Combat Troops Battle Doubt in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Army 1st Lt. Antonio Hardy took a slow look around the east Baghdad neighborhood that he and his men were patrolling. He grimaced at the sound of gunshots in the distance. A machine gunner on top of a Humvee scanned the rooftops for snipers. Some of Hardy's men wondered aloud whether they'd get hit by a roadside bomb on the way back to their base. ''To be honest, it's going to be like this for a long time to come, no matter what we do,'' said Hardy, 25, of Atlanta. ''I think some people in America don't want to know about all this violence, about all the killings. The people back home are shielded from it. They get it sugar-coated.'' While senior military officials and the Bush administration say the president's decision to send more American troops to pacify Baghdad will succeed, many of the soldiers who're already there say it's a lost cause.

''What is victory supposed to look like? Every time we turn around and go in a new area there's somebody new waiting to kill us,'' said Sgt. 1st Class Herbert Gill, 29, of Pulaski, Tenn., as his Humvee rumbled down a dark Baghdad highway one evening last week. ''Sunnis and Shiites have been fighting for thousands of years, and we're not going to change that overnight.''

Soldiers interviewed across east Baghdad, home to more than half the city's 8 million people, said violence is so out of control that while a surge of 21,500 more American troops may momentarily suppress it, the notion that U.S. forces can bring lasting security to Iraq is misguided. 'We can go get into a firefight and empty out ammo, but it doesn't accomplish much,'' said Pvt. 1st Class Zach Clouser, 19, of York, Pa. ''This isn't our war - we're just in the middle.'' Almost every foot soldier interviewed during a week of patrols on the streets and alleys of east Baghdad said that Bush's plan would halt the bloodshed only temporarily. The soldiers cited a variety of reasons, including incompetence or corruption among Iraqi troops, the complexities of Iraq's sectarian violence and the lack of Iraqi public support, a cornerstone of counterinsurgency warfare.

''They can keep sending more and more troops over here, but until the people here start working with us, it's not going to change,'' said Sgt. Chance Oswalt, 22, of Tulsa, Okla.

Leaning against a pile of sandbags last week, 1st Lt. Tim Evers took a drag from his Marlboro cigarette. He said that while sending more troops sounded good, Sunni and Shiite fighters would only move out of Baghdad, fight elsewhere and wait until they can re-enter the capital. The problem, many soldiers say, is that as long as the majority of Iraqis oppose the presence of American troops, a trend that's only accelerated since the 2003 invasion, no amount of bullets or bodies will solve the problem.
GOI: My questions is why aren't we listening to our troops if we really "support them???" The article went on to say that their officers were more optimistic but that seems to be because that they have to say that--as actually do most foot soldiers. They really aren't at liberty to speak out very much and so to see these soldiers so willing to express their frustrations shows just how exasperated they are with this mess and just how far they are willing to go to get their views out to us so that they can finally come home.

The Bush war-mongering sycophants have some pretty amazing selective hearing. Blinded by their dripping patriotism and prideful egos they are more then willing to throw more and more bodies into the blender that is Iraq until they can find a way to dump this whole mess onto someone else and declare victory. Then again we all know that they really don't give a damn what our troops think. They just expect them to support their commanders and president no matter what and do their dirty work. It's nauseating.

Of course the soldiers don't want to fail but that is because they don't want to fail their buddies--not because they really believe in the mission at this point anymore.

So many of us over here just assume that they are all gung-ho to be there and fully support the mission. However, that is not the case as Lt. Hardy said. Many Americans are sugar-coating the violence and situation over there. Unfortunately most people won't hear about these opinions as this story was pretty much lost in the ocean of mass media fluff.

I just want our guys and gals over there to know that I heard them and I am doing my damndest to bring them back and provide for their recovery both physically AND mentally when they come home.

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