Right or wrong, our country.....

Well, another long period of time between updates….not that I am busy or anything! The reality of it is that you have a couple of options – work yourself silly, collapse into bed every night and toss and turn while you think about all the personal stuff like letter writing, phone calls, and presents for people back home that should have been taken care of before you hit the sack. OR, work 12 hours a day, workout, get that personal time to do everything, then toss and turn when you go to the rack, because you are gonna get reamed for all the paperwork you didn’t get to the day before, as well as dealing with how lonely you feel now that you reconnected with everyone you miss. No rest for the wicked I guess!
This is gonna be a bit more observational – not any real news about my situation or daily travails. We have access to AFN – Armed Forces Network for TV at work, and on our desktops we can check in with CNN or Fox news, and in the chow hall they have TV’s as well. We obviously have internet connections, but the majority of folks get their news from Stars and Stripes – it’s easy to pick up on your way to eat, it’s free and portable too. There were two interesting articles as of late though. The first is one about Cher - http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=37757&archive=true She apparently has turned into quite the crusader for the troops – even testifying before congress on the need for the Marines to buy better Kevlar helmets. She has decided to lend her “recognition” to the cause and is very supportive of troops in the field. She is against the war however – a growing dichotomy that we see today in society. “Lets support the troops, even if we don’t believe in this war”. This is apparently to make up for the travesty of how our returning soldiers were treated after Vietnam.
It is an interesting viewpoint. When you dig into it however, it reeks of liberalism, social decay, and elitist garbage. If I understand the argument correctly, what we are telling the returning men and women is that we don’t agree with the government’s decision to send you over there, and we hate the idea that you may have killed civilians and enemy terrorists. We feel uncomfortable being an occupying force and really don’t want us to deploy troops anywhere because we all just need to get along. I personally will not volunteer to go to war, and don’t really understand why you did. (unless of course you only did it for a college education or job skills). Finally, we understand that you are too poor, destitute, stupid, or otherwise ignorant of the worldly issues and why war really is outdated and couldn’t help yourself because the evil military complex ordered you to fight, and therefore you had to do it. We forgive you, and pity you, but still support you, just not the government.
If that is the “support our troops” concept used by the left, they can keep it. Clausewitz said that war is just the logical extension of a government’s policy. Carrot and stick so to speak – you work to influence others to your way of thinking with the ultimate threat being a tomahawk missile landing in your living room. Trust me, no military member wishes for war, and relishes battle. That once again is Hollywood. Your average military member wishes, hopes and strives for peace, but understands that when duty calls they will be ready for war. It speaks volumes about those that have the Hollywood version of “support our troops”.

1SGT Ben Grainger understands this. While a “little” tongue-in-cheek, he has started his own “pseudo-religion” of Americantology: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=37864&archive=true. Very simple, very direct, little proselytizing. We are here, deal with it. We don’t like to kill people, but in defense of our country we will. Very reminiscent of Commodore Stephen Decatur – hero of the Barbary Wars (i.e. where the reference to Tripoli is drawn from in the Marines Hymn – “From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli…”) “Between 1816 and 1820, Decatur served as a Navy Commissioner. During his tenure as a Commissioner, Decatur became active in the Washington social scene. At one of his social gatherings, Decatur uttered an after-dinner toast that would become famous: "Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but right or wrong, our country!" (Reference - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Decatur) It is interesting to note in the story how he has come under fire for being “insensitive”. First of all, I have never known any Marine to be especially concerned about being “sensitive” to the needs of the bastards shooting at them. Second of all, it furthers the earlier point of why we are here – we aren’t here to be sensitive, we are here to kill terrorists, and create enough peace to allow the natural desires of families and societies to better themselves. The Soldier, Sailor, Airman and Marine on the ground understand that, are proud to serve and don’t want your pity. Support is great when it is heartfelt, and for the vast majority of people, that is what we see – nervous wives, concerned fathers, worried grandmothers, brothers and sisters at home. Worried for their loved ones, worried that one day they will see the base chaplain pull into their driveway. But through all their worry, they are proud that their Marine, Sailor, Airman or Soldier is making the selfless determination that there really is a greater good, a higher calling, and a call to duty that requires their service. That is the support we relish – admiration of a job well done, not the empty belief that we are but a collection of ignorant puppets strung along by an evil scheming government. I for one will be looking to join the local chapter of Americantology when it starts up – hell, I may just look to spread the “good word” on my return. Because no matter whether or not I tend to agree with the direction, leadership, or policies of my country, right or wrong she is my country.

