The Kuwait Chaplain

6/29/07 Family and Friends,
Greetings from Kuwait in the name of our risen Savior, Jesus Christ.

I'm back in Kuwait after some time in the United States.  As the only Chaplain in my Headquarters on active orders, I conduct split operations to take care of my soldiers on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.  Here is a brief update.  My last trip before returning stateside was to Afghanistan where I visited Bagram, Kabul (the capital), and Kandahar.  In my first three months I made two long trips to Iraq and one to Afghanistan, not to mention my time in Kuwait.  In addition to soldiers from my unit I met or spoke with Active Duty soldiers from most Divisions of the Active Army, National Guard soldiers from 17 different states, and Reserve Soldiers from nearly every state in the union.

America, you have reason to be proud of your soldiers who are serving valiantly in defense of freedom.  Although you almost never hear the good things that are happening here from the media, it doesn't change the fact good things are happening.  I want to tell you briefly about some of the soldiers I met.

I met a very fine SGT stationed at Victory Base in Baghdad who is doing as much to insure the story of your heroes is told, with or without the media, as anyone.  This young NCO works long hours in support of the war fighters, but then on top of it he maintains meticulous and close contact with students and faculty of at least half a dozen schools who have sent letters to the soldiers.  By the way I'd like to thank all of you who send letters to my soldiers, and especially want to mention Christian Fellowship School in Denver, CO, where my nieces attend school.

Also at Victory Base I met a young Private First Class who was working hard to lose some weight and get into good physical condition so he could be promoted to Specialist.  What impresses me so much about this young soldier is the way he confronted his weight problem and formerly, poor appearance.  He has exhibited a professionalism in becoming everything a soldier should be that is truly noteworthy and is an example for other young soldiers just coming into the military.  He will be a fine leader for the future.

At Camp Anaconda I have a young Chaplain Assistant who had finished her enlistment and was about to be honorably discharged from the military.  But then her nation called on her to go overseas with a new unit, to serve in the war zone.  With her injured knee she could have stayed home, but no, she put off leaving the military to go and serve soldiers in Iraq.  This young Chaplain Assistant knows every soldier in her unit.  She knows their difficulties and the things that make them sad, as well as the good things that happen in their lives.  When I visit her unit I know exactly how things are for my soldiers because she knows.  A Chaplain Assistant like this is exactly what a Chaplain needs.

On my way to Ramadi, known then as the "Wild, Wild, West" of Iraq, I met four young National Guard Soldiers from the great state of Indiana.  These four were all young enough to be my sons and in spite of the difficult conditions of life in Ramadi they exhibited a wonderful attitude and great sense of humor.  One of them proudly told me how he volunteered at only seventeen years old to serve his country and how his father signed the papers for him to join up.  Their job was to help train the Iraqi Police of Ramadi, and from the improving situation in Al Anbar Province, they are obviously doing a fine job.  Indiana, you can be justly proud of your soldiers.

I have outstanding Chaplains serving at Camp Anaconda and Victory Base in Iraq, Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, and Afghanistan.  America, your Chaplains are doing a great job serving your sons and daughters, husbands and fathers, wives and mothers in the war on terror.  Let me especially mention one of my Chaplains in Afghanistan, who does a great job serving his soldiers and building bridges to the Afghan people through an outstanding Humanitarian outreach.  The Afghans are a proud people whose country has been rent with war for nearly 30 years. Tens of thousands have been killed, many thousands maimed, and millions displaced.  An outreach to such a people requires great sensitivity and humility.  This Chaplain is the perfect man for the job and has accomplished much to build bridges of trust between our military and the people of Afghanistan.

Much the same could be said for another Chaplain I know in Baghdad.  This fine Chaplain often accompanies his soldiers "outside the wire", where when not ministering to the needs of his soldiers, he might be found handing out toys, or other goodies to Iraqi children, and greeting their parents.  Once again, a soldier not only serving the war fight, but also building bridges with the people we are here to help.

Finally, there are the active duty soldiers who I spoke with, many who have served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, carrying out their duties with great compassion and immense professionalism.  I won't mention where I saw them for security reasons, but these great soldiers represent some of the proudest units in the United States Army:  1^st Armored Division, 1^st Infantry Division, 3^rd Infantry Division, 10^th Mountain Division, 25^th Infantry Division, 82^nd Airborne Division, and 101^st Airborne Division.  I also saw the great soldiers of my first unit as a young Field Artillery Officer, when I was stationed in Germany in the early 1980's. We faced a very different challenge and enemy then.  Let me also mention the fine Navy doctors and corpsmen who treated me when I was ill, the outstanding Air Force and Army pilots who flew me from place to place by plane and helicopter, and the Marines fighting valiantly in one of the toughest fights in Iraq.

