almost a rant....

Well, I was ready to rant and rave about this article from William M. Arkin of the Washington Post. I had The military pay scale all ready to show about how decent a wage they get (The pay listed is for a month, not the week. Converting it over to a 40 hour week does not really work either, in 6 years in the Navy I easily averaged 80 hours a week). I was ready to rip in with fire and brimstone, but after reading some of the responses I felt the job had been done. Here are a couple of them.

I'm not frustrated with a lack of progress in Iraq because I see it everyday! What I am frustrated with is ignorant people such as yourself Mr. Arkin undermining our intelligence, reality, and the resolve of American soldiers. My mission in support of Iraqi Enduring Freedom takes me all over Iraq. I escort convoys while driving our "Gun Trucks" through so many stretches of roadways that you and your like-minded ignorant counterparts can't even begin to understand. I won't even begin to start trying to explain any of the progress I personally see because it will likely be undermined just like any other success story to come out of Iraq by some fool! It's easy to just sit back and selfishly question everything when you don't actually have to be here. Nations don't just stabilize in a matter of a few years. Any positive at all is a good sign. Is your cub half empty? Well, mine is 3/4 full! No, I am not blind or ignorant of facts. Seeings progress firsthand gives me an insight you will never have. So, stop being selfish and just be grateful you don't have to worry about IEDs going off on your way to work or worrying whats going to happen if a nations just gives up and slowly leaves without finishing something that could have great potential. I would love if you personally come over here and tell all the little children (some with no shoes, a little dirty, hungry, maybe no parents because they were killed by Saddam's regime or death squads) that sorry, your life and your future isn't important! Bye, bye, have a nice life. You're not important enough. At least my conscience will be clear, will yours? As far as soldiers being mercenaries, lol, that's just too funny. Wow, yes, you're right, we are really raking in the cash here. If if wasn't for the tax relief, I would have made more at home at my civilian job at home. (ohh, i was also pursuing a college degree too, but wait, people that don't don't try hard, or don't work hard, get stuck in Iraq. Yes, you and John Kerry are equally disturbing to me) The amazing thing is we don't even get paid overtime and actually have to work on some holidays. I forget though, the salary I make in the military is equal to the risk of my life that I put on the line every day. Ohh well, theres that $400,000 life insurance policy if I don't make it. Is that what my life is worth to you? Gladly though, I serve and protect and do my job. Not for the money, the benefits but for something greater that you will just never be able to understand. God Bless, and take care. It is my hope that you get a reality check and stop being such a selfish, ungrateful, hurtful, arrogant man.!

Going back on the road soon, hopefully I don't get blown up, because then I will have people like you tarnish my memory and say that my life was taken in vain and the cause didn't serve a purpose!

