Stan Goff, An Open Letter to GIs in Iraq

[G_j]

http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/111703D.shtml

Dear American serviceperson in Iraq,
  
I am a retired veteran of the army, and my own son is among you, a paratrooper like I was. The changes that are happening to every one of you—some more extreme than others—are changes I know very well. So I'm going to say some things to you straight up in the language to which you are accustomed.
   
In 1970, I was assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade, then based in northern Binh Dinh Province in what was then the Republic of Vietnam. When I went there, I had my head full of s**t: s**t from the news media, s**t from movies, s**t about what it supposedly mean to be a man, and s**t from a lot of my know-nothing neighbors who would tell you plenty about Vietnam even though they'd never been there, or to war at all.
 
The essence of all this s**t was that we had to "stay the course in Vietnam," and that we were on some mission to save good Vietnamese from bad Vietnamese, and to keep the bad Vietnamese from hitting beachheads outside of Oakland. We stayed the course until 58,000 Americans were dead and lots more maimed for life, and 3,000,000 Southeast Asians were dead. Ex-military people and even many on active duty played a big part in finally bringing that crime to a halt.
    
When I started hearing about weapons of mass destruction that threatened the United States from Iraq, a shattered country that had endured almost a decade of trench war followed by an invasion and twelve years of sanctions, my first question was how in the hell can anyone believe that this suffering country presents a threat to the United States? But then I remembered how many people had believed Vietnam threatened the United States. Including me.
...more..

[cliss]

1. Thanks, GJ for the post.

I read this letter on Counter Punch last night. I always check into that web site once a week or so, mainly to see if there's anything new from Stan Goff.

My impression from the letter, and I read it twice, is: this is an angry man. An intensely angry man. I was frightened for him when I was done.

He's angry because he's been there. He's seen it, and he knows what they're going through over there. And it must eat him alive that he's more or less powerless to do anything about it.

Like we all are.

[G_j]

4. his pieces are

also posted at www.bringthemhomenow.org I believe he has something to do with this website.

Yes he is pissed, not a big Bush fan at all!
-----------------------

[cliss]

5. Oh, I didn't realize there was a

better place for his articles. I scan the web now and then to see what he has to say about our current situation, but he pulls no punches and knows a lot more than plenty of other people about what's really happening behind the scenes.

Thanks again GJ, will visit the site.

[JanMichael]

2. Dammit. Dammit, dammit. dammit. He's summed it up in one sentence.

"They are thieves and bullies who take and never give, and they say they will "never run" in Iraq, but you and I know that they will never have to run, because they f***ing aren't there. You are"

Lousy no good mother f*ckers.

[JanMichael]

3. A furious KICK.

:kick:

[Tinoire]

6. Terrific Letter!

Stan Goff will always be one of my heroes!

Furious kick along with JanMichael!

[G_j]

7. another furious kick....

[phillybri]

8. Stan is incredible....

Thanks for posting this....

:kick:

[G_j]

9. another from Stan

From, www.BringThemHomeNow.org

http://bringthemhomenow.org/what/latest.html
also at, www.counterpunch.com/goff09152003.html

(Stan Goff is a member of the BRING THEM HOME NOW! coordinating committee, a retired Special Forces master sergeant, and the father of an active duty soldier.)

The Occupation Runs Out of Gas

It Was the Oil and It Is Like Vietnam
by Stan Goff

Apologists for Bush's little war in
Iraq, whose numbers are diminishing in the face of relentless reality, have invested a mighty labor in dismissing two claims; that the war in Iraq is about oil, and that there is a comparison to be made between the Iraq War and the Vietnam War.

The war was never intended as a liberation, the bullsh*t story that went center stage when the weapons lies fell apart . It was always a re-colonization, now euphemized even by many Democrats as "re-construction."

Nonetheless, the Bush administration believed they would be welcomed as liberators, because Bush has surrounded himself with people whose principle skill is self-delusion, and whose principle aversion is hearing anything that doesn't conform to their preconceptions. If Daddy supervised the tragedy, Junior is supervising the deadly farce.

People who only want to hear good news from their own perspective are easily taken in by con men, and the con man this time was Ahmed Chalabi, an Iraqi expatriate facing 22 years at hard labor in Jordan for embezzlement. This is the character upon whom Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz--themselves (neo)con men--relied for insight into Iraq, and who told them they'd be welcomed by cheering, flower-bearing, confetti-slinging crowds not unlike Parisians in 1945. That Chalabi hadn't been in Iraq for decades hasn't deterred our intrepid neo-con ideologues. They still want to make Chalabi the Quisling leader of Iraq, under the Kissinger-tutored Viceroy Paul Bremer's.
...more..

[G_j]

10. kick

& still 'furious'!!

[hippiegranny]

11. holy shit

i have just read the whole thing, and it left me in tears. powerful stuff.

[frank frankly]

12. amazing read

read it and kick it

[scarletlib]

13. Should be required reading for all

He just defined the very essence of what war is about and who the real winners are. It is never the little guy on either side.

War is truly the stupidest, cruelest thing humans do to one another.

To wage war in this the 21st century is a crime against humanity.

[G_j]

14. agreed

war is a brutal outdated idiocy of which the primary result is death and suffering.
It should no longer be considered a workable solution to world problems. Time to evolve out of the tar pits!

[ElsewheresDaughter]

15. this should be in every paper in US........yeah yeah i know..thanks G_j

[phillybri]

16. Another kick

:kick:

[Palacsinta]

17. I'm printing this letter right now for my Vietnam vet hubby

He, too, is emotionally damaged and, at times,angry. (Although he rarely expresses his frustration or talks about it.)

[RetroLounge]

18. Wow. I am stunned after reading this.

I just emailed this around to friends.

bush* needs to go away, now...

[G_j]

19. 'nother shameless kick

:kick:

[Stone_Spirits]

20. quite a letter

kick