Coming Home - Disillusioned (Iraq war vet tells his truth.)

[benburch]

http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=snomarine12&date=20060412&query=coming%2Bhome

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Coming Home - Disillusioned
(Christopher H. Sheppard)

Three years ago, I was a Marine Corps captain on the Iraqi/Kuwaiti
border, participating in the invasion of Iraq. Awestruck, I heard our
howitzers thunder and watched artillery rockets rise into the night sky
and streak toward Iraq - their light bathing the desert moonscape
like giant arc welders.

As I watched the Iraq war begin, I completely trusted the Bush
administration. I thought we were going to prove all of the left-wing
antiwar protesters and dissenters wrong. I thought we were going to
make America safer. Regrettably, I acknowledge that it was I who was
wrong.

I believed the Bush administration when it said Iraq had weapons of
mass destruction. I believed its assertion that Iraq was trying to buy
yellowcake uranium from Africa and refine it into weapons-grade uranium
for a nuclear bomb. I believed its claim Iraq had vast quantities of
biological and chemical agents. After years of thorough inspections,
all of these claims have been disproved.

<SNIP>

I now know I wrongfully placed my faith and trust in a presidential
administration hopelessly mired in incompetence, hubris and a lack of
accountability. It planned a war based on false intelligence and
unrealistic assumptions. It has strategically surrendered the condition
of victory in Iraq to people who do not share our vision, values or
interests. The Bush administration has proven successful at only one
thing in Iraq - painting us into a corner with no feasible exit.

I will never trust any of them again.

http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=snomarine12&date=20060412&query=coming%2Bhome

Christopher H. Sheppard is a former Marine captain who served two tours
of duty in Iraq as a combat engineer. He currently is finishing his
master's degree in mass communication and lives in Marysville.

[wakeme2008]

1. Very good piece just needs to be in

more papers by more ex-military talking about. Another Captain that left the service because of Bush. :grr:

[saigon68]

2. Another person duped who should have kept his eyes open

We told them here didn't we !!!

Its too bad the archives before July 2003 were lost,

Some of us pegged this cluster fuck right from the beginning

What lost the war in the minds of the world is this picture




It is almost Medieval and other worldly
It is impossible to explain this away to the world


IT IS LIKE THIS PHOTO FROM A PRIOR LOST CAUSE

[DavidDvorkin]

3. I wish he had written "lie" instead of "false intelligence"

But other than that nitpick, I'm glad to see such an article being published in a fairly major newspaper.