Letter from a Marine to Home that's Landing In General's Inboxes

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1543658-1,00.html

Written last month, this straightforward account of life in Iraq by a Marine officer was initially sent just to a small group of family and friends. His honest but wry narration and unusually frank dissection of the mission contrasts sharply with the story presented by both sides of the Iraq war debate, the Pentagon spin masters and fierce critics. Perhaps inevitably, the "Letter from Iraq" moved quickly beyond the small group of acquantainaces and hit the inboxes of retired generals, officers in the Pentagon, and staffers on Capitol Hill. TIME's Sally B. Donnelly first received a copy three weeks ago but only this week was able to track down the author and verify the document's authenticity. The author wishes to remain anonymous but has allowed us to publish it here — with a few judicious omissions.

<snip>

Most Profound Man in Iraq — an unidentified farmer in a fairly remote area who, after being asked by Reconnaissance Marines if he had seen any foreign fighters in the area replied "Yes, you."

Worst City in al-Anbar Province — Ramadi, hands down. The provincial capital of 400,000 people. Lots and lots of insurgents killed in there since we arrived in February. Every day is a nasty gun battle. They blast us with giant bombs in the road, snipers, mortars and small arms. We blast them with tanks, attack helicopters, artillery, our snipers (much better than theirs), and every weapon that an infantryman can carry. Every day. Incredibly, I rarely see Ramadi in the news. We have as many attacks out here in the west as Baghdad. Yet, Baghdad has 7 million people, we have just 1.2 million. Per capita, al-Anbar province is the most violent place in Iraq by several orders of magnitude. I suppose it was no accident that the Marines were assigned this area in 2003.

<snip>

Worst Smell — Porta-johns in 120-degree heat — and that's 120 degrees outside of the porta-john.

<snip>

Biggest Hassle — High-ranking visitors. More disruptive to work than a rocket attack. VIPs demand briefs and "battlefield" tours (we take them to quiet sections of Fallujah, which is plenty scary for them). Our briefs and commentary seem to have no effect on their preconceived notions of what's going on in Iraq. Their trips allow them to say that they've been to Fallujah, which gives them an unfortunate degree of credibility in perpetuating their fantasies about the insurgency here.

<snip>

Biggest Outrage — Practically anything said by talking heads on TV about the war in Iraq, not that I get to watch much TV. Their thoughts are consistently both grossly simplistic and politically slanted. Biggest Offender: Bill O'Reilly.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. From the mouths of babes and troopers.

Especially the comment about The Long Island Drunk.

I call him that because he reminds me of the quintessential Long Island Drunk I used to see, out in the Hamptons back in the 70's when I worked for Twisted Sister. The kind of loudmouthed obnox that always sat at the end of the bar and had one or two stools between him and the next person at the bar, no matter how crowded. Invariably, the Long Island Drunk is thrown out of the bar by midnight, or gets his ass viciously kicked by 1:00AM, or is found passed out of the floor of the men's room, in the usual Long Island Hamptons Summer Bar at 2:00AM detritus, vomit and fluids. All Long Island Drunks are drunk by the second beer. That never stops them from drinking a lot more than that, for verily, they are Long Island Drunks.

Long Island Drunks: A diverting and colorful species. All class.

[Tansy_Gold]

2. k&r

passed this along to boyfriend, the ex-marine.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

3. aw shit

:(

K&R

[ms liberty]

4. Hey - I saw that letter here first, about 3 weeks ago...

It's a good one. Brutally honest.

[Tin Man]

5. ECH1969 posted it here about 2 wks ago, link to thread below

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=2230927

[Catchawave]

6. Worth a repost !

I missed the last one :hi:

K&R :toast:

[Stardust]

7. I sent a copy of his comment to the Christian Science Monitor:

"Best Intel Work - Finding Jill Carroll's kidnappers - all of them. I was mighty proud of my guys that day. I figured we'd all get the Christian Science Monitor for free after this, but none have showed up yet. Talk about ingratitude."

Thought they should know if they don't already.

Thanks for posting this. I rarely get a glimpse of what it's really like over there and I've always wondered, What exactly do they do all day, and why do they need more presence? I'm still puzzled but this email helps somewhat.