Interesting interview with National Guard Lt. Paul Rieckhoff whose critical book, "Chasing Ghosts: A Soldier's Fight for America from Baghdad to Washington," has just come out. Here's the link to the show:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5382507
Proud soldier, but harsh critic.
Two things particularly struck me.
He said the "contractors" hurt moral and the mission. They (Halliburton, KBR, et al) don't report to military chain of command. Their services suck. They defy soldier's checkpoints, and they run from fights. One of the contractor commando units, dressed in black with no insignia were equivalent to death squads. Iraqis call them black death. Rieckhoff said they undermined Iraqi trust in his unit. Remember, contractors were implicated in Abu Gharaib, too.
Second, as the 3rd anniversary of Mission Accomplished came was this week, his still raw reaction to a question about this stuck in my mind. He was on the ground getting shot at while Bush was pretending to be a pilot. When he heard about it, he was incensed and you can tell he is still peeved about it now. He knew the job wasn't done and wasn't even close to being done. He said all the soldiers knew that. He said that maybe Bush didn't get that cuz he never "served on the ground." Ironic that Rieckhoff is National Guard too.
He's also the founder of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a service organization trying to see to the well being of those returning from war.
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