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Courtesy IAVA
Former U.S. Marine Sergeant Derek Coy says he still struggles "both mentally and physically, with the toll it took on me and countless others do as well."
Derek Coy hails from Baytown, Texas, and could be a poster child for American veterans of the war in Iraq as they look back and ask: "Was it all worth it?"
A former U.S. Marine sergeant based in the volatile Anbar province at the height of the conflict, Coy is proud of his service and believes the "invaluable tools" he gained as a Marine will ultimately help him succeed in life.
But seven years since he left Iraq, he’s fighting a different battle — against anxiety, depression and emotional numbness — the effects of post-traumatic stress.
March 19, 2008: Speaking on the fifth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war, President George W. Bush said that while the costs had been high, "this is a fight America can, and must win."
"I still struggle, both mentally and physically, with the toll it took on me and countless others do as well," he said.
Tuesday will mark 10 years since the "shock and awe" invasion and more than a year since the last company of U.S. troops left Iraq. But only about 4 in 10 Americans who fought there — according to a Pew Research Center poll — believe the reasons for going to war justified the loss in blood and treasure.
Almost 4,500 U.S. troops were killed and more than 32,000 wounded, including thousands with critical brain and spinal injuries. Estimates of the number of Iraqi civilian fatalities are staggering, ranging from 100,000 to 600,000.
The monetary cost could exceed $3 trillion.
While the war in Iraq has ended, the sacrifice for vets continues back in a civilian world they often find "foreign" and isolating.
Ann Weeby, a native of Boyne City, Michigan, was deployed at the beginning of the war, attached to the 101st Airborne under then-Major General David Petraeus , in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul.
The pain of the burning and the screams of his family are the memories Ali Abbas carries from the Iraq War. Then, as a 12 year old boy injured by the U.S. missile that killed his family, Ali's plight moved the world. Â ITV's Paul Davies reports.Â
"Our goal was to find weapons of mass destruction and Saddam Hussein," she said.
"After WMDs were not found and Saddam was captured, I didn’t expect [such a] prolonged U.S. military presence in Iraq," she added.
As the only person her family and friends know who fought in the war, Weeby tries to educate them about the scourges of depression and suicide that U.S. vets face after Iraq.
"American troops are suffering, and in some cases dying, because a Veterans Affairs' claims backlog is preventing them from getting [mental] health care. Twenty-two U.S. veterans commit suicide every day!" Weeby said, citing a troubling statistic recently published by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Courtesy IAVA
Ann Weeby, who was attached to the 101st Airborne, went in to look for WMDs and Saddam Hussein. "I didn't expect [such a] prolonged U.S. military presence in Iraq," she said.
'The cost was high'
When Leon Panetta, then secretary of defense, addressed U.S. troops in Baghdad before they pulled out of Iraq, he argued that their core mission had been accomplished.
"To be sure, the cost was high," he said. "But those lives were not lost in vain. They gave birth to an independent, free, and sovereign Iraq."
Today, however, Iraq’s Shiite Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, heads what looks more like an authoritarian regime, propped up by a coercive secret service.
Toby Dodge, an analyst at U.K.-based think tank Chatham House, claimed Iraq had morphed into a pro-Iran police state, where Sunni gunmen and al Qaeda’s suicide bombers seem to strike at will, killing hundreds each week.
His conclusion: 10 years after regime change in Iraq, little has changed.
"The lives of ordinary Iraqis, in terms of the relationship to their state and their economy, are comparable to the situation they faced in the country before regime change," he said in a report written for Chatham House.
Many Iraq War veterans admit they were fighting more for their battle buddies than for any "island of democracy" in the Arab world.
Courtesy IAVA
Robert Contreras, who had two tours of duty in Iraq, returned to California to finish a college degree, where he has struggled to relate to other students. "The most common question I get … is if I've ever killed someone," he said.
Robert Contreras, from Sylmar, California, left the military after 10 years in the Navy, including two tours of duty in Iraq, and returned to California to finish a college degree.
