Why We Are In Iraq?
Part II
By John D. Turner
Having written a previous article entitled Why
We Are In Iraq Part I, I realized an implicit duty to continue the
piece. A Part I, implies the existence of at least a Part II. I
started writing that piece then I received the following letter in
an email at work, and realized that, as usual, there are others who
can put things into words much better than I, and who better than
someone who is actually over there, and a man of the cloth to boot.
If you are expecting to find "fair and
balanced" reporting on Iraq coming from your network news channels,
CNN, or even Fox News, prepare to be disappointed. If you think you
are going to get the straight skinny from the likes of Peter
Jennings, Dan Rather, or Tom Brokaw, or that it’s all about oil, the
greater glory of Haliburton, or that Dick Cheney (or Donald Rumsfeld,
or Karl Rove, or Rush Limbaugh or whoever take your pick) is really
running the show while George Bush plays golf (a la Fahrenheit
9/11), then you probably voted for John Kerry and won’t be
interested in finding out what is really going on in the war on
terrorism anyhow.
But if you really are interested in hearing the story from
someone who is actually there and who doesn’t appear to have a
political agenda to spin to, read on.
Perhaps I will post that article I was writing
on at a later date. (A Part II does not preclude a Part III after
all.) Meanwhile, here is the letter I received in its entirety.
30 May 2004
Dear Friends,
This is my third letter from Iraq. I
have been working myself into the right mood to do this. Today
is the day. In my last two letters I have leaned toward being as
upbeat as possible. This time will be different; today I want to
talk about Memorial Day, but I will start off by giving my
perspective on the Abu Ghraib prison problem.
First off, the investigation into
the abuses at Abu Ghraib began back in January. That is why the
first court martial was ready for trial in May. The senior
people here knew about the investigation; the rest of us didn't.
By the time the media "broke" the story, the investigation was
almost done and the soldiers who had committed the abuses had
already been rotated home.
Second, I (we) don't see all the
news coverage that you in the states see. I do see some Fox News
and CNN. Fox editorializes toward the right wing; CNN is the
voice of the anti-war movement. I wonder that if CNN had been
around in 1942 we might all be speaking German and Japanese. I
can tell you this, everything I have heard on CNN is so biased,
negative, and out-of-touch that I will never watch CNN for the
rest of my life.
That being said, when the rest of us
found out about the abuses we were shocked and sickened. I think
maybe more so than people back home because we are here; these
are the people I see every day. The people I see every day who
are going out to fix: schools, hospitals, reservoirs, power
plants, and sewer systems. They do these things risking sniper
fire and hidden explosives. These soldiers are not a handful of
bad apples like those at Abu Ghraib, these soldiers number into
the thousands. Now think for a second, how much have you seen
about that on the news? I believe Abu Ghraib should have been
reported, but when I see the fixation of the media on the
actions of a few, when the courage shown in reconstruction and
the restraint shown in combat by thousands of our people is
never shown, I believe this is inexcusable.
Third, what happened on that
cellblock of Abu Ghraib is what happens when leadership is not
out walking around. That is true in the military or in college
dorms. I haven't seen it reported in the news, but other
soldiers turned in the soldiers who did this. If the dirt bags
that committed those abuses had been turned loose among the
troops here it would've been ugly. I haven't heard any comments
about them coming from soldiers that didn't express a hope that
they would get the maximum punishment. A few leaders need to get
demoted too.
As per the "outrage", if you were
"outraged" by this, good. I was. However, I would like to ask
Arab governments and our own media elites, "Were you just as
outraged by what happened under Saddam? If so, you
didn't show it."
Here is what people need to
understand: the interrogation of prisoners of war is a little
tougher than what the typical thug gets by the local police.
I went to Survival, Evasion, Rescue, and Escape (SERE) School
back in 1995. I am more proud of completing that
course than anything I have ever done.
Also, I would never do it again.
After playing hide and seek with "bad guys" in California in
March, we all got caught, knocked around, froze, went hungry,
sleep deprived, threatened with worse, and then interrogated.
Here's the deal: when interrogation
is done correctly, people don't break so much as they leak. (The
purpose of SERE is to teach you how not to leak. That is the
classified part of the school.) The interrogator wants them to
leak in a way so that the prisoner doesn't even know he is
leaking. When someone breaks, as opposed to leaking, they
usually give out a data dump of gibberish and then
physiologically shuts down. A good interrogator avoids that. If
you hurt them or scare them too badly, they quit leaking.
