Letter From Iraq
This is a lovely and harrowing missive from a Marine serving in Iraq. I offer it up with no further comment. Just go read.
This is a lovely and harrowing missive from a Marine serving in Iraq. I offer it up with no further comment. Just go read.
November 1st, 2006 at 11:41 am
Kathy, I enjoyed the read but it seems very skillfully written for just some average Marine. Not to imply that our troops are poorly educated, or anything like that. But, well, when someone says, “He’s a master of the English language, a real wizard with words,” I don’t immediately picture a guy wearing a Marine uniform.
Well, there is raw talent everywhere, I suppose. Maybe even as I type he’s being offered a book contract by a major house. “The Secret Iraq Letters.” Great title.
November 1st, 2006 at 12:17 pm
Del, I refer you to US Marine Jeff Key, author and actor of The Eyes of Babylon, one of the most beautiful and profound theatre productions I’ve ever had the honor to witness.
Jeff enlisted in the Marines just before 9/11. The play is based on the journal he kept during his service in Iraq. He is a true patriot who served his country even as he came to hate this war — what it was doing to the people of Iraq and what it was doing to him. He came home because of an injury (a hernia that he had done his best to hide when he enlisted ruptured while he was on duty) and eventually came out and resigned from the Marine Corps, but he still loves the Marines and considers himself a member. I wish the play was online somewhere so I could share his eloquent words.
November 1st, 2006 at 12:37 pm
Del- You have got to be kidding me. Your comment absolutely reeks of ignorance. I hope you are being sarcastic, because you can’t be that dumb. Are you Kerry’s Joke writer?
First of all, I read it and not only do I agree with 99% of it, but I also would be willing to bet that the guy is a Marine intelligence officer. I agree with one point you made. No, he is probably not your average Marine. If I were a betting man he probably went to the Naval Academy (or ROTC) as a Marine option and then became a Marine intel weenie (I use that as a term of endearment). Several little clues point to that but I could be wrong.
So Del, look out, cause the clue bird is about to take a big shit on you. If you compare the enlisted population of the military to the American working population as a whole, you would see the military has a higher level of education. Turn on your TV and watch current news as they spout statistics on the enlisted population to verify my assertion. Assuming this guy is an officer, you would be interested to compare the officer population with any other population of professions consisting of college graduates. Not only are all officers required to graduate college, but most go on to complete their master’s degree as well. Not to mention the ones that get a PhD. Something like 75% of officers with over 10 years of service has a master’s degree. Sounds like a pretty uneducated lot of war pigs to me.
Here is another interesting fact liberals tend to ignore about the military. Since the cessation of the draft the Army has become less white! Sort of blows liberal distortions of reality out of the water.
Here is another fact; liberals can’t stand it that people in favor of our involvement in Iraq are actually intelligent. It is too easy to sit back and have visions of sugar plum fairies, socialism, and Bush impeachment dance in your head than admit that smart people are in support of this war. Liberals also can’t fathom that it takes a smart man or woman to make decisions in a split second and master the art and science of warfare. If you were being sarcastic, let me apologize for my tone and feel free to change “Del” to “Senator Kerry” in the previous paragraphs.
November 1st, 2006 at 12:45 pm
Del- I will give you this about his article, I did question his comments about the Jill Carrol release. Some things didn’t jive there from what I read and heard. I am not 100% sure a Marine wrote it either, but not because of how well it was written. That was my main beef with you. Just wanted to stress that point.
November 1st, 2006 at 12:55 pm
“Written last month, this straightforward account of life in Iraq by a Marine officer was initially sent just to a small group of family and friends. His honest but wry narration and unusually frank dissection of the mission contrasts sharply with the story presented by both sides of the Iraq war debate, the Pentagon spin masters and fierce critics. Perhaps inevitably, the “Letter from Iraq” moved quickly beyond the small group of acquantainaces and hit the inboxes of retired generals, officers in the Pentagon, and staffers on Capitol Hill. TIME’s Sally B. Donnelly first received a copy three weeks ago but only this week was able to track down the author and verify the document’s authenticity. The author wishes to remain anonymous but has allowed us to publish it here — with a few judicious omissions.”
I see no motivation for the publishers of Time to lie about the provenance of this email. I do wonder how long it will take Bill O’Reilly to question this officer’s patriotism.
