10 years ago I was fitting my MOLLE gear and learning infiltration routes to Iraq

[Recursion]

Two days before I had been protesting the approaching war, but as a Corporal of Marines I didn't have the luxury of only obeying wise orders.

On both a personal and patriotic level, I want to thank all of you who put country and conscience before popularity and opposed this war, whether it was for moral reasons (it was wrong) or practical reasons (it was the worst dispersal of forces since Publius Quintillius Varus lost the northern legions in Germany*).

I also kind of miss how we were all on the same side, back then, but that's a conversation for another day. Anyways, peace and love from a burnt-out former Marine.

* That comparison is not just me, it's from the most esteemed military historian writing today, Martin van Creveld. He writes books with titles like "Supply in War", "Modern Warfare", and "Command and Communication in War" without irony: they are that complete and well-researched.

[dkf]

1. Wow that's damned impressive.

I didn't agree with the war but I respect what you and the rest of our service members did so very much...and I'm so sorry we couldn't stop it from happening.

Hugs and thank you.

[NYC_SKP]

2. Thank you for your service, Recursion.

[riqster]

3. Thank you for serving your country

I wish that it,in return, served you as well as you deserve.

[freshwest]

4. I'm glad you made it back.

[Recursion]

5. Nowhere near as glad as I am :)

But thank you!

[SaveAmerica]

6. Sorry you're burnt out, but I get it. Your first line says it all

that is the best representation of what it's like to be in the military and do what you're told even when it's whacky.

"I didn't have the luxury of only obeying wise orders".

This is why I became an active participant in politics, for you and all the others in the military with very little voice in it.

[brer cat]

7. Protested the war

but respected the soldiers and Marines. I am glad you are home and on DU.

[lonestarnot]

8. Warmonger money makers make me sick to death. I'm done and too old now, but if were not

I would never enlist. I would not fight for cheating corporations of this day and age. Glad you're home!

[Az_lefty]

9. 10 Years ago my NG Company was headed to Kuwait to prepare for the invasion

crossed the line right after the 3rd ID. Hauling fuel and supplies we really got lit up, but luckily no injuries. It was a very long year living in the dirt

[cliffordu]

10. Thanks for this, Recursion

[Lugnut]

11. Thank you, Recursion.

I opposed the Iraq invasion but I never opposed those who were following orders.

[padruig]

12. ten years ago

Ten years ago, because of my work in the sciences, (I and anyone else who could do the numbers on the back of an envelope) maintained that the evidence of either nuclear or biological weapons in Iraq simply did not exist and did not support an invasion.

I remember when Ambassador Joseph Wilson ran his epic editorial on the pages of the New York Times "What I Didn't Find in Africa"

I remember clearly the attempt that followed to destroy his reputation and the reputation of his wife who at that time was nuclear proliferation specialist and overseas operative for the CIA.

I was there in the Shoreline, Wa. town hall meeting when then congressman Jay Inslee (today our Governor) spoke with Ambassador Wilson and others about what was happening to make the case for war. I was standing off to the right of the stage when Ambassador Wilson expressed his desire to see Karl Rove "frog marched out of the White House"

When I watched the film Fair Game which dramatized that meeting my only thought was in the actual town hall meeting, it was much bigger, filled to capacity and it was very diverse in age, gender and race.

This was a moment where we all as citizens has 'skin' in the game.

I am not pleased that the architects of this conflict have not yet seen justice for the tremendous loss of human life and extraordinary costs to our country and others.

I am pleased that you went, you served to your capabilities and you came home. Many did not and it is shallow comfort to know my own kindred who did multiple tours of Iraq and Afghanistan are still with my family today.

I am most distressed at the media, both here and in Britain who were lapdogs to this tragedy and now hearing reporters attempting to mend their reputation by describing how they were caught up in the moment is like watching the tone deaf feign an appreciation of fine music.

There were many in both the House and the Senate who stood against this travesty and they along with the analysts, scientists and military who advised against this, along with the millions who marched, will forever be heroes at home.

Conflict of any kind is the first step to the graveside.

[xtraxritical]

13. Don't ever enlist in the military and this shit would not happen. Orders, that's what the Nazis

said at Nuremberg.

[Gravitycollapse]

14. That's quite the warping of the Nazi trials.

The masses of SA and SS soldiers were never tried. Largely because they were just following orders.

Those put on trial were generally high ranking officials and those positively identified from concentration camps. The excuse "I was just following orders" didn't exactly apply to them because they were the ones giving the orders. And the ones who were following orders that were tried usually committed horrific crimes.

[HiPointDem]

17. and they were just following the orders of these guys, who didn't suffer much in those trials

THE FORD motor company has been named as one of the firms using slave labour at the Auschwitz death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland...

Other German industrial conglomerates included on the list of Auschwitz profiteers include Siemens, Krupp and I G Farben...

a total of 51 companies used slave labour at Auschwitz...92 companies used slave labour at Buchenwald, 52 at Dachau and 57 at Mauthausen...

On Wednesday, shareholders of I G Farben voted at a meeting in Frankfurt to set up a million-pound compensation fund for former slave labourers who worked under the Nazis. The first payments will go to former slave labourers over 80 who were at Auschwitz.

But surviving slave labourers demanded that the company, which still exists but does not trade, be liquidated and its assets, worth over pounds 6.6m, distributed to Holocaust survivors.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/slave-labour-at-auschwitz-used-by-ford-1113755.html

[TygrBright]

15. Thank you, Recursion.

Sometimes our determination to do the right thing goes terribly wrong. That doesn't make the determination to do something right, something worth doing, or the sacrifice involved, any less worthy of acknowledgment.

Marines go where they're sent, and do what they're sent for, because they believe that being a Marine is worth it: Putting a mortal body between harm and home.

However I feel about war in general, and the Iraq war in particular (and yes, I was out there on the Mall, making my voice heard, doing my damnedest to stop the madness...) I respect the commitment that you and other Marines (and all service members) make and the feelings behind that commitment.

My utter contempt for the civilian and high-level military "leadership" that recklessly, greedily, and callously abused you and others who made that commitment is beyond measure, but it in no way reflects on those who wanted, in the wake of the horror that was 9/11, to put their own lives on the line to keep America safe.

I can only pledge, in return for your commitment and the price you paid to keep that commitment, that I WILL NOT GIVE UP until they are held accountable.

determinedly,
Bright

[ReRe]

16. K&R

Well, peace and love right back at you, Recursion.

[bemildred]

18. Thank you for your service, and glad you came back alive.

Peace and love from a burnt out old Vietnam war protestor.

[ellisonz]

19. K & R