Here Goes Nothing ...

[Sheriff Gonna Getcha]

Originally Posted by RobH4413

One of the biggest chips a buddy of mine had on his shoulder (he just got back from a year long tour in Iraq) was that no-one reports on how much progress has been made.

There really isn't many articles talking about what's been done, as opposed to the violence that's going on.

I was in ROTC, but I left in 2000 a year before getting my commission as a 2nd LT in the Army. Every last one of my classmates have all gone to Iraq, Afghanistan, or both and they give me very mixed signals. The friends who served in Iraq in 2003-mid 2005 were 100% behind the mission and continue to support our presence. The friends who served from mid-2005 to 2006 seem to be less supportive of the mission (including a friend who served in the 75th Ranger Regiment in both Afghanistan and Iraq).

I do hear some common themes from these guys though. They all told me how amazingly nice and hospitable most Iraqis are and how they genuinely felt bad for citizens simply caught in the cross-fire. One friend told me that these people were so amazingly poor, yet would invite Americans into their homes to eat what little food they had. Some of my friends also told me, however, that the brutality of the insurgents is so ridiculous that it's frustrating to hear about things like Abu Grahib (where we were so inhumane as to scare prisoners with dogs). I think these guys didn't like what was going on at Abu Grahib, but that they were frustrated because the press has no sense of proportionality (cutting off heads of civilians is different from failing to appoint POWs independent counsel).