The Uncut Shut up and Make a Differece

Shut-up and Make a Difference

By: Felicia Whatley

Anti-war protestors—it’s easy to complain when someone else will clean up the mess. You are a bunch of conscientious observers. You observe. You complain. And you do nothing. Nothing but throw a bunch of tantrums. Maybe if you’re lucky you’ll get a byline in the paper or a mug shot to be proud of.

Jason, I don’t see you enlisting. Oh no, you are too good for that. It’s easy to have the luxury of saying we shouldn’t go to war. The reality is that the troops that afford you the liberty to whine, don’t have a choice. They wear their uniforms with honor, and when it is time to go, they go.

I got deployed my senior year of college to Baghdad, Iraq. And I was excited to go. I was proud to serve my country. And even more enthusiastic to learn first hand why we are there.

If you care about saving lives, you’ll care about the civilians who don’t want Al Qaeda and other scary terrorists on their streets. And you’ll be grateful, that the war stays in the Middle East and not in places in the U.S. like New York.

When they send mortar rounds and rockets over the T-Walls trying to kill Americans, they don’t have very good aim. And quite frankly, they don’t care if they take their own people’s lives for the cost of war.

I have met the children in Iraq who are too poor to afford shoes. Churches and non-profit organizations from all over the United States donated clothes and thousands of beautiful toys and candy for the holidays. It didn’t matter to them it came from a Christmas and Hanukah American spirit.

We are making a difference in Iraq.

“We are killing terrorists and Islamic radicals there at a far greater rate than anyplace else in the world. We are causing Iran and Syria to spend much of their resources backing the anti-American forces in Iraq,” (Gordon Martin, Lakeland, Florida, The Ledger)

From an article in 2005, before much of the reconstruction had really come to life, Rosemary Goudreau wrote Good News in Iraq, “Did you know that 3,100 schools have been renovated, that the Iraqi Police Service has trained, and equipped 55,000 police officers or that the Baghdad Stock Exchange opened in June of 2004?”

Those numbers are peanuts compared to how things have shaped up wonderfully today. We have given back Anbar Province and many others to Iraqi control because they are ready to defend and police their own towns. U.S. troops have taken control from terrorists in almost all cities in Iraq. The terrorists are fleeing and retreating. The children can play outside again.

With men, the women have voted and a new government, a democracy rules Iraqis.

From your Socialist Alternative lifestyle, do you read about those good things happening in Iraq? Or are you no better than CNN with the horrible hour by hour body count?

Yes U.S. troops are dying. They are dying for you and for your families, and for the idea they did something right, something selfless in this world for people who may never understand.

If you really want to make a difference, volunteer and have a voice where it matters. Don’t take it out on the military recruiters. They are just doing the job, you don’t want to. Join the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, United Way, or U.S. Aid. Or hell if that’s doesn’t workout, join your local Boy Scouts.

If you truly want peace, then raising battles on the homefront against your own country’s troops is not the way to do it. Get involved in the political process the right way. Support your troops. You may need us someday.