Writings, Rants and Kudos

Moment of Truth In Iraq - by Michael Yon

I am almost done with Michael Yon’s new book Moment of Truth in Iraq (in bookstores April 23; order a signed advanced copy here). I would say that it is the most important book written to date on Iraq. It should be required reading for all Americans. Here is Yon’s Op-Ed in today’s WSJ. His critique of the Petraeus testimony is profoundly important.

Michael Yon has been reporting independently and on his own nickel from Iraq since 2004. He was the first to call the conflict a civil war (Army Public Affairs officials tried to ban him from Iraq for it), he has been harshly critical of the Bush administrations, and has no love for the main stream media. He is the only American journalist to remain consistently embedded in the Iraq conflict and has more time in Iraq than any other journalist. He is a former Green Beret and a courageous American.

Semper Fidelis.

Veterans Affairs Previews Universal Health Care in the United States

Injured Iraq War Vets Sue VA - CNN

Here is the face of Universal Health Care in the United States.  If we have this much trouble with a fraction of the population that qualifies for VA health benefits, how do we expect to institute a 250 million patient health care system?

Another Crazy Anti-war Email Labling Me A Mercenary

Another email from the loony.  This one tells me I am a mercenary.

-----Original Message-----

From: autumn evans [mailto:ubliette13@hotmail.com]

Sent: Friday, June 22, 2007 12:29 AM

To: mxh181@psu.edu

Cc: ldsimp@comcast.net; pksimp@comcast.net; nelsaavallon@yahoo.com

Subject: RE: FW: RE: note left on my car

Captain,

i hate to admit that "professional warrior" is sadly an appropriate term for

today's soldier.  one who is paid to engage in war is technically a

mercenary.

you say we are falling prey to our media - i'm sorry but which media is that

exactly? the voice we listen to comes from within ourselves - a loud

warning sign of when we know and feel that something is terribly wrong. 

that sentiment is only echoed by our bumper stickers as most of us have

thrown out our cable television and magazine subscriptions.  you make a lot

of assumptions, sir.  i could make the same about your willingness to fall

prey to our government's ploys to capitalize on your fears and sadly

misplaced patriotism.  degrees and intelligence mean little when fear is

thrown into the mix.

i have no doubt you've seen the darkest side of life.  truly remarkable and

heroic actions will spring forth from human beings (on both sides) who find

themselves embroiled in this kind of base violence, but it does not change

the fact that you were unfortunately duped into being there in the first

place.  over and over again it seems.  the families of the soldiers caught

in

vietnam

were never grateful, just as the families of the nazi soldiers

were never proud.  the nationalistic propoganda you chose to digest is

really not so different from that of third reich

germany

.  hitler played on

his country's patriotic sentiments and fears in ways very similar to what

we're seeing now.  i'm not an extremist, i just put 2 years into air force

rotc to know that, to them, ignorance and arrogance do indeed make for good

foregin policy.

i have never had a problem with fighting to protect our country until the

concept of "our" country grew outside of it's own borders.  this country has

not fought for it's own soil ON it's own soil for a very, very long time. 

there is no such thing as fighting for peace.  if you're going to wage war,

do it, but don't try to delude yourself and everyone else by imbuing it with

nobility.  with war there is only dominance and submission.  it is ugly and

hard.  everyone i know who has seen it knows that and some choose to cling

to the illusion that they did something important and noble becasue their

sanity depends on it.  have you ever seen what an ex nazi goes through once

they've woken up to see what attrocities they've committed?   the "peace"

that allows you to fall comfortably asleep at night is what keeps me awake

worried for the fate of our world.

i have never been aligned politically, i do not think ANYONE is inherently

evil.  i believe in my heart you only want what is best for your family and

country, but i know with my eyes how this government abuses your desires

and, worst of all, how you allow it to.

