Over Najaf, Fighting for Des Moines (Marine new to Iraq says war just)

[Barrett808]

Over Najaf, Fighting for Des Moines
By GLEN G. BUTLER

Najaf, Iraq — I'm an average American who grew up watching "Brady Bunch" reruns, playing dodge ball and listening to Van Halen. I love the Longhorns and the Eagles. I'm you; your neighbor; the kid you used to go sledding with but who took a different career path in college. Now, I'm a Marine helicopter pilot who has spent the last two weeks heavily engaged with enemy forces here. I'm writing this between missions, without much time or care to polish, so please look to the heart of these thoughts and not their structure.

I got in country a little more than a month ago, eager to do my part here for the global war on terror and still get home in one piece. I'm a mid-grade officer, so I probably have a better-than-average understanding of the complexity of the situation, but I make no claims to see the bigger picture or offer any strategic solutions. Two years of my military training were spent in Quantico, Va., classrooms. I've read Sun Tzu several times; I've flipped through Mao's Little Red Book and debated over Thucydides; I've analyzed Henry Kissinger's "Diplomacy" and Clausewitz's "On War"; and I've walked the battlefields of Antietam, Belleau Wood, Majuba and Isandlwana.

I've also studied a little about the culture I'm deep in the middle of, know a bit about the caliph, about the five pillars and about Allah, but know I don't know enough. I am also a believer in our cause - I put that up front just so there isn't any question of my motivation.

We marines are proudly apolitical, yet stereotypically right-wing conservative. I'm both. And I'd be here with my fellow devildogs, fighting just as hard, whether John Kerry or George W. Bush or Ralph Nader were our commander-in-chief, until we're told to go home.

(more)

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/23/opinion/23butler.html

[karlrschneider]

1. If this guy really is a Marine Major, he's a brainwashed overly gung-ho

one. This sounds like something written deep in the bowels of the AEI or some other GOP "think-tank."

[Larkspur]

2. Could he be a Marine who Launched Attack at Najaf without Approval?

Muqtada declines to See Delegation
Marines Launched Attack without Approval
http://www.juancole.com/2004_08_01_juancole_archive.html#109281411743058076

[fencesitter]

3. I know this guy's father

They're from our very conservative county.