Amazing interview with Reservist in Iraq

http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=668
A soldier back from Iraq discusses the war and the U.S. soldiers fighting that war, the suicides, and much more.
Interview by Daniel Redwood

Because members of the military are limited in their ability to speak out publicly, the soldier interviewed here must remain anonymous. A military medic who served in the Gulf War in the early 1990s, he is a member of the Reserves who was called up to serve in the current war in Iraq.....

And that makes me suspicious.

While I agree with many of the "answers" it seems that this is one of the most incredibly-informed medics in the US military.

I think not.

I've read many interviews from returning soldiers, and some of them DO seem contrived, but this one strikes me as honest.

Call me gullible if you choose, but, to me, these words strike a chord of truth.

As they DO sound like answers that a soldier would give.

I just find it amazing that ONE GUY would have such great responses on such a variety of subjects, and to be so remarkably well-informed about many things that even folks on here are hazy about.

Maybe some kind of amalgamation of interviews with several soldiers.

a lot, and does not just sit around playing video games.

being that he was a corpsman and was probably back in the med unit at least part of the time (it sounds like he went on patrols too) so it is more likely that he had internet access and contact with people back here. He is older and more measured and more informed than some 19 year old who plays video games and well is a 19 year old.

Nothing that he alluded to is that hard to find out about-the chickenhawks, W's record (he has been home for at least a month), the aircraft landing (in EVERY paper), and so on.

His warnings about the summer sound dire. I, of course, hope that it doesn't come to fruition but he seems to know what he is talking about.

I have to say having been in the Army (Scout) I never heard of "dope" as it applies to a 16. :shrug:

courtesy of our DU colleague "lebkuchen". Just go over to the Search section for those posts.


:bounce:

person. There is no reason to doubt anything that he writes. He is one of us.

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the truth hurts, doesn't it.

by his own words, he is a lifer, if asked. he has already been in a long time. he obviously knows the score.

I'm thinking some of you might be deciphering my comments as not agreeing with his assessments, or as remarking that they are not truthful (or reasonable).

Nope!

Just seems a little odd that a medic, stationed in Iraq for at least the last several months (he mentioned Thanksgiving), has so many answers that are almost verbatim of many of the things here.

Holy cow, it looks like the "question things and yer an evildoer" mindset has infiltrated the DU!

So, does that mean that John Kerry and other Vietnam vets who protested the war when they came back and were able to speak out without endangering their fellow soldiers came to their senses and opinions suddenly, like Atheane from Jove's brow, fully formed as soon as they set foot back on American soil?

Or is it more likely that they were like this Corpsman, a resevist medic who was most likely an educated, working civilian with access to the same information as the general public during the beginning of the Iraqi "conflict" who kept his mouth shut about what he (or she) and went ahead and deployed with his unit for whatever motivations they may have had personally - be it patriotism, be it a sense of personal honor (s/he signed up, so s/he keeps the word s/he made), be it a sense of trying to "fix" a horrific accident, whatever.

Statements such as the ones this soldier has made are fully within keeping of the level of discussions I and many other DU former and current military have had with ship- and platoon-mates during off hours.

"an answer for everything..." heh, you've never met sea-lawyers and other bored watchstanders who, in the wee hours of the dog watches, would get into discussions on the reasons Ho Chi Mhin was turned down by Truman despite the promises Rosevelt made to him, how Hitler could have taken over the world had the Japanese made further inroads into Russia during their Manchurian push, why Panama and the Philippines suddenly became an CIA/State Department issue in the late 1980's and those dictators overthrown, etc, etc, etc...

The smart soldier and sailor is always aware of what can get him/her sent from home base and killed. Especially the nuances of foriegn policy.

I don't find anything in this article "pat" - perhaps edited a bit (there should be a shitload more cusswords in it!) but otherwise fully in keeping with discussions I've had over the past 25 years...

Haele

But I met my share of barracks lawyers!

The interviewer has already posted below, so I am wrong (a common enough occurence).

Frankly, I'm GLAD I'm wrong about this. The whole time I was in (8 years) the enlisted guys (and I was one) were some of the most ill-informed folks I had ever met.

If the rank-and-file enlisted dudes are getting pissed, and if guys like the subject of the interview are talking with their fellow soldiers about these things, I don't think that Georgie can count on the military vote as much as he does.

Ah, in a perfect world...

Vickers

P.S. Yup, some profanity was definitely left on the cutting room floor.

nearly everything he said, I would definitely say it looks suspicious. it reads as the anti-"everything is going swell over here - Sincerely, Col. Shitface" letter that we've all seen so many times sent to us by our regrettable conservative friends and family. "Truth" as the "medic" "said" is "in the eye of the beholder".

