Massachusetts Federation of Republican Women - Fall 2005 Newsletter

Army Reservist Urges Americans to Support Troops, and War

It's me back in the dust bowl. It was great seeing everyone over leave and I got to talk with some of you about what is going on over here. Yesterday I read how the people are losing patience with the war - we need to pull out, but we support the troops.

As a soldier, I want to speak about supporting the troops. I'm sure at home you are only getting the casualty report and on a daily basis it can seem like a never-ending grind. That is the daily cost of war. It's a cold, hard fact of engagements that people suffer, are wounded and some die. The more you take the fight to the enemy - please don't call them insurgents, they are killers of innocents - the greater the casualty count. Wars have always had loss, usually the more desperate the enemy, the greater the loss. Revolutionary War, 45,000; Civil War, 650,000; World War I (one year), 17,000; World War II, 500,000; Korea, 35,000; Vietnam (10 years), 56,000; Gulf War, 150; Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom, 1,800 (1,300 combat loss) in three years.

Every loss is a tragedy to a family and a community, but the loss of the current conflict would be a tragedy for the world. Last month they drove a car bomb into a group of children, detonating the car. It resulted in the deaths of 50 children. Why did they do it? It was to kill the two GIs handing out candy, knowing the news media would use it hoping to change the way Americans view the war. The U.S. has never lost a war that the media didn't sway. In Vietnam, the Tet Offensive was a massive defeat for the Viet Cong, but still they won the war. Why? Media coverage swayed the American people into the belief that the cause was lost. Also, remember that the terrorists' goal is not to have an Islamic region, but to have an Islamic world.

When I was home and watched TV, I couldn't believe I was watching the same conflict I am currently involved in. I was never so depressed. I swear the major networks already have the war lost. News to me. I've been there and seen construction, driven those roads, met with town governments. I've seen the hope on their faces. It's real. It's real because we have not left. It's real because the spirit of the American people is displayed by the caring, commitment and courage of the soldiers engaged in the fight.

The question is: Are we to be known as the great country of the United States of America deliverer of freedom for millions, or will we go down in history as a once great nation whose self-loathing for fear of being bloodied?

When you say you support the troops, you cannot in the same breath say you don't support the war. When I was home, I found it odd that people would say that. We are all part of a volunteer military. We could not do what we do if we did not believe in our great nation and the mission it asks us to do.

The mother in Texas says she wants us to support the troops and bring them home. I feel for her loss, but to have us cut and run would be an insult to her son's memory. He volunteered to be a Marine. I can't help but wonder how insuring her son died for nothing is honoring his memory.

So when you hear someone say they support the troops but not the war, ask them what the difference is. I know I can say I support the American citizens because I support and believe in the USA.

David Brouillette
Dracut

Capt. David Brouillette of Dracut wrote this letter to his nephew, Alex Rancourt, after a two-week leave. Brouillette is a Dracut fire-fighter and a U.S. Army National Guard Reservist serving in Iraq.

—Letter to the Editor, Lowell Sun, August 26, 2005