In His Own Words...

By Donald Hudson Jr., 1st Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division.

BAGHDAD, May 12 -- My name is Donald Hudson Jr. I have been serving our country’s military actively for the last three years. I am currently deployed to Baghdad on Forward Operating Base Loyalty, where I have been for the last four and a half months.
I came here as part of the first wave of this so called "troop surge", but so far it has effectively done nothing to quell insurgent violence. I have seen the rise in violence between the Sunni and Shiite. This country is in the middle of a civil war that has been on going since the seventh century.

Why are we here when this country still to date does not want us here? Why does our president’s personal agenda consume him so much, that he can not pay attention to what is really going on here?

Let me tell you a story. On May 10, I was out on a convoy mission to move barriers from a market to a joint security station. It was no different from any other night, except the improvised explosive device that hit our convoy this time, actually pierced through the armor of one of our trucks. The truck was immediately engulfed in flames, the driver lost control and wrecked the truck into one of the buildings lining the street. I was the driver of the lead truck in our convoy; the fifth out of six was the one that got hit. All I could hear over the radio was a friend from the sixth truck screaming that the fifth truck was burning up real bad, and that they needed fire extinguishers real bad. So I turned my truck around and drove through concrete barriers to get to the burning truck as quickly as I could. I stopped 30 meters short of the burning truck, got out and ripped my fire extinguisher out of its holder, and ran to the truck. I ran past another friend of mine on the way to the burning truck, he was screaming something but I could not make it out. I opened the driver’s door to the truck and was immediately overcome by the flames. I sprayed the extinguisher into the door, and then I saw my roommate’s leg. He was the gunner of that truck. His leg was across the driver’s seat that was on fire and the rest of his body was further in the truck. My fire extinguisher died and I climbed into the truck to attempt to save him. I got to where his head was, in the back passenger-side seat. I grabbed his shoulders and attempted to pull him from the truck out the driver’s door. I finally got him out of the truck head first. His face had been badly burned. His leg was horribly wounded. We placed him on a spine board and did our best to attempt "Buddy Aid". We heard him trying to gasp for air. He had a pulse and was breathing, but was not responsive. He was placed into a truck and rushed to the "Green Zone", where he died within the hour. His name was Michael K. Frank. He was 36 years old. He was a great friend of mine and a mentor to most of us younger soldiers here.

Now I am still here in this country wondering why, and having to pick up the pieces of what is left of my friend in our room. I would just like to know what is the true reason we are here? This country poses no threat to our own. So why must we waste the lives of good men on a country that does not give a damn about itself? Most of my friends here share my views, but do not have the courage to say anything.

Donald C. Hudson Jr. is a private assigned to the 1st Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division. E-mail: donaldchudsonjr@yahoo.com.

Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam

Vietnam SyndromeThe consequences of U.S. defeat in Iraq would be much greater than they were in Vietnam.As the war in Iraq drags on into its fifth year, comparisons to the Vietnam War grow more frequent and persuasive. There are some parallels, as there are to all wars, but key differences between Vietnam and Iraq also deserve noting.

As in Vietnam, the United States faces an enemy that cannot be distinguished from the civilian population. A preliminary hearing for Marines charged with killing 24 civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha recalls the U.S. massacre at My Lai.As in Vietnam, the United States is fighting a war that can't be decisively won because a determined, seemingly inexhaustible enemy would rather die than cease killing.In Iraq, the United States again is allied to a democratic government that cannot successfully defend itself, no matter how much aid it receives. As it did following the Vietnam War, the United States might wind up having to resettle hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who took our side in the war but would risk being murdered if they remained in their country after U.S. withdrawal.Similar to President Lyndon Johnson's experience, President Bush lost popular American support for the war as U.S. casualties mounted. Like Johnson, Bush is unwilling to withdraw. Repeating the 1960s, it will take a change in leadership to end U.S. combat involvement in Iraq.

In Vietnam, the United States faced a united, determined enemy: communist North Vietnam and its Viet Cong allies. In Iraq, U.S. troops battle a multifaceted enemy: Saddam loyalists, Shiite militias and imported terrorists with ties to al-Qaida. These enemies can hardly be identified, much less decisively defeated or negotiated with.In Vietnam, the United States spent hundreds of billions of dollars, suffered 400,000 casualties and inflicted more than 1 million. In Iraq, the financial cost is almost as high, but U.S. casualties number in the thousands. Iraqi combat and civilian deaths are difficult to calculate but probably exceed 100,000.The most telling difference between the war in Iraq and the one in Vietnam is the most dangerous. When the United States could not prevail in Vietnam, it withdrew, with little consequence to U.S. strategic interests or the regional balance of power. U.S. withdrawal from Iraq could result in another rogue regime bent on anti-Western terrorism and aggression. Alternatively, civil war resulting in complete anarchy and a failed state would offer global terrorists another base from which to operate with impunity.

