If there was one word that would best describe the situation of Operation New Dawn, it would be "helpless." It sums up everything about the goings-on of this deployment for a vast majority of everyone here (Iraq).
The lower enlisted are at the mercy of the brass. Although this has been true for every conflict the US has found (or forced) itself in, in this scenario it is entirely different. As I put in an analogy to my fellow lieutenants not too long ago, we are playing for practice while the bad guys are playing for keeps. What do we have at stake in the country? Nothing. Every death brings no tactical or strategic gain towards our endstate.
It is unnecessary to beat a dead horse, as it can be followed in the news, but inevitably I believe we will leave "combat" troops here past the 31 DEC deadline. We are too forgiving, a nation of sympathizers that is all too willing to place our sons and daughters in harm's way to train the forces of another nation, one that we have ravaged for eight years and some change.
Then we have those who ride the coattails of the end of the war, the ones seeking glory in the waning days of a dying campaign. What do they have to prove, they helped ship some stuff off to a foreign seaport to return to some other country, or assisted in the transferring of aged, weather-beaten equipment to the Iraqi Security Forces? Woo-hoo, full steam ahead! I, and I am not ashamed to admit it in the least, have no interest or gain in attaining anything in this conflict that we call New Dawn. I could care less about awards or medals, or even attaining the sought-after Combat Action Badge (CAB). My preferred award for this would be making it home alive.
After reading these comments, you may ask why I joined the military. I joined in the interest of protecting and serving MY country, not taking a gamble to be engaged by a radical enemy who hides in cowardice behind and among innocent civilians. We face not an enemy who will meet us on a linear battlefield, but one who maximizes guerrilla tactics in combination with low-tech devices that can defeat the systems we pour millions of dollars and countless manhours of research into, and with great efficiency.
To quote Thomas Jefferson, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." If only Tom knew why we were refreshing the tree of liberty with the blood of America's young patriots today...
The lower enlisted are at the mercy of the brass. Although this has been true for every conflict the US has found (or forced) itself in, in this scenario it is entirely different. As I put in an analogy to my fellow lieutenants not too long ago, we are playing for practice while the bad guys are playing for keeps. What do we have at stake in the country? Nothing. Every death brings no tactical or strategic gain towards our endstate.
It is unnecessary to beat a dead horse, as it can be followed in the news, but inevitably I believe we will leave "combat" troops here past the 31 DEC deadline. We are too forgiving, a nation of sympathizers that is all too willing to place our sons and daughters in harm's way to train the forces of another nation, one that we have ravaged for eight years and some change.
Then we have those who ride the coattails of the end of the war, the ones seeking glory in the waning days of a dying campaign. What do they have to prove, they helped ship some stuff off to a foreign seaport to return to some other country, or assisted in the transferring of aged, weather-beaten equipment to the Iraqi Security Forces? Woo-hoo, full steam ahead! I, and I am not ashamed to admit it in the least, have no interest or gain in attaining anything in this conflict that we call New Dawn. I could care less about awards or medals, or even attaining the sought-after Combat Action Badge (CAB). My preferred award for this would be making it home alive.
After reading these comments, you may ask why I joined the military. I joined in the interest of protecting and serving MY country, not taking a gamble to be engaged by a radical enemy who hides in cowardice behind and among innocent civilians. We face not an enemy who will meet us on a linear battlefield, but one who maximizes guerrilla tactics in combination with low-tech devices that can defeat the systems we pour millions of dollars and countless manhours of research into, and with great efficiency.
To quote Thomas Jefferson, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." If only Tom knew why we were refreshing the tree of liberty with the blood of America's young patriots today...
