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| Iraq | |
| Returning Marines critical of Iraq plan | |
| 2003-08-06 | |
| Edited for brevity. Occupation not run well, some say They were trained for fighting -- not rebuilding a society upended by years of dictatorship and war. But the Marines of 225 Fox Company returned Saturday after more than four months in Iraq, confident America’s war was just. And, they were happy for the comforts of home -- family above all, but also showers, toilets, home-cooked meals and the relative cool of a Hudson Valley summer. ’’The government should have had thousands and thousands of MPs waiting and ready to go in immediately afterwards. They planned meticulously how to take over the country, but I don’t think they planned very well how to run it once it was taken,’’ said Lance Cpl. Derek McGee, 26. With all due respect, there are people of rank higher than lance corporal privy to more information making those decisions. ’’We’re an infantry unit and they kind of used us as an occupying force,’’ said Sgt. Chris Masterson, 25, a Wappingers Falls resident who left his pursuit of a business degree at Dutchess Community College to serve. ’’I know we went in there and we hit hard, we hit fast and we did a whole lot of good. Where it went bad was way up above us -- the political side of it, establishing the government,’’ he said. ’’It kind of came to a screeching halt.’’
No bias on the reporter’s part there, eh? Masterson recalled getting thanks even from an Iraqi who believed his wife and child had been killed by an American shelling -- so-called ’’collateral damage’’ in the march to Baghdad. He also heard it from a man who said his daughter had been raped and murdered by men loyal to Saddam Hussein. Those with experience as civilian peace officers trained a new Iraqi police force, said Sgt. Joseph Martino, a LaGrange resident and Yonkers fireman. ’’They took them by the hand and built them from the ground up, and I tell you the policemen there were very grateful for what the Marines did. Everyone was,’’ Martino said. The article isn’t nearly as doom ’n’ gloom as the headline, is it? Any idea what the political feelings of the reporter or editors might be? | |
| Posted by:Dar |
| #13 Find a clue,NMM. |
| Posted by: raptor 2003-8-7 9:09:17 AM |
| #12 I dont care if they disagree with policy(smoke em if you got em, I say!), I just dont think its news that "front line doggies" complain. I also dont think it means anything. I only think its news if troops DONT complain, that would be something I've never seen or heard of. What a freak of nature that would be! Of course, I dont have an agenda to carry around like someone here appears to have. It must be a bitch to walk around all day with that chip on your shoulder there, bubba. (FG - Ive been everywhere there aint anything but dialup and broadband is just a far off dream, but its good to be back in the land of T1 speeds, air conditioning and the neighborhood titty bar.) |
| Posted by: Frank Martin 2003-8-6 11:57:41 PM |
| #11 I dont care if they disagree with policy(smoke em if you got em, I say!), I just dont think its news that "front line doggies" complain. I also dont think it means anything. I only think its news if troops DONT complain, that would be something I've never seen or heard of. What a freak of nature that would be! Of course, I dont have an agenda to carry around like someone here appears to have. It must be a bitch to walk around all day with that chip on your shoulder there, bubba. (FG - Ive been everywhere there aint dialup and broadband is just a far off dream, but its good to be back in the land of T1 and air conditioning and the neighborhood titty bar.) |
| Posted by: Frank Martin 2003-8-6 11:56:22 PM |
| #10 I dont care if they disagree with policy(smoke em if you got em, I say!), I just dont think its news that "front line doggies" complain. I also dont think it means anything. I only think its news if troops DONT complain, that would be something I've never seen or heard of. What a freak of nature that would be! Of course, I dont have an agenda to carry around like someone here appears to have. It must be a bitch to walk around all day with that chip on your shoulder there, bubba. (FG - Ive been everywhere there aint dialup and broadband is just a far off dream, but its good to be back in the land of T1 and air conditioning and the neighborhood titty bar.) |
| Posted by: Frank Martin 2003-8-6 11:55:53 PM |
| #9 So, WE SUPPORT THE TROOPS! unless they disagree with |
| Posted by: Not Mike Moore 2003-8-6 11:16:49 PM |
| #8 hey! Frank Martin! where ya been? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-8-6 8:04:13 PM |
| #7 Oh my heavens! Grunts who complain! Why, never in the history of military conflict has that ever happened before! Run for the hills! it must be the end-times! |
| Posted by: Frank Martin 2003-8-6 6:24:07 PM |
| #6 Cal--That's true--thanks for the reminder. Admittedly, the reporter is including both good and bad views here, and God knows what the editor may have done to the original text. This may be untouched or totally gutted and reworded for all I know. But, yes, the editors were the ones that wrote the "Quagmire!"-like headline. |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-8-6 2:48:57 PM |
| #5 I think most of the MP's and SP's are already bizzy as hell scraping LCpls off the pavement - in Sammy Dago and Oceanside and a few hundred other places where troopers congregate and get shit-faced - and trucking them back to barracks and such. If you don't puke on 'em or try to argue with 'em, most won't hit you with those fucking ebonite sticks (which you will definitely feel - come morning) - they'll just rifle your pockets for some spare scratch and babysit your dumb ass home. |
| Posted by: ·com 2003-8-6 2:43:55 PM |
| #4 If this journalist had an idea just how much complaining yer basic Marine does even under the best of circumstances, he would have realized that this isn't news. Marines love to complain. |
| Posted by: BH 2003-8-6 2:29:19 PM |
| #3 You have to remember reporters are not responsible for the headlines of their articles. Editors are responsible for the headlines. |
| Posted by: Cal Ulmann 2003-8-6 1:58:07 PM |
| #2 If you didn't get the read from the article, this paper has it's left turn signal on. I remember when I was a E-3 (same as LCpl): the world was very simple and I know NOTHING about the big picture. Come to think of it I don't remember many staff meeting where I was asked to give my input about how an operations was going (or not going). Cpl. McGee has a good point, but I doubt the military has 'thousands and thousands of MPs' they can deploy to Iraq. But I don't think the good Cpl thougt (or knows much) much about force structure when he made his statement. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) 2003-8-6 1:31:01 PM |
| #1 Pro-democracy in the U.S. Military? But despotic dictators are OK for the Iraqis |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-8-6 12:21:55 PM |