To Stay or Not to Stay in Iraq: That is the Question

I’ve just finished reading The Wall Street Journal’s April 9^th article by Yochi J. Dreazen about General David Petraeus’s Iraq report to two Senate panels.

As I’m not writing a political bog, I’m not going to give my opinion on what Petraeus said. And even if this were a political blog, I believe it’s ludicrous for people in the United States to make pronouncements about an extremely volatile situation halfway around the globe. That’s what the concept of “boots on the ground” is about – you have to be there to have even the remotest chance of knowing what’s really going on.

What I want to say concerns Dreazen’s following comment about the testimony of U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker: “Mr. Crocker tried to reassure lawmakers that an emerging agreement between Iraq and the U.S. won’t establish permanent U.S. bases inside Iraq or require future presidents to maintain large numbers of troops there.”

The other day I was surprised to learn that a close friend had no idea that the U.S. still has troops (and their families) in Germany as an aftermath of World War II. So when I read the above statement I tried to visualize permanent bases inside Iraq the way the U.S. has permanent bases (kasernes in German) in Germany.

From September of 1970 until May of 1972, I lived in Munich, Germany, with my army officer husband in military housing connected with McGraw Kaserne. Recently I’ve been reviewing the letters I wrote home (I’m working on the sequel to my forthcoming novel MRS. LIEUTENANT).

Many of the problems I experienced living in Germany then are probably not problems today thanks to the internet, cell phones, etc. Yet for all the annoying problems of living in a foreign country, we Americans were never threatened with the possibility of West Germans lobbing missiles into our housing areas or shooting us as we shopped in downtown Munich.

I can’t imagine a future in which U.S. military families could live safely in a housing area connected with a military base in Iraq. Thus I assume Iraq would always be an “unaccompanied tour” requiring family separations.

I do understand why the U.S. established bases in West Germany after the war. I personally lived through the Cold War threat in Europe, when U.S. policy makers truly believed that, without the presence of U.S. troops in West Germany, the Soviets would roll their tanks from East Germany into West Germany, and then from there who knew?

The question of remaining in Iraq indefinitely is a different question, and one about which I certainly can’t opine. I also can’t imagine what would have happened if U.S troops had stayed in Vietnam indefinitely. Would the fall of Saigon and its terrible aftermath for the South Vietnamese who were our friends never have happened? Or would this horrific scenario only have been postponed for a few more years?

Unfortunately, history doesn’t offer a crystal ball for what would happen in future different scenarios. That knowledge is only possible in alternate science fiction stories. And, for better or worse, we’re living in the real world.

“Kosher for Passover” in the U.S. Army

Today I’m experiencing somewhat of déjà vu. I’ve just read the most recent post on Jewsingreen.com concerning an Orthodox chaplain -- Army Captain Shmuel Felzenberg – serving in Afghanistan. The article is by Lee Lawrence, correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor.

In describing Chaplain Felzenberg’s kosher dietary needs, Lawrence says that Felzenberg has “Army-supplied kosher meals. For holidays like Passover, the Army provides supplies, right down to Passover-approved wine.”

The U.S. Army has obviously come a long way from my time as an army officer’s wife in Munich, Germany, where the Orthodox chaplain stationed there our first year influenced my husband and me to decide to keep kosher. In those days we did not get kosher food items for Passover from the army; the items we did get were provided by the Jewish Welfare Board.

In my 1992 Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION, co-authored with Rabbi Karen L. Fox, here is what I wrote in the sidebar “Passover in the U.S. Army” in the chapter “Pesach – The Freedom Story”:

“During Passover of 1971 my husband was stationed with the U.S. Army in Munich. We’d been married a little over a year and this was the first time we would be making our own seders. Needless to say, it was a little daunting to prepare for Passover far from home in a country we perceived as hostile.

“But we had assistance. First, the Jewish Welfare Board sent “kosher for Passover” canned match ball soup, matzah and other Passover food to armed forces personnel throughout the world. We had the basics.

“Then the Jewish army chaplain in Munich instructed us on many points. For the first time we cleaned our kitchen to remove all hametz, even though at that time we didn’t have dishes just for Passover. As we cleaned there was a tremendous feeling of Jewish pride as we continued the ancient Passover ritual in post-Holocaust Germany!”

Now in 2008 with the first seder less than two weeks away (the night of Saturday, April 19, this year), I’m busy preparing for the upcoming holiday. My husband and I have been keeping kosher since our return to the United States in May of 1972. And here in Los Angeles there are so many stores carrying “kosher for Pesach” food items.

And I am truly grateful for the freedom to practice my religion openly – a privilege that Jews throughout the ages have infrequently enjoyed. As I type this post I have tears in my eyes for the Jewish military personnel who will be celebrating Pesach – the holiday of freedom – far from home in Iraq or Afghanistan. As a former Mrs. Lieutenant, I know that these deployed Jewish military personnel, along with all deployed U.S. military personnel, are protecting that freedom of religion that I hold so dear.

