Wanted to get this out there for as many people to see as possible. Hope it's not a dupe, if it is tuff **** read it again. Never forget!

5/2/07) - A Letter from US Army Infantryman Sgt. Eddie serving in Iraq

I stare out into the darkness from my post, and I watch the city burn to the ground. I smell the familiar smells, I walk through the familiar rubble, and I look at the frightened faces that watch me pass down the streets of their neighborhoods. My nerves hardly rest; my hands are steady on a device that has been given to me from my government for the purpose of taking the lives of others.

I sweat, and I am tired. My back aches from the loads I carry. Young American boys look to me to direct them in a manner that will someday allow them to see their families again...and yet, I too, am just a boy....my age not but a few years more than that of the ones I lead. I am stressed, I am scared, and I am paranoid...because death is everywhere. It waits for me, it calls to me from around street corners and windows, and it is always there.

There are the demons that follow me, and tempt me into thoughts and actions that are not my own... but that are necessary for survival. I've made compromises with my humanity. And I am not alone in this. Miles from me are my brethren in this world, who walk in the same streets... who feel the same things, whether they admit to it ornot.

And to think, I volunteered for this...

And I am ignorant to the rest of the world...or so I thought.

But even thousands of miles away, in Ramadi, Iraq, the cries and screams and complaints of the ungrateful reach me. In a year, I will be thrust back into society from a life and mentality that doesn't fit your average man. And then, I will be alone. And then, I will walk down the streets of America, and see the yellow ribbon stickers on the cars of the same people who compare our President to Hitler.

I will watch the television and watch the Cindy Sheehans, and the Al Frankens, and the rest of the ignorant sheep of America spout off their mouths about a subject they know nothing about. It is their right, however, and it is a right that is defended by hundreds of thousands of boys and girls scattered across the world, far from home. I use the word boys and girls, because that's what they are. In the Army, the average age of the infantryman is nineteen years old. The average rank of soldiers killed in action is Private First Class.

People like Cindy Sheehan are ignorant. Not just to this war, but to the results of their idiotic ramblings, or at least I hope they are. They don't realize its effects on this war. In this war, there are no Geneva Conventions, no cease fires. Medics and Chaplains are not spared from the enemy's brutality because it's against the rules. I can only imagine the horrors a military Chaplain would experience at the hands of the enemy. The enemy slinks in the shadows and fights a coward's war against us. It is effective though, as many men and women have died since the start of this war. And the memory of their service to America is tainted by the inconsiderate remarks on our nation's news outlets. And every day, the enemy changes...only now, the enemy is becoming something new. The enemy is transitioning from the Muslim extremists to Americans. The enemy is becoming the very people whom we defend with our lives. And they do not realize it. But in denouncing our actions, denouncing our leaders, denouncing the war we live and fight, they are isolating the military from society...and they are becoming our enemy.

Democrats and peace activists like to toss the word "quagmire" around and compare this war to Vietnam. In a way they are right, this war is becoming like Vietnam. Not the actual war, but in the isolation of country and military. America is not a nation at war; they are a nation with its military at war. Like it or not, we are here, some of us for our second, or third times; some even for

 

He was a very good writer and it is sad that he was killed.

I agree with him that our nation is divided and that our military is at war but americans are not. This division is not a good thing, if our country is at war, we should support that war.

I disagree with him in that he is saying we are wrong not to support the war. It should be the other way around. America should not be involed in a war that Americans do not support. I am not saying we should pull out now, Iraq is a mess and leaving it early would be a disastor, and would threatin our countries national securty. I can not agree with people who say that we are in Iraq to fight terrorism. We are fighting terrorism (in Iraq) because we are in Iraq. before we invaded Iraq, it was relitivly stable (hostile but stable), now it is a power vacume and a breeding ground for terrorism and insurgency.

We would be doing our country a great diservice if we were to blindly go along with this war.

This is the opinion of a civilian who has never seen the horrors of combat. But it is my opinion none the less and I am intitled to it. I can not in good conscience support a war that was started over false intelligence reports. Yes were are helping Iraqis, but when we first went in we did so because we thought they had weapons that didnt exsist.

 

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really makes u realize those guys over there are the only ones who really know the whole truth. the media is good at making ratings or selling pappers by any means.even if it means bending the truth.

 

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