March 20, 2003: The Iraq War begins. March 20, 2025: U.S. troops remain at
risk. After 22 years, it’s time for a real end. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
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Dear John,
On March 17, 2003, President Bush issued his final ultimatum to Saddam
Hussein. Two nights later, my Iraq War began in a New York City bar. I was a
college student and a bartender. A guest pointed to the television behind me
and said: “It’s begun. They’re bombing Baghdad!” In Iraq it was already early
morning of March 20.
A few hours later I found an anticipated voice message on my answering
machine: “You are ordered to report to the armory tomorrow morning no later
than 0800, with all your gear.”
At the time, I served in the New York Army National Guard and the state had
activated us for a homeland security mission. Less than two years after
September 11, 2001, many feared New York City could be struck again, this time
by Saddam funded terrorists.
After a week of training by day and following war news at night, I was leading
a team of four soldiers securing the subway platform under City Hall alongside
New York City Police officers.
I was back in class when President Bush staged his “Mission Accomplishment”
moment on May 1, I expected to graduate in 2004. But ‘Mission Accomplished”
turned out to be another Iraq lie.
The Army notified my unit we would be mobilizing and deploying to Iraq.
Graduation was delayed. In October I found myself at Fort Drum, training for
Iraq.
By March, we were in Iraq. Late night, March 17, 2004, a few dozen of us
engaged in our first firefight. The war was not quite a year old.
In October the fight became more personal. A complex attack by insurgents with
small arms and an IED killed Spc. Segun Akintade. Nicknamed Obi Wan, he was a
giant man with a larger laugh. He worked at Bear Stearns and studied at the
City University of New York. He served in my fire team during that mission
securing the subway at the beginning of the war.
Segun was the only death in our 120-soldier company, but tragedy struck again
a month later and a few dozen kilometers away. Unit members left behind in
2003, had mobilized for a later deployment and in November 2004, another IED
killed two more of my friends, both New York firefighters. Men we had trained
with and knew well had their lives taken too soon. Several others suffered
devastating wounds but survived.
All of this happened more than two decades ago. Since 2003, more soldiers from
that deployment died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Several took their own lives at
home.
In 2010, President Obama “brought all military combat personnel” home from
Iraq, but we know combat continued and more soldiers died.
On March 20, 2025, American soldiers remain in Iraq. Approximately 2,500 U.S.
troops overtly conduct a “train and advise” mission. These American service
members remain at risk. The attack on Tower 22 in Jordan last year, which
killed three young American reservists, shows how vulnerable thinly stretched
U.S. forces in the Mid East are. This vulnerability means more soldiers may die
for reasons unrelated to real American security.
In the 22 years since I first mobilized to support the war in Iraq, over 4,000
American troops have fought and died there. Some of these deaths were deeply
personal. The costs to families have been tragic. With the Islamic State’s
caliphate long-since defeated, the so-called logic for U.S. forces in Iraq is
gone. After 22 years, it’s time to put an end to our “boots on the ground”
mission in Iraq, draw down our presence in the Middle East, and only risk the
lives of American military men and women when there is an undeniable national
interest.
With Freedom,
John Byrnes
Strategic Director,
Concerned Veterans for America
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