REMEMBER WHO IS STANDING WITHIN EARSHOT

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(Originally posted on the website Continuum…)

IN THIS ENTRY I would like to present the thoughts and experiences of two men who I greatly respect. They both served as Unites States Marines. They are father and son. William Seiple was my high school band director. He is a pastor at the Fellowship Church in Lopatcong, New Jersey. He has been a spriritual role model for myself and many others. He saw combat in the Viet Nam war. His son, also named William, experienced combat in Kosovo and Iraq. Pastor Seiple responded to my journal entry about the candle light vigil for those who have died in Iraq. He gave me permission to quote his words on the website. He also suggested that I contact his son for insights from someone who has seen the situation in Iraq firsthand.

I feel that the words of these two men warrant honest reflection. Many of the issues surrounding the war in Iraq and the upcoming American elections are not all that clear cut. There are many issues that I wrestle with and wonder which is the right way to resolve these issues for the good of our country and for all of those who love peace and freedom. I think that there are others who read these journal entries who also wrestle with these issues. So I present these words which differ from my appraisal of the current political situation.

Please let me state very clearly that in anything that I wrote in my previous entry referred to above I did not intend to give offense to any of our soldiers. I have nothing but respect and admiration for those who have the courage and discipline to serve our country in many selfless ways. It is true that the freedom that we enjoy has been purchased with the blood of many such men and women. I was moved by the younger William Seiple’s words that said that when those of us who feel we must give our opinion of the war in Iraq, “remember who is standing within earshot” when we do so.

First, the email I received from Pastor William Seiple:

Dear Sam,

I saw your take on the war and couldn’t disagree with you more. My son recently returned from Iraq after fighting in An Nasiryah during the worst of it and he also agrees with me. The American press has an agenda and is reporting only on the negative. Yes 1,000 men have died. Everyone of them should be mourned. Yes civilians have been killed. That is tragic. But don’t forget that there are mass graves still being uncovered containing the bodies of thousands of civilians who were murdered by Sadaam with WMD’s. What is reported by a biased press is only the negative. Actually most of the country is quite peaceful with hospitals opened, kids going to school, stores operating, and Christian churches, of all things, coming into existence. And the Gospel of Jesus Christ is spreading for the first time since Jonah and Daniel. [Nineveh was at Mosel, just north of Bagdagh.]

The dangerous thing about the liberal media and the politicizing of the war to get Kerry elected, is that Al Jazeera, the Arab CNN, reports everything negative that Kennedy, Kerry, et al are saying and it gives the dissidents encouragement to keep on keeping on. It was the same when Jane Fonda went to Hanoi during the Viet Nam war. No one knows how many American soldiers were killed because of the encouragement she gave the enemy. And no one knows how many American soldiers are being killed, along with civilian casualties, because of the encouragement our own politicians are giving the enemy. They don’t understand, or don’t care, that in their zeal to bring down our Commander in Chief they are killing our young men. I hope you will consider this point of view from the father of a Marine who was there with another son who may go next year.

Bill Seiple

Below are the words of Pastor Seiple’s son:

Mr. Snyder,

I did serve in Iraq in An Nasiryah south of Baghdad. I was in country from late March until late July of 2003.

You asked me to shed my thoughts and feelings about the war that’s going on over there. Unfortunately its not that simple. Let me try to explain. There’s nothing romantic about what you are going to here from me today. Its not in any movies or in any books. Its the reality that I live with. The same reality that everyone else that’s like me lives with.

First let me give you some background about how I grew up. I grew up in rural Warren County NJ. Mostly farmland and back roads. In the town that I lived in just about every boy’s father or grandfather had served in either WWII or Vietnam. We all grew up playing war in the woods with plastic rifles and homemade camouflage utilities. We fantasized about going on patrols in enemy infested jungles. We got into imaginary firefights and mock hand to hand battles with each other. We even died trying our best to make it look like how Hollywood glamorizes it.

Going to war was more of a future reality for us. For me it seemed my destiny. When graduated high school I enlisted in the USMC infantry. I joined the Marines because they are the best at combat. I wanted to be part of the best. I wanted to be the best. I knew I would someday most likely go.