Interrogators ask the same question about ten times, ten
different ways. Disoriented people leak and they don't even know
it.
What most Americans think of when
they think of POWs being interrogated is what they remember of
our pilots in North Vietnam. The abuse our people went through
in Vietnam wasn't to get intelligence; it was to exploit them
for propaganda purposes. I mention this to put the term "abuse"
in context. When a terrorist here in Iraq or jaywalkers back in
the states report jailhouse "abuse," what does it mean? When we
catch a guy red-handed restocking his weapons stock and question
him, withholding his TV privileges isn't enough. He won't be
happy, but neither will he be destroyed or scared for life. He
will tell his buddies, "I didn't tell them anything." In fact he
will have told us a lot.
As I said, I had to work myself into
a mindset to talk about this. To work around horror without out
letting the horror seep into your soul is a spiritual battle.
This week I worked with a National Guard soldier who had to
clean up after a convoy of civilian aid workers were killed when
an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) went off on the road into
Baghdad. He is a carpenter in civilian life, but this week he
was out on a highway picking up arms and legs while watching out
for snipers. He was cleaning up after monsters. Some other young
Americans were put in charge of guarding monsters and then
became monsters.
Care of the soul is serious
business. That is part of the reason why I became a Navy
Chaplain.
The other reason is the people.
The folks I have known in the
military are more interesting to be around than anybody else I
know. This leads me to Memorial Day. Earlier this month I went
to Camp Cooke at Taji. (To lend perspective, Taji is really
north Baghdad; I am in west Baghdad.) The 39th Brigade (Arkansas
National Guard) is stationed there. I didn't know any of them,
but I wanted to see my home-state Guard here in Iraq. So I
badgered my way into flying up there for two days. They are
stationed in the old Iraqi army air defense school. Unlike
downtown Baghdad, the old air defense school was turned into
rubble. It is getting better, but it was like living in a
junkyard.
Their first month in Iraq was tough.
These soldiers patrol the roughest part of Baghdad. While I was
there, the Chaplain of the 39th told me this story: One of the
old troopers who came was a 52 year-old Sgt. who had already
done his 20+ years and had retired. But his son was in the 39th,
and when the father found out they were coming over here, he
reenlisted. On their first week in country, Camp Cooke was
attacked by rockets and the first rocket that landed killed the
father.
I was born in 1958 and came of age
when the Vietnam War and the anti-war movement were both in full
swing. It has taken me years to put this into words, but I
believe that as bad as that war was, the legacy of the anti-war
movement was worse.
The anti-war movement gave rise to
the moral superiority of non-involvement and non-commitment.
While that may have worked to help draft-dodgers sleep at night,
it's not much of a strategy of how to go through life.
Taken to its logical conclusion the
message is: don't commit to your county, don't commit to your
spouse, and don't commit to your kids, church, or community.
Don't commit to cleaning up your own mess or any cause that
demands any more from you than rhetoric. This was the mindset in
which our country was firmly stuck. Until 9/11, some woke up.
Kids came down and joined the service. To the dismay of some of
their teachers, parents, and the media elites, they came down
here and raised their hand in front of the flag. And they are
still coming to the shock of the non-committers. The Marines
have more enlisting than their two boot camps can handle.
And we are all here together for
Memorial Day 2004. Old National Guardsmen, grandfathers, and
single moms, Texans and Mexicans, Surfers and Rednecks. A few
weeks ago an Illinois National Guardsman, mother of three, was
hit six times, saved by her body armor, but lost part of her
nose. She stayed on her 50 caliber, firing on the bad guys,
protecting the convoy. She said she was thinking of her kids and
the guys she was with. Commitment is love acted out. It is sad
that the non-committers missed that. They and their moral
high-ground haven't been near a mass grave. The kids I see and
eat with every day still want to help this country, in spite of
getting shot at while doing it. That is love acted out. You
either get it, or you don't.
During my time in Iraq I won't be
able to see any of the Biblical sites that are here. But a few
weeks ago in Taji I got to stand on some holy ground, where a
father died when he went to war just to be with his son.
Sincerely yours,
Steven P. Unger
LCDR, CHC, USN
Multi National Corps-Iraq
Have a happy 4th of July (Memorial Day or any
holiday). And while you are lighting the grill, and the fireworks,
take some time to reflect on exactly what it is you are celebrating,
and those that gave their lives in order for you to do so.
And in particular, remember those who are
putting their lives on the line today to protect your ability to
continue to barbeque and light fireworks; and enable future
generations in other parts of the world to do the same.
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