He had the choice of becoming a neurosurgeon or staying in an often taxing and thankless job where he excels and helps to defend the society that welcomed him with open arms from India. Both are honorable professions, and require a great degree of expertise and constant learning. Maybe he decided that he would do more to help our society by taking the path he chose, but I can’t speak for him. He is a wise man who is intelligent enough to make his own decisions and respectfully, as a grown ass man, he doesn’t have to answer to those who criticize him. But my best advice, before you get into an argument with him, realize that you will be arguing with a man who could be a brain surgeon, is outgoing enough to have 160 follow him without question, and brilliant enough that he most likely qualifies for MENSA.

Other than that, his actions and bravery speak for themselves.

                      -SGT Victor A. Erdahl

Vinod, I’m sorry I didn’t reach you. I was in San Fran last weekend but only for a day. I was doing the PCH drive with my wife. When I have more time, I will definitely meet up with you. I’m flying back to Germany today.

Saheli, Punjab JAG, Manish, and icarus get it. I agree, there is no military solution to Iraq. Only a political one. My battalion commander said that from day 1. But if you’re gonna do a job, you might as well be passionate about it. Furthermore, it takes a certain type of mentality to separate your line of work from humanity and compassion. Sometimes those interests coincide in Iraq, sometimes they don’t. But the health, welfare, and morale of my soldiers was always #1 on my mind. And I came home with 100% of my men after major combat operations in Baqubah and Fallujah. RED BASTARDS!

-Red 6

Ditto!

On that note, Gates of Fireby Steven Pressfield is an excellent book.

Generation Kill

This is an interesting book. I’ve had mixed feelings about it, but one can’t deny that it is raw and factually correct.

My problem has been that people formulate opinions based upon one or two accounts. Hopefully, with the amount of coverage this war has seen, more people come out with their accounts (people already have, but there isn’t anything wrong with more accounts) putting together a better picture of this giant puzzle. From reporter viewpoints, soldiers, leadership, etc. Keep your eyes open on another book written by the LT., who was depicted in Generation Kill, to come out sooner or later.

On another note, some of the Recon Marines from that book, Rudy Reyes and Mike Saucier, are out of the Corps and are my boxing/martial arts instructors. I’ll put in a plug for them, who have started their own fitness thing.

These are some good guys and they have interesting stories, particularly on Fallujah where their Recon Batallion was actually used for what it was trained to do, not the feint/bait as accounted for in Generation Kill.

generation Kill

I think Aslam on that other thread is well, wrong, but he’s got a point. It’s our (civilians with cushy day jobs and time to read the paper and blogs and call our Senators and bitch out our Reps) job to try and keep them safe and doing the morally right thing. It’s their job to be ready at a moment’s notice to defend us however we see fit.

Go rent (or buy!) Gunner Palace. I highly recommend it. Bravado and zeal is not exclusive of inner doubt and moral sadness. He has a responsibility to keep up the morale of his troops and their families, and his blog is part of that effort.

And yes, his comment abou the call center is kinda dumb.

Punjabi JAG, Hope you haven’t been buying the agitprop wholesale. This chap isn’t winning anything. He THINKS he’s winning something, and so does 50% of the nation. The reality on the ground is that this war has gone beyond the ‘winnable’ stage for America, because ultimately these things are not won by soldiers, but instead by statecraft. Both Juan Cole in Salon and Peter Galbraith in NYRB have written about this.

I’ve linked to the NYRB article because Galbraith is not a partisan like Cole. But they both tell the same sorry story. The Imam Khomeini is smiling down from the heavens.

Simple, I know, but really, someone has to win our nation’s wars and he’s seems perfect for the job. Perhaps he should feel sorrow for every life that is lost but I somehow think that would damage his effectiveness as a warrior. If seeing zeal is the price for victory I’m ready to pay up.