interesting words from a soldier in an editorial

[laruemtt]

in our little hometown rag:

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/2003/July/07/OPlist3.htm

[annagull]

1. The reason so many people think the war is over

is because the military's "good buddy" Bush* stood on an aircraft carrier with a banner over his head saying Mission Accomplished. I think this experience gets more and more dire with every day, we have got to have UN support.

[GumboYaYa]

2. I thought this quote was telling:

"The common soldiers does not need war memorials or catchy war tunes, they simply want to be remembered for doing their job."

As in, patriotism means not cutting veterans benefits. It does not mean yellow ribbons, support Bush rallies, and Toby Keith songs.

[Hubert Flottz]

3. It's bad enough when you're in a hell hole and know when you're coming

home! These soldiers are not going to be voting for Bush this time around IMHO!

Re: Your local Rag! Welcome to DU fellow Mountaineer!

[laruemtt]

4. where are you?

are you in Huntington? or does Mountaineer mean Morgantown?

btw, 2000 - great year for WV to go Repug - NOT. we could have prevented this massacre...

[Cha]

5. When the poor Soldiers who are so valantly trying to "keep the,,,,

Peace" in Iraq, are drinking that "hot soup water",,,I hope they think of the bush who sent them there,,, for the oil...

[scarletwoman]

6. Good piece -- hard reading....

"It is frustrating that the major commands are safely tucked away in the air-conditioned palaces while they are making life and death decisions for the soldiers on the ground."

Frustrating? I'd say DISGUSTING -- "The command will not purchase ice so the soldier must buy his own or drink his water hot." -- I mean, wtf?!?!

I certainly hope that more messages like this get through from the troops, and from their frustrated families as well. These people are going through hell so that Haliburton et al can fatten their pockets and the PNACers can pursue their fanatical dreams of world domination. It makes me sick unto my very soul...

sw

[IkeWarnedUs]

7. Great piece - thanks for posting

I ran across this last week on DU. It got to me and I wrote to the author, David Wood. He got me shipping info for Major Caffrey and I sent my first box of supplies last Wednesday. Anyone who is interested in sending them supplies can contact me by DU PM for more info.

Baghdad's Shiite Slums Becoming Tinderboxes

<snip>

"We are losing the peace," said Maj. Bob Caffrey, a Special Forces civil affairs officer assigned to the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment's 1st Squadron, which has responsibility for these neighborhoods.

<snip>

The U.S. administration that governs Iraq, the Office of the Coalition Provisional Authority, or OCPA, has spent $126 million -- none of it yet on humanitarian projects in eastern Baghdad, U.S. officials said. And aside from an occasional UNICEF water tank truck, other humanitarian relief efforts are scarce.

"We are dying for help from the NGOs (or nongovernmental organizations), and we get zero from OCPA," said Caffrey, 43, a reservist who in private life is a lawyer in Manchester, Conn. "We've been told there is $55 million in OCPA money out there, but trying to get any of it is like trying to get a bank loan."

<snip>

Military officers think the most direct threat to their troops is not so much from former Baath Party guerrillas, the Fedayeen Saddam or foreign fighters come to battle Americans, as it is from fed-up local Iraqis.

more: http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1056608139213540.xml

David Wood was still in Baghdad with these guys when I first e-mailed him asking what we could do to help. He said he discussed it with Maj. Caffrey and his men and they said they had two specific suggestions: one is to help the neighborhood councils, the local self-government effort. They have nothing and need everything, from paper clips to file folders to desk lamps to furniture and cars and telephones ... but enough at first to send basic office stuff. Second is schools, which are in the same boat supply-wise. They need paper, notebooks, pencils ... anything else you can think of.