From the mouths of the All American Division...

Seven active duty paratroopers in the 82nd Airborne Division pen a must-read Op-Ed in the Sunday New York times,The War as We Saw It:

Viewed from Iraq at the tail end of a 15-month deployment, the political debate in Washington is indeed surreal. Counterinsurgency is, by definition, a competition between insurgents and counterinsurgents for the control and support of a population. To believe that Americans, with an occupying force that long ago outlived its reluctant welcome, can win over a recalcitrant local population and win this counterinsurgency is far-fetched. As responsible infantrymen and noncommissioned officers with the 82nd Airborne Division soon heading back home, we are skeptical of recent press coverage portraying the conflict as increasingly manageable and feel it has neglected the mounting civil, political and social unrest we see every day. (Obviously, these are our personal views and should not be seen as official within our chain of command.)

...

A few nights ago, for example, we witnessed the death of one American soldier and the critical wounding of two others when a lethal armor-piercing explosive was detonated between an Iraqi Army checkpoint and a police one. Local Iraqis readily testified to American investigators that Iraqi police and Army officers escorted the triggermen and helped plant the bomb. These civilians highlighted their own predicament: had they informed the Americans of the bomb before the incident, the Iraqi Army, the police or the local Shiite militia would have killed their families.

A courageous speaking out by these gentlemen. It will be interesting indeed to see what politicians and the chattering classes make of this in the next week. Will these men be hung out to dry? Will they become celebrity darlings of the anti-war movement?

Or might the honest opinions of serving grunts finally begin to bend the support of that faithful few in Congress upon whose continuing support the Bush Administration's war plans increasingly depend?