"Personally, I was not there fighting for Iraq," he said when asked if the war was won or lost.
"I was there to protect those who served alongside me to the best of my abilities," he said.
He’s struggled to relate to his student peers who know little about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The most common question I get … is if I’ve ever killed someone," he said.
Contreras also developed symptoms of PTSD. "I was anxious in crowded places and unable to feel at ease anywhere but at home."
Veterans like Weeby and Coy have found a therapeutic way to generate positives from their Iraq War experiences — and better deal with some of the nagging uncertainties about Iraq’s future: They’ve reached out to their fellow vets.
Weeby is an outspoken advocate for San Francisco Bay Area veterans, while Coy is an associate at the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, or IAVA, the first and largest non-profit group representing U.S. vets from those wars.
Both are currently in Washington, D.C., part of the "Storm the Hill" offensive, pressuring Congress to address key veterans’ issues, like 9.4 percent unemployment and a bottle-necked health-care program.
NBC News' Kerry Sanders and Mike Taibbi, along with Kimberly Dozier of the Associated Press, reflect on their experiences on the ground in Iraq 10 years ago.
"Coming home with a renewed appreciation for my life and freedoms, I’ve committed my career to helping others," reflected Weeby.
U.S. military commanders would argue that the war in Iraq brought important changes there: Iraqis are better off without Saddam Hussein and have at least gained a fledgling democracy and national elections.
But 10 years since “shock and awe” was supposed to clear the path for a liberated Iraq and a "forward strategy of freedom" that would sweep across the Middle East, Iraqis are instead falling victim to wave upon wave of sectarian violence.
And many of their American "liberators" are fighting for their own survival — back home.
Jim Maceda has covered Iraq since the 1980s.
Related:
Concern grows about military suicides spreading within families
The enemy within: Soldier suicides outpaced combat deaths in 2012
Full Iraq coverage from NBC News
Leave a Comment:
Looking back, it sure is questionable. When we were all trying to decide whether to fight there, it wasn't. Remembering the time, Homeland Security was called in when someone spilled sugar on a coffee room counter. After 911, everyone was on edge wondering what was coming next. Many politicians who voted to do this now can't seem to remember doing that. This isn't a Republican or Democrat mistake. Both parties were in on this and it seemed like the right thing to do.
Thanks to the people who served over there. They just did what their country asked of them.
The people that serve should always be held up and loved, that they protect the rest of us that aren't there or can't be. BUT we should also never FORGET why or WHAT sent them where they went. Can anyone honestly tell me know 12 years later that we should have gone into IRAQ? ALL it was , was a monet steal by Cheney . IF NOT , SHOW ME THE PROOF! of why else we went there!!!!!!
If you are of basic intelligence then you must know some history! Until Vietnam ( although Korea was never quantified as such) The country never fought a war based on what the actual Military said we needed to do! My old man was in the WW II Battann Death march and survived , SOME HOW !He also served in the Korean conflict and lost a finger and multiple toes there. The ONE thing he relayed to me ( Lifer Marine) was that you need to trust the people that you serve with and not - I repeat NOT the one's that send you to do their bidding!!!!! If he had not survived TWO great conflicts I would not be here!!!!! So think about how we need to proceed - BE VERY STRONG YES but do we need to always make sure the HUGE corporations that also F'ck us need to be protected? WHERE IN THE CONSTITUTION DOES CORPORATIONS HAVE RIGHTS - INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS- OR ANY RIGHTS? BUT our latest court have given the rights to take over our country by money in the confluence of ads to take YOUR minds in sixty second sound bites. IF I COULD ASK ANYTHING OF BOTH PARTIES OF PEOPLE— Please Don't watch FOX news or CNN or MSNBC - RESEARCH youselves and find the truth !!!!!!!! FOR THE BIGGEST LIES IN THE WORLD are ALWAYS PUT FORWARD BY THE PEOPLE THAT GAIN THE MOST BY THEM !!!!!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE WAKE UP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This invasion of a soverign nation was not worth it. . . iran is now using the porous border of iraq to shuttle equipment to syria, the ILLEGAL president bush (who stole the election) did not find the WMDs, we way over spent with no way to pay for it ( in the past taxes would be raised to help the war) and to top it all of, the entire world is looking at us like we are Imbicles!!
