Delissa Chase

A lot of people gain from war. A lot of companies profit substantially during wartime. And how often do we, as civilians, hear about those profits and mass financial gains from the media? Very little.  

 

As of 2012, 4487 American service men & women lost their lives in Iraq. The UK had the second-highest loss of life in the same time frame. They mourned the loss of  179 service members. Obviously, we already know that our presence was the strongest in Iraq. And we had a lot more boots on the ground than any of our allies. The US conducted the majority of the operations in Iraq. So it only makes sense that we have the most casualties.  

 

And let’s not overlook those who returned home to broken families, PTSD, the nearly 500 amputees, increasing suicide rate, homelessness, and traumatic brain injuries. Once again, the cost of war. The cost of doing buisiness in the  Middle East is far greater than most of the civilian population wants to accept.  

 

Some might argue that it's just the cycle of life. The world we live in. The day &  age of the times.  Obviously, the risk has proven to be far greater than the reward. That is, if you believe we went there to help a corrupt nation gain a government body based on democracy and equality. Under those guidelines, we failed on epic levels. 

 

I had the pleasure of meeting a woman in Las Vegas, Nevada, back in March  2013. I was at the gift shop of the hotel I was staying in. She was obviously of Middle Eastern descent. As I handed her my room key so I could have my items charged to the room, she asked for my ID. I opened my wallet, and she saw my military card along with my driver's license.  

 

"Thank you for what you have done for my country," she said.  

 

I looked up at her, and I asked where she was from. She was from Tekrit, Iraq. A  heavily targeted and battered city north of Baghdad along the Tigris River. I immediately started tearing up. Sure, we as vets have been told many times, "thank you" by people all across the country. It's become the "right" thing to do after the Vietnam era and the outlasting anger towards our military. But, for myself, this was the moment for me that defined my actions while deployed in her country, fighting a war that I didn't fully believe in. A refugee from the very same city that, at some point, I traveled through the same streets as she lived. Where thousands and thousands were persecuted and murdered. And for what? Why?  

 

One person and her gratitude for the United States military helped validate the actions of myself while in Iraq. I have always felt for those that suffer meaninglessly, regardless of race, religion, or country of origin. So I wouldn't say she changed my perspective on things. However, she did help validate my actions.  

 

I wrote this in 2014 after I retired. Watching what was happening to Iraq with ISIS brought a lot of pain and thoughts into how we left Iraq and how we could have handled it. 

 

So the question at that time was, “What Now?”

 

The sad and brutal truth to it all at that point was the only thing we could have done was to go back into the game.  

 

So yeah, I would have gone back to Iraq.  Not out of some deeply felt sense of connection with the Iraqi people or for a closely held sense of moral obligation, because I had neither.   Not because of the sunk costs of our losses there, although I still felt them acutely.  Not to build a democracy, because the people there aren’t ready for it.  Not because “we broke Iraq” or because people are suffering, since I feel pragmatism and self-interest trumps morality in national-level decision-making.  The main reason why I would have been willing to go back to Iraq, as dirty, bloody, and frustrating as it is was, is because I didn’t want Iraq to be used as a base to threaten the US or our allies and interests, and I knew that acting then might actually save us blood, treasure, and national prestige in the future.

 

Eleven years later, I still say, put me back in the game, coach! I'm ready to fight!!