REMEMBERING THE SOLDIER
Dear Soldier, Sailor, Airman, or Marine:
I’d like to apologize for not writing sooner. It’s been
about a year since my last letter, just after you freed the people
of Iraq from the unimaginable brutality under which they’d been
living. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking of you; life just
gets hectic. It’s a weak excuse and I’ll try to do better.
The one-year anniversary of the fall of Saddam has
gotten a lot of attention here at home. We can’t seem to agree on
what it means, this being America and an election year to boot, but
at least we’ve noticed. Most of the talk is about policy, strategy,
who knew what, who told who what, why they didn’t know what they
didn’t know, and so on. All of this probably seems a little silly
when your boots are on the ground, but if you mistake the evening
news for America it’d be easy to believe we think less about you
than our little debates.
If you could watch the news, and I don’t know that I’d
recommend it, you’d hear of little but “failures.” One has to
search pretty hard to find that power and water have been restored,
that employment is back to pre-war levels, that virtually every
hospital, school, and institute of higher learning has been
reopened. Polls show most Iraqi’s think they are better off now,
all thanks to you.
One need look even harder to learn Iraq has an interim
constitution that guarantees the rights of women, freedom of
religion, and the protection of the country’s many ethnic groups,
nearly without precedent in that part of the world. We take those
things for granted here, but you’ve seen what happens when freedom
is stolen at the point of a gun. You also know the truth of what
you’ve done and what Iraq was like, something you won’t see on
television. Don’t let that take one micron from what you’ve done.
And I do mean you, not politicians. Those who don’t
like the war or our policies can take up their beef with them; those
who don’t like the way you’ve carried out your orders need a history
lesson.
Do you know how long it took the United States to pull
its troops out of Germany, Italy, and Japan after World War II? Me
either, because we haven’t. I do know it took seven years to
restore civilian rule to Japan; Iraqis are scheduled to govern
themselves in June.
It will be a monumental task and I won’t begin to guess
how it will work out, but the idea would have been unthinkable this
soon after any other war. Because of you, it just might work in
Iraq. If it doesn’t, June wasn’t your idea. My guess is that you
just want the job done right, as you have already proven.
Not that you wouldn’t rather be home. You’d be nuts not
to, and now that it looks like tours of duty may be extended for
some, I wouldn’t begrudge you a little griping. If I do any
begrudging, I’ll save it for those who would twist homesickness into
a lack of dedication to your job and mission.
Like all American service people since the end of the
draft, you chose your job. You don’t choose the missions, but have
placed your trust in those who do. I hope they earn it, just as you
have earned the respect and gratitude of your countrymen.
From everyone back home, or as close to it as one can
get in this land of the free, thank you. I’ll keep praying for you
and your family.
Sincerely,
A Grateful American
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