Reporting in

Thanks to John and Charlie for letting me guest-blog. John posted a REMF-ish picture of me lifted from my wife’s website, so I’ll try to find a more-warlike one of me.

I am a mobilized Marine Corps reservist, an artilleryman by trade, and at the moment a field historian with the small detachment at Marine Corps history division. It is our mission to go forth and document Marine Corps operations as they happen. The reason I took this job is that, at the time (late ’03), it was my only quick ticket out of town and into Iraq. I’m glad I did it.

Iraq. We can debate, if you like, the why’s and wherefore’s, but I’m not sure we’ll get too far. Instead, I’d like to address the nature of the campaign there, and why we need to stay in this fight and win it. This is how I saw it when I was there, and how I still see it today.

What’s at stake here is the need to break the cycle of radicalism and militancy in the Middle East by offering one country, Iraq, the opportunity to make of itself a functional, healthy state. A state that neither menaces its neighbors nor threatens world peace, a state that stands on its own two feet with a working economy and positive future. This is how we can build peace and stability in the whole region. Unfortunately it took a violent campaign to overthrow the old regime, and it is taking another campaign to reconstruct the country. We might all wish that it could have been done by other means, but there it is.

If you’ve ever heard the expression, “three steps forward and two steps backward,” you’ll appreciate the advances we’ve made in Iraq. In a post on my blog, I pointed out that it’s really nine ugly steps backward and ten painful steps forward. But that Tenth Step, or more accurately the series of small Tenth Steps being scored all across the country, will win the campaign. No single unit is going to strike a war-winning blow during its eight- or twelve-month tour in Iraq. But they do endure the nines steps taken backwards and then deliberately but purposefully resume the advance. Those small victories lead to greater ones. Greater ones will lead to a complete victory, and to our forces coming home.

My great concern is that the American public doesn’t understand that this is a long war, and the campaign in Iraq is but one part. Our famously short attention span could prove our undoing if we lose sight of what we’ve done and how far we still need to go, especially as elections draw near. The men and women overseas are certainly doing their part, but we can support them from here by letting our elected officials (and candidates) know that sustaining the fight in Iraq is the right course of action, a painful necessary part of defending the nation, and meeting and defeating our enemies.

In the next few weeks I hope to introduce you to some of the people who are bearing that burden now, old and valued friends.

MTF (more to follow).

jpp