November 1st, 2006 at 1:13 pm
I am quite ready to believe that the military population is more educated than the rest of the US working population. Why wouldn’t they be? There are enlistment standards, after all. And since my husband was a Navy officer, incidentally one who served on a Marine base, I am also aware of the college degree requirement, although as I understood it there was the occasional “mustang” who rose through the ranks without benefit of a college education.
As you noticed, I said “average” Marine. Education does not equal eloquence, or else there would be no need for speech writers, for John Kerry, George Bush, or anyone else. Intelligence and the ability to make split-second decisions do not confer the gift of being able to cast a spell, or even to entertain, with words.
To be frank, I wondered if the letter had in fact been ghost-written, or at least heavily edited, by a “left-wing” journalist before publication. I would have felt the same if Time had published expertly rendered charcoal sketches of scenes from Iraq, some heart-rending, a few humorous for comic relief, and claimed they were tucked into a Marine’s letter to Mom. Of course there may be Marines out there who are also talented in the fine arts; but they can hardly be “average.”
I think it’s interesting that you pointed out that the military has become less white after the cessation of the draft. Put that together with Kerry’s unfortunate remark and I think you’ve just expressed a bleeding-heart liberal concern—people of color, who unfortunately are more likely to lack other resources, are also more likely to enlist. I don’t see how this blows any liberal distortion of reality out of the water, unless perhaps you are asking me to believe that all these young kids are ardent neoconservatives, anxious to help put the Bush doctrine into place around the globe.
November 1st, 2006 at 1:14 pm
Are you talking to me Kathy? Or Del? Let me add, although I am not 100% sure, I am 99% confident a marine wrote it.
November 1st, 2006 at 2:22 pm
As far as your implication that the letter was ghost written by a left wing journalist, I am confused. I am pretty conservative and in support of ops in Iraq. I read the letter and agree with most of it and think it is pretty accurate. I don’t think it in supports the left’s picture of things in Iraq nor does it paint a rosy picture of things. I got the feeling that it was a well written article by a Marine in favor of the operations, but not disillusioned by the fact that things can get ugly in Iraq. Unfortunately when the the left and MSM are painting an overly negative view of events the right counters with overly optimistic views and the truth is left somewhere inbetween (but a closer to the right in my point of view)
Also I think your view of an average Marine is a little off base. If my guess is correct that this was a Marine officer, I would have been not only surprised but disappointed if the letter had been written poorly.
November 1st, 2006 at 2:53 pm
Do you mean “poorly” as in grammatical errors, or “poorly” as in, lacking exceptional flair? The letter started off in a somewhat pedestrian fashion, but by the time he was describing the midget round-up, he was on a roll. The way he varies sentence length for effect, the way each paragraph hs its own little dramatic arc, the way he inserts humor at just the right moment, the way he doesn’t, as most of us tend to do, use a favorite adjective or catchphrase more than once or twice (not that I noticed, anyway)—not to mention phrases like “the relief etched in their young faces even in the moonlight.” At the very least, this was written and re-written numerous times before he sent it home. More like those letters people put in Christmas cards than something dashed off to Mama—and since it seems that he initially sent it to a group, that makes sense.
I was disturbed more by the suspicion that the letter had been edited at all, rather than the political leanings of the (speculative) editor. IF that were the case, and I’m not saying it is, I would find it as offensive as, say, staging what is later published as a candid photograph.
Perhaps this is an example of how attitudes can color perception. Those who are not in favor of what we’re doing in Iraq focus on the letter’s descriptions of endless, hopeless tedium, constant risk of death, and those etched young faces in the moonlight. Those who are in favor, see his pride in the Marine Corps, the intrepid intelligence guys, and so on. Which is pretty much what TIME said in the introductory paragraph, which until Kathy posted it, I hadn’t bothered to read.
November 1st, 2006 at 6:48 pm
I don’t want to get in the middle of anything here, but just FYI the author has been identified as Col. Pete Devlin.
November 1st, 2006 at 7:09 pm
Thanks for the link, Tom. It appears that there were a few things left out of the email, and I really don’t know why they were. The full text is included if you click on through. And, BL, you’re right; the author is a high-level intelligence officer.
November 1st, 2006 at 8:17 pm
How ’bout that, BL, you called it.
November 2nd, 2006 at 4:32 am
I was surprised about him being an O-6 but it does explain some things. Did it say if he was an Annapolis grad or not?