This comes from the end of a long McClatchy article detailing the continuing fight over Sadr City. It's a depressing article, one that highlights how nonsensical our continued presence in Iraq is. And at the end of the article, a few of our soldiers make one of the points I've been trying to make about this war from the beginning:
Bowen said he didn't feel bad for seizing Abu Youssef's home. "They have the power to stop this shit and no one does. The power is in the people; it's always been with the people, but no one wants to stand up."
"I'd blow up half my house to get back inside," said Cpl. David Morelock of Greeneville, Tenn.Spc. Brodie Berkenbile, 20, of Athens, Tenn., said he'd fire a sniper rifle at people from his rooftop if a foreign army took over. But this is different.
"We're trying to help them," he said.
The problem, of course, is that we aren't the ones who get to decide that this is different. The Iraqis do. And they have already made up their mind. It is their country, and they want us to leave.
If I could, I'd follow up with Spc. Berkenbile this way: If a foreign army took over the United States, declaring that they were there simply to help, would he come down from his rooftop and welcome them with open arms? And if that army then stayed in the United States for 5 years, fighting a war that claimed millions of American lives, would he be more or less likely to come down from his roof?
I think we all know the answer, don't we?
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