Absolutely THE BEST account of the Iraq War that I’ve read to date

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THIS IS A MUST MUST MUST read
Our Mission is Finally Accomplished… Anyone Care?

While many scurried to blame Donald Rumsfeld, General Franks or President Bush for losing the war in Iraq, they bet against the American fighting men and women to turn the tide of the war. “The mission” in Iraq was evil. The troops would never be maligned as they were in Vietnam.

I don’t begrudge these people. They simply will never get it. They are the type of people you need to protect in a society. They are innocent and naive.

It is the job of the warrior to hide them under the bed and tell them it will be okay, before we run off to combat the threat.

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Another page in the scrapbook has a clear acetate pouch. Stuffed inside is a thick, folded sheet of blue paper. An Iraqi ballot I stole on January 30th 2005.

The sound of mortar fire fills my ears. The desk dissolves. Suddenly, I’m kneeling on a road, a palm grove to my front. Iraq. Election Day 2005.

The bullets are flying.

My squad runs through the searing heat and forms a wall of flesh and Kevlar between the incoming fire and the citizens standing in line behind us. They’ve turned out in their finest clothes to wait for the opportunity to cast a vote. For most, this moment is a defining one in their lives. They’ve never had a voice before. This means something to them, and they have used the moment as an object lesson for their children. They appear nervous and take photos. The kids stand with them in line, viewing first hand this revolution in Iraqi civics.

As they came to line up earlier that morning, the men thanked us and clasped their hands over their heads, striking a triumphant pose. Some of the women cried. The kids were on their best behavior.

The gunfire began that afternoon. Insurgents started to shoot them. My unit ran to the road and formed a protective position between the killers and the citizens going to the polls. As we scanned the palm grove in front of us, bullets cracked and whined, then mortars start thumping around us. My squad pushed into the palm grove. I stayed on the road, overseeing their movement and coordinating the heavy fire from the Bradleys.

The firefight ebbs. The mortar fire ceases. A few last stray rounds streak past. A cry from behind causes me to turn. Lying in the road is a young Iraqi woman. I run over to help. She’s caught a round just below her temple. Her stunning beauty has been ruined forever.

She cries, “Paper! Paper” over and over until the ambulance arrives to take her away. An old lady emerges from the schoolhouse-turned voting site, sheets of blue paper in hand. She gives one to the wounded girl, who clutches it to her like a prized possession even as the ambulance carries her away.

The ballot was her voice. All she wanted was a chance to exercise it, just once, before she died.

The old woman returns to the school house, but drops another ballot along the way. It drifts in a gentle breeze across the bloodstained asphalt. I stoop down and pick it up. It is all in Arabic, and I have no idea what each set of candidates advocate. That’s not my place, and it doesn’t really matter. I helped make this day happen. This ballot represents the reason why we’re here, why my friends had to die.

Carefully, I fold the ballot up and put it in my pocket. Even though I was 29 at the time , I’d only voted once.

I had taken something so precious for granted for far too long.

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this is a MUST READ i am in tears hard times for the militarys and finally the people can express their desire to have a better life for their children of IRAK this story is TIMELESS and must be require to be review by the visiters here often to get the lesson in our government and civiliens of all the free world because it repeat itself for generations to come and go.

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If only the spineless would STAY under their beds until the shooting is over. Unfortunately, far too many take full advantage of the safety already procured for them by a century of American heroes to malign, attack, betray and…well, you get the drift.

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i agree completley thoses who felt the pain in protecting the other should be more recongnize as heros than some leaders who seek recongnition by using the MEDIA with false messages

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What a precious privledge we have here. Something our guys die to protect. Something so precious as to be a persons final act. What a great and diregarded freedom. To choose not to vote is to forfit ones right to free speech. To regard to vote as a meaningless act is to place oneself in the hands of tyrants.

