There's a lot of talk here about the situation in Iraq. I will add some of my thoughts from the perspective of a soldier actually in the country. I do not in anyway speak for the other soldiers I am here with or the military in general. This is just the view of one piece of the puzzle by one man in a conflict that no one can possibly understand as a whole.
I joined the army last year, for a number of reasons. The biggest, I suppose, was that I couldn't look at the names and pictures of the dead in the NYT without feeling guilty. I am a man in his mid twenties with no wife or kids, nothing to tie me down. I am exactly the kind of person that is expected to fight in a war. But no one was asking me to, so I took it upon myself to join. The two symbolic motivators that pushed me to join were watching the movie "Platoon" and following the presidential election. Both John Kerry and Charlie Sheen's character shared a rather privileged place in society, yet they both volunteered for dangerous duty in a war they didn't necessarily understand or support. If people like me, who lead comfortable lives that most of us take for granted, don't fight these battles, it's too much to ask the people who make up the bulk of the military to do it in my name. I studied history in college and understood that any political entity is first and foremost based on the control of violence. Without a functioning security force a nation is at the will of those who do. For me that means that regardless of the strategic and political disaster the current conflict has been from the beginning, the integrity of the army is the most important priority of our country. Sure, there are some places that don't have effective armies, but they rely on others to protect them. I do not want that situation.
I am not on a FOB (forward operating base). Those places have stores, nice dining facilities, beds, gyms, and feel almost like garrison. I live in a tent, sleep on a cot, eat two hot meals a day (the menu is on about a two week rotation), and I am restricted to an area about two miles square. I go outside the wire about four or five times a week for my job. While I am not infantry, I only go out with them, so I work very closely with the guys who kick in doors, work checkpoints, and detain suspected insurgents. If I seem vague it is on purpose. Opsec (operational security) is no joke and there are enough English speaking bad guys out there that I'm not going to put too operational information on an open forum.
I talk to a lot of Iraqis and in my area I've never met one who is openly hostile. In fact, I've never seen or heard any attacks directed at US forces. Those sorts of things happen, just not when I've been there yet. I am not in a highly urbanized area like Baghdad or Ramadi, but I am in a dangerous area that has plenty of insurgents. IEDs are found throughout the course of a week (some, unfortunately, explode before we find them) and other sorts of attacks occur often enough that you don't ever feel completely safe.
So how well is the army representing you? After all, soldiers are the people's diplomats. We talk to ordinary folks that never see an embassy or a western tourist. Our actions will have a long lasting impact on Iraqis' opinions about Americans. I think your soldiers are doing right by you, at least here. I've been on the ground for a few months now and the guys I work with fully understand the need for delicacy and respect in dealing with civilians. We impose certain rules that must be followed, procedures for checkpoints and the like, and the Iraqis understand and follow them. Mistakes are made by us and by Iraqi civilians, but we take great pains to make up for damage to innocent life, limb, and property. WE DO NOT MURDER CIVILIANS. I get really pissed off when I see how loose some people on this forum can be with words like murder, slaughter, massacre, and the like. As far as I am aware no civilians have been killed by US forces in my area since I arrived here a few months ago and I am in a position where I should know if that sort of thing happens. We work in sleepy towns and villages, perhaps in a more urbanized area the results would be different. But we work hard to project an image of professionalism and responsibility. Before every mission the officer in charge reviews the rules of engagement, escalation of force, detention procedures, and safety procedures in case of vehicle problems. If we bust in someone's door and it turns out they had nothing to hide, then we pay to have the door replaced. After the Haditha incident came to light I heard no one say on my outpost anything positive about the marines involved. That is exactly what we don't want to be.
And we do capture and kill bad guys. Most of them are Iraqis, but a few come from other countries. Of course innocent people get detained too, but they are usually released in a matter of hours or days. I don't really know why the insurgents fight, probably some combination of money, religion, and thirst for power. The problem is they don't have an agenda. I have no time for those who think the people we are fighting against are a resistance movement. That is such bullshit I want to scream when I see it here. These men are not resisting an evil occupation. They are fighting for the sake of violence. They are pathetic. This is no Vietnam. In Vietnam we were fighting an actually government that was ready to take over the entire country. Here we are fighting scattered groups of disparate people who only know that they want power in their communities. There are a few bigger actors, but I see mostly feuding warlords as the best way to describe the situation, at least here in my area.
I guess it's hard for people to understand what's going on over here from so far away. I have no idea what's going on in Baghdad, really, just what I see in news reports and I know that's not the whole story. Life for me is routine. I have about a half dozen general tasks that I do throughout the week and, as I mentioned, the post I live on is not that big so there isn't much variety. I know we lives of the Iraqis are not routine, they have to get out of our way when we're driving down the street, stop and wait at checkpoints, and there are plenty of times we raid the wrong house (not with guns ablaze though). As much as one does not like being occupied most of the populace accepts it for the time being. If they didn't I can't imagine what this place would be like. Cooperating with us to stop the thugs in their midst, now that's a different story.
I don't know if we can salvage anything good out of this mess. I am an optimist, but in the near future I don't see how we can make this come out our way. Our power has its limits and I think we've seen one of them. I have some ideas for how we could be more prepared for this sort of conflict in the future (if you think this sort of thing won't happen again you're delusional), but that can wait for another time.