Monday, June 05, 2006

From the Sand-Box 2

Sgt. Herb Harman



Thanks and a couple things from … “The Man in the Sand”

24 May 2006
Wed 1336hrs.


Hi from Baghdad,
Adjusting to yet another schedule and mission change. Should be getting accustomed by now but you never get used to it!

Thanks again for all you guys are doing back home for always backing us up. I’m sure by now we need it. Public opinion like it’s attention span is in need of constant reminders, just why terrorists are what they are. And of course what they would do to innocent civilians given the smallest opportunity.

As I stated I’m on a “New” mission, temporarily of course. I’ve been speaking and understanding a little more Arabic each day. The “Guys” I work with now all have many personal experiences with the old regime, the Bathists- AKA Saddams Govt. Although their beliefs and customs are markedly different from our home grown wisdom & philosophy , horror & terror are still the same ugly creatures of evil…

Spending a great deal of time with and getting to know the real Iraqis. One man told me of having 4 infants “Disposed of”, killed by Hussein Henchmen. Another had 2. Yes, some of these men have more than one wife, their culture is not our own but their emotion is real telling me of lost babies in Heaven now. Also one young mans Mother & Father- murdered in front of him for disloyalty to Saddams party. He, then escaping to relatives and joining the army to survive. Yet another- 2 others actually showed me their personal scars at the hands of professional torturers trying to change their opinions of Govt policies. One’s head has a long scar across his forehead from a “Metal-object”. Another’s back still remembers the pain inflicted by twisted minds and cruel beatings.

These good men are those from where I presently work. On previous sites I was at I may have mentioned the Kurdish militia Captain whose Brother was fed to Lions- Yes in coliseum style like in old Roman history. A Peshmerga militia Colonels family buried under their own home by tanks. Soviet tanks of Saddams army. And not by accident or consequence of battle, but deliberate intent to destroy a family neatly, efficiently and w\out protest…

Many other stories abound with each new day here on duty and with each new face I am fortunate to meet. I am blessed to have been born and raised in our lovely America. America is a great nation but has the attention span of a toddler lately…

Maybe if some heard of these tales they might realize how important it is to keep terrorism on it’s own turf. To fight them here is horror enough. But imagine some of the things mentioned in our own homes- our own schools & churches…

Maybe, but then again America hasn’t experienced anything like this for nearly 150 years. And with the attention span of a 2 year old. Well there it is then…

The good news? Stuff like this doesn’t happen at all… over here now…
Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea after all…

Your friend in Baghdad,
Herb

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where are the congressional investigations into attrocities like these? Where is the press public execution of Saddam? This is juicy stuff.....why are arn't there old Iraqi citizens on every news channel telling the people about how things were before the US came to town?

There will be none of that because the press has no motivation to prove Bush was right or just to liberate Iraq; The left has no political motivation to support the Bush admin or the Troops; and if the right or Bush's people got the word out it would be shouted down as 'Spin'.

If anyone took the time to put the attrocities committed by the terrorists on a daily basis and by the old Regime there vs. the incidents that happen on rare occasions by US troops into perspective their would be no public outcry or "Iraq Syndrome" with the public.

Maybe we should have fought this war old school style.......
Take out the air defenses.
Carpet bomb all the major cities like in WWII
Defoliate large areas of the country like in Vietnam
Destroy as much infrastructure as possible WWI/WWII/Korea
Then after 2-3 months of constant non stop bombing and destruction sweep the country with 1-2 million troops using flame tanks and other non selective weaponry in massed formations on seek and destroy rules of engagement

....Of course had we done that their would have been few US casualties but their would be few Iraqi People left in Iraq and no Iraqi cities left in any shape to support a population. Abu Garib and Hadditha would just be words describing large craters in the ground.....

Hmmm Why are we fighting a clean war anyway? Let's pull out and start over....Old School. would that appease the media and the left? I wonder if Halliburton could rebuild an entire counrty?

I am sick of all the people stereotyping the military and the war. Our soldiers are doing a great job and where is the recognition? I dare anyone (Bush included) to walk up to a unit in the field over their and say "today we will be going over Core Values, because you are not fighting the good fight."

The fruth is that this is one of the cleanest wars ever waged in history, at least on our part.

Anonymous said...

Heh, I made a new word....

fruth. (Noun): short for Freaking Truth or F$5@ing Truth; something that nobody with left political ambitions or a job at most media outlets would know if it smacked them in the face.

RightsideVA said...

Bubba,

Remember last year when troops enetered a building where there were terrorist that had been shooting at them and I believe may have killed one of our guys. Upon enetering the building one of our guys saw a person moving his hands under his clothing and shot that wounded person dead fearing the terrorist had a gun, grenade, etc...

At first all you heard was that the military executed this poor wounded freedom fighter who was only defending his town from the evil American troops. In fact do you recall all the politicians, mostly from one side of the aisle who called for major investigations on how the troops could "Murder" an innocent person like this... In fact the media pretty much convicted the troops before the investigation started. Turns out our troops performed as they should and no charges filed or justified...

Sounds alot like Murtha with the media this past week condemming the troops again before a investigation...

I still wait for any of the anti-war protesters to come over and thank the military family members that show support for the troops at their anti-war protests... Not sure they do not do it for they do not really support the military or maybe they are just afraid of what they might get from the families... Truth hurts...

f mcdonald said...

Thank you for posting this letter from Sgt. Harman. When the dust finally settles in Iraq and the true stories are written it will be as horrific as the stories that came to light in Post-war Germany.

God bless our Freedom Fighters. Peace for Iraq.

RightsideVA said...

Sgt. Harman is a special one.
He takes the time to write long letters to let us know how things are over there and that they do appreciate the support from home...