Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Afganistan, Iraq wars, worse than useless

Diana West received a letter from one soldier, who is very frank in his assessment of what we have done in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's devastating:

How Muslims Defeated the United States
Today, I am posting an extraordinary letter from a soldier currently stationed in Iraq, a sometime penpal of mine to whom I sent my three-part series on the aftermath of the surge to elicit his opinion. Knowing how thoughtful he is, I expected a substantive response. Given his time constraints alone, I did not expect an essay of this scope and I decided, with his permission, to present it here. It is unlike any commentary I have read from Iraq; it is both coolly reasoned and deeply passionate, and certain to challenge and disturb readers across the political spectrum: PC-believing liberals, Iraq-as-success-believing conservatives, Islam-as-a-religion-of-peaceniks of both Left and Right. [...]

She prints his letter in it's entirety. It's not what most of us would like to hear. I don't agree with everything he says, but enough of it rings true to find it very disturbing. What have we done, what are we doing, and what are the likely long-term consequences? If this soldier is correct, we may not like the answers to those questions. In any case, we shall see as time goes on.
     

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