Since then I have served in Kosovo and Iraq. While in those places I was able to experience just about everything I had imagined I would and many things more. Most of those things were more horrific than I ever could have imagined. Many of those things still visit me as I sleep at night.

When I returned home Iraq I felt empty and useless. I received my honorable discharge from the Marine Corps and attempted to live a normal life with a normal job. I was very depressed as were many of the comrades that I served with. I missed the sense of duty and excitement. I learned these feelings are normal when transitioning back to civilian life.

I never thought much about the war as an political issue until recently. Democrats are using the war as a political weapon in order to remove George Bush from office. Many Americans are starting to say that the war was a waste of American life and US tax dollars.

You asked me for an opinion. Here’s the best that I can do. Many men and women went to Iraq. Many died. Many more lived. I lived. I got the chance carry the orders given to me by my superiors and I have no regrets. Beyond that I really have no opinion. I got a chance to do what I trained to do. It was hot and miserable. It was terrifying and morbid. It was war. If not for anything else, we made the Iraqi way of life a lot better. Their way of life was one step above hell. The only thing Americans know about Sadaam and his regime is what the press allows them to know. It was a terrible life for the Iraqi’s. They were starved and terrified. That’s the only lifestyle they know. Sadaam was a dictator. He is a madman. I know this firsthand. He had to be removed. Given the capabilities Sadaam would have annihilated us and our allies. I view him no differently than Osama Bin Laden.

I’m glad that President Bush was proactive enough to make a tough decision in the face of certain criticism and possible career ending odds for the sake of our way of life. Freedom is a beautiful thing however; it takes blood to preserve it.

You can say whatever you want about the war. This is a free country and you have the right to express whatever opinion you want. Many men have died over the centuries so you can have that right.

Just keep one thing in mind. For those of you that feel the need to express your opinion about how wrong the Iraq war is and how we wasted so many human lives remember who’s standing within earshot. There are many men and women out there just like me, trying to mingle in with society that don’t view their hard work and devotion as a waste at all. We choose to look at the positive side of the story and focus on the good things that the war accomplished. We know that the comrades that we lost didn’t waste their lives. We all volunteered. We all did everything we could to get there. You will never understand this unless you are like me. If I was ever called upon again to go back, I would go in an instant.

What Do You Think Now?

(Originally posted on the website Continuum…)

So you thought the spider webs with the dew on them looked pretty, huh? What do you think now when you see who lives in them?

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SEPTEMBER 11, 2004

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(Originally posted on the website Continuum…)

I CAME THROUGH the Holland Tunnel as the sun lowered in the sky over New Jersey behind me. The city was calling to me today. I just had to be there. I had to stand in that area where something so significant, so tragic, happened. All I wanted was to remember and reflect. I needed to be at Ground Zero, surrounded by the life of New York City and the people there. After taking care of several things at home, I went to the city with my son, Joel.

It’s an easy drive to Manhattan from our house. We live close to Route 78, which cuts right across New Jersey from Pennsylvania to Newark. From Newark, I take Route 1 – 9, over the Pulaski Skyway, the old, narrow, iron bridge over which people like to drive at 80 or 90 mph. Once over the Skyway, I am in Jersey City and right into the Holland Tunnel. That’s it, only 50 miles or so.

As always, finding parking in Lower Manhattan was no easy trick today. Eventually we found a spot on John Street. Parking on the street in the city always makes me a little nervous. It’s an old reaction that I have because my car was once towed in Manhattan. Back around 1985 or 86, when I was not very experienced at driving in the city, I went to pick up a friend of mine there. He had flown in from Minnesota for a business conference. When I parked near his hotel I didn’t realize that there was a no parking sign about 10 high and about 20 yards away on a light pole. We came out of the hotel, talking and excited to see each other. It was an awful feeling I had when I realized that we had walked pass the spot where I had parked the car and the car was gone! I called the police and was told that the car had been towed away and impounded near the Lincoln Tunnel. What a fiasco it was to get the car out of impound! A very costly fiasco at that! So now I check for no parking signs anywhere within seven miles in front or behind my car.

There were many people coming and going around the World Trade Center area. For the most part it was a calm crowd. People were reading the signs and memorials that the city has put up. Some people placed flowers on the fence, some lit candles, some cried. I overheard a few describing what the area was like before to some who had never been there while the towers were standing.

