Dispatch from the Front

I'd like to begin another new feature, where from time to time I will share with you some dispatches from the front.

I know someone currently fighting in Iraq, and with his permission, I'll share with you some excerpts of his emails. He's a thoughtful fellow, and I think you'll appreciate hearing the perspective of someone in the thick of it.

Just to avoid any security concerns, I won't name him, I won't say how I know him, and I won't say what unit he's in, or what he's doing there. No need to make things easy for the bad guys, who have access to the Internet too.

The big news from Iraq today was the Iraqi Constitution. Certainly there's a question as to the outcome of this adventure. Will the Sunnis participate in the political process? The Kurds and Shiites have an interest in protecting their advantages, their positions of authority, but what do the Sunnis want? Are they just trying to take as many bodies with them as they can, or do they actually think they might regain power, even though the Kurds and especially Shiites greatly outnumber them?

My correspondent says:

The sunnis first and foremost are complete idiots. By hanging on to the bankrupt dream of the baath party returning, they kept themselves out of any good chances for obtaining a piece of the pie, at least in the short term.

If anything, it's a good thing the us has been here to try and at least give them a fair shake otherwise they would have been crushed over a year ago.

This situation is similar to the collapse of soviets. All the satellites scrambled over to the EU and Nato. And the ruskies were shocked and disappointed. Did they delude themselves? Such poor treatment for so long should really be no surprise to find they want nothing to do with the russians. Likewise, The kurds and shia tribes never again want to entrust their safety and prosperity to the dubious good graces of the al tikriti tribes of this world.

I dont think the arabs are sophisticated enough to look the ground truth of reality in the face and call it what it is. They ALWAYS obfuscate and say everything will be fine. It's not just saddams propoganda that caused baghdad bob to say the ridiculous things he did during the invasion, the entire muslim world thinks this way, ie, muslims all over thought they, iraq, were going to fight hard and long and indeed the sudden collapse so shocked them it caused muslims everywhere to impugn their 'honor'. i know, i talked to alot of diffrerent types about this.

Arabs never say what they mean, many cultures are like this. Bad form and all, or from an anthropology standpoint it's just how a culture does things.

few cultures are like the americans, where we are so harshly abrupt, direct, and to the point and we get right down to business. those traits are valued by us but not always by others.

Ah, the sunnis, last year, many started tentative feelers-steps to see what they could do about coming in from the cold so to speak. rumsfeld and some other generals recently alluded to this in open news about a month ago? there've been many talks. not much fruit borne yet however.

But alot of sheiks and baathists and whatnot realized they might be better off trying it the american way because, lo and behold, these idiot clowns realized; they don't have an army anymore?! Wow, news flash, if they wanted to rise up and dominate the others, well, lets just say I had and still hope they try it because the pesh and southern militias would slaughter them, and that would pretty much take care of 99% of this insurgency. The others got a huge amount of firepower, the pesh even have tanks now, the sunnis got didley and squat. and didley left town.

The 'real' problem is iran and most elite sunnis know it! Its like after ww2 and many nazis expected the us to join forces and fight the russian commies, the 'real' big problem. when it didnt happen(although albeit it did with a cold type of conflict) they were surprised. many baathists should have-could have joined us in the struggle to keep out the greater menace of the influence of the ancient nemisis, the persians. but they didn't.

Now, irony of ironies, the sunnis have been pleading with the us to ensure their voice and concerns are met in this latest debate over the constitution. Ha! If they weren't so busy planning and attacking and causing mayhem then maybe they might have some resources and energy left to build towards a good future. But no.

Good riddance to them I say. We need to control the rise of the shia wackos who want to create a little iran here. But, unfortunately, that's the brits area and they acqueisced long long ago and its quite clear to all involved who quickly consolidated power and the us has much less influence in that region so we can't do much about it in the short term.

the good news, if any down there, is the iraqis are primarily arabs and have some type of national pride so the mullahs in iran have limits (although money buys alot of friends, influence, and intell. just ask the israelis) this was demonstrated in the iran-iraq war. the persians were surprised their shia brothers throughout the muslim world didnt rally to their revolutionary cause, indeed, the entire muslim world actually kind of ganged up on them(at the behest of the saudis who kind of call the shots being caretakers of islam and all) I am continually amazed at how the us media always seem to be a day late and a dollar short. maybe its a factor of my not having time to surf all the alternative outlets but the mainstream continually 'just doesnt get it'.

I always appreciate hearing from my correspondent, but more importantly, I admire and respect the job he, his unit, and all Americans are doing there. We salute them.

In the next dispatch, I want to look at combat, and some thoughts from the viewpoint of both combatant and those of us on the homefront.