Let's think before we leap to Iraq this time [1]
Sunday, July 29, 2007 - 08:44. Updated on Tuesday, September 10, 2013 - 18:44.
Editor,
Young members of the armed forces before my time, during my time and now Iraq, take on the common spirit that their deployment and going to battle was and is still to help those who lacked "the freedoms that we are afforded everyday". This was the battle call that encouraged millions over the years to take on the uniform and go to far and foreign places to fight wars and for us to justify the lost and sacrifices that many of our fellow veterans have done.
Unfortunately, things have changed and I join the accelerating number of Americans who are very concern with the increasingly unpopular invasion dragging on in Iraq. There seems to be no well defined mission, the Marines on the front line are without the best protection against its worst enemy, the improvised explosive devices (IED), the number of casualties increases, May, being the worst month since 2004 with 126 killed.
Unfortunately, "there seems to be no reduction in violence. There are new violence, old hatreds and a growing radical threat to America's hope for Iraq and the rest of the mid east", according to the June 26, edition of the Newsweek. More and more reports from the front line saying that the scariest thing in life "picking your rifle up every morning and climb into an armored vehicle in a mission they have concluded is senseless, endless and just plain wrong", Newsweek continued.
We, the Americans in armed forces have to be there no matter what tour opinions are. We sign above the dotted line and we are now government issues (GI). I am sending out messages to the Honorable Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tu'a Taumoepeau Tupou, Tonga Defense Force Brigadier General Utaatu and members of the Tonga Defence Force who may be called to the Second Tonga Defence Service Deployment to Iraq.
I strongly suggest and highly recommended that before a decision is made to re-deploy a Tongan unit to Iraq, that you give this deployment very careful consideration while you the choice is still up to you and definitely before you put any sons or daughters of Tonga in harms way.
I see Tonga wanting to remain a friend of President Bush and increase its popularity among the United States of America. There is French benefit to these which include but not limited to increasing immigration favors for the Tongans to travel to the US?
Your soldiers may be seeking that ultimate test of being in battle. I don't blame them because that is what they are trained for. But administrators who is not going to be in the danger zone in Iraq you should consider life and medical insurance for the troops and what kind of arrangement to you have for their families.
I wish I was in on these pre-deployment meetings to assure that the troops get the same benefits that the US troops are getting. I would at least make sure that the American Samoa delegation to the United States Congress, the Honorable Faleomavaega 'Eni Hunkin.
As a veteran of Desert Storm I would agree with the saying that "when the people who fought the war are speaking out against it... may be you should listen".
Last week, a friend of mine visited me at my house in Malaeimi, I could not recognize him at first until he got closer because 60% of his face has been marked and deformed as a result of an IED in Iraq 6 months ago.
We shed some tears and he told me he is going back to join his unit in Iraq. "I can't live like this for the rest of my life knowing that I never had a chance to take a shot at the enemy". Verna, my buddy left for Iraq on Sunday. I hope he realizes that I...d rather have him deformed but yet still alive. But I know, that being a die hard Marine Recon and especially with the Samoan Pride, he must get the satisfaction that he gets at least one of the enemy and while trying he...d rather die than to look like the way he is now.
Mafi 'o Amerika Samoa
slkava [at] samoatelco [dot] com