JACK ARMY, scanning my sector!
Jack,
Thank you for posting the letter from your Iraqi friend.
I would like to comment on this part of it:
After that, some VIP's and some higher ranks of these forces announced that we did occupy Iraq and not liberate it! A lot of Iraqi people changed their minds about Coalition's existence in Iraq.
I have heard other Iraqis say this as well. I understand that the term "occupation" has rather nasty implications for people in the Middle East and I don't blame them at all. But I think we had no choice but to use that term for legal reasons. Strange as it may sound. After the initial invasion we were by default in charge of civil services in Iraq because of the topppling of Saddam's regime. We needed to get the sanctions lifted. To do that we had to in fact declare ourselves in charge(or occupying) Iraq. Our intent was never to permanently occupy the country. In fact we have been desparately trying to find someone to turn it over to since we arrived. But like you said in your last paragraph too many people are trying to pull too many different ways. *sigh*
As you say there have been people slipping across the borders into Iraq and causing all sorts of problems. That was one of our mistakes, not securing the borders. If that is even possible, I don't know. We have a tough time doing that at home. So now we are stuck in a situation where, if we stay, we are still considered occupiers, but if we leave, it is likely that all of these different factions will just continue to fight and who knows if or when Iraq will become stable and at peace. Not to mention the possibility of dragging in the neighbors even more.
So, we are caught between a rock and a hard place.
Thank you for writing. I am looking forward to the second half of your letter. 
Lynnette
I'm eager to hear what else this Iraqi has to say.
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Hello Mr. Iraqi Citizen:
I am impressed with your passion. If it were so simple, I would have a representative from each of the sects, or political factions first answer some basic Yes/No questions, such as:
1. Are you an Iraqi?
2. Are you a Muslim?
3. Are you fed up with your family being killed?
4. Are you more interested in a unified Iraq than in revenge?
5. Are you ready to set aside all past differences in the interest of a unified Iraq?
If the answer to any of those questions is NO, you, my friend will be in for a very long dangerous time.
If Iraqis can answer YES to all of them, we Americans can begin to pack our bags for a pleasant departure from your land. Each of our soldiers has a family here at home, and they and we would much rather they be here united. But, if we leave now, and Iraq continues with this sectarian and political violence; everyone loses. Our military has paid a big price in order to assist the Iraqi people, and we did it without recognizing any sectarian or political differences. We see you as one country, one Iraq. It is shameful that so many of the Iraqis cannot see your country as we see it.
I pray daily that our troops can accomplish their mission as safely as possible, but I pray more diligently that the Iraqi People can put aside differences and just build their country back to what it was long before Saddam took it apart.
Frankie Cee, US citizen
"That's above my pay grade." You've heard that before, haven't you? As a former AFRTS journalist (VietNam 65-69) I have a way different perspective. I stopped being a reporter because of the official positions which required massaging the data before releasing information to the public.
Here's a contemporary view on that;
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
dr...ca_b_55312.html
Apparently that's required these days, too. I don't doubt this is an amalgam of popular opinions in Iraq. I recall a study that said (roughly) 80% of Iraquis want the occupation to end, and 60% think it's OK to kill Americans to make that happen. Now that's one Hell of an opinion poll, sarge. Especially when those opinions are punctuated with 7.62mm rounds and IEDs. It's hard to get anything done with targets on both sides of your bodies. And we don't want to loose on American life unnecessarily. I sure as hell don't.
Personally, I'd like to see us re-deploy to more secure and defensible positions. Keep the Green Zone, pull back to Kuwait and Kurdish territory. Keep a fast reaction force in country. Monitor hot zones. Let the civil war play itself out. Without us in the middle. Untill the civil matter is resolved, and a government is formed, nothing else matters. Like shoving mud uphill, it just isn't going to work. Dicking around with neighborhoods you can't permanently secure is a waste. More mud, more shoveling. And I don't like the idea of burying another kid while the politicos wait to see what happens.
IMHO
R
It is great to see a letter written by an Iraqi with an Iraqi's perspective. If only this view would be covered by more (or any) mainstream media.
I will now read part 2 of the letter. So far, great job!
Thank you Jack for asking your Iraqi friend to write this letter and letting us out here read it.