Lets face facts people these are the facts about america 2013: Our kids are ranked 24th in education, we have lost all privacy because of the PATRIOT act, unemployment is still way to high, the rich are very rich now and our general infrastructre is going to pot! Not to mention that the Tea Party is trying to bankrupt the goverment so it will be totaly ineffective and stall out goverement.
America sucks... plain and simple. BUT it does not have to be that way!!!!!
If we do the following:
#1 Get rid of the do nothing republicans out of congress and senate.
#2 Draw down the budget on military spending ( if we cut it in HALF and rededicate that money to infrastructure and health care our roads everywere would be as smooth as glass and everyone would be getting some measure of care!)
#3 Time to make a constituional amendment that demonstrates that corperations are NOT people and money is NOT speech!!
#4 Time to do what regan did in the 80s and put all the BankSters on trial!!! they helped to ruin the economy.
#5 DO NOT TOUCH Social Security! ... people, the reason WHY social security is in a mess is because we keep BORROWING from it. Not to mention that it has NOTHING to do with the budget ( the SS tax is seperate and never goes to the goveremnt budget in any way shape and form!) . Even Reagan in the 80s realised that the baby boomers were gonna drain the coffers and bumped up the SS tax to cover the loss!
yeah some of it may be extreeme, but we need to set an example...
George W. Bush made an appearance in HBO's show "Game of Thrones first season." Well, at least his decapitated head did. During the filming of the finale, "Fire and Blood," the crew used a mock-up of the ex-president's severed head — covered in a wig and turned slightly away from the camera — as one of the spiked figures impaled on the wall of King's Landing. Show creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss explained that the head prop does depict Bush, but that it wasn't used in malice or as a political statement.
Right, right.
NEVER FORGET: All this death & maiming of U.S. soldiers because Israel/Zionists and their Special Interest Groups vowed revenge against Saddam for firing Scud missiles into Israel, and found a lackey in G.W. Bush to spill American goyim blood for their revenge instead of their own.
REMEMBER: U.S. Generals Mullen & Patreus both said U.S. soldiers will continue to be put in Harms Way as long as Israel refuses to settle the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which is at the heart of conflict throughout the Middle East.
NEVER AGAIN: No more U.S. Taxpayer's hard earned dollars GIVEN to Israel/Zionists until they end the APARTHEID & Occupation of ALL lands. G.H. Bush made a similar statement during his Presidential term and he was attacked by the Zionists and their Special Interest Groups, with them vowing no second term for him.
Since the Bush White House e-mails were leaked, via Julius Assange, we found out that Bush, Cheney and the rest virtually lied about every alleged fact they used to support starting the war, I have to say NO!
Since the leak numerous others, involved with the Bush White House, have come forward and confirmed the deceit perpetrated by Bush. My only question is why Congress hasn't brought forward an investigation of Bush, Cheney and the rest. It seems that someone should be accountable for the over 4,000 young American soldiers who gave up their lives, not to mention the trillions of dollars taxpayers lost to a contrived war.
As far as I'm concerned Bush is this countries biggest traitor since Westmoreland and Johnson.
Is war ever really worth it? Only in the rarest of instances. But war we shall have until someone figures out that the basis for it is money. As they said way back when I was young -"Plenty good money to be made fueling the army with the tools of the trade." not to mention all the other incidentals like private security and overpriced basic needs. And it will also continue until the Washington war mongers have their kids butts on line to go. Worst thing that ever happened was to end the draft...because there is NO CHANCE EVER of a Washington head-case watching his kid go. And yes, I do realize a lot of their kids got deferments in the past, but maybe a few wouldl get taken and that alone might help. But then again, when money is at the basis...what isn't for sale in Washington??
