Good Doctor HST
11-03-2006, 09:34 PM
Robert Secher, a soldier who fought on the front lines in Iraq, kept in contact with family throughout his time in Iraq up until his death.
The following excerpts are courtesy of Newsweek through the MSNBC website (italics are his words, red is my emphasis):
His mood had dimmed when he wrote again to his friend Peter on April 23:
Whatever "good" is happening in Iraq, isn't happening here. The bright side is there is no sectarian violence here like in Baghdad. In other words the insurgents around town don't target civilians. And there are even established warning signals so civilians know not to be around.
My 3 month informed opinion (based entirely on what I see in the Hit region) is that this war is futile. Even the Iraqi soldiers tell us that when America leaves, they'll quit. They trust us because they know Americans can take care of them, but they don't trust their government, or the Ministry of Defense, and they especially don't trust their officers [...] Funny, I feel the same way sometimes.
Anyway, the weather here is getting hotter, it's windy all the time, the flies are terrible.
__________
Secher reacted angrily to accounts of the killings at Haditha and Hamdania. On June 22 he wrote to his father:
Of course you've heard about two different sets of Marines being charged with murder. [...]
I feel bad for those guys. Bush should be ashamed of the predicament that this nation has been put in. And anyone who calls those young Marines killers should think twice. War puts perfectly ordinary young men in situations that can't be judged by laws. They are the situations of survival. The dirty little secrets of war, no one would want to know the horrible things that the "greatest generation" did to German and Japanese soldiers and civilians. [...] If you really want to win a war you have to be brutal. You have to be Sherman and raze Georgia as you march to the sea.
Later that day, Secher had cooled off:
Hi Dad,
After reading my last email I don't want you to think that I condone the actions of the Marines, and if in fact they are guilty they should be held responsible and punished. My point is that this is the reality of what war is. This is what war does to normal young men. This is the whole tragedy of war. People are so quick to only criticize the Marines and to demonize these young men. I pity them. Their lives are ruined, ruined by their actions which are judged by men who have never been in those situations.
He wrote to his father on July 25:
This is such a long process. Maybe 20 years from now I'll look back with pride that I helped make a difference in Iraq, but right now I'm just not into it. I just want to come home alive. [...] The war in Iraq itself, yeah, it was the right thing to do, but the way it was carried out, man, Bush, Rumsfeld, and Cheney have nothing to be proud of.
The following excerpts are courtesy of Newsweek through the MSNBC website (italics are his words, red is my emphasis):
His mood had dimmed when he wrote again to his friend Peter on April 23:
Whatever "good" is happening in Iraq, isn't happening here. The bright side is there is no sectarian violence here like in Baghdad. In other words the insurgents around town don't target civilians. And there are even established warning signals so civilians know not to be around.
My 3 month informed opinion (based entirely on what I see in the Hit region) is that this war is futile. Even the Iraqi soldiers tell us that when America leaves, they'll quit. They trust us because they know Americans can take care of them, but they don't trust their government, or the Ministry of Defense, and they especially don't trust their officers [...] Funny, I feel the same way sometimes.
Anyway, the weather here is getting hotter, it's windy all the time, the flies are terrible.
__________
Secher reacted angrily to accounts of the killings at Haditha and Hamdania. On June 22 he wrote to his father:
Of course you've heard about two different sets of Marines being charged with murder. [...]
I feel bad for those guys. Bush should be ashamed of the predicament that this nation has been put in. And anyone who calls those young Marines killers should think twice. War puts perfectly ordinary young men in situations that can't be judged by laws. They are the situations of survival. The dirty little secrets of war, no one would want to know the horrible things that the "greatest generation" did to German and Japanese soldiers and civilians. [...] If you really want to win a war you have to be brutal. You have to be Sherman and raze Georgia as you march to the sea.
Later that day, Secher had cooled off:
Hi Dad,
After reading my last email I don't want you to think that I condone the actions of the Marines, and if in fact they are guilty they should be held responsible and punished. My point is that this is the reality of what war is. This is what war does to normal young men. This is the whole tragedy of war. People are so quick to only criticize the Marines and to demonize these young men. I pity them. Their lives are ruined, ruined by their actions which are judged by men who have never been in those situations.
He wrote to his father on July 25:
This is such a long process. Maybe 20 years from now I'll look back with pride that I helped make a difference in Iraq, but right now I'm just not into it. I just want to come home alive. [...] The war in Iraq itself, yeah, it was the right thing to do, but the way it was carried out, man, Bush, Rumsfeld, and Cheney have nothing to be proud of.