I can honestly nelieve the BFEE forcing US troops to fil out a questionaire inorder to determine their support of * :argh: What an insult on top of so many others..

I don't find anything suspicious about it. He was on the ground there and it's a matter of life and death for him to be aware of what's going on.

snip>

Do you feel the Bush Administration has honestly and fully explained why they went into Iraq and why the U.S. military is still there?

No, and I don’t think they ever will. There’s no one to hold them accountable. Congress is a joke. We laugh at Congress. They come over and want to get their pictures taken. That’s nice. But what are they doing? They’re not helping us. They gave this man carte blanche to do whatever he wanted, and he’s doing exactly what he wants.

snip>

Do you feel that the Iraqi insurgency can be defeated militarily?

It would take a long time, because we are breeding more of them every day, because of the way we are treating the people.

How are they being treated?

We kick in their door, take the children and the women and put them in another place. Then we take the men out of the home.

And do what with them?

We interrogate the men about participation in the insurrection against the United States.

What’s that like?

I don’t do that.

more>

a must read IMO

Believe me, My stepson is a reservist and hes basically a TEENAGER WITH A GUN ...he did NOT sign up into the reserves to be in Iraq, he signed up to get training back in 2001 to gain some experience as an MP in the states so he could be a police officer someday.
No matter how hard we tried to talk him out of it, he signed up anyway when some recruiter told him training as a reservist MP would help him in the shitty job market around here.
what a fucking mess..and yes the country is on the verge of civil war..The contracts to the Iraq army have been stopped as of today, that means millions of dollars in arms wont be going to Iraq soldiers to secure the country..that means now we have to keep our kids over there even longer, that means more US soldiers dead as the hornets nest erupts over there..and more dead civilians in a war we shouldnt have started

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/03/05/1078464636716.html

Mountain biker friends of mine have had them for about 10 years (some call them "camel backs") and when I first saw them I thought that is a very good idea. Apparently they aren't issued but are allowed.

I know from a relative who used to run a basic training unit that the knee pads aren't issued but they (infantry) are required to have them. If they don't have any money on them when they get off the bus they take it out of their first month's pay. They make you pay to get your head shaved too ($2.50 when I enlisted in 1990).

For PR and political reasons THEY won't come out and tell people what they need to buy but I think it would help. I understand that there is some back and forth between troops that are or have been in Iraq telling them what they will need. On average soldiers are spending about $2,000 of their own money according to Time magazine.

a vest pack for keeping cool and a helmet pack for keeping cool..he told us its getting hot as hell there and we dont want him to take off his Kevlar vest, which, as we all know, kids do when they are hot and the heat should reach 120 degrees soon...and heat also makes one angry..we figured if hes cooled off a bit he can keep his head on straight.
god, this better fucking end soon.

IT just hit me that this is almost a revert to the Civil War and Revolutionary war period. Troops pretty much show up with what they have and aside from uniforms and ammo they are pretty much on their own.

When the mass public finds out (if they do anytime soon) what is going on just in terms of supplies they will be livid with rage.

Again if it helps you know he is in our thoughts and prayers.

:wow:

What did you think about President Bush’s Thanksgiving visit to Iraq?
I was there when President Bush came to the airport. The day before, you had to fill out a questionnaire and answer questions, that would determine whether they would allow you in the room with the President.

What was on the questionnaire?
“Do you support the president?”

Really!
Yes.

Members of the military were asked whether they support the president politically?
Yes. And if the answer was not a gung-ho, A-1, 100 percent yes, then you were not allowed into the cafeteria. You were not allowed to eat the Thanksgiving meal that day. You had an MRE.

**They should put this guy on 60 Minutes. Great interview.

picked.
I wish the Post and the media would grab this story its long overdue to be made public...all these stories.

Remember that? What was that at least a year ago when they asked all the donors who got to sit behind W to take off their ties so they didn't look so....uh rich. "Common folk" ish.

I am the interviewer. A friend alerted me to this discussion. I was the regional volunteer coordinator for the Clark campaign in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia.
I wish to assure the person who expressed concern as to the veracity of the interview. This medic is very much a real person, but I had to eliminate all personal identifiers to preserve his anonymity. Too bad, actually, as he is one of the most impressive individuals I've ever met.
I will check this blog when I can, but I read almost too much already and apologize in advance if someone asks a question and I am not timely in responding.

and welcome to DU...the voices of our loved ones being heard is so long overdue. Thank you.