We are all victims of social and economical unfairness from political and moral "leaders” controlling wars for their own profiteering; the people here are all paying a very heavy price for cheap t-shirts, flip flops, and poorly made products which could be better made in America.
A common sense approach is to leave other countries to do their own civil war atrocities to create newer authoritarian regimes, and for our political and moral ‘leaders” to make the effort to clean up our cities, build better schools, promote making products on Indian reservation land and inter-cities. In other words, cut gun cost and invest it on butter.
It was like this...........We went to IRAQ to fight a war......SIMPLY.....because, FIRST......we fought Saddam Hussein SINCE he DECIDED TO ANNEX KUWAIT......."as the 49th PROVINCE of IRAQ" SO....we kicked him out of KUWAIT. Then, we FIGURED......"The war wasn't FINISHED YET.....since the U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL agreement was just to VACATE Saddam from KUWAIT." And we saw all the ATROCITIES Saddam was doing to his OWN people.
So.....we JUST suspected....that Saddam was seeking.......WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION. So...we told Saddam to "get out" of IRAQ. He refused. We gave him an ULTIMATUM.........HE STILL REFUSED. And then......we went on a WITCH HUNT.......AHA!......SADDAM is seeking WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION!.........TIME TO START......WAR # 2. (These REPUBLICANS LOOK LIKE WAR MONGERS....TO ME.)
After all.......WE FIGURED.....we hadn't FINISHED war #1 yet.....Since the U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL limited us from going to IRAQ...WE WANTED TO KICK SADDAM OUT OF KUWAIT ONLY..... THAT WAS THE ORDER FROM THE U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL!
And NOW....comes the HAMMER!.......We needed an EXCUSE TO START WAR #2. Oh yes....Saddam might be SEEKING Weapons of Mass Destruction!.......THAT is a good reason to START....WAR #2....AND THAT IS NONE OTHER THAN an INVASION of IRAQ!
Everybody was ASKING.........since we KICKED SADDAM out of KUWAIT......why didn't we "go on" to IRAQ and FINISH.......the JOB?
Well..it was coming......We just needed a GOOD EXCUSE....to start....War #2.
Our soldiers died for nothing in Iraq...Bush and Cheney should be in prison for being traitors to the american people...
Damn right it was worth it!
I dont' know. Well, it's off to Syria we go. And, Joe Biden is really the one calling the shots.
yes and no,the soldiers did one heck of a job,by the same token we don't need to risk the lives of these soldiers any more.With drones we were able to take out a lot of the senior Taliban .
I don't care how the apologists for Bush spin it, he lied to us to get us involved in Iraq.
When he launched the war into Afghanistan, I felt he was justified. But what really happened in Afghanistan? The CIA was doling out millions of dollars to barbaric warlords there in the effort to get them on our side. So they took our taxpayers dollars and still sympathized with bin Laden, even helping him get away. But Bush didn't pursue bin Laden the way he said he was going to. He let him get away, because his mind was focused on going after Saddam Hussein.
Saddam wasn't a nice guy, but he was our creation. We backed him to the hilt when he was fighting against Iran. And we had Saddam boxed in with our "no-fly zones" after the Gulf War, when he overstepped his boundaries.
Clinton tried to get bin Laden while he was president, and when Bush came into office, he and his intelligence people warned the Bushniks that bin Laden was their greatest national security concern.
But they were Democrats, so the Republican administration wanted nothing to do with those warnings. So we got 9/11 because Bush ignored those warnings, and the counsels of the CIA. Then Bush and Cheney, who came into office with the intent of going after Saddam Hussein, saw this as their opportunity.
I remember the Sunday when all these Bushnik talking heads made the Sunday morning talk circuit and started talking about the evils of Iraq, and how dangerous they were to our security. I couldn't believe it. I actually said, "What is this BS? The American people will never fall for this crap!" But I was wrong. Even though the CIA told Bush that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, the Bush strategy was to mention 9/11 and in the same breath speak of the evils of Saddam. So, with the cooperative spins of the media whores on Fox News, 70% of the American people believed that Iraq was involved in 9/11! Yet when that information came to light, Bush smirked and said, "I never said that Iraq was involved in 9/11," and technically, that was true, but all you have to do is listen to his speeches, and the remarks of Rice and Cheney, etc., and you find that the implication and association was always there, but never expressed outright.