There were some things going on that struck me as a little odd today. At one point I heard a crowd yelling from a side street. They emerged with a police escort. At first I thought it was a political protest of some kind. I thought, “What a wrong time and place for that!” But it wasn’t a political protest. It was a religious one. Someone was carrying a sign that read, “I vote 4 Jesus.” Others were holding Bibles in the area. They all began to sing as they crossed the street. Led by two Catholic priests, they began to occupy a large section of the sidewalk along Ground Zero. They were shouting things about Jesus. It felt kind of out of place. There were others at Ground Zero who were passing out religious literature. One man was preaching that the end was upon us and that most of the human race was going to burn forever in the lake of fire soon. That seemed out of place and not very compassionate on the third anniversary of September 11th. I know the Bible verses the man was referring to. I am familiar with the theology. Under the circumstances of this day, I would have chosen to present a different side of Jesus. Why not preach of how He is the Good Shepherd? Why not preach of how enduring His love and comfort are to a people who are fearful of terrorism and the uncertainties of a violent world?

There were other oddities there today. There was a fire truck called the “Freedom Truck.” It had large screens on it upon which various photos from three years ago were displayed. There was a man with very long gray hair in a white suit who was shouting things through a bullhorn while a fireman drove the truck around the area. Then the truck stopped and the long-haired man stood on top of it and sang a song about world peace. He tried to work the crowd and get people excited. It felt like some sort of pop concert. It felt out of place.

One thing that went on there today really touched my heart and brought tears to my eyes. Several people were taking turns reading from a book which contained a few paragraphs about each of the people who died in the Twin Towers. The paragraphs were accompanied by a photo of each. When the person reading finished a portion about one of the victims they held the book up for all to see the picture and stated the person’s name loudly. Many people sat on the ground in a semi-circled listening to the readers. More stood all around. It was very moving.

Joel and I took our time walking around Ground Zero, taking pictures. I realized that the real subject of my photos was actually something that is not there. It’s the missing buildings and the hole in the ground that stand out. I took pictures of the sun going down from a spot where three years and one day ago you could have never seen the sun going down.

After our time at the Trade Center, we went over to Chinatown. There’s a little place on Eldridge Street that makes the best Chinese dumplings. They are cheap too! $1 for five fried pork dumplings and $2 for eight boiled vegetable dumplings. Plus, everything is made fresh while you are waiting.

As we made our way back around to Canal Street, Joel saw that the two towers of light which memorialized the towers a few years ago were on again tonight. That brought back a lot of memories for me. When I was spending a lot of time in the city a few years ago, those lights were on night after night. Sometimes I would drive by the area on my way out of the city. I was there at 2 AM on the last night that they were lit in April of 2002. Seeing those lights tonight reaffirmed that yes, those days of my life really happened and September 11, 2001 really happened. But we move on. Never to forget.

CORRESPONDING PICTURE GALLERY:

1,000 AMERICAN SOLDIERS DEAD

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(Originally posted on the website Continuum…)

DEAD IS GONE. Dead is ended. Dead is finished. Dead is dead. Dead.

A few days ago, the number of United States soldiers killed in the war in Iraq passed the 1,000 mark. Almost a year and a half after President Bush declared the end of hostilities and called the mission a success, Americans are still dying on the sands of Iraq. Indeed, the majority of those 1,000 died after the President’s declaration.

While we often hear the statistics of how many American soldiers die, we do not hear much news on how many Iraqi civilians have died in this war. Thousands have been killed by American bombs. Others have been killed by insurgent attacks. They are dead. They are gone.

Tonight, I attended a candle light vigil to remember the dead in Iraq. Vigils were held all across America tonight. I heard about the vigils on the radio station WBAI in New York City while I was driving home from work today. When I got home I logged onto moveon.org. There I discovered that a vigil was planned right in downtown Easton, PA, just across the Delaware River from our home. My son, Joel, and his girlfriend, Kayla, came with me to the vigil.

