[Editor’s Note] I received
this letter from a member of the list today. While I cannot vouch for
the letter I can vouch for the member. If he says he received it through
his brother, you can take that to the bank. The letter seems a little
dated which is a product, I would suspect, of the round about way it
came to me. This letter speaks of the temperatures sometime in August
and September and my son, Rusty, in Iraq is already telling me the rainy
season is upon them and the temperature does not reach 100 during the
day and drops into the high 60s occasionally at night. So, this letter
must have been written a couple of months ago but anything from the war
zone is more viable and truthful than the best we can expect from the
liberal media.
Lonnie
**************
Got this from my brother, a teacher in Arizona; the writer is a former
student of his who is a WP [West Point] grad and a unit commander in
Iraq.
Dear Family and
Friends,
October 13th, 2003
I am now approaching my sixth month in command of America’s greatest
soldiers! God is so good! Commanding America’s sons is one of the most
rewarding experiences I’ve had in my life. It is such a blessing to know
that hundreds of Moms, Dads, wives, and children have entrusted their
loved ones into my care for this all-too-important task of giving
FREEDOM to people who only knew that as a word, but now get to
experience it as a way of life. None of us will ever really grasp the
depth of appreciation these Iraqi people have for us. I’m confident
that God has many more challenges and rewards in store for my men and
me. And He has an abundance of blessings for the Iraqi people if they’ll
seek Him.
I want to start this letter with something that is vitally important for
you to understand, and I beg you to share this with as many people as
possible. I know the media and many of the politicians are harping on
this idea that the Coalition Forces have not found any weapons of mass
destruction (WMD). I submit to you one simple point: WE GOT RID OF
THE WEAPON OF MASS
DESTRUCTION—his name is Saddam Hussein and I’m certain that he’ll soon
be brought to justice, dead or alive. Regardless of whether or not we
find weapons of mass destruction—which I believe we will in due
time—liberating the people of Iraq was the righteous thing to do. If you
talk to any soldier who works with the Iraqi people on a daily basis as
I do, I think you will be hard-pressed to find a soldier who doesn’t
think we did the right thing by removing the evil and destructive regime
that tortured these people for better than three decades.
The horrors these people had to endure are unspeakable. And I know
because I have listened to so many of them tell me how they were treated
like pigs, or how their fathers and husbands were tortured and killed
right in front of them because they wouldn’t sell their souls to Saddam
or his extreme ideas. Some of my soldiers live on a compound that was
used to torture and murder countless people, many of whom were thrown
into a large chemical pool for failing to show allegiance to the regime.
In Baghdad, there were large areas that didn’t even have electricity,
while the regime lived in marble palaces torturing women. The “people’s
palaces” as Saddam always called them, but if you even drove on the road
outside of my palace compound without permission, you were detained,
tortured and/or killed. You should have seen my interpreter, Mr. Ali,
the first time he came to work for me. He was terrified at the prospect
of going to one of these so-called “people’s palaces” where I work and
live because he was never even allowed near one.
I work with so many Iraqis each day who try to explain the depth of
their gratitude for our being here. They watch the news now because they
can finally have more than one channel, and Saddam and his propaganda
machine do not run it. They see the American media and politicians
bickering and complaining about all of this WMD nonsense. They are
terrified that we’ll leave before our mission is accomplished because of
it. I listen to the citizens of my Al Mansur District and watch as their
tears of joy for our presence turn to painful memories of the horrific
evil this man has used to terrorize them. They beg me to understand and
comprehend how happy they are for what the United States has done for
them. They beg me to ask my family and friends to tell all the American
people that we have removed the only weapon of mass destruction that
really matters! These are their words not mine. They can’t believe how
many Americans apparently don’t think we did the right thing by coming
here as quickly as we did. I reassure the Al Mansur citizens that the
media and the politicians don’t represent the majority opinion of the
American people. I hope I’m right. If not, maybe messages like this one
will open some eyes.
If you think that President Bush acted in haste and should have sought
more diplomatic means of removing Saddam, tell that to my friend, Mr.
Karim. He was a pilot and a Colonel in the Iraqi Air Force until 1996.
He was sitting at home in March of that year when some of Saddam’s
cronies knocked down his front door and beat him, tied him up, and took
him away to prison right in front of his wife and six small children. To
this day, he has no idea why he was arrested, but he suspects that it
had something to do with a joke he told about Saddam to some other
pilots during a lunch break. While he may never know the exact reason
for his arrest, he definitely knows why he’s alive today. It’s because
the American military rolled into Baghdad in March of 2003, just two
days prior to his scheduled death by firing squad. I now have the
privilege of working with Mr. Karim on a daily basis because he is the
manager of my battalion’s phone center and Internet café. He finds great
joy in providing a service to my soldiers that allows them to stay
connected to their families back in America. If you think we should have
waited until the United Nations was ready to take action against Saddam,
then I’d like to give you Mr. Karim’s address and you can tell his wife
and children all about it.
