Soldier: Nobody in Iraq wants us there

This is from Miltary Families Speak Out - people with loved ones serving in the war zone- as the tide is turning and the truth comes out, 30-40 new families are joining MFSO everday.

We received an e-mail from Dexter, an MFSO member from Maine whose son is in the National Guard. We asked if we could post it on our website. Below is his reply.

You may post my letter.

Thank you for your thoughts and, especially for your prayers. Ben is shaken, but we will not know until this is over whether he is broken. He says he doesn’t feel guilty about protecting himself, but he has a guilt about being there. God knows how many others feel that way or worse.

Last night I read Justice Fortas’s "Concerning Dissent and Civil Disobedience." He recalled The Nuremberg Doctrine and a person’s right not to participate in a war that commits crimes against humanity. I believe that, given what we know today, every American citizen must consider whether the War in Iraq has reached the point that, as a nation, we are participating in crimes against humanity. I believe that we are. It would be good for every citizen, especially every member of Congress, to answer that question and determine if he or she can live with the slaughter in Iraq in silence any longer.

Dexter

And here is the original e-mail:

Friends,

Yesterday afternoon I received a call from our daughter-in-law, Sarah, as I was finishing a meeting in New Hampshire. According to Sarah who had just talked to Ben, Ben and two other soldiers were manning a checkpoint, when Ben approached a white van to inspect it. Upon approaching it, a man jumped out of the van and started spraying the area with an AK-47. With bullets whining past his head, Ben had the presence of mind to grab his own revolver and shot the man. At that point, six others jumped out of the van, and a fire fight ensued. After it was over, Ben and his soldiers were OK except for helmets creased by bullets, a damaged 50mm machine gun, a burning white van, and violent shaking from the adrenaline and the stress of the fire fight. They had nearly been killed. They will have the rest of the day off, and tomorrow they will be back at their 12 hour shifts doing the same thing in 120 plus degree heat understaffed in broken equipment with officers safe back in the compound with the good Humvees.

I have just returned from a neighbor’s house 100 yards down the street. I went there to thank my neighbors and their son for saving Ben’s life. Our neighbor, a former NY City detective, had sent his son a hand gun in case he ever was in a close quarters fire fight. Coincidentally, Ben’s brigade was the one that replaced our neighbor’s brigade in Iraq early in July. Ben had a chance to have several meals together with our neighbor’s son who gave Ben the hand gun from his father. Ben would be dead now if he had not been given that hand gun. Our neighbor’s son is home and has been diagnosed with severe post traumatic stress disorder. It was his third tour.

It is difficult to understand why we are still there in Iraq, and what will be accomplished except for killing people. If Congress or their children had to do this immoral and dangerous work in Iraq, it would be over by now. Bush is a coward and a bully, and at the rate he and the Congress is going, they will bring America down without any help from Bin Laden.

Gretchen and I talked to Ben a few moments ago. He is very shaken, but he is OK. Ben has two requests: Please do everything to end this war because nobody in Iraq wants us there, and, most importantly, pray for everyone there in harm’s way. He believes in the power of prayer.

While it is nice to think that soldiers could easily quit soldiering and end the slaughter, I am ashamed to say that it is more accurate to blame us all who stand by comfortably and let it happen.

Dexter

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