Something Lost

As I reflect on my many (27) years in the military I am overcome by a feeling of something lost. I am the son of soldiers. My great-great-grandfather was a Colonel in the Revolutionary Army, my great-grandfather was a Captain in the Confederate Cavalry, my grandfather was a First Sergeant in World War I, my grandmother was a Sergeant in the Women's Army Corps in World War II, my father was a Sergeant in the Army Air Corps in World War II, and my brother was an Corpsman in the Air force. My family has always been a military family and has always been proud of their service to our nation. My grandfather was so patriotic and devoted to military service to his country that he was absolutely crushed when, because of age, he was turned down for service during WWII. I believe that our soldiers serving today are just as patriotic and devoted as I, my family or my forefathers ever were. They go into battle each day loving their nation and serving with great pride. They truly care about the Iraqi and Afghan people as well as the entire Muslim world for that matter. Each day they are making the ultimate sacrifice for their homes, families, and their nation. Each day they are making the ultimate sacrifice for the Iraqi and Afghan people and every other person of Muslim faith in the world. We are all proud of our soldiers and the job they are doing. But there is something lost. That something lost is their greatest weapon against their enemies. That something lost is truth. That’s it. Truth. They are simply missing the truth.

When a nation is led to war by deceit and or chicanery their soldiers are lacking the essence of what is necessary to win the war. Our soldiers in Iraq are missing that greatest weapon because we were led to war through chicanery and deceit. After 9/11 our nation went to war in Afghanistan justly and swiftly and won that conflict with honor. There was no ambiguity in our actions and we were correct in what we were doing. We even garnered allies along the way to create a meaningful force capable of winning and maintaining the peace after. (Drugs are another issue.) As a result of our honorable actions our continued efforts in that country have been largely successful. With Iraq however the story is quite different. If we go back and simply look at the media tapes of the speeches and statements made by members of our government between 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq one thing becomes obvious. Their allegations and reasoning was not just flawed but built on deceit. Consistently they accused Iraq of possessing weapons of mass destruction. Consistently they accused Iraq of being involved in and or directly responsible for the events of 9/11 and even now, daily, revelations come one after the other that show their case for war was knowingly built on falsehoods and that they knew that evidence to be false. Our case was so flimsy that, as our “coalition” demonstrates, we were unable to even convince our normally staunch allies to come with us. Our case was so flimsy that even professionals and experts within our own government were more than skeptical and consistently voiced grave concerns.

So what does this all mean to our fighting men and women? It means that the insurgency in Iraq is growing and becoming more deadly each day. It grows because the vast majority of the Muslim world does not trust us and therefore provides support to the radicals who wage war on us in Iraq and terrorize us everywhere else. There is more to this than just the repercussions of the distrust we have created in the Muslim world though. Our fighting men and women have also not had the truth from their own leaders. The falsehood here is more one of omission. They were sent to war without the proper equipment. They were sent to war without basic body armor or armored vehicles to protect them from IED’s. They were sent to war without the proper number of troops to win. They were sent to war without the planning to win the peace and they were sent to war on bad and or false intelligence. They were sent to war not knowing that they would do back to back to back tours that have created a cycle of uncertainty that has resulted in dramatic increases in broken marriages, suicides and endless pain. They were sent to war without a Veterans Health Care System equipped to care for their broken bodies when they returned if they were lucky enough to return.

Where have we heard these things before? I think you know the answer to that question. How long are the American people going to let this catastrophe continue? How long must our soldiers suffer?

Those are The Sergeant Majors thoughts on that.