10 October 2007
Senator John McCain,
Senator,
I had the honor to meet you in Charleston, South Carolina recently. I was the Air Force Flight Nurse that gave you a coin outside the Beth Israel Synagogue. At the time I did not have the opportunity to share with you my feelings about the direction for America.
Your service to the nation, both in the Navy and in Congress, has been exemplary. You are a decent, honorable and extremely qualified candidate and I supported your candidacy for President in 2000 but cannot this time and I want you to know why.
Our foreign policy since the September 11th attacks has, in my opinion, been misdirected, ineffective, and wrongheaded. There is a commonly held belief that Secretary Rumsfield chose to attack Iraq because he did not want to waste million dollar missiles attacking tents in the desert. If true this is hardly a reason to attack another country.
Since 9/11 we have made Gitmo and Abu Grab infamous, buried Pat Tillman and the Iraq Study Group report, and invaded a sovereign nation that has never attacked, or even threatened us. I represent a large number of Americans who feel the Administration mislead us about a link between Iraq and 9/11 and about WMD.
Now we are occupying the remnants of a country that the President insists is not in civil war. Americans now feel that “Shock and Awe” and “Mission Accomplished” might not have been such a great idea and we want out. We are told we need to patiently trade our lives (3600+), limbs (30,000+), and treasure ($500,000,000+). Sometimes it is to give them democracy, sometimes it is to keep the terrorist wolves from following us home, and sometimes because leaving too quickly endangers the lives of our servicemen.
We can chose any excuse we want to stay in Iraq but the one that makes my blood boil is the one you believe, that the reason to stay is Victory. The Administration reluctantly admits that intelligence over a span of 15 years has been faulty yet we have no problem swallowing that the 8 people we bombed from 20,000 feet in the middle of the night were definitely al Qaeda.
I had a conversation with a friend the other day who insisted that we lost the war in Viet Nam because Walter Cronkite said it was unwinable. Here in the South we insist that the Civil War is not over because we know that until everyone agrees a conflict is over our side is down but not out. Staying because we don’t want to dishonor the soldiers that lost their lives so far or because we hate to lose is no reason to stay.
As you are very well aware, victory is far less about military outcome then it is about lasting coercive political change. How you can point to Iraq and see us winning or see Victory is beyond me. Yes, you saw a pacified neighborhood and a bunch of gung ho reenlistments. What does that tell you? That as long as we hold a boot to a local’s neck they will remain silent, and that the US Army will follow you to the ends of the earth. You won’t find soldiers whining and since half of the wounded and dying is done by teenagers I don’t put too much stock in their experience in world or military affairs.
President Bush and diplomacy averse neocons wanted to see WMD in Iraq and the spreading of Democracy in the Middle East. You want to see us winning and the conclusion of this war with our victory. I wanted all these things too but reality does not seem to bear them out. My trips to drag young Americans out of the Iraqi meat grinder, in my opinion, trump your strolls in Baghdad and reenlistment ceremonies.
If we really believe that this is a life and death struggle for America then institute the draft, quadruple our forces, and seriously raise our taxes and Defense spending. In this country we sit on the sidelines playing armchair quarterback while some of our best and brightest die. This conflict is important enough for us to go to war but not important enough to share the sacrifice.
Secretary Rumsfield, like McNamara before him, spoke of a few dead enders and body counts. Do you really believe we are killing enemies faster that we are creating them? If most people in Iraq have a relative or friend who has lost their life since we invaded do we really expect to win either their hearts or minds?
With all due respect,
David S. Ball, Major, AFRC, NC
Operation IRAQI FREEDOM veteran
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