"There is a movement in this world that opposes the active creation of a

peaceful global community.  You are being duped into buying into their

argument of hate and isolationism.  I am willing to fight them to help peace

in the

Middle East

finally become a reality and not just a bumper sticker."

it is completely clear to me you and i want the same thing.  i thank you for

confirming that.  i'm learning that there really is only one difference

between us, and sadly i doubt there is anything that can be done about it. 

it is simply your willingness to believe in this government, and my

willingness not to. i'm afraid we will both forever see eachother's

"willingness" as utter blindness.

only time will tell.

i hope for the sake of your daughters and wife you come home in one piece.

autumn evans

Here's my response:

_____________________________________________

From: Mike Hendrickson [mailto:mxh181@psu.edu]

Sent: Friday, June 22, 2007 11:17 AM

To: 'autumn evans'

Subject: RE: FW: RE: note left on my car

Ms. Evans,

Before I respond, I would like to say thank you.  Thank you for caring about my family and hoping that I come home in one piece.

The fact that you refer to me as a "mercenary" is the ultimate offense.  A "mercenary" engages in combat for the sole purpose of personal gratification (money, killing, raping, pillaging).  A "professional warrior" is one who volunteers to serve a nation, adheres to the rules governing war and dedicates one's life to the study of history, technical and tactical proficiency, and the examination of the complexity of ethical/morale imperatives on the battlefield and always prays for peace.  Further, I am a "citizen soldier;" a reserve officer in the United States Marine Corps. 

You question my statements about the media, but you argue your points from an emotional imperative.  Our media does not show this nation an objective view of anything, on any level.  We no longer have a free press.  We no longer have a press that subscribes to the cannons of ethical journalistic integrity.  We have a corporate media that lives off of the sensationalism of big stories that they make last forever.  They don't care about the news; they are out "to make a buck."  That is a direct quote from Kevin Sites of NBC news, made to a very good marine friend of mine after he filmed the shooting of that wounded terrorist in the mosque in Fallujah.  Kevin Sites didn't care about the story - it was a sensational story that his editor wanted to show on the evening news.  The story lacked objectivity and context.  Coupled with the abhorrent conduct of Soldiers at Abu Ghraib, it created a negative backlash so severe that people like you now compare us to Nazis.

What happened between the marines and NBC in Fallujah are a testament to the power of information and the enormous ethical responsibility that should be wielded by those who report as witnesses to the human condition. 

I'm sure that the images of that marine, shooting a "wounded enemy combatant" made you cringe.  I know it made me cringe, made me question the intentions of that marine.  For almost a year I was extremely conflicted about what I had seen, until I sat down with several people that I trust and were there, and listened to them tell me about Fallujah and about the incident with Kevin Sites.  The terrorists in Fallujah were ruthless killers.  They specifically sniped at marines in the open because they knew that a corpsman (medic) would come to their aid; then they shot the corpsman.  They killed children, they killed families and they killed marines.  The fought from booby trapped homes, schools and mosques.  They would suck marines in by shooting at them, and then blow up the building killing themselves and everyone else inside.  They booby trapped their bodies so when they died and a marine searched them they would explode and kill more.  If you believe that the terrorists of Iraq (those who use suicide bombs, IEDs, kidnappings, beheadings and terror to make a point) can be heroic - then you are truly lost in a world of your own imagination. 

You need to ask yourself - why do I feel this way?  Who is driving my emotions?  If your answer is based on a conspiracy theory - you have fallen into the same trap that has consumed the Arab street and fermented so much violence in the name of Islam against the Great Satan, the evil of Israel and Western society. 

Emotive reasoning alone is never a substitute for logic and critical thinking.  The consequence of subscribing to your method of analysis guarantees that we re-live the mistakes of the 20th century - mistakes that led to the deaths of between 50 and 70 million people.  You refuse to examine now, just as many did then, the reality of tyranny and the danger to the world by doing nothing. 

You would like to believe, like Chamberlain in 1938 - that mere negotiation and hand holding will keep the peace.  You ignore the torture, rape and murder committed routinely by the government of Iraq under Saddam, but you mistrust an American government's strategic imperative of exporting freedom.  You ignore the fact that a state of war existed between Saddam and the United Nations for 12 years, beginning with the unprovoked invasion of Kuwait by Iraq, continued aggression and attacks by Iraq against its neighbors, its own people and the coalition forces that patrolled the skies over the northern and southern no fly zones.  But you don't hesitate to expound on the "unjust" and "naked aggression" against Iraq and isolated (and horrific) incidents like Haditha to define the "destruction of a civilized society"(as your friend Dr. Simpson put it).

