Iraq

This was written by one of my friends that returned from Iraq a week ago. I was able to see him at the parade in Delta today with his wife and kids and I am so glad that he was able to return safe and sound. Thanks Dave for serving our country and being the brave soldier that you are!!!

"I will start with my first deployment to Iraq and some of the experiences I had there. I was deployed to Iraq from 03-04 in support of Operation Iraqi freedom. While there, I was honored to have multiple Iraqi men come up to me and in broken English and with tears in their eyes tell me thank you and then go into a story how their families and friends were either tortured, raped, murdered or forced into exile by Saddam, his sons or members of his regime. These experiences and memories are among the best memories I have and taught me some things. First all the political stuff aside, the freedoms which we as a nation along with our allies brought to these people is worth the price paid. Our freedom was bought with a price and that price was blood and I can think of nothing I would rather risk or sacrifice my life for than the chance to give the gift of freedom. And second the media has not portrayed to the American people or the world the true story of how the people there in Iraq feel about our actions.

My second deployment to Iraq was 07-08 the first part of that deployment was spent escorting convoys from the Turkey border south to supply the needs of coalition forces in northern Iraq. Over half of our route was through some of the most dangerous roads in all of Iraq, where one out of every three convoy was struck by an IED. The other part of our route was through the Kurdish region of the country where there was no threat to our convoy. In fact the Kurdish people in northern Iraq love us they love America and support what we are doing in there country and have supported it since we got there. In the city where we stayed on the Turkey border we could go to local restaurants and eat side by side with locals. We could also go out into the streets and hand out toys and candy to the children, all without body armor and without even loading our weapons because northern Iraq is safe and stable. And a safe and stable Iraq is not what the media leads the world to believe exists or is even possible of existing, they want every one to believe that we the United States have failed in Iraq.

When it was time for my unit to go home me along with 26 other soldiers from my company decided to stay. The mission was personal security detail for the US embassy my platoon was tasked with PSD for the United Nations. While I did my job protecting UN diplomats and advisors I again had the opportunity to talk to some Iraqi men, this is what two of them had to tell me. The first man was a soldier in the Iraqi army who was excited to talk to a fellow soldier and tell me about his job. The first thing he did was shake my hand and tell me thank you for coming to his country and helping his people. Then he told me how excited he was to be working with us to rebuild and stabilize his country. He was excited to tell me how many divisions the Iraqi army had and the many different jobs it now offered. The second man was a man that had been living in exile in Switzerland after Saddam had the people of his village murdered, including his father. Those people were buried in a mass unmarked grave. He took what was left of his family and fled the country to Switzerland where he lived with his family until Saddam was removed from power. After Saddam was removed from power he brought his family back to Iraq to rebuild a life in his country. He came home with only the clothes he and his family could pack in suitcases and his life savings and no idea how he was going to make a living but had hope that he and his family cold make it work. He and his wife are taking care of their three children by his wife working as a school teacher and him serving in the Iraqi army. Which is exactly how my wife and I are taking care of our children. When I told him this it brought us even closer and gave me a greater understanding of the importance of my service in Iraq.

And that is to bring freedom to those who could not do it for themselves and to stabilize an area of the world that for as long as I can remember has not been stable. A lot of people think we should bring our troop’s home that we should have never sent troops to Iraq in the first place. I disagree, where would the world be if our country chose to stay out of both world wars, what would life been like for the people of South Vietnam had we stayed and finished the fight, and what would have happened to our fledgling country had we not had any help from others during our war for independence."