Posted by: SPC. Jonathan D | February 1, 2007 09:59 PM



Mr. Arkin-

I am an officer in the United States Army. I have deployed to Iraq twice, and been wounded once. I have had my soldiers killed and wounded, I have killed and wounded other human beings. I have carried wounded soldiers and civilians in my arms; crying in pain. I myself am permanently physically damaged by my experience.
Through all those events, I never shed a tear. Yet I sit here today crying; reading your original article and your rebuttal to the overwhelming response.
I am proud of what I do, what my soldiers do, the freedoms we defend, and everything we stand for. I proudly defend your right to publish your article, and it actually warms my soul to see free debate and discourse about any topic, because this is the only nation in the world where such completely unbridled discussion and opinion rage on in an organized fashion. That is the United States I am proud of, the one that has given me so much.
I decry and am ashamed of my fellow warriors who have lost their thin veneer of civilization and chosen to engage in the atrocities committed in Iraq. May God have mercy on their souls.
I have chosen to shelve my right to have an opinion on the war in Iraq. I support our effort to help the Iraqi people, depose Saddam, and promote a free(er) Iraq. Are we (or can we) still doing that? I don't know anymore. I have an opinion, but it is too visceral to be truly rational anymore, so I keep it to myself.
Overall, it does not matter. My country, almost unanimously, asked me to refresh the tree with my blood in Iraq/Afghanistan 6 years ago. That was this country, by referendum. As my country comes to terms with what she has done, and possibly chooses a different path, I will soldier on. I will guide and inspire my Soldiers to do the same. But, it saddens me to see so many of my brothers and sisters killed and maimed, only to find out my country either didn't mean it or had no stomach for it.
None of these are the reasons I cry. I cry for the lack of purpose, the apparent lack of caring, the lack of compassion you displayed in your original article and in this subsequent failure to apologize to me, my fellow warriors, and all those who came before me. Here's why.
1. I am not a mercenary. You could make me work two jobs and this would still be one of them, because I am that passionate about defending you and your rights. Many in the National Guard and Reserves do just that. My country needs professional warriors to do her bidding, and he is me, and thousands like me.
2. I have the right to express my opinion within the bounds of the UCMJ, as do my Soldiers. How dare you imply that I do not, or that I should reprimand them? We already accept an abbreviated set of rights willingly. Do not attempt limit my liberties that I have already willingly limited while I defend without complaint the unabridged version you are so rightly entitled to.
3. As an officer, my needs are met. However, in the three months leading up to my first deployment and the entire 13 month adventure, my pay amounted to 173 cents an hour. My friends and I logged our hours as a joke, but $1.73 is the reality. That equates to 19-20 hour days, 7 days a week, for 16 months. That's with the relatively lavish bonuses and benefits we receive while deployed. And I am an officer. Think of our junior enlisted, and find someone else in our great country that is willing to work so hard, day and night, no weekends, under fire, threat of death over their head, for so little? Find me one and I will retract this comment graciously. Of course, even when not deployed, it takes my wife and me quite some time to get through the line at the grocery store. That's because we get in line behind one of my fellow warriors, who with shame in their eyes and faces flush with embarrassment fill out their WIC paperwork because they don't make enough to support their wife and two kids (an average sized family).
4. This response is taking an inordinate amount of time to type, because I have only one functioning hand after being wounded in Iraq. I am trying as quickly as possible to use the medical system your (and my) taxes paid for to recover, so I can go back to Iraq and continue to fight for what you don't believe in, because I believe in you and my Soldiers. Still, I count myself lucky, as I received my Purple Heart next to a 19-year old warrior with both his legs amputated above the knee. No matter how wrong the majority feels the decision was at this juncture, that Soldier gave (I use the word gave deliberately) his legs at his nation's calling. Not for money. Not because he was too stupid to get into college. Not for the great benefits. Just because you asked him to. Please don't imply that this fallen hero is not entitled to the basic medical care he receives.
5. Given the opportunity, I would fight the Germans in 1944. Oh, to have that definition of purpose, that sense of righteousness! But, that is not to be. This is the war that this country has chosen for me, my peers, and my Soldiers. With its vagueness, dirtiness, ambiguity, undefined enemy, amorphous center of gravity, and undefined purpose. The actions of our administration, the decisions higher-echelons of our military, the blunders of the CPA, (I could go on) etc. aside; it comes back to one thing. America chose this fight for me, and I will fight it with all my skill and might until she tells me to stop. The woes and throes of the majority, hawks, doves, liberals, neocons, etc. mean nothing to me or those Soldiers you quoted. What matters to us is that you told us to be there, 3000+ of our brothers and sisters have died there, and we are still there. Change that - in reality, not in the abstract - and we will gladly leave and prepare ourselves for the next challenge and opportunity to defend your freedoms.
I am a Warrior, a Soldier, a Scholar, and a Patriot. This country has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to train and educate me. I am well-versed in our government, our demographics, our history, and our Constitution. Perhaps I am an idealist. To the end of my life or capability I will defend your rights and this country. I am proud that I live in a country where a free-thinker such as you can write an article so critical of current policy. But I am deeply hurt by the insinuations and accusations listed above. I request an apology, on the behalf of all the Armed Forces, for your insensitive and boorish comments. I only wish I could communicate with your entire readership the bitter taste of betrayal that is in my mouth as easily as you communicate your speech and thoughts.

With Respect,

A United States Army Officer
"Army Strong"

Posted by: Army Officer | February 1, 2007 05:25 PM



I just have a few questions for Mr. Arkin.

Have you been to Walter Reed? Have you asked those men and woman if they support the American People enough? Find the Man or Woman who is learning to walk again, or trying to figure out how to write with an articulated hook, and look them in the eye and tell that person they aren't supportive enough.
Better yet, you tell that young mom who is trying to figure what life is going to be like when she gets her amputee husband home. Tell her husband is a disgrace and needs to be more supportive of the America People.
I've been to Walter Reed, I'm an amputee myself and I proudly serve. I just can't tell if you are so bereft of knowledge or intellectually disingenuous enough to really mean what you say.
I'm also perplexed by what Mr. Arkin means when he says we receive "obscene quantities of amenities". Does Mr. Arkin think that the just because we are removed from our families for a year, placed in a hostile climate and will get shot at, indirectly fired on and possibly caught in an explosion means we are being self absorbed to ask for a few treats and trinkets and quality of life items?
Perhaps swearing to support and defend the constitution is just not supporting American enough for Mr. Arkin. Perhaps being cavalier with our personal safety is just too little an order when it comes to giving back to the American people. Maybe those brave sons and daughters at Walter Reed that have risked life and limb, and came back with little more than there life, just aren't supportive enough.
And the sad things about those heroes is so many of them feel guilty just for surviving where there friends did not.
I suppose those free Men and Woman that "stand between our loved home and the wars desolation" just need to find ways to sacrifice more and do more for the American people.
I wonder if Mr. Arkin could tell you what song I quoted there.
Mr. Arkin, you have no concept of sacrifice, allegiance, courage or even patriotism. But know this, that it is okay that you feel the way you do, it is after all your right. Just understand, it is not your god given right, because not everyone has it, it is because of people like me. You know those soldiers that just aren't supportive enough, by your standards.

Posted by: rhc4 | January 31, 2007 03:52 PM

Regardless of how you feel about Iraq, attacking the Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airmen who are fighting it is uncalled for. Frankly after that I think there is nothing else to say.