Posted on Jun 13, 2014
The ISIS says they are marching on Baghdad next. Should we go back to Iraq?
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If the ISI takes Baghdad, does it make the entire war in vain?
http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/andrea-mitchell-iraq-asks-us-help-quell-militant-uprising-n129086
http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/andrea-mitchell-iraq-asks-us-help-quell-militant-uprising-n129086
Iraq
ISIS
Edited >1 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 59
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All,
I read all the posts on this topic tonight and for the young soldier or NCO who has never deployed or seen combat who wants to go I would tell you to think again. I carried the caskets of friends onto the plane for their final flight out of theater and you don't forget the smell of jet fuel, the refrigerated truck with the bodies or the slow final salute. You don't have a combat patch or think you need to prove something, well you don't need the patch and you have nothing to prove. You joined in a time of war, your good in my book.
For those of you who never left the FOB or heard a shot fired in anger I respect your service but your not going back to chow halls and PX runs. This will mean house to house fighting against a determined enemy with nothing to lose. I kicked in doors, chased snipers and had my share of fire fights, this will be worse.
The Iraqi Prime Minister has brought this disaster on his country for not working with the other political parties. The Iraqi parliament said no to a SOFA agreement and told us to leave. And the Army we trained has long this dissolved into the force you see on CNN ditching their uniforms and running away. Our Iraq, the one we rebuilt and secured is gone, the FOBs were pillaged for anything that could be sold.
The President is correct, this is their problem, let them handle it. Iran sent 500 troops into Iraq against ISIS, The Kurds have retaken Kirkuk and I expect Mosul will see Peshmerga in force soon and the ISIS attacks on Shiite religious sites will get the Army and Shiite population into the fight.
I just hope the Iraqi government votes out the PM and the President appoints a PM who will unite and not divide the country.
We don't go back
I read all the posts on this topic tonight and for the young soldier or NCO who has never deployed or seen combat who wants to go I would tell you to think again. I carried the caskets of friends onto the plane for their final flight out of theater and you don't forget the smell of jet fuel, the refrigerated truck with the bodies or the slow final salute. You don't have a combat patch or think you need to prove something, well you don't need the patch and you have nothing to prove. You joined in a time of war, your good in my book.
For those of you who never left the FOB or heard a shot fired in anger I respect your service but your not going back to chow halls and PX runs. This will mean house to house fighting against a determined enemy with nothing to lose. I kicked in doors, chased snipers and had my share of fire fights, this will be worse.
The Iraqi Prime Minister has brought this disaster on his country for not working with the other political parties. The Iraqi parliament said no to a SOFA agreement and told us to leave. And the Army we trained has long this dissolved into the force you see on CNN ditching their uniforms and running away. Our Iraq, the one we rebuilt and secured is gone, the FOBs were pillaged for anything that could be sold.
The President is correct, this is their problem, let them handle it. Iran sent 500 troops into Iraq against ISIS, The Kurds have retaken Kirkuk and I expect Mosul will see Peshmerga in force soon and the ISIS attacks on Shiite religious sites will get the Army and Shiite population into the fight.
I just hope the Iraqi government votes out the PM and the President appoints a PM who will unite and not divide the country.
We don't go back
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LTC Paul Labrador
SFC Parker, I understand your sentiment, but what is the 2nd and 3rd order effects if we don't go back? And are those outcomes acceptable to the future security of our nation? This is no longer about saving face or "it's none of our business." There are serious consequences on the line here.
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I have my deployment bag sitting in my closet ready to go... even got 2 reflective belts in there.
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Maj Walter Kilar
Whoa. Two reflective belts? Make sure you mark the inside of the reflective belts with your first initial and last four, or else the terrorists have already won. Wait. Didn't the Air Force decide that even the last four of our socials is considered privately identifiable information? Wait again. Didn't the Air Force rule in the case of Lt Col Perry at Lackland that caring for other Airmen is grounds for firing and forced reassignment? Forget everything I just posted here. Nevermind.
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I understand the White House is considering the option of using Hash Tags against Iraqi Militants.
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I thinik the Iraqi's need to make up their mind. They wanted us out and look where it left them. We need to finish the job or stay out.
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Maj (Join to see)
An Iraqi engineer that worked with me in Baghdad said we should not have handed over Iraqi sovereignty so fast. He suggested that we hold on to the top-level of power like MacArthur did in Japan until their institutions were more firmly established. It doesn't take long to train their soldiers/special forces/police to do their jobs, but it was very difficult to get their leadership to make the right decisions when Iran was influencing them too much and we were on our way out.
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Maj Walter Kilar
I think you are on the right track, Maj Hughes. It is not as if "Iraqis needed to make up their minds". Iraq as a whole does not have a collective opinion. Ask one Iraqi engineer, an Iraqi plumber, and an Iraqi nurse, and one would get three different opinions on whether we Americans did the right thing. We Americans did act in haste and probably had the opportunity to earn the trust of the people by letting Iraq transition itself slowly. We also failed to understand that we needed to have a transition team of Iraqi leaders to assume control of top-level control, and that this transition team truly needed to address the Sunni-Shia issues that seem to be at the root of many problems in Iraq.
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MAJ (Join to see)
I don't expect that all of Iraq can agree on anything and there has been fighting in the middle east for thousands of years, what makes us think we can or should intervene except where there may be imminent threat to the U. S.
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We (the United States) are not the world's police force - we need to help our own people. We have enough issues here to deal with - we don't need to take on everyone else's problems.
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I voted no, because I think that you can only back a country up so much before they have to take care of themselves. Their government wanted us out of there country so let them handle their own problems, because we are not the worlds police.
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