by Michael Morini

Created on: March 06, 2007   Last Updated: April 19, 2007

Unlike most people who will write on this topic I have actually been to and fought in Iraq. The troop surge as it is being called is not enough and it is way late. Those of you who compare the war in Iraq to the war in Vietnam are right to do so in respect that the powers that be and those who protested during Nam have done everything in their power to make Iraq a second Nam.

Iraq started out as an unpopular war and progressed from there. Soldiers were and still are shorted valuable life saving equipment, politics prevents us from doing what is necessary. We are told to secure Iraq but we are not allowed to offend the Iraqi people. We cant enter Mosques unless were are being shot at my insurgents, yet if an insurgent shoots at us then runs into the mosque we cant pursue.
Out in Iraq we do are best, I have personally been thanked thousands of times by the Iraqi people for being there. I handed out school supplies to children and helped rebuild homes, yet the media focuses on the minority of soldiers who get killed.
While in Iraq I watched CNN on a daily basis and it seemed as though the media was covering a different war. I watched as out right lies were told and the faith in the war faltered.
We were expected to rebuild Iraq yet the contractors we hired to do construction did such a crappy job that most of what we rebuilt has to be rebuilt again. I mean some of the things that were built would never pass any type of inspection in the US. These buildings were built costing hundreds of thousands of dollars and were totally uninhabitable. The powers that be allowed their friends to do a crappy job.
The war in Iraq can be won, and won with ease. However we need a hundred thousand troops more that what are being sent. We need more money along with accountability of that money. We need contractors that will not do a substandard job and most of all we need people who know nothing about the middle east or war to shut up and let us do our job.

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