Found an interesting documentary on the military channel.
So, allot of people who know me know that I watch ALLOT of documentaries, and while watching this documentary called Delta Company on the Military Channel (formally the Discovery Wings Channel); I saw an awesome speech by the leader of a Marine Tank Batallion (1st Tank for all you Marines out their).
I hope to see this guy on the Joint Chiefs some day or maybe even Sec Def (though he seems to smart for the job). I am going to post what of his speech was shown on the Documentary, because I think it shoes both how much the soldiers get it, even if the civillian leadership do not.
The context of the speech is that they are setting up a Forward Operations Base for their unit, and are setting it up right next to the Martyr’s Memorial, which is a memorial to the 500,000 Iraqi’s that died in the Iran-Iraq war in the 80’s.
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Lt. Col. Jim Chartier,
Commander of the 1st Tank Battalion
Look at this monument as their version of the vietnam wall.
It should be honored and respected.
And that means that the way we conduct ourselves in this area if we are going to live hear has got to be appropriate.
But I think if you go down to your marines and sailsor’s and say “My god, this is their equivlent of the Vietnam Wall”, that
is something they can relate to, and we will have an easier time maintaining control.
The number one killer right here is the Terrorist threat, however the situation has changed some.
As we are in this transitional phase, we’ve got to win these people over… So though the tude (?) says it’s these bad guys.
So what i’m telling you commanders and leaders is it’s more than that.
It’s the bad guys that will kill us, but it’s our relationship with the community that will cause this mission to succeed or
to fail.
Take the American flags down. We are not conquorors. We are not conquorors, we are liberators, and what the CG is trying to
do is to convince the public I guess that we are not an arrogent army.
Arrogence. Arrogence that’s going to rub them raw.
These are a proud people, and they should be proud of their country.
And remember that we are but liberators, and we’ll be leaving soon.
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Well, I’m glad that their are some people in Iraq who get how important it is to win the hearts and minds of the civillians. I’m sure allot of soldiers in Iraq get it, and I hope that they understand that even if people such as myself opposed the war, they are appreciated, and it’s the policies, not the people, that are being protested.
I just wish that jack-ass Rumsfeild got it.
That is all, for the moment.