by James Glaser
December 4, 2003

Army Sergeant Michael Badgley Jr. Is a Great Falls, Montana Police Officer, when he isn't activated for fighting in Iraq with the 889th Quartermaster Company. Badgley was activated in February and reached Iraq on May 15th. He is now back home on a 15 day leave and he talked to the Billings Gazette about what it is like over in the combat zone.

"The waste and frustration, everything that goes on over there, It's just a nightmare," Badgley said. He also said that "he hears about humanitarian projects the United States and its allies are doing, but he hasn't seen a single food or water distribution point set up or a school being constructed."

The Gazette story tells that one time while Badgley was on guard duty, an Iraqi approached him and said he had captured a leader of Saddam's guerrilla force. Badgley called US, Filipino, and Polish units, but was told nothing would be done and to tell the Iraqi to deal with the fedayeen himself. So much for Coalition cooperation.

Michael Badgley's story is not unusual, most veterans could describe their time in combat as a nightmare and for most, nightmares of that combat keep coming back for the rest of their lives.

Almost every day some politician or a member of the administration is talking about those schools we are rebuilding or some other good deed our troops are doing. I asked a soldier who was in Northern Minnesota for the funeral of a member of his unit, about those schools or any other projects he mighty have done in Iraq to help the local people. He said that people in his unit were getting killed and wounded and it would be a cold day in Iraq before he did anything for the people, other than putting them out of their misery.

Eighty one Americans were killed last month and over 800 were wounded. Numbers like these put the troops on edge. Americans have to face the fact that our politicians are being lied to. This is nothing new. Generals know what the people from Washington want to hear and they make sure that they do.

There is no doubt in my mind that some where in Iraq there is a school that the troops have been working on and each and every politician that visits the troops is taken over there to see the progress. It would not be hard at all to give some Iraqi doctor needed medical supplies and then take visiting officials over to his clinic so that he can say thank you.

Generals and Politicians play a game. The generals give the politicians the information they want to take back to the voters and the politicians later on listen to the Generals when they retire, turn into lobbyists, and get high paying jobs selling defense equipment to our government.

Don't kid yourself, our politicians know what the heck is going on, but they voted for this war and men and women from their districts and States are getting killed and maimed. They are afraid to admit their vote was a mistake because that could cost them votes, so they all say we have to "finish the job." They can say that because their kids are not over there. They can say that because they think it sounds patriotic. They can say it because way down deep they care nothing about America, our troops, nor the Iraqi people. All they care about is their reelection.

I hope every politician that votes to send young Americans off to kill people on the other side of this world, has nightmares too.