"...I want to make it abundantly clear, if there's anyone who believes that these youngsters want to fight, as the Pentagon and some generals have said, you can just forget about it. No young, bright individual wants to fight just because of a bonus and just because of educational benefits. And most all of them come from communities of very, very high unemployment."If a young fellow has an option of having a decent career or joining the Army to fight in Iraq, you can bet your life that he would not be in Iraq."
Mark writes:
I am not writing you as a member of your district, sir, but rather as an American citizen, a United States Marine, and an Operation Iraq Freedom veteran. Aside from the detailed Heritage Foundation study Wallace pointed out (which statistically contradicts your claim), please allow me to take issue with your statement.
Perhaps some brief background information is in order:
After graduating from a private, four-year university in Southern California in 2003 with my bachelor's degree, I entered the work force as a corporate marketing specialist. Less than eight months into my budding career, I decided that my support for the war in Iraq was too great. I had to fight.
Three months after this revelation and less than 10 months after graduation, I shipped myself to MCRD San Diego for 13 weeks of Marine Corps boot camp. After six months of initial training I reported to my unit. Only a few months later, at the first chance I received, I placed my corporate marketing career on hold and volunteered for the next deployment to Iraq.
I was activated 1 June 2005, attached with men from my unit to a unit not our own, and subsequently deployed to the front lines on 19 August 2005. I served seven months in-country and logged over 100 combat patrols, missions, and convoys.
You challenged viewers of your interview that "if there's anyone who believes that these youngsters want to fight, as the Pentagon and some generals have said, you can just forget about it." I have seen this war firsthand, sir, and am proud to say I did so of my own free will.
Your blanket indictment that "No young, bright individual wants to fight because of a bonus and just because of educational benefits" is severely misguided at best. I absolutely wanted to fight. I fought for my country, I fought for the people of Iraq, and I fought for myself. I did so without a bonus or the promise of educational benefits - neither of which I needed.
Do you not consider me "bright" for doing so, sir?
I am not attempting to speak for other soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, but I can assure you there are many more just like me. Some of them I know, others I am only connected to through our service to a cause in which many of us believe.
Your statements, sir, only serve to degrade the service of the approximately 2.6 million (1.4 active, 1.2 reserve) men and women who have chosen to serve in the United States Armed Forces.
Frankly, it pains me that a representative of the people has the audacity to belittle the decisions of men and women who sacrifice much in service to our nation with your ill-founded assumption that "If a young fellow has an option of having a decent career or joining the Army to fight in Iraq, you can bet your life that he would not be in Iraq."
I will take that bet, sir, but with myself and others as proof, will you accept defeat?
Perhaps by the time you read this you will have already issued an apology for your statements.
I cannot be sure at the time of this letter's construction. However, as Martin Luther King, Jr. once said:
"We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope."
Semper Fidelis,Mark D. Glesne (USMC)
Way to go Marine, Rep Rangel deserves your scorn and the scorn of every man and woman in uniform as well as every man and woman that has ever served our Country. He may be a grandstanding fool as some seem to think but you and I both agree he is speaking his mind and loves the military as much as John Kerry does. For both of them it is a tool that they can use to better serve their goals and nothing else.
If you are reading this I challenge you to stop by and let Marine Glesne know you support him and not Charlie Rangel.
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