According to you (and many who made strikingly similar arguments in the late 1930s and early 1940s), we should never pre-emptively engage in warfare in the hopes of maintaining peace.  Riddle me this - how many lives could have been saved if we had attacked Germany in Europe, on the side of the French and English in 1939?  Wouldn't that act have completely changed the Japanese analysis of an American response to an attack on Pearl Harbor?  If we had blunted the Germans, defeated Hitler in Europe in 1939 or 1940 and caused the Japanese to make a strategic recalibration, would atomic weapons have been developed for military use?  Why didn't we stand up to Hitler and Germany, despite the evidence of German intensions flushed out of the Spanish Civil War?  It's simple: Americans felt that "the concept of 'our' country" should not grow "outside of its own borders."  In the end, we responded by converting our entire nation into a machine of war and at least 50 million people perished as a result.   

But, you will dismiss all facts and the lessons of history as propaganda.  You won't do any real research and you won't read a single book or source that contradicts your own worldview.  You will continue to believe in your gut, and use the mere historical presence of Nazis, Hitler and the Third Reich in an attempt to paint me as a monster, blindly charging into the fray.  Your lack of critical thought and unwillingness to believe that there is a time and a place to stand up against tyranny is exactly the type of ideology that allowed the Brown Shirts and the Nazis to gain a hold over Germany, cause the deaths of millions and the near eradication of an entire race of people.  You, like the German people, refuse to believe in reality and instead convince yourself that peace is never worth fighting for.

There are those, like the German people in the 1930s, who blindly follow an ideology.  I am not one of those people.  I have spent nearly my entire life studying history, geopolitics and warfare.  I have forced myself to play the devil advocate.  I have disciplined myself to accept the validity of opposing viewpoint and consider them critically.  I do not agree with much that has come out of the DoD or the Vice President's Office.  I am extremely critical of the General Officer Corps who blindly followed Rumsfeld because they did not want to rock the boat.  I believe that the President has failed in numerous ways to effectively communicate the strategic imperatives that guide the National Security Strategy of the

United States

in the post 9/11 security paradigm.  I am suspicious the role of capitalism in warfare and mindful of the corruption that can grow like a cancer, within the power of elected office.  I believe that Republicans and Democrats in Congress are more focused on the 2008 election than dealing with Iraq and the other important issues that we face as a country today.  I believe that people who oppose the Iraq war, those who supported military intervention in Bosnia in the 1990s and would support military intervention in Darfur, are hypocrites (and visa-versa).  I believe that no plan survives first contact with the enemy.  But I believe in the mission in Iraq.  I believe in that mission for exactly the reasons I outlined in my previous email and that you discount as mere propaganda.  I believe that those reasons are noble, and that doing nothing will result in a global religious conflict that will dwarf the crusades in ferocity and destruction. 

Therein lies the disconnect.   

I do not sleep in "peace."  I believe that I have been required to sacrifice a portion of my soul for my convictions.  Knowing everything that I know now, I would do it again so that you and your children would never be required to do the same.  I would do it again (despite the fact that I vehemently disagree with your beliefs) so you are free to live life in the manner that you desire, according to your beliefs.

I wish there was no war in the world.  I wish there was no need for militaries, guns, bombs, etc.  I wish that people could put their egos aside and truly come together in peace as a human race.  I wish that people could appreciate and celebrate diversity, as we attempt to do in this country.  Wishing that the world will become this way is a utopian pipe dream.  We have a saying in the Marine Corps - Shit in one hand, wish in the other and see which fills up first.

Semper Fidelis.

The Anti-war left and Dissent

A couple weeks ago I went for a trail run in the Pennsylvania backyard.  This run is 3 miles up and 3 miles down; my own little Currahee.  This was around the same time that Senator Edwards was attacking the GWOT as nothing more than a "bumper sticker" so my blood was allready up.  I came across an SUV in the parking lot that had a distinctly offesive anti-war bumper sticker:  "Ignorance and Arrogance is Bad Foreign Policy."  I decided that I would ask the owner why they thought that they felt that they were more qualified as an expert on Foreign Policy than a US Marine.  Here is the response that popped up in my in-box today:

________________________________________

From: Paul Simpson [mailto:pksimp@comcast.net]

Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 10:22 PM

To: mxh181@psu.edu

Subject: note left on my car

Dear Warrior,

Thank you for the invitation to expand on the sentiment conveyed by my bumper sticker. No, I didn’t notice your bumper stickers. I was out of the country at the time. The young woman who was using my car was alarmed and somewhat intimidated by your threatening actions in a remote place. I am not intimidated by your effort to keep me from expressing my opinion.

