caught by American Soldiers after planting an IED along one of the major routes used by the military. One of our Soldiers asked him if he felt bad about what he had done and he said “No, and as soon as I get out of here I will try to kill more of you.” This kid is only twelve.
We can’t begin to imagine how deeply engrained this hatred towards American is in some people at such an early age, and is just one example out of Iraq but to me shows what America is up against, globally. To sit back and do nothing while radical Muslims throughout the World plot against America I feel is ignorant and it is our governments’ duty to protect Americans from these threats. A stable Iraq, to me, is a step towards that protection..."
Ellie