We need to pull our troops out now

Archie [McPhee] says that I would be speaking German if I had my way. He mistakes me for a pacifist. My grandfather served in WWI

and WWII and my father was a Navy pilot in WWII and the Korean War. I proudly enlisted in the Army and served in the 82nd Airborne Division. But, I came to resist the Vietnam War, as I now resist the Iraq War. I agree with Archie that if we are fighting a just war, we must use all necessary force, within the Geneva Conventions (which we adopted into US law), to achieve our military objectives. I do not imply or believe that it is “alright for American troops to be murdered.” I believe those who are responsible for the murders,

and those who put our troops in harm’s way based on lies, should

be held totally accountable. The problem with Iraq, as in Vietnam, is that we have no military objectives that will result in a “win.” We didn’t lose in Vietnam; we finally woke up, pulled our troops out and let the inevitable happen: the Vietnamese got their country back.

When we leave Iraq there will either be a repressive government

that supports US policies or a quasi-democracy, like Iran, who hates us for what we’ve done to them. What is a certainty in Iraq is that there will not be a real democracy that supports US policies.

Archie quotes several examples of Iraqis killing American troops;

I’m really not sure what his point is. The Iraqis see us as occupiers

and fair game. The answer is to get our troops out. At a Veterans for Peace meeting, I did a video interview with the mother of an American soldier who was murdered by the Iraqi he was training. She wasn’t told the truth of how her son was killed until a year later, after demands of an investigation by the family. The way to avoid these tragic deaths is to pull our troops out now. It’s not going to be a better time next year or 10 years from now.

Jon Monday