For Wis. Marine, 3rd time in Iraq was charmed

For Wis. Marine, 3rd time in Iraq was charmed
By Rod Stetzer - The Chippewa Herald via Associated Press
Posted : Saturday May 10, 2008 16:10:55 EDT

LAKE HALLIE, Wis. — It was remarkable, Garett Bunkelman said.

He can’t get over the change in Fallujah, a city 43 miles west of Baghdad.

As a U.S. Marine sergeant, the Lake Hallie resident served three tours in Iraq. The first was from February to June 2003, the second lasted seven months and ended in October 2004, and the latest seven-month stint ended March 11.

Bunkelman, 25, served in Fallujah in his second tour in ‘04, and in the one this year.

“It’s totally night and day. From 2004, I was involved in the battle of Fallujah,” he said.


Rest of article at: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/05/ap_thirdtour_051008/

I do not know what to make of this story...we are so jaded and cynical regarding ANYTHING which supports bush these days. Bush wants us to believe that the surge is working as planned and that the Iraqi war is doing just fine as long as we stay HIS course...so automatically I figure the surge to NOT be working fine and that the war is going badly and staying the course is insane!

Then I read something like this... OK so what am I to believe? I HATE being turned into the doubting Thomas...for all I know Marine Sargent Bunkleman is giving his honest non-biased report. Perhaps the surge is working in Baghdad and perhaps things have gotten better throughout Iraq. So why are deaths not going down? Why haven't we heard that the refugee crises is over? Why haven't we heard how electric and water are back to where it was when Saddam was running things? Why haven't our lads and lasses come home?

Again, I just don't know what to make of this story, I don't know how it fits into the bigger scheme of things...did Mouqtada Al Sadr have something to do with this? Did the Sunni's or Shia take responsibility for calming things down? Is the bush war going better than we think? (Somehow I doubt that last)

Welcome home :patriot:Garrett Bunkelman :patriot: and may you get many :toast: from a grateful albeit cynical nation.

is trying to see thru the propaganda. For every story I see like this in the military rags, you'll see 10 that leave more open questions.

I'm paying attention to articles about water and electricity (the basics) and haven't seen anything lately. You can bet your ass if the US was able to turn either of those on for longer than 15 minutes a day, we'd be hearing about it.

There are actual human CITIZENS of Iraq and they should not be underestimated. I don't actually doubt that there are some good things going on over there because of those citizens. I also have no doubts that our military is doing what it can to lower stress for those citizens. I refuse to believe that every citizen of Iraq is a closet member of Al-Quiada and that every member of our military is a closet bush supporter either.

That said, I have little doubts that the bfee has a stick in that ants nest and deliberately stirs it up when they feel it will gain them something politically or monitarily. They want to invade Iran next in order to secure their oil imo. I suspect that the bushcons will stir shit up pretty good right before they 'retaliate' against Iran. I also suspect that right now it suits them politically to see things calmed down in Iraq so We The People can see how well the surge worked and to see that the bush doctrine was right all along.

It is hard to get into the bush-whackers heads...right now as far as leadership goes, they couldn't lead me out of a burning building. As far as trust goes, I only trust that each time that they open their mouths they lie. I blame the bush-cons for deliberately reducing me to a chronic skeptic. For these reasons I can cheer the report by Sgt. Bunkleman and at the same time wonder about his story as well as wonder about the bigger picture.