In a story in today's Washington Post - 'Waiting to Get Blown Up' - Joshua Partlow captures the hopelessness in Iraq by citing the words of the troops.
I've excerpted a few of them here:
"It sucks. Honestly, it just feels like we're driving around waiting to get blown up. That's the most honest answer I could give you. You lose a couple friends and it gets hard."
-- Spec. Tim Ivey, 28, of San Antonio, Texas
"Think of what you hate most about your job. Then think of doing what you hate most for five straight hours, every single day, sometimes twice a day, in 120-degree heat. Then ask how morale is. . . Frustrated? You have no idea."
--Army Staff Sgt. Jose Sixtos
"I can't fix electricity or sewers all the time."
--Capt. Mike Comstock, 27, of Boise, Idaho
"The first time somebody you know dies, the first thing you ask yourself is, 'Well, what did he die for?'"
-- Spec. Joshua Steffey, 24, of Asheville, North Carolina
"I mean, if you compare the casualty count from this war to, say, World War II, you know obviously it doesn't even compare... But World War II, the big picture was clear -- you know you're fighting because somebody was trying to take over the world, basically. This is like, what did we invade here for?"
"How did it become, 'Well, now we have to rebuild this place from the ground up'?"
"They say we're here and we've given them freedom, but really what is that? You know, what is freedom? You've got kids here who can't go to school. You've got people here who don't have jobs anymore. You've got people here who don't have power. You know, so yeah, they've got freedom now, but when they didn't have freedom, everybody had a job."
-- Spec. David Fulcher, 22, a medic from Lynchburg, Virginia
Bush News Politics Iraq Baghdad War Middle East
