It is all so sad. Our American government always has good intentions that get lost in the mud of war. I spent close to 3 years in Laos and Nam in the 1970s during the war years. I witnessed the same events as we have experienced in Iraq. Some things never change and we never learn from out own history. 50,000 American lives lost in Nam. Now we are trading partners and it's all hug and kisses. In Iraq, we attempted the same deal of forcing democracy into a country that was not ready. Democracy comes from withing not from external sources. So we have lost over 5000 fine young men in Iraq whose voices we can listen to and feel the horrors. But we go back to our TVs as usual and let the government continue its' misguided policies of saving the world at great cost to we Americans. It only becomes a reality when someone in the family is blown to pieces by some terrorist in a foreign land. Keep our boys home to protect our land. Keep our boys home to protect our families. There is very little we can do when fighting in the terrorist own backyards. Too many to deal with and ultimately our Military will take the brunt of our governments misguided policies on how to wage a current day war against terrorists. Israel seems to be the only country to get it right. Eye for an Eye!!!
Things Fall Apart
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Army Staff Sgt. Ronald Lee Paulsen
Oct. 2, Tarmiya
Remember when I told ya that as the forces swept through Baghdad the bad guys would move to the surrounding areas? Well, guess what. They're here. For the last two weeks, the camp has been mortared daily. We lost one of our CA [civil affairs] teams to a roadside bomb. I'm really getting pissed off. [ ... ] You have to hand it to the U.S. Army, though. We're training the best terrorists in the world. We drive around passing out money and building things, and the enemy practices their bomb-planting skills. Sometimes they hit, sometimes they miss. They're getting really good, though.
Paulsen died of injuries from an IED in Tarmiya, a small town about 40 miles up the Tigris from Baghdad, on Oct. 17. He was 53.
Mundell
Oct. 5, Fallujah
It wouldn't be so bad if we were taking an eye for an eye, but we're not. They won't stand and fight us, for obvious reasons—we outgun them, for one. This one injury here and two casualties there crap is really wearing me out. Worse, the jundees [grunts] are starting to get restless with the populace. Few, if any, of our [Iraqi Army trainees] are from this area. Most of them are from down south, from Nasiriyah and Basra. They are Shiite, and the people here are Sunni, so there is enough tension as it is. This faceless bombing stuff is just making it worse and worse.
Taylor
Oct. 17, Baghdad (journal entry)
Just talked to your mom. I could hear you crying a bit in the background. You were hungry.
It made me think of the week you were born. I'd hold you on my chest. You would do this thing when you were hungry—the women called it "rooting." Like a pig roots around for truffles. You would push your head back from my chest and then start bouncing it against me, over and over. Your mouth would start going like you were trying to nurse. Your head would move left and right, back and forth. It was entirely instinct, but you were so determined and so alive. It also was one of the funniest things I'd ever seen. I never failed to laugh when you'd start. I don't think I could ever imagine it and not smile. I'm smiling now, even.
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