Coming home — disillusioned-- A Soldier's Story

[dogday]

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.

I believed the administration when it claimed there was overwhelming evidence Iraq was in cahoots with al-Qaida. In January 2004, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell admitted that there was no concrete evidence linking Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida.

<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.

</snip>


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

[MADem]

1. Tell it like it is....Good read! n/t

[darkmaestro019]

2. This--"I acknowledge that it was I who was wrong." is real courage.

See? That's how a REAL man-or-woman behaves. That's not an easy thing to say at all, but it's always the right thing to do when you realize it.


:applause: and best wishes to Mr. Sheppard

EDIT: laziness rectified

[TexasLawyer]

3. k'd and r'd

wow, very powerful story.

[dogday]

4. I believe we will hear more and more

from our soldiers as they feel they can come forward now....

[genie_weenie]

5. Absoultely correct, dogday

It's hard to stand up for what's right, when the giant machine of the government is standing right behind you ready to obliterate you.