Word from a US soldier

Sun Feb 6 16:00:56 PST 2005

Maybe Judy, maybe.
The problem is you forced the space open and you did it with lies. People 
are normally invited to open space and have the law of two feet available 
to them. The people of Iraq have no where to go. The choice is US style 
Democracy or US style Democracy. Is the space really open in this case? In 
OS the facilitator will try to let go of the outcome. In this case the 
facilitator (the US) has no intention of letting go of the outcome: it is a 
given. The space is therefore closed.

An interesting story none the less and I sincerely hope your friend stays 
safe and comes home to you all.

Shay

At 17:26 04/02/2005, you wrote:
>We recently received this message from a friend, fighting in Iraq.  I 
>thought that it might be of interest for everyone to hear things from a 
>young soldier's perspective.
>
>If you think about it, we truly are "opening the space" for the Iraqi 
>people to live in peace.
>Judy Spady
>
>
>
>
>-------Original Message-------
>
>From: <mailto:ltdbdunn1980 at hotmail.com>Daniel Dunn
>Subject: Moving again
>
>Hey All:
>
>Alrighty, You all can un-pucker your fourth points of contact (I’ll give a 
>lesson on that when I get home if you don’t understand).  Let’s recap all 
>that has happened.  I flew on the 20th and landed evening of the 22nd in 
>Kuwait, then went to Camp Buehring, which is a pushing base, not receiving 
>(going north, not coming south).  At that point I was supposed to go to 
>the 506th infantry, the same unit in “Band of Brothers.”  Then, about a 
>week later, we left and flew into Iraq, landing at a small airbase in our 
>Brigade sector.  Upon landing, I learned I would be going to 1st 
>Battalion, 503rd Infantry instead, and almost four days later, right after 
>Election Day here, we arrived at Camp Correigador, home of the 503rd.  The 
>history of THAT unit is that it was the only Parachute Infantry Regiment 
>to go to the Pacific theatre in WWII, and earned its nickname of “The 
>Rock,” by landing on The Island of Correigador outside the 
>Philippines.  The island was famous for being impenetrable.
>
>Now, after being assigned, Brigade has asked for personnel to stand up a 
>special unit.  They’re calling it a MAT or Military Assistance Team 
>(similar to MAG in Vietnam).  The purpose is to train local Iraqi Security 
>Forces to begin taking control of the nation.  Ladies and Gentleman, if 
>you want this war to end, then wish me the BEST of frickin luck.  This is 
>the KEY to the US leaving.  And God knows I want that as much as any 
>mother, father, wife, etc.  I do so because I was Mortared Last 
>night.  Not hit by mortars (take a breath mom) but in the Dining Facility 
>and heard them coming in
WALKING in.  They came closer and closer, four of 
>them.  We waited for the fifth that never came.  It was just a little 
>taste of war, but it was sourer than fifteen-year-old grapes soaked in 
>lemon juice found at the bottom of a latrine.  Makes you heart beat 
>quickly.  Luckily, no casualties and we got back at them with some new 
>high tech stuff we got.
>
>Anyways, this is a good job.  I’ll be at Brigade Headquaters (which is why 
>this doesn’t have an APO address yet), out of the way most of the time, 
>and when I’m on the streets, it’ll be with other guys watching over Iraqi 
>Troops, and, for those of you who know that my hope is to one day join the 
>Special Forces, this is a GREAT start.  That’s what SF does all the time!
>
>Spent Election Day at a small Marine Airbase called Al Taqueddum (or TQ 
>for short).  The information about the events around us was been 
>sketchy.  We heard most of the action is in Baghdad, with some small 
>pockets around us.  Sitting in the tent, we heard four large explosions 
>off in the distance, and ran out to see.  We watched as two Marine Corps 
>Cobra gunships attacked targets on the ground near the town of 
>Falleujah.  We could see the tracers and everything, including smoke on 
>the horizon.  Occasionally you’d hear .50 cal’s shoot up at the choppers 
>and they’d climb high out of range.  Then the shooting would stop and the 
>helicopters would go back down and engage again.  We thought an AC-130 was 
>going to clean up, but it just circled over the area once and landed.
>
>Predator drones fly over constantly.  It sounds like a lawnmower in the 
>sky!  It’s kind of an odd sight, but damn, cool thing to see.  Not sure on 
>the policy for photos, so I hold off on that.  Plus the light was waning, 
>so it might not have turned out very good.
>
>We stayed in a tent about a football field away from the airstrip so we 
>see and hear all this air traffic.  It made sleeping at night tough, and I 
>usually had to use ear plugs or my iPod to drown out the noise of the 
>aircraft, especially the -130’s and the Cobra’s on night missions (we’re 
>on a Marine controlled Airbase right now).
>
>There’re these small local vendor store (we call a “Hadji-shop”) that you 
>can get things you’d never see in America.  They have bootleg DVD’s (most 
>of which are still in theatre’s in the US, but low quality in video), and 
>VERY inexpensive electronics (but questionable about legality on those), 
>as well as Cuban Cigars for very cheap (2 for $10, in comparison to a good 
>Montecristo No. 2 in the US (non-Cuban) for $16
don’t ask how I know).
>
>Something I want you all to know (in case the Media f**ks THIS one up) 
>there WAS a 72% turn out at the Iraqi polls.  There were over 5,000 voters 
>in Falleujah alone, which is good considering that ended not two months 
>ago.  It ALMOST makes it all worth it.  I won’t tell what the cost was, 
>because it isn’t my place.  It’s not THAT high in comparison to most of 
>what we’ve done, but
You also need to remember that every voter that DID 
>go out risked their life.  The insurgents ran video ads on TV that said 
>they’d kill any voters in the street.  These people live in absolute 
>TERROR of these people.  Insurgents regularly chop heads of in public 
>squares, kill whole families for US support, and often indiscriminate 
>against US and civilians.  Meanwhile, the US builds schools, immunizes 
>children, pays for our damages AND the insurgents damages
I don’t tell you 
>this as propaganda or to gross you out, I say it out of shit I have REALLY 
>seen first hand.  This war truly isn’t about oil or WMD’s, at least not to 
>us ground pounders.  It’s about ridding these people of a scared lifestyle.
>
>Yesterday I talked to one of the Iraqi Commando force that is attached to 
>the 503rd.  When I say talked, I mean tried to break the language barrier, 
>and for the most part, did fairly well.  We talked about families, and 
>fighting, and stuff like that.  We traded dollar for Dinar and signed them 
>for each other.  It was cool talking with someone from another world 
>(which again, goes to reinforce that I might be the right guy for this new 
>job).
>
>Anyways, I won’t scare you all anymore.  I just want all of you to know 
>that WHATEVER the media says, it’s not all that bad over here.  IEDs don’t 
>go off every day, and when they do, someone doesn’t always die, mortars 
>arne’t shot into Us compounds everyday, and when they do, we’re not 
>usually hit or killed, and someone doesn’t die everyday over here.  Yeah, 
>that’s not to say people are getting hurt and dying, but that’s part of 
>the job.  It does just like the cop on the beat who’s shot by a crack 
>dealer-we just see more of it over here.  You do the job, and you accept 
>the hazards, dangers and costs.  You just do your best to make what your 
>doing worth the cause.  BELEIVE me, these Iraqi citizens appreciate it.
>
>Take care all.
>
>
>Daniel "Soldier Boy" Dunn
>2LT, IN
>2BCT/2ID
>
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