I know this has been a lengthy introduction, but I thought it important to give some context to the main purpose of this "Letter from the Front."  America, these heroes are your sons and daughters, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles.  They are the finest our nation has to offer.  These soldiers of yours read the newspapers, and hear the news just as you do.  I have often been asked what I think of what is being said.  The great majority of the soldiers I have spoken with are dismayed at how their fight is portrayed in the American press.  They expect our efforts to be presented negatively by a biased group like Al Jazeera TV.  What they don't expect is for their own media and politicians to misrepresent what they are doing and what they have accomplished.  They don't expect to have happen, what happened in the home of a Gold Star Family, (see Letter from the Front #2, where I speak about Blue Star and Gold Star Families).  The reporter was there to interview the family, and was asked why in spite of all the good things happening here, the reporting from his agency was still so uniformly negative toward our effort.  His reply, standing in front of a picture, and the shadow box holding the flag they were given at the funeral of their fallen son, was, "If it bleeds, it leads."  This was supposed to be a "defense" of the way much of our media reports our efforts here.  Let me tell you two stories to counter some of the untruthful reporting you have heard.

The first is from Ramadi, the capital of Al Anbar province.  Al Anbar is almost entirely Sunni, the Islamic sect of Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.  Until recently it was known as the "Wild, Wild, West" of Iraq.  This is where Al Qaeda in Iraq found its support, and along with Baghdad, the place where we face our stiffest challenge.  Things have changed as indicated by this story an Army officer told me about why I found Ramadi quieter than expected.  First, you must know something about Islam and Iraq.  It is critical to Muslims to bury their dead within a day of death.  In addition to other factors it is considered a terrible insult to the deceased not to bury them within a day.  Regarding Iraq, Iraqis define themselves as much by tribe or clan as by nationality.  Therefore, much loyalty is given to their tribal leaders, often known by the honorific title "Sheikh".

Our forces have worked hard to build bridges between themselves and all Iraqis, to include the Sunni Muslims of Iraq.  In Al Anbar we are having success.  This success was noted by Al Qaeda and they arrested one of the Sheikhs, a very influential leader in Ramadi, who they felt was too cozy with us.  As usual, they murdered the man.  Their mistake, besides murdering a man who was simply trying to better his people's lives and bring peace, is they didn't tell his people where the body was.  As the sun was setting at the end of the first day, and still without knowledge of where their dead leader was, his people organized to find him.  The Iraqi Police in Ramadi, whose operations before this were ineffective, began running well planned and focused missions to find the body of their dead Sheikh.  They arrested large numbers of Al Qaeda in Iraq operatives, turning some over to us, and interrogating the rest themselves (from what I hear none too gently).  Finally, after three days they found their dead Sheikh and the outcry from Iraqi Sunnis against Al Qaeda in Iraq has been immense.  Since then, the balance of power has shifted in Iraq's west, and it is us and our Iraqi allies who have the upper hand there now.

The second story is from a 10^th Mountain Division soldier I spoke to in Afghanistan.  In addition to this deployment he has also spent a year in Iraq.  America, please hear the words of this young soldier of yours.  "Sir, this is my second tour of duty.  I know the good my soldiers and me did in Iraq and I know the good we have done here.  But that isn't what I hear about in the news.  I feel like the good we do is being ignored by our own people.  I know the politicians think they've given us what we need to do the job.  I guess we have the equipment and money we need.  But there is one thing they haven't given us, and that's the moral and emotional support to complete the mission."

Powerful words indeed... I told this young hero I would do my best to tell the "real"

story of he, and his "band of brothers".  As a Chaplain I generally stay out of politics as "politics" is not my job.  But, America, your soldiers are suffering due to false reporting in the media, and the lack of support we have from politicians who say they support us, even while they withhold from us what is most vital to us, the moral and emotional support to complete our mission.  And now my soldiers are told by one of their leading politicians, "We have lost the war."  Besides being wrong, it is irresponsible to say this with our soldiers in harms way.  We have not lost, and if the American people, media and politicians have the will to win, we will win.  You see, the terrorists understand.  Wars are won in the will before they are won on the battlefield.

But to win, we must have your support and blessing to finish the mission.  Wars are difficult and unfortunately, since it is usually our best and bravest who volunteer for such national service, it is the best among us who pay the heaviest sacrifice of war.  This war is no different.  To win however, more sacrifice will be made, and that sacrifice needs to be borne by the whole nation, not just those few wearing the uniform.  To start with, we need our people to truly get behind our effort, to show you believe we can win.  We need the media to start telling the true story of this war, the good we are doing for desperate people in a very volatile part of the world and the victories we are winning.  Mostly we need our politicians to stop telling us "We have lost"; a statement we who are here know is patently false on the face of it.  We need from our politicians the moral and emotional support to complete the mission.  The alternative is too terrible to imagine, as it will mean the terrorists follow us to our own shores to murder our people as they did on 9/11.

I'll close with the slightly modified words of a holocaust survivor from Hitler's death camps.  "Appeasement of evil never aids the innocent and peaceful, but only those who would perpetrate evil."  That's because appeasement doesn't bring peace or good, but war and more evil.  To leave Iraq now is to appease evil.  America, we are here ready to fight and win this war against the evil of Islamic terrorism, so the terrorists don't murder our people like they did on 9/11.  Have we forgotten so soon what they did to us?  What we need to know is do you have the will to win.  If you do, we will!