Iraq - 250,000 More Troops?
Green Zone Follies by W Joseph Stroupe
Baghdad, 28 Sept 06: “I have been out of this area for a month, along with a number of others, on a PR project. Coming back here is like going back to Hell for breakfast. The insurgents occasionally drop mortar rounds inside the sacred Green Zone, killing people including diplomatic personnel and once, two colonels out for a squash game. No one can do anything about it so we keep it quiet. This whole project, bringing democracy and joy to poor rag head heathens has fallen completely apart. Morale in Iraq does not exist and self-mutilations, suicides and serious mental problems are so commonplace that no one even notices any more. The field equipment, trucks, howitzers, spotter aircraft, tanks and armored vehicles are all either in the shops or waiting in line. The sand here destroys everything eventually and Rumsfeld never bothers to replace anything. The food and medical services are very good but that’s about all. We spy on the GIs to be sure they aren’t sending out ‘negative’ messages to home and the various religious Iraqi people are slaughtering themselves, and us, at an accelerated rate. The Iraqi death tolls are enormous and our own are very bad and kept very quiet. Now, they tell me, Cheney wants the entire National Guard activated and shipped over here along with every reservist or discharged GI with former combat service. They have the orders drawn up there and we have copies. Engineers have been putting up miles of new barracks and the supply services are tipped to expect ‘significant very large shipments’ of food, clothes, shoes, helmets and so on. A quarter of a million men are supposed to be reactivated and sent over here before Christmas. A general officer said, in my office, that they were just waiting until after the elections in November. Bush and Cheney want a general draft but that won’t wash so instead, everyone and anyone that can move; comes over. Basically, the resistance has beaten us but of course no one can ever talk about that. They call it ‘defeatism’ and one can get into trouble for it. Soldiers who bitch get transferred to the west where the lifespan of a GI is somewhat limited.”
Baghdad, 28 Sept 06: “I have been out of this area for a month, along with a number of others, on a PR project. Coming back here is like going back to Hell for breakfast. The insurgents occasionally drop mortar rounds inside the sacred Green Zone, killing people including diplomatic personnel and once, two colonels out for a squash game. No one can do anything about it so we keep it quiet. This whole project, bringing democracy and joy to poor rag head heathens has fallen completely apart. Morale in Iraq does not exist and self-mutilations, suicides and serious mental problems are so commonplace that no one even notices any more. The field equipment, trucks, howitzers, spotter aircraft, tanks and armored vehicles are all either in the shops or waiting in line. The sand here destroys everything eventually and Rumsfeld never bothers to replace anything. The food and medical services are very good but that’s about all. We spy on the GIs to be sure they aren’t sending out ‘negative’ messages to home and the various religious Iraqi people are slaughtering themselves, and us, at an accelerated rate. The Iraqi death tolls are enormous and our own are very bad and kept very quiet. Now, they tell me, Cheney wants the entire National Guard activated and shipped over here along with every reservist or discharged GI with former combat service. They have the orders drawn up there and we have copies. Engineers have been putting up miles of new barracks and the supply services are tipped to expect ‘significant very large shipments’ of food, clothes, shoes, helmets and so on. A quarter of a million men are supposed to be reactivated and sent over here before Christmas. A general officer said, in my office, that they were just waiting until after the elections in November. Bush and Cheney want a general draft but that won’t wash so instead, everyone and anyone that can move; comes over. Basically, the resistance has beaten us but of course no one can ever talk about that. They call it ‘defeatism’ and one can get into trouble for it. Soldiers who bitch get transferred to the west where the lifespan of a GI is somewhat limited.”
posted by nolocontendere at 6:38 PM
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