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Ear to the Ground

The Secret Letter From Iraq

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Posted on Oct 9, 2006

It started as an e-mail to friends and family, but soon found its way to the in-boxes of retired generals and Capitol Hill staffers: It’s a U.S. Marine’s account of how his experience of Iraq realities contrasts sharply with the narrative being presented by the White House.

Check it out in Time magazine.


Time:

All: I haven’t written very much from Iraq. There’s really not much to write about. More exactly, there’s not much I can write about because practically everything I do, read or hear is classified military information or is depressing to the point that I’d rather just forget about it, never mind write about it. The gaps in between all of that are filled with the pure tedium of daily life in an armed camp. So it’s a bit of a struggle to think of anything to put into a letter that’s worth reading. Worse, this place just consumes you. I work 18-20-hour days, every day.

The quest to draw a clear picture of what the insurgents are up to never ends. Problems and frictions crop up faster than solutions. Every challenge demands a response. It’s like this every day. Before I know it, I can’t see straight, because it’s 0400 and I’ve been at work for 20 hours straight, somehow missing dinner again in the process. And once again I haven’t written to anyone. It starts all over again four hours later. It’s not really like Ground Hog Day, it’s more like a level from Dante’s Inferno.

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By D, May 12, 2007 at 10:28 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Wow. There’s a book project going on at http://www.literaryprojects.com, looking for letters and such in support of troops. I wonder if this would be appropriate.

Keep on bloggin’!

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By dorothy h perkins, October 14, 2006 at 11:20 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

It is hard to put the way I feel in writing.i am
this makes me sick at my stomach,disgusted,fed up
I want those young guys to come home and I feel so helpless,I worked at a VA Hospital and I know
what has happened to our young men and for what?
God help us because no one in Washington will.
Dorothy Perkins

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