Phil's Response

Here is my best bud's somewhat sarcastic response...I love a good discussion with some nastiness thrown in ;-)....


My brother,
Sorry for the delay in the response. I must commend you for some well thought out responses which is more then I can say for some of the idiots that address these issues using only generalities and platitudes which creates more frustration then progress. It is fitting that we are having this conversation especially since it has been brought to the national spot light. The over all theme is national security and the Global War on Terror (which by they way here at the DoD, we can not use that term any longer, so much for calling it what the fuck it is, a gentler over tone)

Topic: Iraq
You and I will differ on if Iraq was justified and necessary, libs can not seem to divorce themselves from this (unjust war, we were lied to, ect) see WMD and AQ ties was not the primary reasons we went to Iraq, just look at the map and you can see why Iraq was necessary! The ability to influence our enemies, come on my young strategist have you forgotten your war game days. I do not delineate between the Global War on Terror (GWOT) and Iraq, see they are one in the same. Timing sucked but I will stand by the fact that it was the right war just the wrong time. What I do not understand is why there are those that can't seem to stomach it, weakness seems to permeate throughout the Democrats. It was the dems that got us here with the impotent responses of the Clinton administration and this is my worst fear that our leaders will be impotent once again, and we will loose lives once again. Yes my brother you are witness to a historic victory, surely you know that history tells us that it normally takes 9 years to win or lose a Counter Insurgency. So what the fuck, we have only been fighting in Iraq since 2003 and look at where we are now, this bitch is nearly won. I am not sure you and I are looking at the same conflict. You use words like "our failures" and "untenable" your conclusions are flawed and misguided. My first deployment in 04 was shitty and my second in 05 was worse, however my final deployment in 07 I witnessed something I thought I would never see. It was a meeting that we held where no shit mayors, legitimate Iraqi Police chiefs, Sheiks, and a legitimate Iraqi Army Bn Cmdr convened. This meeting was my capstone, the agenda included "every day things" as they pertained to governance, economic, infrastructure, and security. See 7 months before that meeting, Iraqi Police where getting beheaded, and the mayor was in constant danger, but at the end we were talking about night soccer ball tournaments and make sure our snipers would not shoot the ball players. Progress, metrics, and tangible success. Now, I will not generalize Iraq, you cant, I do not know about the condition in Baghdad, but that is the problem, the conflict is too dynamic and complex for the folks here at home to fully understand it (not that they would fucking want to, that would cut into important things like, what dog is the Pres going to buy). Buy your own admission "it takes time to build a democracy" then give us fucking time. There is no commitment, why dishonor the fallen by not accomplishing the mission. This is a clash of our two cultures, for me it is about honor and not defeat, this may sound mellow dramatic but to suggest to me that pulling out and let the Iraqis deal with it before they are ready is bullshit. AQ is not going to cause "chaos' why would they we are leaving, like the Muj in Afgan during the Soviet era, let them go. Once we bounce then the true test will come, if Iraq fails, my brother your worst nightmares will come true. Victory is there and trust me, dealing with Iraqis brings its own challenge, no we do not and must not be there forever. What the fuck is the administration going to do if we pull the plug to early, Eloquently say" I am sorry" and redeploy forces to recover ground that we already had. I am not going to get my panties to much in bunch over this, because the conditions are already set for the turn over (boys are getting bored over there now which is a good thing), and not because of our current leadership, the fuckers haven't done nothing yet. It just speaks to a mindset and an agenda that reeks with weakness and absolutely no resolve. Ok my brother this is the first of a few more emails, next topic: National Security, GITMO, and that terrible, terrible water boarding tech, oh my we are such barbarians, fucking Democrats, (do they have to take estrogen pills before they vote?)
Have a good weekend professor
Phil