I estimate that 25 to 30 people attended the gathering. It was a quiet, peaceful time. The vigils were not intended to be rallies or protests, just a time to reflect and honor our soldiers who have died. The participants in the vigil were friendly, normal people, concerned about our society and our troops in Iraq.

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For the most part, we stood around the sidewalk inside the circle in Easton, quietly holding candles. It was a windy September evening covered by a storm threatening sky. They rain held off, but the wind made it tough to keep the candles lit.

A few people held signs reading, “1000 Dead” and “Bush – Kerry, Stop The War.” The signs drew some heckling from some of the passing motorists. We heard comments like, “If we didn’t go there and kill them, they would be here killing us.” “We should just nuke all of them.” And of course, the ever-loving, “Fuck you!”

It is amazing to me that people are so eager to show their ignorance. There is a serious misconception about the role that Iraq has played as a threat to American national security. They were NOT a threat to our national security! Neither the Iraqi people nor Sadaam Hussein, as sadistic and murderous as he was, were responsible for the September 11th terrorist attacks carried out against our people. The war in Iraq is NOT the same thing as the so-called “War on Terror.” Rather, our invasion of Iraq has been a serious diversion away from the War on Terror. It has consumed billions of American dollars. It continues to consume American lives, now rising about the 1,000 casualties mark. At least be a little more logical in your ignorance people. If we should nuke anyone, shouldn’t we nuke the Saudis and the Afghans? Most of the hijackers of American planes, in American airspace, on an unforgettably gorgeous September morning in 2001, were Saudis trained at al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan. It is terrorists like these who are a direct threat to American national security.

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While at the vigil tonight, a reporter for a local newspaper interviewed me. He asked me what my position on the war was. I told him that in the beginning I supported President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq. Although I would have liked to have seen more international support for the invasion, the reasons the President gave for moving ahead seemed serious. Only 18 months after September 11th, still fearful of more terrorist attacks, it seemed reasonable to go after a ruthless dictator who held weapons of mass destruction and a desire to use them against our country. But those weapons never materialized. The reasons for the invasion proved to be false. Then the war was portrayed as a mission to bring democracy to the Iraqi people, to liberate them, to get rid of the evil tyrant Sadaam. It all left me feeling misled and even suspicious that I’ve been deliberately lied to, lied to by rich, powerful men who stand to make millions of dollars because of their oil connections. 1,000 are dead for this?

I was also asked what I thought the solution was for Iraq now. Honestly, I don’t exactly know. It seems to me that the situation is just a mess. The country is not under control. Americans are still dying. Iraqis are still dying. The Iraqi people are nowhere near being ready to govern themselves and maintain order in the society. The divisions between various ethnic and religious factions are more pronounced than they were under Sadaam’s rule. I fear that the Iraqi people do not view our troops as liberators but as occupiers. (Even George Bush has referred to them as occupiers, stating that of course the Iraqi people don’t like it. He said that he would be upset too if his country was occupied.) Maybe it is a Vietnam type of situation and we should get our men and women out of there now. Bush says that we are bringing democracy to the people of Iraq. In my opinion, forcing democracy on a nation negates the very essence of democracy. A government that is “by the people and for the people” must rise from the people, not be placed upon them by an outside force. If there had already been an Iraqi resistance that was willing to fight and die for their freedom (as the revolutionary Americans were willing to do), our military involvement with them would have been justified. But that was not the case. We entered Iraq on faulty premises and without the support of most of our allies. Now we are involved in what appears to be a long and messy situation. 1,000 are dead. I support our troops, so much so that I would like to see them all come home now. Let them return to their families and the safety of our land. Then let us redirect our efforts to find the terrorists who pose a real threat to us, build up our security at home, and rebuild our own country whose economy, health care system, and educational system are in serious trouble.

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I was inspired by attending tonight’s vigil. Over the past several months I have done a lot of serious thinking. I have decided to be proactive about the serious issues that face our country, making sure that I registered to vote and pestering others to do so too. This vigil was the first public event that I participated in. Tomorrow I will be attending a John Kerry rally in Allentown, PA. While I have voted Republican in the past, Kerry has my support in this election. It will be good to hear him speak tomorrow. It will be even better to exercise my right to peacefully assemble in public in America. For all American soldiers who have ever fought for our freedom, my candle was lit tonight.