'Coming Home - Disillusioned' - "I thought we'd prove anti-war protestors

Published on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 by the Seattle Times
Coming Home - Disillusioned
by Christopher H. Sheppard

Three years ago, I was a Marine Corps captain on the Iraqi/Kuwaiti border, participating in the invasion of Iraq. Awestruck, I heard our howitzers thunder and watched artillery rockets rise into the night sky and streak toward Iraq — their light bathing the desert moonscape like giant arc welders.

As I watched the Iraq war begin, I completely trusted the Bush administration. I thought we were going to prove all of the left-wing antiwar protesters and dissenters wrong. I thought we were going to make America safer. Regrettably, I acknowledge that it was I who was wrong.

I believed the Bush administration when it said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. I believed its assertion that Iraq was trying to buy yellowcake uranium from Africa and refine it into weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear bomb. I believed its claim Iraq had vast quantities of biological and chemical agents. After years of thorough inspections, all of these claims have been disproved.

I believed the administration when it claimed there was overwhelming evidence Iraq was in cahoots with al-Qaida. In January 2004, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell admitted that there was no concrete evidence linking Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida.

I believed the administration when it grandly proclaimed we were going to bring a stable, Western-style liberal democracy to Iraq, complete with religious tolerance and the rule of law. We never had enough troops in Iraq to restore civil order and the rule of law. The Iraqi elections have produced a ruling majority of Shiite fundamentalists and marginalized the seething Sunni minority. Iraq dangerously teeters on the brink of civil war. We have emboldened Iran and destabilized the entire Middle East.

I believed the administration when it claimed the war could be done quickly and cheaply. It said the war would cost only between $50 billion and $60 billion. It said that Iraqi oil revenue would fund the country's reconstruction. I believed President Bush when he landed on the USS Lincoln and said "major combat operations have ended."

The war has cost the American taxpayers $250 billion and counting. The vast majority — 94 percent — of the more than 2,300 United States service members killed in Iraq have occurred since Bush's "Top Gun" proclamation. The cost in men and materiel has been far beyond what we were led to believe.

I volunteered to go back to Iraq for the fall and winter of 2004-2005. I went back out of frustration and guilt; frustration from watching Iraq unravel on the news and guilt that I wasn't there trying to stop it. Many fine Marines from my reserve battalion felt the same and volunteered to go back. I buried my mounting suspicions and mustered enough trust and faith in my civilian leadership to go back.

I returned disillusioned by what I saw. I participated in the second battle of Fallujah in November 2004. We crushed the insurgents in the city, but we only ended up scattering them throughout the province. The dumb ones stayed and died. The smart ones left town before the battle, to garner more recruits and fight another day. We were simply the little Dutch boy with our finger in the dike. In retrospect, we never had enough troops to firmly control the region; we had just enough to maintain a tenuous equilibrium.

I now know I wrongfully placed my faith and trust in a presidential administration hopelessly mired in incompetence, hubris and a lack of accountability. It planned a war based on false intelligence and unrealistic assumptions. It has strategically surrendered the condition of victory in Iraq to people who do not share our vision, values or interests. The Bush administration has proven successful at only one thing in Iraq — painting us into a corner with no feasible exit.

I will never trust any of them again.

Christopher H. Sheppard is a former Marine captain who served two tours of duty in Iraq
as a combat engineer. He currently is finishing his master's degree in mass communication
and lives in Marysville.


http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0412-24.htm

In an alternate dimension this man is being interviewed right now on CNN, and has been booked onto every talk show from 60 Minutes to The Daily Show for weeks to come.

Unfortunately, in our world..........

the MSM wouldn't want THE TRUTH getting out!! :sarcasm:

:grr:

long I've forgotten how wonderful an alternate world could be..thank you!

lol -- because we sent them there to create chaos -- and we have done just that.
mission accomplished.

What IS IT that we can do to get this message out???

This WH does nothing but spin & LIE!!!

had a better chance of seeing Bush for what he is - if our schools did a better job of teaching things like Literature, Science, History, and Psychology.

People like Christopher Sheppard and others would have recognized the traits of a disconnect from ordinary life and ir-responsibility towards the Deaths of so many Others.

For some Abstraction, some Holy Idea. All of us make mistakes and try to do better, but to CHOOSE something that results in the deaths of so many others is so in-comprehensible, I am still shocked that anyone would do such a thing. "A Crusade for Freedom" at the expense of Generations all over the Earth.

I can still barely believe it happened, except for the Daily Deaths in the "News"!??#@^&#$^&@*!*%*!!

This TERRIBLE Truth of Terrorism and Invasions' Death and Destruction. It makes a lot of people feel wretched.

And yet More WARS planned.

This is Hell.

know they're aware of what they're not reporting.

Edit to add: Just sent to Countdown, requesting this soldier be interviewed.

exactly how most of us saw from the get go. bush has made life miserable for thousands of people so far..that's a lot of hate generated in his direction.

:thumbsup:

Thank You Christopher H. Sheppard!!!
:)

Missing. Fucking. Accomplished.

That was the point from day one.

"He currently is finishing his master's degree in mass communication and lives in Marysville."

Remember the name. It will be interesting to see the changes in media over the next decade. Assuming sanity is restored to our government in the meantime.

something to do with 9/11 finally come home and find out they've been lied to,
they will be mighty pissed off!

right!! I'm just glad my son won't be one of them!!!!