If you want to know how to show your appreciation to U.S. military personnel, go to my website at www.mrslieutenant.com and click on “Support Military Families.”

Lessons from Vietnam for Iraq: Are the Stakes Simply Too Great?

Yochi J. Dreazen’s April 7^th Wall Street Journal article “Officer Questions Petraeus’s Strategy” got me thinking about the other U.S. war that had so many Monday morning quarterbacks – Vietnam – the setting for my upcoming book MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL.

During the Vietnam War and in the 30 plus years since the war has been over (depending on what date you count as the end of the war), people have visited and revisited what the U.S. did right – some say very little – and what the U.S. did wrong – some say a great deal – in the fighting of that war.

During my senior year of high school (1965-1966), two school friends and I visited Michigan State University. We were on an official college visit, and thus were scheduled to sit-in on “representative” classes. One such class was taught by Professor Wesley R. Fishel, an early advisor in Vietnam as part of the Michigan State University Group that, from 1955 to1962, advised the Ngo Dinh Diem regime.

The 1968 book Fishel edited -- VIETNAM: ANATOMY OF A CONFLICT -- is an anthology with an impressive list of contributors. The dedication is: “To the memory of those who have died that a free Vietnam might live.”

And perhaps more apt, Fishel includes this Vietnamese proverb: “The tongue has no bones; it can be twisted in any direction.”

Here’s part of Fishel’s preface to the anthology: “The purpose of this volume is to inform, not to inflame. The problems with which we are dealing in Vietnam do not fall into neat, discrete categories. …. The issues are far too grave and the consequences of debate far too serious for one to cater to an already overly emotional public response to the problems posed by the Vietnam conflict.”

With the substitution of “Iraq” for “Vietnam,” Fishel could be talking about Iraq today. And the same is true of some of his sentiments quoted in MRS. LIEUTENANT. From his own essay in the anthology – “Only Choice in Asia: Stay and Fight”:

“The real question is whether, given the fact that the United States has assumed the responsibilities of leadership in the defense of Southeast Asia since 1954, we can now, in Munich-like fashion, consign the Vietnamese, the Lao and their neighbors to the limbo of Chinese domination for generations to come.”

And from an April 11, 1968, news analysis of Asians fearing U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam carried in MSU’s newspaper the State News: “The stakes are simply too great for anyone to leave South Vietnam alone.”

Only hindsight will tell us the outcome of U.S involvement in Iraq. We already know what happened when the U.S. gave up and withdrew from Vietnam.

Exploring What’s Behind the Curtain of the U.S. Military

Today, thanks to the internet, there are so many places that young people can get information on possible careers. And this is a very good thing, because most high schools do not prepare their students for life in the real world.

Yes, there’s a lot of emphasis in high school on passing AP exams and doing well on the SATs, as well as doing well on federal standardized tests. Yet where is the exposure to possible career paths needed in order for young people to fully consider their options?

In 1970 in the world of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL, the U.S. Army for most young men meant fighting in Vietnam, a country halfway around the globe. Some young men enlisted and some young men went R.O.T.C. (Reserve Officers Training Corps) and many, many young men were drafted. Yet for those men who survived Vietnam and completed their army service, there was the G.I. Bill for college benefits as well as other benefits for veterans.

Today’s young men and women – in the world of the all-volunteer Army – could consider serving in the military for a short period of time to learn new skills before committing to a career path.

And it’s not just the Army to consider. There are also the Coast Guard, the Navy, the Air Force, and the Marine Corps.

Some of the benefits for young people of serving in the military could be:

• Stretching yourself beyond what you believe you can do
• Experiencing situations outside your usual realm
• Learning skills you normally would not learn
• Functioning as part of a large organization with a shared mission
• Earning money for grad school (that you can then attend at a more mature age at which point you might better appreciate the education)
• Serving your country

For more information, go to www.military.com and click on “Join the Military” and next click on “10 Steps to Joining.”

Then click on “Step 1: Learn about the military,” which provides a separate overview on the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Navy branches. Other “steps to joining” provide information on benefits, medical conditions, overview of jobs in each branch, etc.

Most of us get all our information on the U.S. military from news clips on television and the internet or from Hollywood movies. For young people unsure of their career path, it can be worth taking the time to find out what’s truly behind the curtain.

Vietnam and the U.S. 1970 – Iraq, Afghanistan and the U.S. 2008

Given the current daily news from Iraq and Afghanistan, I thought it would be interesting to look at the news headlines from the first week in April 1970 – one month before the Kent State National Guard shootings as well as the opening of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL.