But, even you state "he is one of the most impressive individuals I've ever met."

Gotta agree with you there! I sure wish I could come up with answers that were as spot-on as that fellow.

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

another place looks like they are weakening by tons military as opposed to making strong

same with economy, deficit, smaller government, protect constitution.

all the things repugs represent, they are screwing up. sittin in wow

"How did you feel when you saw President Bush arrive in a flight suit on the aircraft carrier off the coast of San Diego, with the banner “Mission Accomplished”?

We laughed.

Why?

We have a saying about people who dress up in military uniforms, like Idi Amin or Mussolini. People like that have something to hide. The reason they wear the uniform is to make themselves feel big, feel proud."

matches most of what we've already heard - insufficient supplies, suicides, secrecy, and more. And even though I hadn't heard that they are guarding Halliburton employees, it makes sense. The part about the Ayatollah helped me understand better as I've kind of blanked out everything about our IRC and the coalition - I don't believe anything coming out of the mouths of our selected rulers and I certainly don't believe anything the Chalabis say (mostly because the PNACers wanted to believe them). The content rings true from what we've heard.

I loved what he said about the congresspeople. I will never get over their vote and I wonder if the only ones who've gone over are the ones who voted for it. I will never forgive Kerry, Clinton, Shurmer, Edwards and all the others. Never. They are as wrong as the people who concocted these Middle East killing fields.

All the answers are very general and could have been pulled from reading the papers and adding a smidgen of imagination. As a person who also served in Iraq, I know the common stories that vets discuss and this person does not bring up anything that is distinct to OIF.

One very telling fact is when he called a base "Fort LeJeune." There is no such thing, there is however a Marine Corps Base named "Camp LeJeune" in North Carolina. This is not a minor detail. If this person was truly in the military, he would not make this mistake.

There are a few other factual errors as well, including: his 2030 extension comment (totally untrue), reservists making less than active duty (it's actually more), his ten years occupation comment (no way he'd know that even if it were true), his coke machine comment (there are no coke machines in Iraq, he may be refering to an early story about a soldier being shot at a street vendor while buying a coke, but if he really knew the person, he would not get this vital detail wrong), etc.

And he does seem to have a succinct, sound bite answer for every question. It seems it is either rehearsed or fake.

And I'm leaning towards fake. JMHO.

(As for redwood, he's hardly credible yet, and I'm suspicious how he could have been alerted so quickly to this dicussion)

Edit to add: I do agree with a lot of the points he made, but I still doubt it is from a real soldier.

Dan Redwood was my Clark regional volunteer director. He is a talented writer and an honest man. Dan has published interview-style articles before this one. He also worked extremely hard to elect our General.

I am a DU addict. I notified him immediately when this "Interview" thread started. Actually it was to let him know that his article was being picked up by the 'net sites. I mentioned to him that there was some skepticism about the veracity of his article. He posted here to assure y'all that it was on the level.

Dan told me that he had just interviewed two more soldiers and will soon write up their stories as well.

So it seems that there must be many military people who want to tell the world about their Iraq experiences.

Dan deserves praise, not suspicions.

He is the real deal.

Just like his article.

all of a sudden, we have new members on this thread. I would understand if this thread was a bit further along, a google search would pull it up. Is this article featured on freepsville? Am sure they'd have plenty to say.

Friends:

This Lejeune error may have been mine in transcription. He definitely said "Lejeune" and I may have misspelled it or mistakenly added the "Fort." It is the place in NC. I don't have a military background, and perhaps it shows up in places like this. Sorry if my error caused suspicion.

As to the 2030 issue, that's what he said. I double checked that(and a several other things in the interview) with a Clark campaign person with Pentagon contacts. He said that the indefinite extension is legally possible, but of course extremely unlikely. Which the unknown soldier agrees with. He's just pointing out the possible open-endedness of the commitment. Clearly, it would take a very different set of circumstances than we see today. However, it does seem to me that this provides a possible end-around where they don't have to resinstate a draft, but get the same result by extebnding lots of reservists tours of duty. Just a possibility.

There are just too many factual errors to chalk it up to circumstance or "transcription" error.

There is someone here who is trying to dupe us here. It is either you, the real author, the so-called "unknown soldier", or any combination of the above.

could it be you who i trying to dupe us here?

could it be you who i trying to dupe us here?

Those are errors that may not be caught by the general public, but someone in the military (especially one who was in Iraq) would know.

We are so sorry.

Please help us to end this crisis.

Please help us to bring our military home and to help the Iraqi's rebuild their country.

NOW!

:kick: