Bill Sykes' Newsletter
from America.
(August 2003)
An ex-Brit gives his views-(without fear
or favor)---of the American Scene
How goes the war?
British and American soldiers are still getting
killed and wounded in post-war Iraq at a deplorable rate,
even after Mr Bush declared the war in Iraq to be over
on the 1st of May 2003.
One must remember that when a war is declared over, it
doesn’t mean that the fighting and killing stops.
The utter chaos reigning in Iraq is something that the
American Administration had not foreseen, or planned for,
and it would appear that Coalition Forces will be there
as an Army of Occupation for a long time to come. In fact
the America Administration recently stated that plans
were afoot to rotate American troops on an annual basis.
This is said to be causing much concern, (with a possible
drop in morale), to the American troops deployed there
as they and their families expected that as in many other
actions fought by American troops in recent years, (Korea
and Vietnam not included), that after the war was won
that they would be on their way home leaving the vanquished
foe to fend for themselves.
It was reported that the wife of General Blount wrote
a somewhat scathing letter in a military journal recently
saying that the wives and families of soldiers should
stop their bitching and moaning, (or words to that effect),
and should fully support the American troops.
I’m perfectly sure that every one of the wives and
families of the soldiers serving in this terrible war
support the troops without question. A major problem facing
the wives and families of soldiers serving in Iraq is
the stress and hardships being suffered due to the long
absence of their husbands, plus the additional emotional
stress they face of not knowing when or if their husbands
will return from this land of anarchy and violence.
May I remind the lady that there is a vast difference
between professional soldiers, such as her husband, who
by the nature of their contract can be ordered to go anywhere,
anytime, and stay as long as required, and the young and
inexperienced National Guard part time soldiers.
The professional soldiers are in a very different position
to the weekend warriors. I fully recognize that, as volunteer
members of the National Guard, in times of a national
emergency they may have to leave their jobs and go to
war in far away places.
Of course the pay of a General makes life a lot easier
for the wife and family left back home than the pay of
the lowly general issue, (G.I.), soldier which in many
cases causes monetary hardship for the family left behind.
The Coalition Forces are operating in terrible conditions
and considering that they have to wear heavy and cumbersome
flack jackets and full combat gear in order to protect
themselves from deadly attacks by fanatical anti-American
supporters of Saddam Hussein and his Ba'ath Party, the
heat of an Iraqi summer must also contributes to a certain
amount of debilitation and fatigue to a point of complete
exhaustion. The Iraqi ex-soldier civilian combatants have
adopted a mode of guerrilla street fighting which includes
hit and run tactics which are a very difficult to form
of combat to overcome.
The United States is trying to coerce more participation
from nations who supported the war against Iraq, to become
involved in the post war reconstruction, but are finding
these nations reluctant to be involved in the chaotic,
unstable, and particularly violent situation.
I don’t see any news reports these days as to
what is currently happening in the Balkans where the NATO
troops were given to understand that this skirmish would
be over in a matter of months, and yet those troops are
still policing the area five years or more later. Then
there is Afghanistan, where we bombed and flattened the
mountain tops but were unable to prevent the War Lords
returning to power and resuming military command of territorial
areas, and the Taliban is once again infiltrating Afghan
society and exerting political and religious pressures
on the Afghan people.
So the question remains, did we win either of those wars
to the satisfaction of the oppressed people we went to
war for, and have they gained freedom and achieved a form
of Democratic government that we promised them.
Early days of course, maybe in a number of years time,
who knows.
We welcome feedback about any of the contents
of these newsletters. Please send all correspondence to
bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk
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