One thing the American public doesn’t understand about Iraq

[Onkel Neal]

Very interesting interview and slide show of a Marine who served in Afghan and Iraq. I was particularly struck by this exchange:

Doc Block (interviewer): If you had to pick one, what is the one thing the American public doesn’t understand about Iraq?
Orth (Marine sniper): That there were WMD and the people talk about them all the time.

[Camaero]

I think he had them as well.

[The Avon Lady]

Link reminder: "Iraq's WMDs Revisited" thread.

I think there are tons of things the American public doesn't understand about Iraq, starting at the top of the government, as already being discussed on the "Saddam hung" thread.

[Iceman]

Doc Block: If you could go back in time to the moment when you signed up for the Marines, would you do it again?
Orth: In a heartbeat.

This is a hero.

Great post Neal...Happy New Year All.

Why has he been discharged at aged 22? We aren't being given the entire story.

We are only seeing part of the interview and only that part based on the negative questions being asked. MSM and Neal Stevens framing the argument to their liking.

[CCIP]

I'd also like to know why a Marine knows about the WMDs that even the administration can't show us :hmm:

As much as I'd like to be proven wrong, I think the public is right to assume what they assume - no evidence has yet surfaced that I'd consider half-convincing.

[August]

Originally Posted by waste gate

Why has he been discharged at aged 22? We aren't being given the entire story.

4 years active duty with 2 tours in Iraq and another in Afghanistan. Isn't that enough for you?

[Wim Libaers]

Originally Posted by CCIP

I'd also like to know why a Marine knows about the WMDs that even the administration can't show us :hmm:

As much as I'd like to be proven wrong, I think the public is right to assume what they assume - no evidence has yet surfaced that I'd consider half-convincing.

Well, some of them have been used in IED preparation. But it seems to be old stuff, left probably from before the previous gulf war. https://www.cia.gov/cia/reports/iraq...ap5_annxF.html

Also (nitpicking here), it was not about the administration but about public perception.

[Bort]

Doc Block (interviewer): If you had to pick one, what is the one thing the American public doesn’t understand about Iraq?
Orth (Marine sniper): That there were WMD and the people talk about them all the time.

I think that the word "were" is the important part of this exchange. Nobody argues that Saddam did have WMD, he had them some time ago, the question is whether or not he had a stockpile as of the time of the invasion, and the clear answer is that he did not. Yes, some old weapons, left over from Iraqs conflict with Iran are still around and have been found and used by insurgents, in addition to being found and destroyed by US EOD teams, but most of these weapons have degraded well beyond any sort of usefulness and when they have gone off, have barely injured anyone. The Iran-Iraq conflict was a long nasty war and left all sorts of junk all over the battlefields, including WMD. This enlisted Marine's assertion says nothing of consequence to the "did Saddam have WMD's or not" issue-if that issue even matters as to whether or not this war should have been fought in the first place.

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by waste gate

Why has he been discharged at aged 22? We aren't being given the entire story.

We are only seeing part of the interview and only that part based on the negative questions being asked. MSM and Neal Stevens framing the argument to their liking.

I didn't intend to frame any arguement, just thought the article was interesting.

[Subnuts]

A Wacky Menacing Dictator?

[Abraham]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

Very interesting interview ... of a Marine who served in Afghan and Iraq...

Indeed!
But alas, a negative picture has been framed about the US/British?Australian intervention in Iraq, mostly because the aftermath of it was badly managed from a security and from a public relations point of view.
The reality is that any military intervention triggers a tumultuous time and it might take ten years or so for the small percentage of extremists - who are the ones that cause the problems - to realise that the past is dead and gone. Often reconciliary or progressive forces take the upper hand.
Evidence: Germany after World War II, Vietnam and - quite illustrative - the Balkan war in the '90s.

History will judge this conflict (and President Bush). Since the conflict isn't history yet, it's still too soon to judge.
But I hope to start a thread "History lessons about the Second Gulf War" vife years from now, on Jan. 1st., 2012.

[nightdagger]

I think that he just hid them well. As a kid, if someone hid one of your toys in the sandbox, you might never find it. Saddam had a pretty damn big sandbox to hide his toys in.

In any case, that's a good article. A Marine recruiter at my school told us about the same thing that the sniper said: the media just shows the negative. Marines even do things like airdrop soccer balls to the Iraqi kids but they don't get credit for it from Americans.

[TteFAboB]

Considering the Hizballah managed to sneak in a bunch of high-tech anti-tank missiles inside tiny little Lebanon, you can take anything out of Iraq undetected.

[diver]

Originally Posted by CCIP

I'd also like to know why a Marine knows about the WMDs that even the administration can't show us :hmm:

As much as I'd like to be proven wrong, I think the public is right to assume what they assume - no evidence has yet surfaced that I'd consider half-convincing.

The fact that thousands of Kurds were killed in Chemical weapons attacks not enough evidence for you?

Did he have Nukes, no.

WMDs, certainly.