So, the cynical manipulators of the American masses got us into a totally unnecessary - and unpaid - war, which cost the lives of more than 4,000 fine American warriors, and thousands of our soldiers returned alive with missing limbs and serious difficulties...and for WHAT?
Bush is a war criminal, and should be tried as such. Our soldiers should never be placed in harm's way on the lies or whims of the man in the White House. Tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians also died.
Thousands of Americans objected to the war before it was started, and I was one of them. The Fox-laundered brains accused me and others of being "Saddam-lovers," when I didn't give a rat's ass about him, just concern for our warriors dying for nothing.
So, Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, but Bush gave the Iraqis "shock and awe." Most of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudis, but we didn't attack Saudi Arabia, did we? In fact, Bush was pictured proudly (and sweetly, it seemed) holding the hand of the Saudi leader like he was going steady with him.
Maybe it was all about oil. Maybe it was partly because of Saddam trying to kill his dad. Or maybe he was trying to outshine his dad. Maybe we'll never know the full explanation. But we do know Bush came into office with the desire for a war with Iraq, and 9/11 gave him the smoke screen to justify it.
Every time I see some Iraq War veteran with missing limbs or missing faces or missing minds, I get furious with Jr. Bush for using these men as pawns in his deluded games. We spent billions destroying the infrastructure of Iraq, then Bush awarded billions in no-bid contracts to his buddies to rebuild what we destroyed. He wrecked the lives of thousands of people, he wrecked our economy, and left office with massive trade and budget deficits. He was a failure all his life, in business and in politics, and was the worst president in my lifetime.
I salute ALL U.S military personnel, active and non active who took part in the wars fought by the United States, including WW1, WW2, Korean War, Vietnam, Iraq and the current conflict in Afghanistan as well as some I may have forgotten. I salute you men and women and welcome you home. Personally, I served in Vietnam in the United States Air Force. Thousands of U.S service men and women lost their lives in Vietnam while some of us suffer from the effects of Agent Orange and other chemicals. Was Vietnam worth it? I have to say NO it wasn't. It has been over 40 years since I was in Vietnam and today, Vietnam is still a communist country. It is my belief that the Afghan military is not capable of standing up to and defeating the Taliban. I say that within a year of the American withdrawal of our troops, Afghanistan will be in the same situation it was in when we went to war there over a decade ago. We have wasted billions upon billions of dollars in Afghanistan fighting a war that cannot be won. Many years ago General Douglas MacArthur made this statement. "When you go to war, if you do not go prepared to win, then don't go." Just like Vietnam, there are far too many arm chair warriors making decisions about what we are allowed to do in Afghanistan. In the jungles of Vietnam we fought an enemy we couldn't see and who looked like every other Vietnamese national. We would have been out of Vietnam years earlier if we had went over there and fought the war like it should have been fought. We should have used our B52's and bombed the crap out of Vietnam all the way from Saigon to Hanoi. People get hurt in war. People die in war. Civilians die in wars. Then they bring us back and send us to VA hospitals for our medical car that isn't worth a plug nickel. The American soldier should have the best medical care in the world but we don't. The VA system is a joke, and a poor one at that. At the very least we should have the privilege to put our combat boots back on and plant our feet right in the butt crack of this lazy, good for nothing, do nothing congress that we have. The Vietnam Vets should be back paid all the way back to when they arrived in that stinkin' hell hole called Vietnam. To our Iraq and Afghanistan Vets, please forgive me for not saying much about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars but that is something I know very little about. All a lot of us know about Iraq and Afghanistan is what we've seen on the six oclock news. Only you men know the truth of what really happened in those conflicts. Welcome Home!