Hank on Iraq

I've never been too much of a Rollins fan, but he pretty much nails the Iraq war, talking about his visits to the troops with Elspeth Reeve of TNR:

It's an interesting ride, being in and amongst these people in this way. Because I don't support Bush or the war, but I like the troops, because I really don't think that they're more than just chess pieces in this whole thing. So it's not hard to like them. And they're so happy that someone visits them. It means so much to them. It's really cool that they get such a kick out of it.

[...]

For these young people, the war is, "My buddy got shot today." So when you say, "Prewar information was manipulated ..." they're like, "Kiss my ass. I'm getting shot at by guys who served me tea this afternoon." ... You just try and distract them from what they have to go out and do for the next twelve hours.

[...]

You'll go by the phone kiosk and you'll hear young men having these very strange, almost surreal arguments or discussions with their wives over something like, "Hey the garage is leaking, how do we fix that?" And what she maybe doesn't understand is, maybe that guy just got ambushed, like half an hour ago, and he's shaking from the adrenaline, and he's just calling her just to hear a familiar voice, and she's like, "We gotta get the sprinklers fixed." And he's like, "Oh, OK ... . I love you." He just wants to get back to the ground. And that's what makes me angry, is what all of this is doing to these very young families. It just makes me mad. It makes anybody mad. So whenever I hear some of these people who say, "Oh, you all don't have the stomach for war," or whatever, it's like, you know, if you're sane and civilized, I don't think any person in their right mind has the stomach for this crap. To have a stomach for it--Stalin probably had a stomach for it.

More here.

Comments

[Michael Turton]

Hey Justin...

I saw Ted Galen Carpenter's editorial in the Asian Wall Street Journal the other day. Is there any American commenting on the Taiwan arms purchase issue who is willing to comment on America's prime role in creating it? Or is there some conspiracy among commentators that no one has let me in on? Also, it would be nice if Carpenter actually did some research, and toned down the rhetoric, before he launched into one of his patented hacks on Taiwan.

I've blogged on his latest here:

http://michaelturton.blogspot.com/2007/04/ted-galen-carpenter-on-us-and-taiwan.html

Michael