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Thanks for posting this. It’s accounts like this that I’m mindful of when I respond to a coworker or friend that throws off one of the left/MSM’s memes about the war. We shouldn’t have gone, Bush lied to get us there, we have no business nation-building, Bush went it alone, the war wasn’t done right and it cost too much money, Halliburton, Blackwater, Abu Graab., etc.

Too many normal people didn’t pay attention to the lead up to the war. Too many people then only paid cursory attention as the fighting started. Then they quickly moved on to other things and just picked up this and that talking point along the way from the MSM and the democrats until they finally formed a picture in their own mind of what it all was about.

Then, they took this opinion and sealed it and moved on. There is no further review or thinking about their opinion, it’s made and though fragile, as long as they hang out with the same type of people that nod and throw in on the prevailing talking points , then all is fine.

It reflects too I think, the percentage of military families vs the whole population, but not completely that though. It’s ignorance of history, our country, and our ideals. Thank you MSM and dem’s for poisoning the well the best you could . We’ve prevailed and won a war that was said couldn’t be done and shouldn’t be tried…. and what do we get?

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@#6 >> What we get — is — demo-rats taking credit for the success

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the threat ??? oh yeah the threat of WMD I remember now I almost forgot. The Mushroom Cloud. And the al Qaeda link. And the 25 year old inert chemical shells. Oh and the planeloads of WMD that he shipped to Syria

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Thanks Scott! I decided to e-mail your post to my nephew and here’s his response:

I remember what it was like on election day in Iraq. There was a great sense of accomplishment followed by adrenaline and then accomplishment again when the fighting stopped and the voting resumed. Great story Aunt M, thanks for sharing.

@Yippie21:

Very well said. We even have an example, see #8.

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@ john ryan..

ask our fighter pilots who were enforcing the no-fly zones over Iraq what threat Iraq posed? Do you forget that there was a STRONG effort underway in 2002 to discontinue the “sanctions” against Iraq? Do you forget that most of the oil-for-food program was only found out to be a complete and bald farce AFTER we invaded?

The international community and the U.N. made millions off of the sanctions and we got stuck putting our fighter pilots in harms way…. for a flim-flam… and one that was costing the US Govt and you and me millions of dollars to enforce.

It is too freakin’ easy to play revisionist history. Iraq was unstable and had to be dealt with. It was unsustainable as our policy was, especially after 9-11. WMD was State’s and Colin Powell’s idea if I remember correctly… emphasize WMD was only ONE of many valid reasons to cancel the rule of Sadam. Also… war was not inevitable. We gave him over a year to comply or leave Iraq. he did neither. It takes two to fight.

So we’re left with this…… the left is anti-war and anti-nuke and anti-everything when the GOP control the WH. When a dem is in, not so much. It’s all pathetically political! It always has been and evidently always will be. That is why I have nothing but contempt for the left, the dems and the anti-war crowd. Once an Army is fielded, it’s time to support and win. It is not honorable to dissent and protest. You can do that all you want when the fighting is over… kinda like now… except the leftards and anti-war crowd couldn’t care less…

…. and that is what that article was referring to… hmmmm.

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Thank you for this post. God Bless our military — their accomplishments and sacrifices.

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These young patriots are made of iron. Please G-d, watch over them and protect them and we will try to preserve freedom for them at home. Amen.

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I see john ryan does not get enough time posting his meaningless comments over at black five. Why don’t you go hang with your buddies at huffington or daily kos you pos. I am sorry other people, but I am sick to death of these people and would like to send a hellfire projectile up these people’s arse.

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The thing that irks me about John Ryan the one-comment-post-wonder, is that he has all this time to post drive type-by comments, but never ever returns to defend his earlier statements when challenged. The above comment by him is just the epitome of idiocy, considering how long he’s been commenting here in particular.

He should automatically be subscribed to threads he posts on; if he’s going to waste people’s time here, then he deserves to have his inbox flooded with the consequences of his cyber-litter. Whatever responses people have the courtesy of giving him, should be shoved in his face, even if you can’t make the donkey actually drink….

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