March 2, 2005

Let me say in no uncertain terms, we must get out of Iraq.

There is nothing to gain and everything to lose in Iraq. We have lost over four thousand of our military, those who were killed in Iraq and those who died in intransit from Iraq to our hospitals in Germany and in Europe. We have had over 10,000 of our troops wounded. According to a report I heard last night on Frontline on PBS, 1 in 6 of our people coming home from Iraq need mental help.

What have we gained in Iraq? Absolutely nothing.
What have we lost? Our leadership in the world militarily, morally and financially.

Frankly, Generals Franks and Abizaid have failed. Donald Rumsfeld has failed, as have his top aides. As a former military leader, I am appalled at the Pentagon leadership and the leadership in our military. These men should be drummed out of the military with their heads in shame for the needless loss of the lives of our young men and women.

But that's not the worst of it. What business did they have calling up our Reserves and National Guard to attack another country. These troops are for emergencies and to protect our nation. I know the law, that these troops can be called up.
On the other hand, they are to be used for short periods of time, not for long periods of time as they have been abused in Iraq. I note that the recruiters are having a hard time in the Reserves and the National Guard. I can't blame the people for walking away. I would if I'd been lied to this much.

As a man of three wars, from Korea to Viet Nam to Gulf War I, I am embarrassed by such men as General Mattis. If he was under my command, I'd have him disciplined for ignorance and leading his men astray. No, it is not "fun" to kill people.
Killing is a serious business, not something you brag about to businessmen or to the media about. We never told our men to kill for the fun of it. You killed to save yourself and to achieve an objective, never for the "fun of it."

I fear that we have hit the bottom in our military men and women. Lower level officers are now afraid to report atrocities for fear that they will lose their rank, men are afraid to admit they are shot, women are afraid to report rape, when they report rape they are told it was their fault!
What has this man's army come to? Have we totally lost our honor? To be a military man in this army means to be immoral, a liar, to accuse the innocent and to not grieve for killing women and children.

This is not the military or the country I served. The men running our government at this time are either mad or totally immoral and have not place in this world as leaders. That is why they must turn out such people as Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bush, Mattis and Abizaid and bring in some new leadership who better represents what we are as a nation.

In the process, they may as well take such fools as Bill O'Reilly and let him put his body where his mouth is in terms of Iraq. Let him go to Iraq and see how it feels, let him smell death and let him dodge bullets the way our troops do in Iraq. I'd like to see how much of a smart-ass he would be then. The same is true of that falsely serious Richard Perle; I'd have him take his fat behind out in the boot camp and work him until he learned to sweat. I'd do the same with Paul Wolfowitz. Paul has never had the respect of intelligent men, only men who thought Paul was intelligent. How they were deceived. I've known Paul since he was a bootlicker in his youth in Washington, DC.

Until we regain our moral stature and moral bearings, we shall continue to be hated in this world for good reason. We no longer defend freedom and liberty, we are the new British colonialists, we are the new plunderers, we are the new imperialists. This makes me ashamed of our country.

What do I hope for? I hope some of our military men, men of honor, will stand up and call these immoral and ignorant men what they are. If our military is to defend its honor, it must stand up now. If not, then our military men are part of the problem, not part of the solution. I am not advocating revolution, but I am advocating the right to resist immoral duty and men who think that "killing is fun," and men who think that bombing a city into the earth, as was done in Fallougha, will make us more friends and fewer enemies.

We must get out of Iraq, pronto, before we lose more troops, make more enemies and show our military vulnerability to the watching world. We are not the formidable force the world thought we were, our troops are exhausted and yet have not won a victory, and our will to victory is fast disappearing. We should get out before we needlessly kill more Iraqis as well. Killing over a hundred thousand, 100,000, according to the Lancet in England is enough to make me more ashamed than when we learned of Mi Lai in Viet Nam. We killed more in Fallougha than in Mi Lai, and yet no one has apologized to the dead or the men and women who survived the devastation, the Dresden like bombing of Fallougha. Where has our moral leadership that we taught at West Point gone to? What are they doing in OCS these days? I dread finding out if the officers I've seen in Iraq are a fair sample.

How low we have sunk.

General Upman is a pseudonym for a retired general who would rather not reveal his name because of his former leadership positions in the U.S. Staff Leadership and because he does not want to argue with old friends at the officers clubs when he visits