From the Front: Bring Us Home Now! From

My Friends, Conspirators, and Souls,

Malcolm X's words, 'You can't separate peace from freedom, because no one can be at peace until he has his freedom' from Malcolm X Speaks surfaces while I watch the lights of explosions rumble over the Iraqi city. Planes have been roaring overhead all night carrying out air strikes on hard targets that are possible hide-outs for insurgent freedom fighters. The artillery from a nearby forward operating base joins in with the noise and light display. The purpose is to soften the resistance before the ground troops move in. Hopefully many of the improvised explosive devices and anti-personal booby traps will be destroyed reducing American casualties. Because of the monsoon season close air support from helicopters and the spy drones have been grounded. That is where reconnaissance by snipers and scouts become vital for intelligence.
Being the first soldiers into a high-risk combat zone is not the most comfortable feeling. As the morning is just beginning and the first haze of light is glowing through the horizon's mist, I am filled with despair and fear. Not because of the job at hand that I know will be both challenging and dangerous, but because I have learned of the results of the 2004 United States Presidential Elections. I know that some of the soldiers that enter the urban mazes to hunt for the militants today will not be leaving with their lives. I know that many of the innocent men women and children that have not evacuated the city will also be murdered in the violence. And after this day it will not be over. The policies of the Bush regime will only escalate the war and promote more to come. Dubya's immature foreign diplomacy drives more countries away from aiding America in our efforts. The world polarizes and the United States is looking more and more alone on the far right edge. The economy will continue to suffer and as we stumble into another recession, we will find that our paid-off allies will back out once we can no longer pay the mercenaries' checks. The draft seems unavoidable if we continue Operation Iraqi Oppression. Every son and daughter from poor American families will be dying along side of me. The environment gags at the runaway pollution and whips up one natural disaster after another in it's defense. When droughts plague more and more of the world's crops, the entire stock of automatic weapons will not be able to stop hungry fathers from trying to feed their children. A global Somalia scenario will be commonplace. The human civil rights that Americans have been fighting for since the birth of our nation are being strangled under Patriot and Homeland Security Acts. It is 2004 but feels like we have stepped back in time to socially degenerate into a fictional reality of horror stories like 1984 and Animal Farm. The enlightenment of tomorrow's problem solvers is going dim. We won't leave a child behind in an education program that doesn't advance one single boy or girl.

The Fight or Flight panic of a beast pursued by a predator floods my nerves. Deep inside my heart I realize that Bush won by convincing America that he was a better choice than Kerry, and perhaps he is, but I seriously doubt it. I want to cry out FRAUD, and CHEATER! It is easier to believe that he stole the election rather than face the facts that America has bought every lie. Despite his low intelligence and macho feigned evangelism, he was the majority's choice. I think about staying in Europe when I redeploy to my home duty station in Germany, or possibly moving north to Canada. But I can not run either. The right thing to do is stay and put more effort into changing the system to something that is functional in a positive way. I have to organize into larger, more influential groups. It should not matter who is in office, the President is still required to represent the people. We have to push with great effort and convince Dubya to make the right decisions. We have to sway outside countries to help us as American people rather than back just our perceived government. The President is only a puppet and the people have to grab hold of the strings. With a true democracy it doesn't matter if Mickey Mouse is the Commander-In-Chief, which many of you voted for, the power should still rest with the citizens. Let's take that power back and have a government that reflects our country. It has been too long that we have been misrepresented by our leader.

The time Bush has been waiting for has come. He knew despite which direction the election went he would no longer be forced to worry about polls and swing states. He could concentrate on progressing to a new aggressive posture in Iraq. He is now free to launch the largest offensive since the war was declared over. He knows that the ballots are in and that he can not run again in 2008 or will be out of office soon enough. The media is conveniently distracted with possible scandals and lawsuits. They will be chasing the winner about digging up stories on the presidential race. No one will notice the increased level of conflict. So I, we, wait for the green light and then the Air Force will stop flying overhead, soldiers will begin moving from ruined house to ruined house and humvees will roll down the debris-strewn streets. There will be contact all throughout the sector as the insurgents refuse to swallow Capitalism to a force that looks more like an occupation every day. If you are reading this I have lived through another day in Iraq. But I might this could be the last time. I have stopped saying that it won't happen to me, because so many good people before me have said it. Superstition and prayer will not save us. Close quarters combat training or kevlar armor plates will not save us. The only thing that can help us now is to bring us home now. And the only way to do it is to force the government to recognize that that is America's choice. If it is the wrong decision, then that is our mistake to make. Not a few people we elected.

The responsibility of an American citizen does not end after your ballot is turned in.

Heretic Baquba, Iraq



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