I have come to expect such behavior from those who would suppress dissent in any form. Ethical thought and behavior has nothing to do with partisan politics. This war was lost at home before it was started because it is illegitimate in its very conception. I find it sad that someone with two related degrees and 14 years as a “professional warrior” is unable to see the irrationality, immorality, and criminality of a military enterprise which involves an unprovoked attack on a country that harbored no terrorists and was no threat to us.

This attack has resulted in the destruction of a civilized society. In the process of this illegal invasion and occupation, you and your military have carried out the murder of nearly a million people and the creation of over two million refugees. In addition, torture, deliberate targeting and abuse of civilians including women and children, use of illegal weapons of mass destruction (cluster bombs, white phosphorous, depleted uranium and more) and a host of other war crimes have been committed by your brothers in arms. Did your education and fourteen years experience never inform you that all this is wrong and that by being involved you are complicit if not directly guilty in these atrocities? You seem to imply that the existence of religious extremism in the Middle East justifies these actions. Does the existence of Christian extremism in this country mean that others would be justified in carrying out such atrocities here?

It has been recognized since at least the time of the ancient Greeks that to allow warriors to control government and make policy is to invite the loss of democracy. Your place as a warrior is not to lecture civilians on foreign policy or any other policy. You have stepped outside the bounds of your duty and thereby violated your oath to this country. Your only honorable course from here would be to refuse to participate in these crimes against humanity. Are you man enough to do so? For your wife and daughters, I certainly hope so, because I fear that is the only thing that will put a stop to this insanity.

A civilian

Here is my response:

________________________________________

From: Mike Hendrickson [mailto:mxh181@psu.edu]

Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2007 11:20 AM

To: 'Paul Simpson'

Subject: RE: note left on my car

Dear Sir,

Thank you for responding to my note.

It is your right to express your opinion, as it is my right to express mine. I find it interesting that while you provide me with your “opinions;” I am not entitled to mine. You wear your politics on your sleeve for the world to see, but I can’t offer my opposing opinion in a private note to you?

When you put a bumper sticker on your car that undermines the very mission I am tasked to accomplish and supports the strategy of terrorists, you jeopardize the lives of every marine, soldier, sailor, airmen and coastguardsmen that are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. I’m deeply offended by it, and you should not be surprised.

Those who fight my brothers and sisters in Iraq and Afghanistan only wage tactical engagements against us to create sensational loss of life. Their operational goals are to undermine the support for us in the US, by attacking the psyche of people like you, so that we will leave. Your bumper sticker(s) provide them with a metric that they use to measure their success. Again, you have a right to espouse your views, but you also have a responsibility to understand that your actions and opinions support my enemy’s strategy.

Simply put – “Chief incalculable in war is the human will.” Since “at least the time of the ancient Greeks” and throughout history it has been recognized that wars are won by those with the strongest will and motivation. The Peloponnesians knew it; the Athenians knew it; Sun Tzu and Clausewitz knew it. I believe that you also understand it. Whether you choose to believe it or not, you have the blood of dead Americans on your hands.

It may make you feel better to believe that my intent was to intimidate. In reality, my intent was to inform you on how frustrated those of us in the military are at people like you – people that believe nothing more than propaganda and have very little interest in performing the academic rigor necessary to really understand the enormity and potential impact of what we are attempting to do in the region. You fail to recognize that the byproduct of a stable, secure and economically viable Iraqi democracy is a lasting middle east peace that could have an incredible impact on a sustainable peace across the global community we call earth. You give absolutely no credence to the notion that sometimes peace is worth fighting for. Your argument, while seemingly well thought out, is based on nothing more than half-truths and myth – those things that you gleaned from the internet or that someone else has told you.

