Worse and Worse

Despite protestations to the contrary from the Bush administration, the situation in Iraq has not improved since the invasion and we continue to send brave Americans into a situation where we should not be:

Nearly four years ago, the soldiers of Sledgehammer Brigade stormed into Baghdad as liberators, a conquering force that swept 350 miles from Kuwait to Iraq's capital in just three weeks.

Now, as President Bush orders more US troops to Iraq, the first soldiers into Baghdad will be among the first to fight there for a third tour.

But this time, there is no euphoric anticipation of quick victory. This time, public support for the war has plummeted. This time, the mood of the brigade is stoic, its combat-hardened soldiers grimly aware that their future leads to a maze of random danger............

At a recent intelligence briefing for Sullivan's officers, Chief Warrant Officer Chad Barrett described a chaotic, corrupt environment in Iraq that had deteriorated since the brigade's last deployment. "It's a hard situation we're in, and everybody knows it," said Barrett, who worked in intelligence during 2005 in the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, a notoriously violent Shi'ite stronghold........

The brigade's mission for this deployment has yet to be announced, Sullivan said, but the job will not resemble the straight-ahead battles of the invasion blitzkrieg, when front lines and the objective of regime change were well defined.

In April 2003, the brigade was greeted in Baghdad by smiles, waves, and cheers. Doherty recalled being able to leave his base, drive into the city, and pick up a pizza. "If you tried to do that now, you'd be dead," Doherty said. After that first summer, the brigade returned to west Georgia to train for what turned out to be a second, deadlier tour of duty.

For the third deployment, the mission could include intense, house-to-house fighting in the most dangerous streets of Baghdad, where the president has insisted that American and Iraqi government forces must regain control.

These soldiers are professionals, they will not complain, they will do their duty for America. What they really need is a government that will do it's duty towards them. God speed.

Posted on The Human Stain