Iraq combat: What it's really like -letter to a reporter

[Rose Siding]

Iraq combat: What it's really like over there

By Joseph L. Galloway
Knight Ridder Newspapers

snip>
"Well, I'm here in Iraq, and I've seen it, and done it. I've seen everything you've ever seen in a war movie. I've seen cowardice; I've seen heroism; I've seen fear; and I've seen relief. I've seen blood and brains all over the back of a vehicle, and I've seen men bleed to death surrounded by their comrades. I've seen people throw up when it's all over, and I've seen the same shell-shocked look in 35-year-old experienced sergeants as in 19-year-old privates.


"I've heard the screams - `Medic! Medic!' I've hauled dead civilians out of cars, and I've looked down at my hands and seen them covered in blood after putting some poor Iraqi civilian in the wrong place at the wrong time into a helicopter. I've seen kids with gunshot wounds, and I've seen kids who've tried to kill me.


"I've seen men tell lies to save lives: `What happened to Sergeant A.?' The reply: `C'mon man, he's all right - he's wondering if you'll be OK - he said y'all will have a beer together when you get to Germany.' SFC A. was lying 15 feet away on the other side of the bunker with two medics over him desperately trying to get either a pulse or a breath. The man who asked after SFC A. was himself bleeding from two gut wounds and rasping as he tried to talk with a collapsed lung. One of them made it; one did not.


"I've run for cover as fast as I've ever run - I'll hear the bass percussion thump of mortar rounds and rockets exploding as long as I live. I've heard the shrapnel as it shredded through the trailers my men live in and over my head. I've stood, gasping for breath, as I helped drag into a bunker a man so pale and badly bloodied I didn't even recognize him as a soldier I've known for months. I've run across open ground to find my soldiers and make sure I had everyone.
MORE...................

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/8992786.htm

[Sweetpea]

1. YEs....and all for what.!!!!!

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Wow! That is an amazing piece of writing!

[armymom]

3. Sounds about right

The snippets are similar to what we hear from our son.

[Rose Siding]

4. May he be home soon, and safe.

...sending good thoughts.

[WilliamPitt]

5. Thank you again, Mr. Galloway

[Stew225]

6. Obviously a real picture of the horror of war,

not as seen through the eyes of some wimp named Wolf. Or an "embedded" reporter.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

7. Words fail me. Those guys are going to have nightmares for life.

[Gordon25]

8. And he is only one...

...of 135,000 young men and women going through this.

God help their familes when they come home. I know. 30 plus years after my tour with the Marine Corps in Vietnam, I still sit up nights to avoid the nightmares at times. Without my heroic and compassionate wife, I would be one of the statistics: more Vietnam veterans dead of suicide since Vietnam than died in Vietnam.

And Bush and his cronies have cut twenty plus billion dollars from the Veteran's Administration budget and are recommending closure of some VA hospitals.

Supporting the troops means more than using them for politcally motivated photo ops with plastic turkeys and fatuous banners.

Political defeat for these traitors must only be the beginning. We must start pushing now for war crimes trials. If they don't occur, Bush's defeat in November will be a hollow victory at best.

Gordon25

[merh]

9. I agree with you war crime trials are a must.

Part of me wants to let the Iraqi people try and punish them, that way they can get as they have given. The other part of me knows that venegence is not what is right, justice is, so an international tribunal should conduct the proceedings.

What is maddening is that Eisenhower warned the nation of just what is happening now and he was GOP. Instead of heeding his warnings, they have capitalized on the theory and have put us in harms way. They have ruined our nation and they are killing thousands in the process.

War crimes trials are a must.

[Rose Siding]

10. bump

[leftchick]

11. I just watched CNN: Fit To Kill....

if you can catch it you should. It was actually very well done though I wish it was longer and they had interviewed more of our current Vets coming home. Actually damn good coming from CNN. All I can think about after reading this letter and seeing that show is the HUGE amount of soldiers coming home with PTSD. My cousin included...
:(