Don’t ever get the idea that one American soldier’s death in this
country has been in vain. As sad and difficult as it is to lose one of
our own, our cause is noble and just. I know it, and hopefully you do
too. Now we are establishing local representation in the form of
neighborhood councils and district councils so the voices of the people
can be heard. No doubt there is some resistance from Saddam loyalists
and other terrorists connected to Al-Qaeda, but the overwhelming
majority of the Iraqis are happy to have us. Last week, I was gaining
estimates on repairs for one of the schools in my district for young
women aspiring to become schoolteachers. While there, a 17-year-old came
up to me and thanked me for making her free. She spoke very good English
and asked me if I had a family. I told her I have an incredible wife and
an adorable little girl, and of course I proceeded to show her a dog tag
I wear that has a picture of my girls on it. She said, “I pray that God
will show you many blessings and return you back to your family safely.
You have done many wonderful things for us, and I have never been so
happy.” WOW! What an experience. I can’t even explain what that does to
your motivation to complete this vital mission.
Baghdad, Iraq, is a long way from Fort Riley, KS, and I’d rather be in
Kansas. However, I am doing well here. The heat is intense but cooling
off quite a bit, and sometimes the vehicle convoys produce a bit of
anxiety as the “bad guys” are using tactics that attack the convoys. The
attacks are very sporadic, though, but you never know when it could be
your convoy that gets hit. A good rule we are practicing is to change up
the time and direction that we travel when we need to get around the
city. It really is true, Baghdad, on a daily basis is probably as safe
as any major city in the USA.
Baghdad is about 7 million people once they all come back from being
displaced from Saddam’s regime. There are many former military people
and folks that were pretty connected with Saddam who are surrendering
any alliance they had with him. However, it is really hard to know whom
to trust. The neighborhood surrounding our palace complex is fairly
safe. Many of the former Ba’ath party members live in this area and they
don’t want any trouble now. This is an upper middle class area. As I
said in my last letter, I have the “Beverly Hills of Baghdad.” It does
not mean, however, that underneath all their smiles and thumbs up they
are not still operating under Saddam’s cause, so that keeps us on our
toes. It only takes one person a few seconds to create havoc on an
otherwise quiet day.
We are staying at the Al Salaam Palace compound (which means “The Peace
Palace”), or as we affectionately call it, the “Four Heads” palace. It
used to be home to one of Saddam’s three wives and has his trademark
opulence and arrogance written all over it. “Four Heads” gets its name
because of the four figures of Saddam, one at each corner of the palace.
The palace is about 150 feet tall and each of the four heads on the
corners is a 40-foot bronze bust of Saddam. This guy sure thought a lot
of himself and built his empire on the backs of his people, most of whom
live in third world poverty. He thought so much of himself that every
palace you see has a 20-foot wall surrounding it with his name inscribed
on every section of the perimeter wall, thousands of times over. His
picture used to be everywhere, that is, until we got here. My brigade
had a mission called Operation Smiley Face. Back in July, every unit in
my brigade simultaneously spent one night painting a 4-foot bright
yellow smiley face on every image of Saddam we could find in our
respective zones. Above the smiley face it read, “Have a Nice Day!” and
below it read, “We’re here to help!” The citizens of Baghdad woke up the
next morning to a positive message of hope from the “Kansas Brigade.”
The Air Force (I wouldn’t go to war without them) sure left their
calling card on this place. It is amazing to see the precision strikes
and to actually see how pinpointed their targets were. They hit what
they targeted and left surrounding buildings fully intact. The palace,
along with other residential buildings on the palace compound, was hit
pretty hard. You can see where they used the “bunker buster” bombs on
the palace. The eight stories of the palace have holes in the marble
floor that go all the way to the basement/bunkers. It’s pretty eerie to
see the damage that the U.S. military can do. Makes me glad I’m on the
American side.
Some of the buildings we are occupying have indoor swimming pools, or I
should say, used to. The looters had their way with this property so
that we were without electricity and water for a while, and have to use
Port-a-Johns since toilets were stolen and plumbing was partially
destroyed. It will be a long time before electricity will get fully
restored to these people. In the meantime we have 50K generators to run
some of our equipment, which is why I can write to you on this computer.
As the days reached upwards of 130 degrees in August and September, we
hoped to have the pools repaired so we could cool off. We weren’t
successful, but some of the guys have rigged up little pools using their
mechanic tarps as liners and using sand bags to build up the walls. My
guys are very ingenious when it comes to figuring out creature comforts.
I am very proud to lead these stellar soldiers who would give everything
to take care of their buddies. I was honored recently when one of my
soldiers told me that he would take a bullet for me. When they have to
get down to business and go out on patrols or missions they do great
work and make our country proud. Generally speaking, they know how to
be gentlemen when they have to be, but confident soldiers, too. Let’s
just say that there is plenty of room for God to work in their lives and
I pray and sense He is using me. There are some very good Christians in
the mix, too, and they are a real blessing. They hold up the banner for
Christ and serve as a light in this darkness. It is amazing to realize
we battle one enemy constantly and that is the devil. He has greatly
infiltrated our ranks, but God is having an impact and convicting some
of these soldiers to be Christian soldiers. Very rewarding!
It is with a sense of honor I serve my country and God together in this
unique leadership and ministry opportunity.
In His Mighty Grip, Captain Kevin Bouren (Romans 8:38-39)