I actually have something related to current events to talk about today, so I may as well :-). The guys you see on the left are members of the National Guard, and got back from a 12-month tour of duty in Iraq recently. They're also identical twins. They signed on in the same unit and stayed together. One of them was a mechanic, the other guy was a machine-gunner on the back of a humvee.Up till I met these guys, I hadn't personally run into anyone who'd actually been to Iraq. Oh, I've run into a dozen dozen people who have strong opinions on Iraq, and I even had a religion professor who was excited for Saddam's ousting because he wants to go to Iraq "once it's stabilized a bit" so that he can see some history. But these guys were the first I've met who'd been there.
So what was their opinion on Iraq? In short: far more positive than any I've heard elsewhere. They stuck a slideshow on their laptop, showed off their gear, and answered lots and lots of questions. They believe the media really isn't giving the big picture--it's focusing on every bad thing that happens, and ignoring what is mostly a positive transformation. They never talk about any of the humanitarian projects, but anytime there's an accident or a death, you're guaranteed a mention. Lots of close-ups of the worst things, but complete silence regarding what's going right.
They also talked a little about the difficult things. They lost one guy in their squad to an IED--two artillery shells and some other stuff completely blew out the truck in front of them. Two of the guys were wounded and survived, one guy was killed. It was upsetting. However, mostly the service was large amounts of very hot, very sweaty boredom punctuated by rare moments of intense excitement. They didn't get shot at very often, but there were a LOT of roadside bombs. They saw those all the time. Mostly they succeeded in avoiding them.
They did give one credit to Saddam's army: They were the first army in the entire world to ever take down an Abrams tank. It was a pretty clever hit, too--very poor visibility, and they managed to get in close and get a shell in through an exhaust vent. So the total worldwide fatality count on Abrams tanks is now: One.
As for the Iraqis? Well, they like Iraqis. "Most of the people we're fighting aren't Iraqis--they're foreigners." Their perception was the Arab Iraqis were largely in favor of them being there, even if they didn't like it much. The Kurds, on the other hand, treated the Americans like "rock stars." American soldiers in the Kurdish areas are far more relaxed, and can concentrate primarily on humanitarian work. There aren't really any combat ops in the Kurdish areas.
They'd been in just about all the areas of Iraq (at one point they were doing transportation work) and even served several months near Saddam's hometown. There were very wide differences in public opinion by region, although even in the worst areas it has been improving. They told a story about the election in Tikrit (Saddam's hometown) -- the voter turnout there was far below 1% in the initial election. At one station there was a conversation that went something like this:
"There's a guy coming to the polling station."
"Is he armed?"
"No, he looks clean."
"What's he doing?"
"I dunno ... just kind of walking toward the station."
"Huh."
"Yeah, now he's gone in."
"Anything happening?"
"No, pretty quiet ... yeah, just came back out."
"Nothing blown up?"
"Yeah, no one dead, looks like."
"Huh. Maybe he voted."
"Yeah? Weird."
That same region had a voter turnout well over 50% in the following election, which they felt was a huge marker of the way things were improving. Iraqis still have a higher voter turnout than Americans; whatever they dislike about the political system, they are willing to try voting.
Another story that impressed them: They met an Arabic man whose brother had been killed because he (apparently?) tried to run a roadblock, and the soldiers shot him. But this man said "it is still better now. Now, I can go wherever I want. Before, if I tried to leave my province, they would kill me because I would not have papers. It is better now." They felt this reflected the tenor of opinions--things may be bad, but perhaps they are better.
As for the WMD's? "If there was anything, it's been buried or destroyed by now." Yeah, so the WMD thing didn't pan out. Most of the people that we're actually fighting there, however, are not even Iraqis--they're terrorists from Iran, or even more from Syria. "So in the end, we really are fighting terrorists, because the terrorists are coming to us in Iraq."
That's a pretty tight summary from over an hour of chatting. The barbecue was also great.
