Friday, October 22, 2004
Can you say confusing?
How would you like to be a G.I. in Iraq these days? It's bad enough that you're in Iraq in the first place. Hot, dirty and nasty and soon it will be cold, muddy and nasty - and that's just the weather. You have all kinds of folks who are perfectly willing to blow themselves to bits if they can just get a part of you. One minute you're being shot at by "militants" and the next minute there's a crowd of "innocent civilians" looking at you -- and they're still the same crowd.
And that's the bad guys. On your side, you're undersupplied, lacking in body armor, vehicle armor, radios, and other essentials. You're told you're there because of WMD, hardly any of which has been found and because of 9/11 ties with Al Qaida - which have yet to be proved.
And now you have some folks getting court martialed for following orders (prison guards among others). They are being told you shouldn't always follow orders, especially when the suck. On the other hand, you have some folks for not following orders (transportation troops among others). They are told you should be a good little G.I., suck it up, and follow orders.
I'm glad I was a G.I. when the worst worry was a USSR nuke hitting Wichita or an IRA "politician" leaving a bomb on a crowded London street. It seems you have more to worry about from your leaders than you do from the idiots trying to blow you up.
2fers: Quakers and My Lai
