The Secret Letter from Iraq

[Softball]

I found this to be an interesting article:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/ ... -1,00.html

Written last month, this straightforward account of life in Iraq by a Marine officer was initially sent just to a small group of family and friends. His honest but wry narration and unusually frank dissection of the mission contrasts sharply with the story presented by both sides of the Iraq war debate, the Pentagon spin masters and fierce critics. Perhaps inevitably, the "Letter from Iraq" moved quickly beyond the small group of acquantainaces and hit the inboxes of retired generals, officers in the Pentagon, and staffers on Capitol Hill. TIME's Sally B. Donnelly first received a copy three weeks ago but only this week was able to track down the author and verify the document's authenticity. The author wishes to remain anonymous but has allowed us to publish it here — with a few judicious omissions.

[Falker]

There are a few things I was taught in one of my customer service classes regarding what you should or shouldn’t say to other people in public. One of them was not to become involved in anything controversial , which makes sense , so since than I’ve made it a rule of thumb not to. Because even thought you may be discussing a point that you and other people agree on , many other people may disagree. You can easily cause hard feelings or make enemies without even knowing it.

Controversial topics are politics , religion , or social issues. Social issues could be something like what your mothers brother said about the next door neighbors. This letter borderlines on becoming controversial so I just wanted to talk about this letter and the guys who is writing it.

Basically I wanted to say I wouldn’t buy into it too much about what this gentleman is saying. He’s obviously depressed. Losing sleep can do that to a person but I doubt this guy is only getting 4 hours a day , every day of every week . It’s not humanly possible unless your in a desperate situation all the time. The marines that came back from capturing all those guys were offloading them from the truck and ready to go back to look for more insurgents. Out of the first written page , that was the only positive thing this officer wrote , which is why I stopped reading it right there. His letter is so depressing is obviously the reason it became so popular.

[Hammer]

"but I doubt this guy is only getting 4 hours a day" - i would say you have never been in a combat environment. given that though, it is unlikely to go on every day, and there are probably times during the day where some amount of sleep is snatched... you would be surprised however how much the human mind and body can take.

but overall this does not sound like a letter that a soldier would write to his family.

[Falker]

Yeah the whole thing smells like thick Bologna. A fictional character with a sad story. I guess it is about that time of year.