sirenianshores

A few days ago I had an interesting exchange with an American soldier who posts on a bulletin board I’ve been a member of for the last six years so. He is a recent enlistee currently serving stateside. He hasn’t been to Iraq or Afghanistan yet, but probably will be posted overseas in the not too distant future. 

After viewing a rather heated thread on another message board about why Iraq should have been left alone, he decided to post his response outlining the reasons why he and his colleagues are justified in fighting in Iraq and staying there to finish the job. What he had written ended up meaning a lot to him when he was finished with it.

In the end he decided not to post at the other message board - he was naturally wary of posting given how debates on the Iraq war tend to degenerate into very personal flame fests. Most critics of the war understand the notion of ‘Hating the war, and not the soldier’. But even so, some soldiers can, understandably, take it really personally when him attack a cause they are risking their own lives to pursue. Another more practical consideration was that he ended up with this quite big (compared to average forum posts) almost speech-like response which he felt was unsuitable for a message board scenario.

He had second thoughts again about his decision not to post a response. Because I was a long-term member who posts regularly, he ended up asking me for my opinion on whether or not he should post his essay. While naturally I disagree with many of his views regarding the Iraq war, I was adamant that he should post his response, even if it meant bearing the brunt of nasty personal attacks against him and his colleagues serving in Iraq. My attitude is: if you are confident that your political beliefs are justified, then personal attacks should not faze you.

In the end he did post his response. I think it was a great post and a very interesting read. The Internet is full of people mouthing off about the Iraq war, but not a lot of that opinion comes directly from the troops. I respect his noble intentions and commend him for his decision to serve his country in these difficult times. I just wish the politicians who started the war in Iraq would have shown the same level of integrity and decency. They have shown precisely the opposite of that, much to their disgrace. Unless they are prepared to give the same level of commitment, then I think the war in Iraq is all but lost and quite possibly Afghanistan along with it.

The next post on my blog will contain the full text of his essay. I believe it is worth reading regardless of what your views on the war in Iraq are.