Richard Disney
former U.S. Army
The United States has always rooted for the underdog.I will say, however, if one continues to remain a muslim, there is little hope of peace. Regardless of what they say and how many "peaceful" Muslims you know, those who take the Islamic religion for what it is knows peace is not an option. The true Muslim knows it is "convert or die." Jihad being the highest of callings. If one doesn't believe such teachings they are not a true Muslim, there is just no getting around it. I do hope for a free Iraq, the man that was to be my son-in-law died for it.
Jack Army,
Please tell your Iraqi friends the history of American war. Americans fought on no foreign soil to be occupiers, but to be liberators of people from oppressive regimes that also threatened or attacked America. This American hopes a taste of freedom and the rule of law will create an Iraq where life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are protected, respected, and defended. All the Iraqi groups of which your friend speaks, in the minds of many Americans, derive their authority from a claimed religious superiority over everyone else. This leaves no common ground upon which we can meet as equals. Democracy allows us to do that in the public forum, then we in America go pray to our God in private, whatever that might be. We find violence done by humans in the name of God to be hubris of a celestial order, in need of extermination as an enemy of mankind. Muslim "jihads" of violence against others on this planet over the last couple of decades has made them all subjects of distrust, suspicion, and concern to us in the West, regardless of their nation of origin. Iraq, Iran, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia - are all the same to many Americans; we believe the dominant view of us there is based on religious beliefs, is antagonistic if not homicidal toward us, and finds democracy incompatible with their religion. Iraq is the hope for the Middle East not to descend into warfare on a scale not seen on this earth.
My only son is at Combat Outpost Viking, Iraq, on his 2nd tour; he spoke of a significant number of Iraqi Christians he found on his first tour. To see a country in the Middle East have freedom of religion would be, may I say, miraculous. The Tree of Liberty grows slowly in poor soil.
Just a brief correction to start, Iraqiwriter: the "antiquities" you spoke of, if you mean the Museum in Baghdad, were not looted. The gift shop and a few public areas were, but little of value was lost.
The long-term vision of the US administration for Iraq is that it will be a pluralistic (multi-component) democracy, which decides on its actions by giving everyone a voice and voting on the best options. So far, no democracies have warred with each other, and so Iraq would very likely help the rest of the world's democracies oppose dictatorships and spread more liberty.
But it is possible to vote into power a group that secretly wants to rule with force and deception, which then subverts the electoral system. You can see a number of fake democracies around you, like Egypt and Iran. The government of Egypt is fake because it fears the "rabble-rousing" power of simplistic religious agitators like the Muslim Brotherhood. Iran is fake because it used religious agitation to put a Council of Mullahs over all other bodies in the state, and prevents any disagreement from attaining more than limited or superficial influence.
To us in the West, we see this issue of defending freedom against the demands of a religion for submission to Allah and his (self-)appointed interpreters as a horrible throwback to centuries ago in our own history, but now with guns, tanks, and bombs to fight about it with, instead of swords, horses, and catapults. We hope that your horrible decades submitting to Saddam and his insane sons has given you a distaste for submission to any absolute power, but the sectarians, from Sunni Al-Qaeda to Saudi Wahabbis to Sadr's "Mahdi" army (note the use of that very arrogant word, Mahdi), want exactly that: submission. And so many of you seem to agree, that it is horribly worrying.
We hope you will create and work with a secular state, and keep the Mullahs from getting ambitious. But you are going to have to crush them, first. That's the only way they will stop agitating and trying to subvert democracy.
Thanks to the Iraqi who took the time and effort to write to Americans. My response:
Unless and until it does not matter if one is Shia, Sunni, Wahabi or any of the sub sects, indeed, until you can travel throughout the Middle East and not be able to distinguish one's religion - you're doomed.
Jsck, imagine an America where being a Catholic, Methodist, Jew, Presbyterian or whatever, mattered.
Thanks for this letter and Thanks for your service Jack.
It seems that many Iraqis are having their futures destroyed by a relatively few who are willing to engage in mass violence. Thanks for working on behalf of freedom.
Yes, Saddam's tryannical, terror sponsoring regime was horrible as well. It's all I write about at my site www.regimeofterror.com if anyone is interested in a reminder what this guy was up to.
Jack,
I saw that the Iraqi who wrote this letter talked of the cooperation between Saddam's army men and other Baathists with al Qaeda. I have a list of HUNDREDS of Saddam's guys caught doing this if you are interested in a copy.
Could you ask your friend to speculate when and how this alliance began?
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