A corporal in the Queens Dragoon Guards who has been on three tours
I feel sorry for some of the true Iraqi people that want to get on with their lives yet cannot because of the intimidation they suffer from some of the police and the militia. If we get out now I think Iran will try to stake its claim in the south of Iraq. We must stay until the job of building Iraq into a secure nation is complete. The frustration is: will it ever be a secure nation? So do we waste more British lives on a country that is ungrateful? I never want to go there again
Do we waste more American lives on a country that will not have stability absent repression? Is what I'm asking.
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The problem is speaking of "the country" using metonymy (synechdoche? whole for part) as a single coherent entity, as if there was a consensus of "the Iraqi people" (which, again, is not one entity but a collection of many); some people in the country are very very happy we are there, and others, obviously, are p***ed off beyond belief to a murderous degree.
And hey, as far as peace and stability is concerned, let's not forget the Kurds in the north. I had some Kurdish aquaintances in high school, and I'm happy for them right now; their freedom is largely the result of desert shield, desert storm, anglo-american fighter patrols, and the recent conflict. I mean, it's largely Baghdad that's a mess. of course, that is no small thing, but it's not like every province in the country is a mess.
"We must stay until the job of building Iraq into a secure nation is complete." This is what keeps frustrating me. I read the news, the reports and opinions, and yes, it seems like the war is going badly, and that we should start thinking about pulling out. But then, it seems that whenever I hear a soldier give his opinion, they talk about all the old hopes of a stable Iraq and the need to continue on! Please don't read sarcasm into this; I'm being sincere. Does anyone else find this bewildering, that logic seems to point one way when those in the know seem to point the other way? That being said, I didn't miss this particular man's pessimistic comments that Iraq simply may be impossible to stabilize. But it just seems that whenever I decide the war's a mess that should have never happened, a ray of hope appears. Frankly, it's getting annoying. @@ God bless.
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