In some ways, Americans might come to wish the war in Iraq were more like the Vietnam War, not less.

Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

To Help Save Iraq From Iraqis

If the troop surge is working, why are we sending 35,000 more soldiers to Iraq? And why aren't the major news outlets reporting that the White House is telling American citizens to brace for higher casualties in Iraq? Vice-President Cheney probably won't mention it when he meets with the leaders of United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan. We have occupied Iraq and we're killing tens of thousands of civilians in Iraq (many of them children) and Afghanistan. Al-Zawahri has invited President Bush to toast the "success" of his security plan with a glass of orange juice in the middle of the Iraqi Parliment, since it's obviously sooooo safe. The National Guard couldn't respond after the tornadoes that ripped apart Kansas because they're all deployed to Iraq. This HAS to end, and the only way to get it done faster is to Impeach or Protest.

Lies, Damn Lies...

Even I was moved by the Jessica Lynch story. I wasn't cynical about it like I was with the death of Pat Tillman. But I should have been. Her bones were broken in a crash during battle, but she was not shot and stabbed during her rescue. In fact, hospital staffers had tried to hand her over to American troops before the "raid", which involved NO Iraqi soldiers. She didn't fire any shots, as had been reported, because her gun was jammed with sand. She was uncomfortable with the military publicizing her story (though she helped quite a bit). When she asked about inaccuracies they were attributed to the media outlets. Exactly what happened to her is still being investigated.

Evidence has been destroyed in the Pat Tillman case. Witness statements were changed. His family was told that he was killed heroically in battle when, in actuality, he was shot to death by our own troops.

If our government lies to us about our heroes, doesn't it stand to reason that they are lying to us about other things, whether they're related to the war or not? Why aren't we having a SERIOUS debate about the impeachment of both President Bush and Vice President Cheney?

It's Too Late to Make it Right

To Doc,
What happened at VT reminded me of "the incident" a few years ago. None of us ever really talked about it, or him, after that summer. I imagine he's in prison in WV somewhere, or in some sort of a mental institution (which is where he belonged in the first place). Strange that the military didn't catch that before he killed someone (with a rifle he bought at Wal-Mart). And set his car on fire to fake his own death. And almost got away with it.

I was surprised that you didn't bring it up when we talked the other day. It seemed so relevant to what has been happening. Instead our conversation was all about the war. After 3 years of just listening to you spout propaganda and tell me that you were defending me and fighting for my freedom I finally had to say something, which was hard because I knew when I finally opened my mouth it would be the last time we ever spoke.

I just couldn't let you go on pretending that you're doing this for us. Not now that you're home and don't need to keep believing the lies they've been feeding you just so you can get through the day. You were not "defending your country". There's nothing to defend it from. I've been asking you for 3 years to explain the threat to me and not once were you able to do so. You were not "fighting for my freedom". More of my freedoms have been lost than gained over the course of this war, so if you want to defend freedom, you best do it here where we're actually losing it, not in the Middle East where it was never really an issue.

It is because I love you that I cannot support this war, a war that we have already lost. It is because I still believe in what we were taught - to serve, to protect, to defend - that I have to walk away. How are you serving the people of this country by fighting a war you know nothing about for a President who wasn't really elected in the first place? What, other than oil fields, are you protecting? If you are overseas, how, exactly, are you defending our country? And please don't give me the "we're fighting them there so that we don't have to fight them here" speech that we all know is bullshit. I want your life to mean something, and if it can't be avoided, I want your death to mean something. A person who is willing to give his life for his country is too precious to waste on just any old cause. You are worth more than that. You deserve to know what you are fighting for.

You asked me to put myself in your shoes. I didn't do that. Instead I put my son in them. And as I imagined him standing in front of me in a soldier's uniform, it hit me: this war and this President has robbed me of something so important, so meaningful, that once it is lost it may never be regained - my pride in my country. I am not proud of what you've done. I have not been proud of anything that has come out of this nation politically since President Bush got into office, and I don't have much hope that things will be that different once he's gone. I do not want my son to be a soldier. I barely want him to be an American. I thought of you and I looked at him and I realized - I don't want him to be anything like you - a man who follows what he believes so blindly that he will allow and encourage others to fight and die for it, even though he cannot tell them why.

