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Words from the front-lines “I have no idea what we’re doing here, mom. I don’t know why we’re here. We’re not helping anyone – there’s no rebuilding. The Iraqis don’t want us here, they want us out of here.” – Patrick McCaffrey, California National Guard, in a conversation with his mother before he was killed on June 22, 2004.
“We were sent there, and boys are coming back in coffins, all because of a massive lie. … I’m not politically minded in any way, but I’ve got a brain. I’m not anti-regiment or anti-military, but now I can see that we should not have been there in the first place. … We shouldn’t be there and we shouldn’t have gone there. I think it’s important that someone like me says that. I think there should be someone who was a soldier saying that, not someone in a suit and tie, saying it for their own ends, but saying it for the sake of the men and women left out there.’’ – Corporal Dave Corrigan, British Parachute Regiment , 16th Air Assault Brigade. “Let’s trust the President – about as far as we can throw him. … There was no more hard-core Republican than me until I went to Iraq. I’m against abortion and gay rights, and don’t mess with my guns, but I have grown up a lot. When you have spent a year in hell and you have seen the waste of money I have seen ... I’m neither party now. … What I don’t understand is how we can rebuild everything we are rebuilding over there, but here in America our infrastructure is falling apart. I had to borrow $776,000 for this city for water. They are spending it just like nothing over there. That’s reckless, and that’s wrong.” – Staff Sgt. Paul Bunn, 39th Infantry Brigade, Arkansas National Guard. He is also the mayor of Bradford, AK. “Nobody really knows what the soldiers are going through. They see on TV two soldiers get wounded today and they think, yeah, he’ll be all right. But that soldier is scarred for life both physically and mentally. … All the reasons we went to war, it just seems like they’re not legit enough for people to lose their lives for and for me to lose my hand and use of my leg and for my buddies to lose their limbs. I just had a big conversation with my buddy the other day and we want to know. I feel like we deserve to know. – Specialist Robert Acosta, 1st Armored Division “Don’t bash others because they think this mission is complete crap, because it is. It’s stupid and we’re risking other soldiers’ lives. For what? Iraqi liberation? Weapons of mass destruction? Neither one of those has been even close to being found. Bring soldiers home to protect what we’ve come to love so dearly — the United States, to protect those freedoms we take for granted, to protect our people, our children, wives, sons, daughters and husbands.” – Pfc. Bradley Robb, Camp Striker, Iraq. “To this day I still think about that raid, that family, that boy. I wonder if they are attacking us now. I would be. If someone took the life of my son or my daughter nothing other than my own death would stop me from killing them. I still cry when the memory hits me. And I cry when I think of how very far away I am from my family. I am not there, just like the boy’s father wasn’t there. I have served my time. I have my nightmares. I have enough blood on my hands. Just let me be a father, a husband, a daddy again.” – Sgt. Zachary Scott-Singley, 3rd Infantry Division. Sources: http://leonardclark.com/blog Interview with Nadia McCaffrey May 18, 2005, member of the Brussells Tribunal Advisory Committee (Inge Van de Merlen), http://www.worldtribunal.org/main/?b=57 Ed Vulliamy, "Fighting mad," The Guardian, May 4, 2005, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/election/story/0,15803,1475960,00.html Cathy Booth Thomas, "Finding The Way Home," Time Inc., May. 31, 2005, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,1066914,00.html North Carolina Peace And Justice Coalition Organizing Committee 3.19.05, quoting from interview in "Purple Hearts: Back From Iraq," by Nina Berman "Letters to the Editor," Stars and Stripes, April 14, 2005, http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=28400 www.misoldierthoughts.blogspot.com |
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