From Col. Marc, Inside The Green Zone, On War Weariness

Sunday, May 06, 2007
From Col. Marc, Inside The Green Zone, On War Weariness
Posted by Hugh Hewitt 10:56 AM
From my friend, Col. Marc, inside the Green Zone:

I have not been following the news much, just too busy, but occasionally while in the Dining Facility the TV has on CNN. Mostly at the time I am there it is Lou Dobbs. He and some other media outlets have talked about the war weariness of the American people. I have heard him speak of the Presidents poll numbers being down because the American public is tired of four years of constant war. I don't understand it.

I want to look at this war in perspective. First, why is the American people weary of the war. They certainly are not fighting it. The great majority are not even involved or knowledgable of this war. The war is being fought by a very few of the American people. It is they who sacrifice and defend the nation. Of the 300,000,000 people in the US only about 1.5 million are in any way engaged in fighting this war. That is the 150,000 who are overseas deployed in a war zone and the 1.35 million who support or have rotated into and out of the war zone for their combat tour. That is .05% of the Nation carrying the burden of the war. All of those who are making that sacrifice are doing so as volunteers because they believe in the nation in its greatness and in the mission that we are doing. The American people are not even asked to sacrifice for the conduct of the war. There is no rationing, there is no limit on travel, there is no censorship. I can post this email to you and say anything I want as long as it does not contain classified material or contain insubordinate statements. There is no one cutting and pasting my letters. The taxes are not up because of the war. They may go up, but that is a Democratic tactic to gain a bigger budget. It is not to fund the war effort. In fact they want to unfund the war, yet taxes would still go up.

So I ask you how are you all weary of the war? How is it impacting you? Only those who fight it and the few who are related or friends of those in the war zone are really impacted by the war. The casualties are not even heavy. Certainly not the 480 a day during WWII. Those who have given their lives for the safety of the nation in a large part are forgotten by the public at large, only their loved ones know the weariness of loss. Not the public. So again how is the nation weary of the war? Many of them don't even know what is going on over here. They don't pay attention.

What I think is that the news media likes to make the public weary of the war. They constantly mis-state the situation and constantly speak of the weariness. Well I have been here for 41/2 months I work every day. I am tired and separated for my friends and family but I am not weary of the war. Nor are my brother and sister Soldiers Sailors Airmen and Marines. We know the cost and we know what we buy every month we are here. We kill more of the terrorists we draw them from all over the Middle East and kill them here. We have chosen the place and the time for this fight and now the American people must stand up and support their soldiers in the conduct of a war that was voted upon and approved by the Representatives of those same people. The Congress and the people committed us to this war, not just The President. Once you have committed your army to the field you must support it in the field. To do anything else puts us at great risk while fighting to defend you. Tell Harry Reid and Lou Dobbs the war is not lost and you are not weary of it. I am not ready to end this in defeat, so can you do any less?