Learning about Iraq four years too late

7 May 2007

This entry was posted on 5/7/2007 2:01 AM and is filed under Iraq vs Vietnam, Presentations of Bob.

I had a chance to speak to around 75 students at the Janesville Academy of International Studies on Friday. They had some speakers come in to talk about Iraq.  I was lucky enough to be one of them.  There was a professor from Beloit College, Congressman Paul Ryan, and myself.  It is an honor to speak about my media work in Iraq because as an independent journalist, I am shoved under the rug - at least that is what it feels like.  The kids were from the Janesville school system and were probably between 13 and 18 years of age.  They asked intelligent questions and tough ones too.  I love tough questions - as a journalist I do not have to take ownership of "most of" the things I have seen - I only have to relay them to others. And, I do not remember the kids of my generation being so polite and thoughtful when addressing adults, especially those adults who discussed the Vietnam War.  Now these kids of today were giving due diligence to a contentious topic - Iraq.  

Paul Ryan our Wisconsin Congressman from the 1st District spoke to the kids just before me.  He had been to Iraq recently on a fact finding mission.  He had done his home work on the war and Iraq and the people.  He patiently explained the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite Muslim to the students.  Ryan put together some things he thought the United States had done wrong in the war there.  Now all this I thought, is a good thing to be pontificating about.  But something came to mind as I sat and listened.  This is what we had done in Vietnam - decided to learn about a region we are warring in four years into it.

When I took a class on the Vietnam War at Madison Area Technical College, Mr. Rosebury the teacher and who had actually been in "Nam" often noted that the soldiers did not understand the county they were in.  And now, like in Vietnam days, here we were four years later, Mr. Ryan and myself talking about what we just recently found out about Iraq - four years into the war.  Congressman Ryan was not even born until 1970, after the United States had began to unravel its commitment to be in the Vietnam War.  In 1975, our South Vietnamese allies collapsed.  

For someone like me who lived in the Vietnam Era, served in the military at the end of the Era, and now watches as we make many of the same mistakes in Iraq, it is almost unconscionable to bear.  Are we just that stupid as a people, or is our system simply so inept it is inherent for us to make the same mistakes over and over again?  You can bet our enemies have not let this nuance about our system go unnoticed. 

This week's Wisconsin soldier to remember is Private First Class Rachel K. Bosveld, a member of the 527th Military Police, V Corps.  Pfc. Bosveld was killed Sunday October 26, 2003, in a mortar attack on the Abu Ghraib Police Station in Baghdad.  Rachel would have turned 20 on November 7, 2003.  She was a 2002 graduate of Waupun High School.  Rachel Bosveld was the fifth Wisconsin resident to die in the Iraq War.  She was the state's first female soldier to die since Sgt. Cheryl LaBeau-O'Brien, of Caledonia, who died in a helicopter accident during the first Gulf War in 1991.

3,377 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.

25,090 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring 2003.

72 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.

Soldier of the week and military casualty information sources: cnn.com; and, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.