Richard Reeves: Why Are We in Iraq?

[jaysunb]

SEPTEMBER 28, 2007
BERLIN — Here is a report from the front. The writer is an Army colonel:

"We are bitter about the whole thing. We fight desperately for all we're worth; not only because our course is right, but also because we're fighting for our survival. But is all seems so useless and stupid. To 'liberate,' we're destroying (the country) and its people. They all hate us. Everyone here is an enemy. We can't trust anyone. ... I feel more and more that we have made a supreme error in committing our forces to this bottomless pit."

Not Iraq. That is a letter from Korea, from Col. Paul Freeman (later a four-star general), commander of the 325th Regiment, 2nd Division, U.S. Army, to his wife, Mary Anne, on Sept. 12, 1950. It is on page 586 of "The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War," the last and very powerful book written by the late David Halberstam, which was published this week

Reeves, gets it right...as usual.