I'm glad you're home. I'm glad you're safe. I'm sorry that my position on the war is so distasteful to you that we can no longer be friends, especially when we've already lost so many to something so pointless. I have lost my faith, brother. I have lost my pride. Hope is all that remains.

Dover

Today

I will respond to everyone on the last post this weekend, but today my favorite cousin arrives in Baghdad for his second tour in a war we do not understand and were coerced into fighting. I know that many of you are tired of hearing about this war from me, but I don't care. I have watched the number at the bottom of my posts rise daily over the past 5 years. I have lost friends. People close to me have been badly wounded. It is easy for you to pretend that nothing's happening because you are not effected daily. This war is not your life. It is something that's happening far, far away to people you don't know and certainly don't give a damn about. I understand that. I disagree with it. It infuriates me. But I also know that it is a simple case of "out of sight, out of mind". I don't know how to make you "see", and I consider that one of my greatest failures.

But none of that matters today. Today my baby cousin is being dropped into the "green" zone. All I ask is that he make it out unharmed.

Another Perspective

I was driving home from work last night when I heard a story on NPR about the war in Iraq. Most stories have casualty counts and locations of car bombs. This one was from an entirely different perspective. It told of a high school in Texas near several military bases. Almost ever one of the students has a parent in Iraq. Some have two. 7 children in that school have lost parents. Many seniors are worried about going away to college because they're afraid their remaining parent and their siblings will not be able to manage without them. Many stay awake at night watching their mothers in fear that they will finally be overcome by the depression of having their spouse away so long and commit suicide. Parents who do return often have sever Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and need extensive counseling. For those of you who feel that there is nothing wrong with this war, what would you say to these children to explain the continued and nearly constant absence of these parents for the past 5 years? If you are against the war, what are you doing to ensure that more children don't end up like this every day? And what will we tell all of our children when we end up in Iran?

Buried on the Politics Page

Well, not exactly. If the American people would just take the time to look at the Politics Page, they might find out that the Pentagon manipulated pre-war intelligence connecting Saddam Hussein to al Qaeda. The media, who hit the story hard when the Bush Administration said there was a connection, didn't even make this story front-page news.

I'm tired. I'm frustrated. My little cousin is leaving for Iraq again on March 1st and I have no idea why he's going there. Nothing anyone in the Bush Administration has said in the past 5 years even rings true, and yet we all sit at home pretending that our government is not deceiving us on a daily basis. The thought doesn't even occur to many Americans regardless of report after report of misconduct on the part of soldiers, misleading information given to the public by Administration officials, and misuse of billions of dollars of taxpayer money. What is everyone waiting for??? How many more of our young men and women need to die for a reason known only to a very few??? Does our government not trust us enough to tell us the truth???

Are We Better Off?

At Women on the Verge of Thinking, Barbara asked the question, "Are we better off today than we were 6 years ago?" It's a good question, and it got my mind off of my present situation, which is definitely a good thing. Though I wonder if the question should have been, "Who is better off than they were 6 years ago?" My response to Barabra's question was as follows:

We are not better off today. I have a friend there who keeps trying to tell me tha FOX news is giving the most accurate picture of the war. My other friends who are there think Fox news is in the pocket of Lord Bush and his Cabal. I guess it depends on who you ask. My major concern is that we still don't know for sure why we're there, four years after the war began. The original reasons have all been lies, and the American people have NOT demanded to hear the real ones.

As American citizens, don't we deserve to know the reasons why we are at war? Shouldn't we demand that those reasons be explained to us? We have lost an average of 1.5 American soldiers a day to a cause that we are unsure of, and no one cares. We are so wrapped up in our own lives, our own concerns, and our own complaints over the price of gas that we have forgotten that young men and women are dying, and we have no idea WHY. There is speculation, there is the whole "this war is over oil" thing or the "Hussein tried to kill our President's daddy" thing that we spout with nonchalance, but do our soldiers, the people who have vowed to protect this country and our freedoms, really deserve that kind of indifference to the reasons why we have allowed them to be put in harm's way?

My friends overseas have been telling me for years that Americans are egotistical and selfish. As long as something doesn't effect them directly, they don't give a damn. For years I have been defending my country and its people, but I'll be damned if this war an our reaction to it doesn't give them the exact fuel they needed to stoke this argument. It's not about the government, it's not about the President. We are still involved in this war and our soldiers are dying for one reason and one reason only: the complete and total apathy of the American people.