You can try to slap a label onto “what my brothers in arms” have done and call them war criminals – go right ahead. War sucks. War is terrible. War corrupts. There are some who cannot be trusted on the battlefield, who become consumed by the totality of war. They should be held accountable and punished. But you lump everything that has happened in Iraq and Afghanistan and everyone that has served in the CENTCOM AOR into the latter category. You choose to engage with logical fallacy as a method of argument. You are wrong to do so.

I am sure you feel good when you convince yourself that we are like the Nazis. You would like to believe that I am a monster, that the military is made of monsters – that we deliberately target civilians, resort to torture, use “weapons of mass destruction,” and “depleted uranium.” You can cling to the propaganda – but what you have no frame of realistic reference because you don’t have a clue about who I really am or what a battlefield is actually like.

You’ve seen too many movies/”documentaries” and society has convinced you that warfare can be placed neatly into a little box. You think that “surgical strikes” are actually precise, that military people cannot make a mistakes and that killing (only when absolutely necessary according to some secret scientific formula) can be done “cleanly.” You’ve never seen a 19 year old American marine risk his life to protect a family caught in the crossfire, expose himself to enemy machine guns and snipers to allow that family to escape the bullets and rocket-propelled grenades fired by men without souls. You’ve never seen one of Saddam’s mass graves. You’ve never seen the headless body of someone’s child after the real monsters have hacked a message to the people that are attempting to change their country for the better. You’ve never seen the aftermath of a suicide attack on a line of Iraqis waiting to join the Iraqi Army; never witnessed them treat the wounded, tend to their dead and then get right back into line to fight for their own country. You’ve never talked to the American media and then read your words twisted into a bull shit story about something that never actually happened.

You refuse to believe that the vast majority of Americans who are serving today in Iraq and Afghanistan do so because they deeply care for the Iraqi people and believe in the hope for a better Middle East. It makes you feel justified and “honorable” to believe we are monsters, and therefore to oppose our mission. Again, what makes this country great is that you have a right to cling to your warped sense of good and evil. But I damn sure don’t have to like it, just because you say so.

Those of us who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan do so willingly, volunteer to return for subsequent tours, risk our lives and ask our families to sacrifice their happiness because we do not want another generation of Americans to shed another drop of blood in the Middle East. We didn’t want the state of war that had existed between Iraq and the United States to become a permanent destabilizing regional paradigm like the reality of the Korean peninsula. We did not want the people of the Middle East to live under the thumb of tyranny any longer. We did not want to watch the oppression and stagnation of economic inequality corrupt the good intentions of inherently good people. We no longer want people flying planes into buildings or resorting to strapping suicide vests on their bodies and walking into crowded markets to blow innocent people up to make a point.

Iraq is the single place in the heart of the Middle East where there is a possibility of creating an alternative solution. Iraq is the only place where we can possibly unite the secular part of moderate Middle Eastern culture and bring about real, substantive and positive change in the region. For thousands of years, Iraq has always been a stabilizing structure of the Middle East. This war has little to do with oil or profiteering and nothing to do with American domestic politics. It has everything to do with the Global War On Terrorism. It has everything to do with changing the Middle East over the long term, to support stability, peace, economic prosperity and global interdependence. And that is why I am willing to risk my life and have volunteered to go to Iraq.

There is a movement in this world that opposes the active creation of a peaceful global community. You are being duped into buying into their argument of hate and isolationism. I am willing to fight them to help peace in the Middle East finally become a reality and not just a bumper sticker.

Semper Fidelis.

Support the Troops, End the War

The following thread was emailed over the last week and was sparked by the pieces found on the Best of the Web Today in Pretty Ugly and Pretty Ugly II

------------------------------------------

From: Mike Hendrickson
Sent: Friday, May 18, 2007 8:34 AM
To: 'opinionjournal@wsj.com'
Subject: FW: Show your patriotism proudly (Email reply to Captain Michael Hendrickson, USMCR from the John Edwards Campaign)

Dear Mr. Taranto,

As a result of your original reporting, I visited the Support the Troops End the War website and sent the following (Subj: Memorial Day) to the Edwards campaign after hearing about the nation wide Memorial Day antiwar protests organized by his campaign.  Interesting that the only reply I received was the one found below (Subj: Show Your Patriotism Proudly) and addressed to a commissioned officer in the United States Marine Corps Reserve.  Granted, this is an automated message, however this is the only response the campaign offered.  Such a message could be construed as a direct attempt to undermine the Marine Corps and the Commander-in-Chief through the erosion of good order and discipline.  Seems to me that such action is problematic at best (treasonous at worst) for a Presidential candidate and former US Senator.  I wonder if there are any other emails like this.