Here are some news briefs from “Day by Day: The Seventies,” Volume 1, 1970-1975, by Thomas Leonard, Cynthia Crippen and Marc Aronson:

April 1: Communists launch a major assault across South Vietnam, striking at military bases and bombing major cities.

April 2: South Vietnamese and Communists delegates at the Paris Peace talks react with coolness to a French proposal for an international conference on Southeast Asia.

April 4: Increased fighting in Vietnam is reflected by 138 U.S. fatalities for the week, highest weekly figure since September 1969.

April 5: Battles along the DMZ in South Vietnam are the heaviest since November 14, 1969.

And instead of the current home mortgage crisis news and the election campaign news, the home-front news of that week included on April 1st:

• The first contract covering table grape pickers in U.S. is signed in Los Angeles.
• With agreement on a 41 percent wage increase over three years, the 60-day tugboat strike ends in New York harbor.
• President Nixon signs a bill outlawing radio and television cigarette advertising effective January 2, 1971.

When we are busy with our everyday lives – whether in April 1970 or April 2008 – we often forget about U.S military forces deployed in combat areas. And there are many, many currently deployed military personnel who don’t have friends or family back home thinking of them.

As part of your everyday life now, consider supporting Soldiers Angels (www.soldiersangels.org), which sends letters, care packages and comfort items to deployed military personnel. The organization’s mission statement: “May No Soldier Go Unloved.”

April: “Month of the Military Child”

Thanks to Spousebuzz.com – “where military spouses connect” – I have just learned that April is the “Month of the Military Child.” Then, from the American Forces Press Service, I learned that this month-long recognition has been celebrated since 1986.

Leslye A. Arsht, deputy under secretary for military community and family policy, said: “Our military children are unsung heroes. This is our chance to thank them for being so supportive of their parents.”

According to the American Forces Press Service article, half of all current military children – or 1.2 million – have had a parent deploy to a combat area.

In my forthcoming book MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL, one of the four new officers’ wives grew up as an “army brat” – someone who is the child of a parent in the U.S. Army. Of course in MRS. LIEUTENANT, which takes place in 1970, the military parent was the father. Today either parent or both can be the military parent in a family.

The 1979 movie “The Great Santini” starred Robert Duvall as a lieutenant colonel Marine pilot whose family must constantly adjust to new duty stations. During the course of the movie the teenage son struggles to win approval from his demanding father. This movie provides a dramatic portrayal of some of the hardships that military families face.

Those of us who as children have not had to move every year or so – changing schools so often that, after a while, we’re not sure which post we were on for which school year – may find it hard to appreciate the sacrifice that military families make for a parent or parents to serve in the military.

All of us should be aware of the difficulties these military families face, and we need to understand that sometimes some of these families need special help.

Go to my website at www.mrslieutenant.com and click on “Support Military Families” to learn about organizations helping military personnel and their families. And consider supporting one or more of these organizations right now – in the “Month of the Military Child.”

Women in the Military, the Equal Rights Amendment and the Silver Star

The frontpage of the April 1^st Wall Street Journal carried this news blurb:

“The Army is letting married soldiers live together in the war zone, a move to preserve the unions and bolster morale.”

Today’s army certainly isn’t the army I knew as a new army officer’s wife in the spring of 1970 during the Vietnam War.

I also remember in 1976, in connection with the U.S.’s 200^th birthday, being part of the audience of a taped debate on the proposed Equal Rights Amendment. Phyllis Schlafly, a vehement leader of forces against the passage of the ERA, and her supporters worried about the possibility of women serving in military combat units.

It’s been a long time since that debate, but I recall Schlafly’s group was concerned about men and women sharing bathrooms and other such logistics of military combat life.

And now two women have earned the Silver Star Medal – the first women soldiers to be awarded this medal since World War II:

On June 16, 2005, Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester, vehicle commander, 617^th Military Police Company, a National Guard unit out of Richmond, Kentucky, received the Silver Star along with two other members of her unit in Iraq for their actions during an enemy ambush on the supply convoy her unit was protecting. During the incident, she assaulted a trench line with grenades and M203 grenade-launcher rounds and then killed three insurgents with her rifle.

And on March 20, 2008, Army Spc. Monica Lin Brown, a medic from the 782^nd Brigade Support Battalion, 4^th Brigade Combat Team, 82^nd Airborne Division, received the Silver Star Medal. After a roadside bomb explosion in Afghanistan wounded five soldiers in her unit, Brown ran through insurgent gunfire and used her body to shield wounded comrades as mortars fell less than 100 yards away. She then helped drag the wounded men away from their burning Humvee and attempted to provide proper medical care while under heavy enemy fire.

The Equal Rights Amendment was defeated, but years later women in the military have shown that Schlafly and the other anti-ERA women didn’t have to worry about the triviality of their husbands sharing bathrooms with women in the military. The women in the military today are saving the lives of other women’s husbands.