more iraq

"As the Deuce Four heads home this week, they leave behind a Mosul that, while not yet in the clear, is much closer to security and prosperity than anyone would have considered possible eight months ago. In between the daily secret reports Kurilla has brought to his hospital room so he can track his battalion, the Commander watches television news, increasingly frustrated by what he sees as a clear, and inaccurate, negative bias. 'When you get the news back here in the states, it’s all doom and body counts. I only wish the American public could see the incredible progress that is being made every day in Iraq, particularly in places like Mosul.'"
-from Michael Yon's web blog

But no one listens to soldiers nowadays, right?
Though, clearly, a soldier's mentality is different from some. The clearest example being, a soldier can't truly be a pacifist or they wouldn't have chosen the vocation they did. I think pacificism is a great philosophy, a noble one. I just don't think it's possible here and now. At least, not entirely. Definitely possible in some situations, on a small scale. And of course, the ripple effects of living that out can increase in magnitude. But Iraq? Right now? It would be massacre for us if we took a pacifist position. Which, I am mindful of, some may not see as a problem.