Coming Home - disillusioned

[katty]

(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.)

Coming Home - disillusioned

excerpt/more:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2002925025&slug=snomarine12&date=20060412

The war has cost the American taxpayers $250 billion and counting. The vast majority — 94 percent — of the more than 2,300 United States service members killed in Iraq have occurred since Bush's "Top Gun" proclamation. The cost in men and materiel has been far beyond what we were led to believe.

I volunteered to go back to Iraq for the fall and winter of 2004-2005. I went back out of frustration and guilt; frustration from watching Iraq unravel on the news and guilt that I wasn't there trying to stop it. Many fine Marines from my reserve battalion felt the same and volunteered to go back. I buried my mounting suspicions and mustered enough trust and faith in my civilian leadership to go back.

I returned disillusioned by what I saw. I participated in the second battle of Fallujah in November 2004. We crushed the insurgents in the city, but we only ended up scattering them throughout the province. The dumb ones stayed and died. The smart ones left town before the battle, to garner more recruits and fight another day. We were simply the little Dutch boy with our finger in the dike. In retrospect, we never had enough troops to firmly control the region; we had just enough to maintain a tenuous equilibrium.

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.

[MadMaddie]

1. Sad isn't it....these soldiers did what they were expected to do..

their leadership...the Commander in chief failed them, failed the Iraqi's and failed America.....

November 2006 a time for change...

[katty]

4. it is very sad, bush is a wastrel-a cavalier willing to throw

others to the wolves.

[renate]

2. I'm impressed by the ones who volunteered to go back

They must be incredible people. I won't assume they were naive about it; it sounds like they went back to be with their brothers and sisters in arms.

As for Captain Sheppard, I also admire him for basically conceding that the "left-wing protesters" were right after all, especially since he disagreed with them so strongly in the beginning. It takes a big man to admit he's wrong.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

3. Thank you for this n/t