The state of our troops in Iraq.

I spoke to a friend of mine that had taken a flight back to the US that had several soldiers returning from Iraq. She made small talk with a few of the soldiers and they broached the subject of how bad things are in Iraq, as if they had been starving for an opportunity to talk about their plight to someone with a sympathetic ear. They compared the situation there to Vietnam and said things were quickly getting worse as a populace that was merely annoyed with our presence after the war has begun taking up arms and fighting alongside the ex-army guerilla groups. Enemies are everywhere, using sneak attacks and bomb-traps so effectively that some areas in big cities there are unapproachable by U.S. troops. Everyone knows where U.S. troops are, meaning that being outside for any length of time is asking to become an unwilling participant in a shooting gallery. There has been an increase in the quality of the weapons used in attacks on U.S. troops as the occupation goes on. Almost none of our soldiers have the training to survive in a hostile urban area and their morale is horrible as a consequence. Supplies of pretty much anything outside of ammunition are running low and sometimes disappear completely for a group of soldiers if a convoy gets sidetracked by an attack or because it breaks down in the oppressive heat.

I expected all of these things, to some extent, based on what I've heard about the conditions there before. What really disturbed me was the description of the soldier's demeanor..glassy-eyed, zombie-like, as if they had been in a nightmare. One can say that 'only' a few hundred soldiers have died during the war, but it might be worse than death to live through such a hellish experience and have to deal with the memories of it for the rest of one's life.

I'd fall of my chair is CNN cover anything close to this.

Did the soldiers you talked w/ say anything about what was going on in the States? I mean did they start questioning just why they were there?

he said "If I had known I would dream about that war everyday for the rest of my life I never would have gone."....so sad we are now producing a new crop of disabled (in so many ways) soldiers. :(

It's worse by far...

When deciding on whether to put soldiers in a hostile urban environment or not, Rummy should have considered the words of Sun Tzu ...

To subjugate the enemy's army without doing battle is the highest of excellence.

Therefore, the best warfare strategy is to attack the enemy's plans, next is to attack alliances, next is to attack the army, and the worst is to attack a walled city.

Laying siege to a city is only done when other options are not available.

- Excerpt from The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

It is good to hear stories from people who have been there (even if second-hand in this post). How tragic.

Ten years from now when the story will be highly un-newsworthy they'll milk the miniseries "Iraq: A soldier's Struggle." Bush has his war and the media will exploit the too late to make a difference made for TV movie. Black Hawk Down.

I'm sure that as much as your friend wanted to broach the subject, she felt it would be impolite at best and potentially offensive at worst. I probably would have tried to soften them up with "small talk" myself, and then say something like, "I'll understand if you'd rather not talk about it--or can't--but what's REALLY going on over there?" The fact that they WANTED to talk--and with a civilian--is very significant.

As for their "glassy-eyed, zombie-like...demeanor", that reminds me of the "thousand-yard stare" that the Viet Nam vets had. They would look right at you, but seem to be staring into space at something that was way behind you. And I remember reading DU posts about the soldiers not being trained for urban combat as much as a year ago!


rocknation