Note:  The comment in my initial email “Don’t thank me when you see me,” refers to “10 Things You Can Do to Over the Memorial Day weekend to Support the Troops and End the War” offered on the Support the Troops End the War website.  Numbers 2, 4, 7, 8 and 9 caused me to see red and were the catalyst for my email.  Here is the abbreviated list:

Get local, get active, and get outdoors.

Send our troops a taste of home.

Gather in public.

Pray.

Make your voice heard in Washington.

Get vocal.

Greet a vet.

Say thank you.

Help an injured vet.

Light up the night.

---

From: Mike Hendrickson
Sent: Wed 5/16/2007 4:26 PM
To: 'info@SupportTheTroopsEndTheWar.com'
Subject: Memorial Day

This plan is an absolute disgrace to me and all of those who have served before me.  Thanks for making it more dangerous for me when I deploy to Iraq early next year.  Don’t thank me when you see me.  If you show up in my face on memorial day – just stand by.

Semper Fidelis.

Mike Hendrickson

Capt., USMCR

"Hard is not hopeless."  General David H. Petraeus, USA

---

From: David Bonior, Edwards for President
Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2007 3:56 PM
To: Captain Michael Hendrickson, USMCR
Subject: Show your patriotism proudly

Dear Captain,

I remember when it seemed like there was nothing we as individuals could do to help bring an end to the war in Iraq. But times have changed; the number of Americans who want to bring our troops home is growing every day.

As a veteran, I am proud to be part of this effort to honor all those who have served and sacrificed for our country, and to support our troops serving today in the best way that we can—by ending this war and bringing them safely home.

Today we're offering another way to spread this powerful message. First, you can order a free "Support the troops. End the war." bumper sticker. If every one of us takes the free bumper sticker and puts it on our car or someplace visible, we can show that our numbers are strong and encourage other Americans to join our growing movement of pro-troop patriots against the war.

Or, if you're able to chip in $20 to cover production, shipping and handling, we'll also send you a "Support the troops. End the War." t-shirt.

www.johnedwards.com/supportthetroopsendthewarIf you order your t-shirt by 11:59 PM PST on Monday night, we'll rush it to you in time for Memorial Day weekend. On Monday, John Edwards asked us all to take action Memorial Day weekend to support the troops and end the war. We've all been truly inspired by the response.

In Raeford, North Carolina a woman whose husband is serving in Iraq is hosting a prayer vigil. She writes:

My husband is in Iraq, and I pray each and every day for the Troops and that maybe someday soon there will be an end to this war. Please join me in praying for my husband and all the troops that are deployed throughout the world.

In Milton, West Virginia, the mother of an Iraq War veteran is organizing a letter writing drive to Congress and the President.

And from Fort Riley, Kansas, a soldier writes simply:

As I get ready for my third tour into Iraq, I just want to say "BRING US HOME!"

You don't have to be a military family or a veteran to speak out now. You just have to be one of the millions of Americans who are done letting George Bush abuse the rhetoric of patriotism to defend policies that hurt our country and misuse our troops.

Real patriotism is about standing up to do what's right for our nation and the men and women who defend us. This Memorial Day weekend and beyond, let's wear our patriotism on our sleeve—and put it on our bumper—for all the world to see. Support the troops. End the war.

And remember—on Memorial Day itself (Monday the 28th)—let's all take time to solemnly honor all of those who have served in our armed forces and given their lives for our freedom.

www.johnedwards.com/supportthetroopsendthewar

Thank you,

--David Bonior
  Campaign Manager,
  John Edwards for President
  Veteran, United States Air Force (1968-1972)

Actual email below: