On Demand
Iraq: A View From the Battlefield
At the end of a week full of debate on the Iraq War, Staff Seargent David Bellavia, decorated Iraq War veteran and the author of House to House: An Epic Memoir of War (Free Press, 2007), with John R. Bruning, gives us a perspective from the field, reacts to the president's speech on Iraq, and talks about his service in Iraq including the Fallujah campaign.
House to House is available for purchase at Amazon.com
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in re: Petreus report/Bush speech
My high-schooler's French calendar word for today is la confiance, and the sentence is Cet homme ne m'inspire pas confiance. This man does not inspire trust. Could the timing be mere coincidence?
Mere coincidence or the Cosmic Spirits commenting on General Petraeus in French?
Let me check my magic 8 ball.
Question; Could we ask Seargent Bellavia how he feels that many soldiers have been put in harms way for a war that had nothing to do with september 11th, and would he support invading Iran.
Good lord this guys nuts! IRAQ DID NOT ATTACK US ON 911!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Does he support the "Big Bang Theory" The idea that our ultimate success revolves around flipping the ME toward modernity?
Mr Bellavia draws no distinction between Iraq and Afghanistan, but on 9/11 there was no Al Qaeda in Iraq. AQI was created in response to the opportunity we created by invading Iraq and setting the conditions needed for AQI to form.
He is clearly due our respect and gratitude, but I completely reject his naive political / strategi view of the GWOT.
The draw-down was in the works for a long time, the troops are getting worn out. So they will be rotated in and out.
For a long time.
If we could go back in time Gore would be president...
Ummm....
first off: Who said it isn't about politics????
WAR IS ALWAYS POLITICAL!
second: We who are against the Iraq war and are for Afrghanistan are because the Taliban sponsored and funded Al Qaeda....and Iraq HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT!
He's saying AQ is AQ either in Afghanistan or Iraq
He's not naive.
Sorry no time machines available. If they were though, could we go back and have Clinton take out
AQ?
Due our respect? For what? Being a brainwashed killing machine?
War is primarily about death and destruction, with sprinklings of humanitarianism..
I believe the guest definitely highlights how little New York liberals understand serving in the military and the kinds of attitudes that culture fosters.
Most soldiers in uniform would not write an op-ed: that's not a soldier's place.
Yet more arguments we should bring back the draft.
How unfortunate that so many people, including this young man, think that we should keep feeding other young men and women into this war until the original mission is accomplished.
That original mission - we now know - was completely mistaken, based on flawed and misrepresented intelligence.
How many have to die before this man's need for validation will be sated?
As a Viet Nam veteran I can't believe I just heard your guest just said that the other dominoes will full if we fail in Iraq. I remember hearing that if we dont stop them in Viet Nam we will be fighting the communists in Hawaii. This is the same bogus argument. We fight the terrorists in Iraq so they don't attack the homeland. Does anyone own a history book. I had to face the fact that over 58,ooo men died for nothing in VietNam - your guest is going to face the same hard facts that men have died for nothing
Bill
No I'd take out the neo-cons..
This war war to basically award huge no bid contracts to their cronies who got them elected..
We must continue sending young men to their death in Iraq to respect the honor of young men who died in Iraq.
I'd like someone to ask him:
Why did we go into Iraq in the first place?
David has his eyes wide open. Hardly brainwashed.
He is spot on as a soldier.
Wow talking about drinking the kool-aid...
Flipping the ME to Modernity is what this is all about.
Listening to your guest reminds me that my son was in 5th grade when the war started and he's now a sophomore in Highschool with no end in sight. Although Sargeant Bellavia states that he is a soldier and does what he is told, many of us still don't understand what we are doing in Iraq and I for one, fear for my son's future.
Im a vet from brooklyn ny. Served two tour in iraq, mosul and kirkuk..
While serving in the infantry i didnt meet one soldier who wanted to be there and believed in the mission.
however, orders are orders and we never hesitated to do our job.
I'll chop my son's finger off before I let him anywhere near a war like this.
How about asking him the million dollar question...
Why are we in IRAQ!!!!!
Ask him has he read the countless positions held by the members of this administration back in the 90's?
http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqmiddleeast2000-1997.htm
We went into Iraq to produce a vertical shock to the region.
This whole thing is about changing the Middle East. Free election, womens rights ya know Modernity.
"Brainwashed"? Please-- have you spent any time around soldiers currently serving? Seeing as you live in Park Slope, I would venture no.
I am against this war, but I don't disagree with much of what the staff sergeant is saying really.
And for the pacificists, try reading a history book for a change-- while I am "dove" and certainly not a chickenhawk, where does pacificism enter into dealing with suicide bombers and murderous, religious fanatics?
The sergeant is right about getting "boxed in": either you're pro-Bush or anti-war, etc. etc. A better dialogue is possible.
That was intense.
i saw this in saving private ryan
Sgt. Bellavia is arguing the same talking points I've been hearing this whole week from the Republicans - That if we leave Iraq we won't have a base in the Middle East to deter Iran and that we need to be there to hold back Iran (YET another reason (is this the 20th?) for invading Iraq) .
Can you ask him that we ALREADY have bases in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, The Arab Emirates and other smaller countries. And also in Central Asia - We have Iran surrounded. He is not making sense and he should be called on it. We can remove troops from Iraq and REDEPLOY - as Democrats have been saying - to our other bases in the gulf. We should redeploy to secure the borders in IRaq and part of the billions of dollars to help the 2million Iraqi refugees in Syria and Jordan.
We are NOW DESTABILIZING JORDAN as well - the ONLY semi sensible ally we have in the region.
Bush and his cronies are destabilizing the Middle East and making it more dangerous for us and our real friends.
STOP!
jeezus, brian! maybe you get off on hearing war porn through your headphones, but i sure don't. i doubt i'm alone.
what the hell?
So instead of letting your son decide his own way through life you would chop his finger off? Nice.
Trevor answer this, who benefits from war in the 21st century...Come on my friend it's the 21st century..
I'm just glad we have some senators and representatives who can look at the facts and make a change of course. that's part of their job. yes they voted for it before they voted against. they were misled. the president is trapped in a fantasy world, around him only yes men and lobbyist.
the supertropper says they could win this war if only there were no elections. that sums up what this war is really about.
I wouldn't tie him down and chop it but if he felt the way I do yes, I would help him stay out of this any way I could.
I take issue with the use of the word "epic" in the title of this book, epic is defined as follows-
1. An extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, celebrating the feats of a legendary or traditional hero.
2. A literary or dramatic composition that resembles an extended narrative poem celebrating heroic feats.
3. A series of events considered appropriate to an epic: the epic of the Old West.
adj.
1. Of, constituting, having to do with, or suggestive of a literary epic: an epic poem.
2. Surpassing the usual or ordinary, particularly in scope or size: "A vast musical panorama . . . it requires an epic musical understanding to do it justice" Tim Page.
3. Heroic and impressive in quality: "Here in the courtroom . . . there was more of that epic atmosphere, the extra amperage of a special moment" Scott Turow.
I don't think that any of those definitions can be applied to this war, or this story.
War porn? Reality sucks right.
Nice point about existing bases in the region and as the soft partition of Iraq continues odds are we will pull back to these position, but we aint leaving. If we do we will just be back in 10 years.
That is the legacy of Gulf War One.
I'm saying war is a human perennial. I'm aware every war is a rich man's war, war is morally objectionable and so on, but there is no denying its certain presence in human life, around the world, throughout history.
The idea of a "soldier" occurs as an anachronism to many New Yorkers who have never served, and are unfamiliar with that culture. Therefore the sergeant is "brainwashed" to some listeners-- to others he sounded like a soldier that had his priorities in order.
If more Democrats served in the military and carried more clout in these matters (as they did following WWII and part of Vietnam), the war's domestic riff would mend somewhat, if in fact we would gone to war at all.
Brian,
Sadamm Hussein's Baathist regime and Al Quaida are NOT one and the same!!!! And Sgt. Bellavia makes a great point: "if Bush is so evil and rotton, that why not get rid of him?" Easier said than done because that little knot of minds was so tight and covered so many bases that we weren't able to. The whole gang has mysteriously disbanded, but I trust something incriminating will come out when this man is gone. Hitler managed to wrestle a democracy away from the people as well, by playing on their racist misguided hate-induced fears. Goebbels himself said: if you repeat a lie often enough, evetually people will believe it. Before we went to war in 2003, 67% of the American public believed Sadamm Hussein was personally responsible for the 9/11 attacks. I wouldn't hold Karl Rove above taking study from whatever successful leaders he could in order to shape his evil plan, would any of you? The truth is though, Sadamm's regime was facist in nature and there was no palpable connection between him and the wide, ellusive web of the terrorits who called themselves Al- Quaida. While not all Muslims are terrorists, certainly most terrorists are Muslim and the terror reigns from Chechnya all the way down to Indonesia..so please tell me how Iraq and Iraq alone was held responsible if this evil man in office wasn't trying to exercise a personal adgenda?
Oh and Bush has now succeeded the number of people whose deaths he was avenging: 3, 700 Americans dead in Iraq.
Does anyone really believe we are there to spread modernity and give women equal rights?? World War II was fought by Democrats & Republicans but seemed like there was actually something worth fighting for (of course there was (stopping Hitler, duh) but $$$ and power were our government's true motivators.
I can't believe this guy chose to read an account from his book that was reminiscent of the scene in "Saving Private Ryan" of killing another man in hand to hand combat. I did not find it gripping as Brian described the book, but rather revolting.
I think that one of the reasons we are having such a problem getting out of Iraq is the rank sentimentality that is engendered daily by the media for the military.
I saw a film recently on the Tianamen Square massacre. They showed young guy who stood in front of the Chinese tanks. That was gripping. I am also reminded of a film a long time ago of a UN soldier who tried to face down Israeli tanks as they invaded Lebanon in the '80's. He was armed only with a hand gun. Or of General Dallaire in Rwanda who tried to protect civilians under terrible conditions. Finally, I went on one of the ships that was in NY during fleet week two years ago and one of the sailors told us how they had been in New Orleans helping with rescues.
There are noble things to be done in the military. I don't see it in Iraq. And I think that often soldiers in the field are not in a position to see the issues clearly. They are trained to obey orders. They want to succeed in whatever mission is assigned to them. So we have a country in chaos where thousands of citizens have been killed or forced to leave their country. And American soldiers have had a big hand in it.
I think we can best understand Bellavia in the context of what John Dean was saying the other day.
The country has been taken over by what the psychologists called the authoritarian personality.
Authoritarians are divided into leaders and followers. The leaders lie and exploit their followers. The followers get their beliefs from their leaders, rather than from the facts. They are the 1/3 who tell pollsters that Saddam was responsible for 9/11, that we found WMDs, that they support Bush, and that the war is going well. The followers have always been suckers, and were exploited by crooks from the religious right to the home mortgage industry. The Republican party, said Dean, realized that they could exploit the followers too to win elections.
I urge everyone to read Dean's article on Findlaw. http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/
I like your last point Trevor, but I guess I get tired of the regurgitated, unoriginal, viewpoints that appear so practiced that are bandied around; not just by the military, but by everyone (the media, politicians etc)
Thanks Norman,
why can't discourse between those folks you described; the followers and the rest of us be as rational?
Can you ladies take your tea party somewhere else?
NO I.D. NEEDED
Behold the eyes,
Behold the smirk,
Behold the lies,
Behold the jerk.
Dean isnt a jerk just a politician.
If you think this war is about providing rights to women and "modernity" to the middle east then either:
-I want what you're smoking, because it is REALLY strong stuff or
- You have got to be one of the most naive people around
And WHEN did it suddenly become acceptable for an alledgedly democratic country which values individual freedom and self-determination to IMPOSE it's ideas of "modernity" or it's values on another society with the barrel of a gun because it thinks that society should be more like them? Especially when that society did not first attack them? Hmmmmmm? Um...that's called IMPERIALISM! Step away from the FOX news and open a friggin' history book for crying out loud! Good grief!
True, womens rights, gay rights and Modernity are merely by-products of The Long War that David spoke about not the goal.
The Long War is about security for the region, a region the global economy (mostly Asia) depends on for energy.
Bush botched the invasion of Iraq yet the advance of modernity will continue irregardless of which political party is in power in the US.
Transforming the region is the reason for the "Big Bang" of invading Iraq.
Ugly isn't it.
The original reason given was weapons of mass destruction which turned out to be a crock
"Transforming the region" was definitely the real reason (as well as contracts,etc) and is part of the Neo-con vision. And as I said above, that is just imperialism disguised behind a euphamism.
Ugly? Indeed it is!
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