Capt. Stephanie A. Bagley: I'm not willing to lose another soldier

[Rose Siding]

BAGHDAD, Nov. 18 — Capt. Stephanie A. Bagley and the military police company she commands arrived in Iraq in December 2005 brimming with optimism about taking on one of the most urgent tasks in Iraq: building a new police force.

Now....“I just want to get everyone home,” she said. In the past several weeks, Captain Bagley, 30, barred her troops from foot patrols in the most violent neighborhoods and eliminated all nonessential travel. “I’m just not willing to lose another soldier,” she said......“People from other units will say, ‘You’ve only lost one?’ ” she said, her face tensing in indignation. “Only? We haven’t had it so bad as others, but I can’t minimize Perry’s death.”
.....
As the death toll among American troops has risen in Baghdad, and the security plan has faltered, Captain Bagley’s soldiers say they have tried to resist the urge to question the larger American enterprise here, whether it was right or wrong to come to Iraq in the first place, whether and when American troops should leave. They are here to do a job, they say, and are duty-bound to complete it.

But Captain Bagley has asked herself those questions “all the time,” she said.....

New York Times

Wow :applause: :patriot:

[Rose Siding]

1. It's remarkable to hear a captain say these things.

Isn't this a big deal? Is she ending her career by speaking out like this?

[Igel]

3. No, she's probably not ending her career.

Good officers don't want their soldiers to die, and when they're completely inured to death they stop being good officers. But good officers also weight the importance of the mission against the possibility of deaths, and don't let the deaths of some soldiers emotionally cripple them.

[Swede]

2. And that's why women shouldn't be in the Army.

Next they'll want peace on earth.

[Cha]

4. Kick for Captain Stephanie Bagley

who sounds like she was kept in the dark and now see the light.