Exiting Iraq - Democratic Underground

WilliamPitt

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Mon Mar-14-05 09:48 AM
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Exiting Iraq

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/031405Z.shtml

Exiting Iraq
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Monday 14 March 2005

I pray you, speak not; he grows worse and worse;
Question enrages him: at once, good-night.
Stand not upon the order of your going,
But go at once.

- Lady Macbeth, Act III, Scene IV

Cindy Sheehan had a son. His name was Casey, and he served in the 1st Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. Casey Sheehan's unit came under fire in Baghdad on April 4th, 2004, from small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, and he was killed. He was 24 years old.

Cindy Sheehan co-founded the group Gold Star Families for Peace. She has heard much from the Bush administration about completing the mission in Iraq in order to honor those who have died there. "My family and my group are offended," she writes, "by hearing this administration say that our troops have to remain in Iraq and complete 'the mission' to honor our loved ones' sacrifices. First of all, no one can explain the mission to us and we don't want any more innocent blood spilled just because it is too late for our soldiers and our families."

Cindy Sheehan is not alone. A woman on the t r u t h o u t FYI blog writes, "My husband and I lost our son to a roadside bomb In Iraq. He was the gunner on an unarmored humvee in a 14 vehicle convoy out picking up supplies. Our family will simply never recover. Our lives forever changed. I wouldn't wish this pain on my worst enemy. But to think that his life was wasted for a lie is just not acceptable. Something good must come from all of this. I will never stop working to help bring home the National Guard, seeing that they get the help they need when they get home, and helping people realize the true cost of this immoral war."

"My nephew," writes another woman, "signed up as soon as he could after 9/11 because he (with 17 yr. old bravado) thought he could find those bad guys. He was sent to Afghanistan where the hunt for Osama was on. Then suddenly he was shipped into Baghdad where he was KIA on night patrol, hit by an IED while driving an unarmored Humvee. Iraq did not attack us. Saddam was not a threat. He was not connected to Bin Laden. But boy, Iraq sure is connected to terrorism now -- and who can really be surprised? Look what we've done and continue to do to their land and citizens. There was no good reason or way to start this war and there is no good way to get out of it, but we have to!"

"I am a disabled Vietnam War combat vet," writes a man on the blog, "and, as such, I would like to add my perspective to this debate. If we pulled out immediately there will be consequences for the Iraqi people but we have to trust that they will work it out. I was in the Vietnam War in 1967 & 1968 and I prayed every day that I was there that the people back home would demand an immediate pull out as that was the only way the Vietnamese would be able to shape their own destiny. We as a country have been actively trying to shape the World to fit our needs ever since the end of WW II (and probably before that) and the consequences of these meddlings have been so much death, destruction, and lifelong wounds to those who participated in these endeavors either as tools or as victims. Pull out now. We have helped (as only we can) the Iraqis enough."

Specialist E-4 Patrick Resta served as an Army medic in Iraq before returning home. He spoke last week at Brown University about what is happening in that country, and where the troops stand on 'completing the mission.' "One of the most important things veterans can do, like myself," he said, "is come out here and present a true picture of Iraq, because the American media isn't letting people have that true picture." Resta describes soldiers spending their own money to buy armor, traveling through hostile territory in unprotected vehicles, using sandbags to augment their meager protection. He further described an overwhelming belief among the rank-and-file troops that the time has come to get out. "There was a running joke that 'Iraq' stood for 'I really am quitting,' " he said.

There are 1,516 families who endure the pain described by Cindy Sheehan and the others. Tens of thousands of other families have endured and will continue to endure the trauma of a loved one who has been maimed in Iraq. For the living soldiers still in Iraq and those who have returned, there is the probability of mental and emotional damage from what they saw and did, the impact of which is impossible to quantify and which will be with them and us for years to come. 198,000 Iraqi families have been forced to absorb the death of a loved one, and there is no accounting for the untold thousands of families who have had a member maimed, battered, tortured or radicalized past all recall.

It is enough.

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