"Loose Lips Sink Ships"

Iraq Withdrawal Talk ‘Hurts’ U.S. Military

By Ronald Kessler


As calls for immediate withdrawal from Iraq continue, Americans rarely hear what soldiers on the ground think. About to retire from the Army in September after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, Lt. Col. Steve Russell said in a NewsMax interview that such talk "hurts."


Russell, who will return to his native Oklahoma City, said, "As we have come home from these wars and returned back to them, we hear a deafening silence on the soldiers' perspective of these events. We'll see a great many who speak on our behalf, but it's really without an understanding of how we feel about events where we are shouldering the main burden."





Russell, who participated in the capture of Saddam Hussein, said he has met "virtually no soldier" who does not think American efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan have been without good reason.


"I think most soldiers are very familiar with the mentality that the terrorists have," Russell said. "Few of us doubt that, if given the opportunity, they will come to our shores, as they already have. This is the same mentality that allows them to kill indiscriminately, to hide and gain shelter behind women and children, to inflict terror on both people who possess their religious beliefs and those that don't."


The talk of immediate withdrawal "hurts," he said, "because when we hear criticism that says we need to leave, we need to pull out, it's a war we never should have gotten into, we are accomplishing nothing by being there, the war is a travesty, it means our sacrifices have been in vain. This is not the view soldiers have. We take the view that we have to finish this, we are making great progress, and the cost will be much much higher if we leave before the mission is accomplished."


Russell said, "One thing is certain: We gain nothing if we lose. If the cost is high if we win, it will be infinitely higher if we lose, and the cost will extend not only to those who realize the dangers and defend the country but also to those who don't realize the dangers and will be taken by surprise. They don't realize that if we take the policeman out of the firing line, the criminal may end up in your house."


Russell said he has seen what American victory has meant in Afghanistan, where people were not allowed to listen to a radio, play chess, or fly a kite. Where little girls were not allowed to go to school and women were not allowed to work outside their homes. If such rules were violated, the offenders' legs or arms were lopped off in front of thousands of spectators forced to watch.

In Iraq, Russell said, Saddam killed 350,000 Shiites and Kurds and executed an estimated 30,000 political opponents.



"Saddam attacked his neighbors and violated Jordanian air space to attack Israel with missiles," he said. "He defied the world by violating United Nations sanctions. Otherwise, he was a pretty nice guy."



Russell recalled the defeatist talk that has been proven wrong: "You will never have enough force to defeat the Iraqi Army with the time table you propose. You will never be able to take Baghdad. You will never be able to find Saddam Hussein. You will never be able to have a truly democratic vote. You will never see a constitution. You will never see an assembly that will be representative, and you will never see a cabinet come together that will be representative."

At some point, Russell said, "We have to recognize the progress. The guys on the opposing team have a few trick plays, but we are making first downs. The insurgency is recruiting by the thousands. The Iraqi security forces are recruiting by the hundreds of thousands."



As for The New York Times' disclosure of methods for tracking terrorists' financial transactions, Russell said, "During World War II, we put posters up saying, ‘Loose Lips Sink Ships.' Americans understood that then. I wonder if these people realize that disclosure of our methods for finding and hunting down terrorists means that people like me will wind up dead