Thanks, Veterans, for Your Sacrifices

Here's a letter to the editor in today's Burlington Free Press from a Vermont soldier in Iraq.

On Veterans Day
A letter home

Dear Mom & Dad,

I haven't told anyone back home much about the danger we face here, because I don't want folks needlessly worrying about us. However, I have been hearing and reading reports of the protests and anti-war campaigns that are on going. While I fully support their freedom to openly disagree with the President's strategy, I am concerned that they don't realize that our battlefield here could change to a battlefield inside the boundaries of the U.S. if we don't continue this conflict. The resources of the insurgency are great. Their funding and munitions supplies are plentiful. The advantage we have over them is they can't move large numbers of men around without our security nets picking up on it. This same issue, if it were to happen in the U.S., would be worsened. ...

The financial cost, as well the cost of lives lost, would be much higher if we were to fight this in our homeland. At this point I am getting a little tired of people saying they support the troops, but don't support the war. ...In order for us to be successful, people need to understand, they must understand, that unless we knock the legs out from under these bastards here, we are going to begin living the same life style of the citizens of Iraq.

Iraqis constantly fear reprisal from the insurgents. They can't openly speak of their dislike of the insurgency without fear of being killed. They can't travel their own highways without staring down the gun tube of a tank or some other form of weapon system. They never know when a gunfight may erupt right outside their door. Every facet of their life is built around time tables handed down by our military, i.e. curfews. These rules we lay down are as much for their protection as it is for ours. How would the citizens of our country like to live like that?

Losing loved ones far outweighs the financial cost of this war. We have all been affected by loss of life here. It is imperative that we finish this battle, so that not only will we be able to come home, but so that the Iraqi people will have a stable enough government and society that they can manage their own affairs. As well, so that our way of life can continue at home. The killers we face are the most vile forms of life that exist today. They kill without regard for anything. They send their own relatives out in vehicles laden with explosives to kill not only soldiers, but innocent civilians, as well. Then they celebrate their relative's death as a victory. It is a twisted mentality, and not one I spend any time trying to understand.

All I know is that this fight will never end without our country staying the course of freedom for all. We can't close our borders and we can't close our eyes, hoping it won't affect our society and our way of life. It already has, and it will continue to do so, if we don't stop the bastards here.

SGT. ERIC DODGE