Seven Members Of 82nd Airborne Write NYT OpEd: US Presence "Has Robbed [Iraqis] Of Their Self-Respect" »

Active-Duty Troops In NYT OpEd: US Presence"Has Robbed [Iraqis] Of Their Self-Respect"

Press Coverage "Has Neglected The Mounting Civil, Political And Social Unrest We See Every Day"

The New York Times BUDDHIKA JAYAMAHA, WESLEY D. SMITH, JEREMY ROEBUCK, OMAR MORA, EDWARD SANDMEIER, YANCE T. GRAY and JEREMY A. MURPHY August 19, 2007 12:32 PM
VIEWED from Iraq at the tail end of a 15-month deployment, the political debate in Washington is indeed surreal. Counterinsurgency is, by definition, a competition between insurgents and counterinsurgents for the control and support of a population. To believe that Americans, with an occupying force that long ago outlived its reluctant welcome, can win over a recalcitrant local population and win this counterinsurgency is far-fetched. As responsible infantrymen and noncommissioned officers with the 82nd Airborne Division soon heading back home,...