As the debate over the funding of the U.S. troops fighting in Iraq rages on, it is important that the voices of those primarily carrying the burdens of the war be heard.
I yield my space in this issue to the voice of a 22-year old soldier in Iraq whose name is Eddie Jeffers. He wrote a letter to his father David Jeffers, and his father circulated the letter in the internet. Here are excerpts from the letter...
“I stare out into the darkness from my post, and I watch the city burn to the ground. I smell the familiar smells, I walk through the familiar rubble, and I look at the frightened faces that watch me pass down the streets of their neighborhoods. My nerves hardly rest; my hands are steady on a device that has been given to me from my government for the purpose of taking the lives of others.”
“I sweat and I am tired. My back aches
from the loads I carry. Young American boys look to me to direct them in a
manner that will someday allow them to see their families again...and yet, I
too, am just a boy...my age not but a few years more than that of the ones I
lead. I am stressed, I am scared, and I am paranoid...because death is
everywhere. It waits fro me, it calls to me from around street corners and
windows, and it is always there. There are the demons that follow me, and tempt
me into thoughts and actions that are not my own...but that are necessary for
survival. I’ve made compromises with my humanity. And I am not alone in this.
Miles from me are my brethren in this world, who walk in the same streets...who
feel the same things, whether they admit to it or not.
“And to think, I volunteered for this...
“And I am ignorant to the rest of the
world...or so I thought.
“But even thousands of miles away, in
Ramadi, Iraq, the cries and screams and complaints of the ungrateful reach me.
In a year, I will be thrust back into society from a life and mentality that
doesn’t fit your average man. And then, I will be alone. And then, I will walk
down the streets of America, and see the yellow ribbon stickers on the cars of
the same people who compare our President to Hitler.”
“I will watch the television and watch
the Cindy Sheehans, and the Al Frankens, and the rest of the ignorant sheep of
America spout off their mouths about a subject they know nothing about. It is
their right, however, and it is a right that is defended by hundreds of
thousands of boys and girls scattered across the world, far from home. I sue
the word boys and girls, because that’ what they are. In the Army, the average
age of the infantryman is nineteen years old. The average rank of soldiers
killed in action is Private First class.”
“People like Cindy Sheehan are ignorant.
Not just to this war, but to the results of their idiotic ramblings, or at
least I hope they are. They don’t realize its effects on this war. In this war,
there are no Geneva Conventions, no cease fires. Medics and Chaplains are not
spared from the enemy’s brutality
because it’s against the rules. I can only imagine horrors a military Chaplain
would experience at the hands of the enemy.”
“The enemy sinks in the shadows and
fights a coward’s war against us. It is effective though, as many men and women
have died since the start of this war. And the memory of their service to
America is tainted by the inconsiderate remarks on our nation’s news outlets.
And every day, the enemy changes..l.only now, the enemy is becoming something
new. The enemy is transitioning from the Muslim extremists to Americans. The
enemy is becoming the very people whom we defend with our lives. And they do
not realize it. But in denouncing our actions, denouncing our leaders,
denouncing the war we live and fight, they are isolating the military from
society..land they are becoming our enemy.”
“Democrats and peace activists like to
toss the word “Quagmire” around and compare this war to Vietnam. In a way they
are right, this war is becoming like Vietnam, not the actual war, but in the
isolation of country and military. America is not a nation at war; they are a
nation with its military at war. Like it or not, we are here, some of us for
our second, or third times; some even for their fourth and so on. Americans are
so concerned now with politics, that it is interfering with our war....”
“America has lost its will to fight. It
has lost its will to defend what is right and just in this world. The crazy
thing of it all is that American people have not even been asked to sacrifice a
single thin. It’s not like World War Two, where people rationed food, and
turned in cars to be made into metal for tanks. The American people have not
been asked to sacrifice anything. Unless you are in the military or the family
member or service member, its life as usual...the war doesn’t affect you.”
“But it affects us. And then when it is
over, and the troops come home, and they try to piece together what’s left of
them after their service...where will the detractors be then? Where will the
Cindy Sheehans to comfort and talk to soldiers and help them sort out the last
couple of years of their lives, most of which have been spend dodging death and
wading through the deaths of their friends? They will be where they always are,
somewhere far away, where the horrors of the world can’t tough them. Somewhere
where they can complain about things they will never experience in their
lifetime; things that the young men and women of America have willingly taken
upon their shoulders...”
Right now, the burden is all on the
American soldiers. Right now, hope rides alone. But it can change, it must
change. Because there is only failure and darkness ahead for us as a country,
as a people, it doesn’t.
Let’s stop all the political nonsense,
let’s stop all the bickering, let’s top all the bad news, and let’s stand and
fight!”
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