Comings and Goings

Hi all -
Well here it is - the day after the last post - it seems like this day has lasted a week! (ha ha ha) I apologize for how delinquent I have been. What a long strange trip it's been however (to quote the Dead)
It started out with me pencilling into my schedule lunch with the Majority Leader of the US House of Representatives, Congressman John Boehner. Actually, the Congressman was good enough to share some of his time at lunch with fellow "Ohioans". Not really sure if I count, cuz I vote in Wyoming, but since I graduated from there it was pretty cool. He was running late, stuffing his face and generally jet lagged. It is nice to see however the real person that does exist in government now and then. I would imagine a completely different scenario with someone who has obvious ambitions and wants to turn everything into a photo op. We bonded over talk about how many cans of Skyline Chili we have back at the ranch (he was down to his last in his DC apartment!) All in all a good time.
The bulk of the last couple of weeks has been a blur of VIP's arriving, good friends leaving, and general chaos. We get cocooned out here however. I watch TV on my desktop from time to time, and we get opportunities to check the Drudge Report, etc, but for being in the center of the world's hotspots it seems about as far from a war zone as you get. I mean there are mortars, and you hear the occasional explosion, but reality rarely seeps in. As for the inhabitants of this country, you can plainly see that families still look out for their kids.
The cold hard reality does seep in however - you choose how much or how little you want to get involved. As we were eating lunch with Congressman Boehner, one of the other attendees (a Marine of course) spoke about how he and a few other Marine Staffers on his last tour took turns monitoring the radios over at the CASEVAC stations. When a report came in of a Marine being medivaced, they would take turns showing up to talk to them. More importantly, they all made sure that they had cell phones with them. If they got the opportunity, and things didn't look good, they would even dial the phone and hold it for these guys for just one last chance to hear a loved ones voice. The thing that really got me however, is when he told the story of one kid that had lost a foot and an arm, but calmly and coolly told his wife that everything was fine and he was only scratched up a bit. Better to get myself into the best shape I can first than have her worried to death with nothing to do about it he said. You truly can get as deep or as shallow into this war as you want to be.
Even when you are really mad, frustrated, pissed off at the world though, you routinely see things here that not only make you laugh, but really make your brain cramp if you think to hard about it. First, there is the Public Transportation.... Yes, those are our troops, bumming a ride away from the dining facility, to avoid having to walk in the 113 degree heat.... Then, you pass the lake. Now this is Saddam's Al Faw Palace lake. His grand strategy involved flowing rivers, fountains, etc. When we first arrived, those that went swimming came out of the water with strange skin rashes. I would not want to be the poor bastard that had to dive in here for something lost...who knows how many of Saddam's rivals are there. In the meantime, because the water doesn't flow, the grass grows, so we hire a "Navy" of locals to take their boats out to get the "harvest" of kelp. I am sure they have been in this business for a long time, but it makes you wonder...
Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention my new digs. I moved out of my Conex box last week. A friend had a half a trailer open - still with plumbing - but bigger, in a better location, and with a window! No Bearnice didn't shrink - the room is that much bigger. Bearnice also picked up a new pet - his name is Scrappy. We found him on top a gun turret on a HMMWV that had been turned in and left behind. It seems that he was a mascot of a gunner, but had been left behind to guard the truck. He was dirty and a little faded when I got him, but after he was washed up, he looks pretty good. And he can keep Bearnice company while I am gone! Yes, I do sleep with two stuffed animals. Not the big tough image you would have for a Naval Officer, but you do what you have to in the desert! Well folks, thats it for now - take care!

The view from the front line - enemy intel provided by the New York Times

A quick and dirty one that you probably already have seen - I will get a full post with pictures off tomorrow....

Lt. Tom Cotton writes this morning from Baghdad with a word for the New York Times:

Dear Messrs. Keller, Lichtblau & Risen:

Congratulations on disclosing our government's highly classified anti-terrorist-financing program (June 23). I apologize for not writing sooner. But I am a lieutenant in the United States Army and I spent the last four days patrolling one of the more dangerous areas in Iraq. (Alas, operational security and common sense prevent me from even revealing this unclassified location in a private medium like email.)

Unfortunately, as I supervised my soldiers late one night, I heard a booming explosion several miles away. I learned a few hours later that a powerful roadside bomb killed one soldier and severely injured another from my 130-man company. I deeply hope that we can find and kill or capture the terrorists responsible for that bomb. But, of course, these terrorists do not spring from the soil like Plato's guardians. No, they require financing to obtain mortars and artillery shells, priming explosives, wiring and circuitry, not to mention for training and payments to locals willing to emplace bombs in exchange for a few months' salary. As your story states, the program was legal, briefed to Congress, supported in the government and financial industry, and very successful.

Not anymore. You may think you have done a public service, but you have gravely endangered the lives of my soldiers and all other soldiers and innocent Iraqis here. Next time I hear that familiar explosion — or next time I feel it — I will wonder whether we could have stopped that bomb had you not instructed terrorists how to evade our financial surveillance.

And, by the way, having graduated from Harvard Law and practiced with a federal appellate judge and two Washington law firms before becoming an infantry officer, I am well-versed in the espionage laws relevant to this story and others — laws you have plainly violated. I hope that my colleagues at the Department of Justice match the courage of my soldiers here and prosecute you and your newspaper to the fullest extent of the law. By the time we return home, maybe you will be in your rightful place: not at the Pulitzer announcements, but behind bars.

Very truly yours,

Tom Cotton
Baghdad, Iraq