A Marine Speaks Out

GHC received this e-mail and was asked to share it with all of you. This is one Marines take on an article that accused the military of deliberately targeting Muslims in the name of Christianity.

This is his perspective of someone on the front lines of combat with the people who are supporting the troops..............

"This kind of propaganda is unfortunate. Far from being horribly cruel to Muslims, the average soldier or Marine actually goes out of their way to show respect for the people and culture. We have the potential to do much more damage then we do, and the reality is the people here faced alot worse before we came. Most of the Iraqi officers I work with on this team are all Old Army officers who fought the Iranians, and in the Gulf War, then against us in 2003. They all think that things are better now, and talked about during the time of Saddam there wasn't any TV stations except state-controlled media (like in Iran). They also talk all the time about the violence and brutality, and say that Americans are soft by comparison and they wonder why we don't do more violence to terrorists when we catch them, instead of leaving them in the Iraqi court system where they are often let go.

Just the other day we had 18 detainees we rolled up with the Iraqi Army, and they wanted to kill them all, but every one of them got set free because they didn't have the warrants they needed for arrest. More civilians will die because of it, but as long as the Iraqi law system is being impartial then its what has to happen for rule of law to occur.

They also talk about the multiple assassination attempts against Saddam, and how when they ended in failure entire villages would be razed to the ground. Every one of the officers has lost multiple family members, but they aren't angry at us, they're angry at Al Qaeda, at Iran and Syria. They understand that war makes casualties, and that they did not want to fight us, believed it was impossible to defeat us but Saddam was an idiot with a death wish.

I've exchanged oaths with Iraqi soldiers, policemen, border patrol agents, and multiple others who said that they believe we are here to help and they will fight and die beside us to rid Iraq of the insurgency. And I've returned the oath, because I believe their desire to be free is real and earnest and worthy of that sacrifice. Many of them don't want us to leave, because life is better now than it was and they see us as being part of it. Religion rarely is an issue. They see us as a Christian nation, whether any of us believe in God or not, but consider us brothers as People of the Book.

I talk politics and religion alot with the soldiers and officers both, and while they believe Islam is the true faith they aren't any more fundamentalist than anyone else. They smoke, they drink, they talk about women. They're just like us. Sadly most of the people that promote propaganda are distanced from the conflict. If you travel to the villages and cities where the average person lives a life of constant danger, they want peace. They want jobs, a strong economy, security and schools for their children. They lived in utter fear during Saddam's time. But it's like back home, where Sept 11 was 8 years ago and there's people now graduating high school that will never remember what that was like.

Similarly most of the Middle Eastern people that Americans come in contact with have absolutely no reference to what life was really like under Saddam. Many of these people suffer from the same Ivory Tower syndrome that people back home do--all the knowledge without experience that continues to breed politicians and policies based more on randomly-acquired ideologies than actual knowledge from the ground.

I remember two women at Oregon State that were "refugees" from the war, but when I asked them about their family background they were rich and sheltered. Obviously, since they had enough money to flee the country and get visas. But everyone else at school was eating up everything they said as if they spoke for the entire nation. It's nothing bad against people who stand up for their beliefs, but I think uncompromising belief without the salt of experience is inherently disastrous and has probably caused more conflicts than it solves. I'm certainly open to the fact that atrocities have occurred, because they have.

Unfortunately people fail to realize that good has been done here too, and that Iraq suffers from the same birthing pains that our own nation did during it's striving for freedom. I believe most of the people against the war today would have been dedicated English loyalists during that era. But history wasn't written by the loyalists, was it? It was written by the farmers, woodsman and crafters, guided by the hand of educated men who would not be subjugated. It is the same here, my company commander's friend was killed last year in a suicide bombing that also got the battalion commander, and 14 sheiks from the Sahawa al-Anbar (Anbar Awakening) movement.

These people are bleeding for their country, and people back home aren't doing any favors to the Iraqis by trying to lose the war. Many people in America are slaves to an ideology. You can't blame them for the education they've received, or for following the cadre of classmates that don't really know why we're fighting, don't really sacrifice anything in the face of war, but somehow feel justified to speak with authority about it. Likewise anything in the media is often slanted, and that goes both ways. I'm as frustrated listening to Rush Limbaugh as I am with Keith Olbermann.

Political dialogue is necessary, but requires both respect, and more importantly--a willingness to listen. Which flaming liberals or conservatives don't have. They spend so much time reinforcing their own points of view that their ears are closed to the truth, especially if it's not what they believe. Anyway, you can pass on this email if you want. I'm not angered by events back home, I'm more disappointed that people allow themselves to be such sheep. I cordially invite anyone who wants an opinion to spend some quality time here before passing judgment on the conduct of a counterinsurgency. If it didn't break their souls in half they would walk away changed, as I have."