Yance Gray, Omar Mora, R.I.P.
American soldiers stationed in Iraq, two of seven brave enough to compose an op-ed for the New York Times speaking the terrible truth about the war. All seven were at the end of their 15 month deployment.
Two won't be coming back. Yance Gray and Omar Mora were killed in Iraq on Monday. About a month ago, these were their words:
To believe that Americans, with an occupying force that long ago outlived its reluctant welcome, can win over a recalcitrant local population and win this counterinsurgency is far-fetched. As responsible infantrymen and noncommissioned officers with the 82nd Airborne Division soon heading back home, we are skeptical of recent press coverage portraying the conflict as increasingly manageable and feel it has neglected the mounting civil, political and social unrest we see every day ...
The claim that we are increasingly in control of the battlefields in Iraq is an assessment arrived at through a flawed, American-centered framework. Yes, we are militarily superior, but our successes are offset by failures elsewhere ... In a lawless environment where men with guns rule the streets, engaging in the banalities of life has become a death-defying act ...
As committed soldiers, we will see this mission through.
There aren't words sufficient to describe the travesty of this war.
Two won't be coming back. Yance Gray and Omar Mora were killed in Iraq on Monday. About a month ago, these were their words:
To believe that Americans, with an occupying force that long ago outlived its reluctant welcome, can win over a recalcitrant local population and win this counterinsurgency is far-fetched. As responsible infantrymen and noncommissioned officers with the 82nd Airborne Division soon heading back home, we are skeptical of recent press coverage portraying the conflict as increasingly manageable and feel it has neglected the mounting civil, political and social unrest we see every day ...
The claim that we are increasingly in control of the battlefields in Iraq is an assessment arrived at through a flawed, American-centered framework. Yes, we are militarily superior, but our successes are offset by failures elsewhere ... In a lawless environment where men with guns rule the streets, engaging in the banalities of life has become a death-defying act ...
As committed soldiers, we will see this mission through.
There aren't words sufficient to describe the travesty of this war.
Labels: heartache, iraq war, senseless deaths
posted by BigAssBelle at 9:01 AM
14 Comments:
I'm just sick of people telling me to support the troops.
If we truly want to support the troops, we need to cut off the funding that is allowing the Dictator to keep them in a place where they are being shot at.
Oh, but then how would he protect his Oil investments?
Young lives needlessly shed so he and his fat cat cronies may profit.
And I'm nonpatriotic for protesting it.
This comment has been removed by the author.
What a terrible, senseless tragedy, two honest, concerned patriots killed in an American military expedition that they knew had been extended far too long by our uncomprehending president.
and general petraeus told the senate yesterday that he does not know if all of this death and destruction is making america safer.
Clearly it is not. We are far more unsafe than we were before this conflict was waged. We have swelled the ranks of men and women who hate us bitterly, and would think nothing of ending their lives to hurt us in any way possible. The horrors of this administration just keep mounting and mounting, from Katrina, to Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, the environment, China, North Korea, and the disembowelment of the separation of powers, and the end of secularism in government. We are circling the drain, and like Rome before us, are awaiting our downfall. We must fight now, or accept defeat. Another four years of this insanity will surely destroy us.
Ugh, I just hate this. The headline of today's Washington Post was "Bush to Endorse Patreus Report." Yeah, and Margaret Mitchell was fairly fond of Gone With the Wind herself ...
goddamn, that makes me so sad.
... In a lawless environment where men with guns rule the streets, engaging in the banalities of life has become a death-defying act ...
It is impossible to imagine how anyone can even exist in these circumstances, both Iraqis and American.
Just been reading Chris Floyd Online (thanks for the link in a previous post) Frightening stuff!
Flights to NZ aren't all that expensive...run away now!!
BJ.
Unbelievably sad and ironic.
General Petraeus "does not know"? Give me a freaking break! He knows all right he simply doesn't have the balls to speak the truth.
This is just one more event adding to my profound sadness and disgust.
Yes, the little military puppet general DOES know..... but he and his ilk have NO feeling for, besides the horror to Iraqis, the horror they're insuring will come here in time. Tragic loss of life for these two heroes who spoke up. And today, the IRAQ congress nixed the OIL Contract the texans (Hunt Oil) tried to force on them. There is NO end to this.
I wasn't a conspiracy theorist before 2000, but I am one now.
That these two men would die in the same accident in Iraq just weeks after their opposition to the course of the war was published in the New York Times defies the odds. There are over 175,000 troops over there. And these guys get killed? Together?
There are two of us on my block now -- me and my neighbor across the street -- who have the red and white yard signs proclaiming SUPPORT THE TROOPS / END THE WAR. Add to that my neighbor Larry at the end of the street who's flown his flag at half-mast since 2002, when the war seemed imminent. Around here those are bold moves.
Oh, and Dick Cheney will be here in Grand Rapids tomorrow at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum. He's expected to say some nice things about the Bush Administration's foreign policies to a receptive brood of inbred Republican vampires and vipers.
I was hoping to attend, but my invitation must have gotten lost in the mail. Curses.
Still, if I happen to find myself down by the riverfront and happen to run into him, anybody have any words they'd like me to pass along?
Thank you grrsteve, for saying what I was thinking. I'll admit to being a tad bit of a conspiracy theorist, but considering our government's track record of deception and murder, I don't think that's too unfounded or paranoid. I also know juuuust enough about physics to know that there's no such thing as coincidence. There's something deeply wrong here.
I imagine Gray and Mora knew they were taking a risk when they wrote that op-ed, but I wonder if they knew that they were literally risking their lives.
I also wonder if any of the remaining five will be magically eliminated, or whether they got the message.
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