Not sitting back in Baghdad. From Military.com
http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,FL_marine_101504,00.html?ESRC=marine-a.nl
Marine In Iraq: 'It's Worse Every Day'
York Daily Record
October 15, 2004
The summer of 2000, before his senior year in high school, Jonathan Snyder made up his mind. He was going to be a Marine.
That's all he talked about, says his father, Sherman Snyder Jr. That's what he was all about, his dad says. He wanted to be the best, and the best were the Marines. His dad's not sure where his oldest son's desire came from. He has a couple of cousins who are Marines and an uncle served during World War II.
Jonathan, he said, was 100 percent dedicated to becoming a Marine.
He signed up that summer and, upon graduating from Gettysburg High School in 2001, he went off to Parris Island, S.C., for basic training. He was going to be a warrior.
His corps class graduated from basic on Sept. 12, 2001.
Snyder was gung-ho, as many of his Marine brothers were at the time. They were ready to kick ass and take names. They were ready to take vengeance on those who attacked the country they had sworn to defend with their lives.
He was sent to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina where he joined the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines.
He knew he'd be going to battle. His father said that's why he'd signed up to protect his country.
After a few stateside assignments, his unit went to Iraq.
And it is there that the education of Lance Cpl. Jonathan Snyder really began.
His lessons culminated Sunday, when he was quoted in the Washington Post, saying, "Every day you read articles in the states when it's like Oh, it's getting better and better.' But when you're here, you know it's worse every day."
In July, his platoon the 81s, named for the size of its mortar rounds was deployed to Camp Iskandariyah, in Babil Province, about 30 miles southwest of Baghdad. The fighting there has been fierce, even though it's drowned out by headlines from places like Fallujah, Samarra and Sadr City. Since the Marines entered Babil Province, 102 of their ranks have been wounded. Four have been killed.
Nearly every day, the Marines encounter roadside bombs. Hardly a day passes without their camp coming under rocket or mortar attack.
Every day in the Corps, the saying goes, is a holiday a holiday in hell.
When the 81s go out on patrol, the Post quoted the soldiers as saying, they seldom accomplish anything. One Marine told the reporter, "You don't really know who you're fighting." Other Marines said that by the time they respond to an attack, the insurgents have disappeared, and they're left with nobody to fight.
They hear their officers telling them that once they train Iraqi security forces, they'll be able to leave. They think that's nonsense although you'd be hard pressed to find a Marine who uses that word in lieu of a more descriptive term. The soldiers believe the Iraqis are nowhere near being able to take over for the Marines and may never be. Some of the Iraqi police, in fact, have changed sides and have joined the insurgents.
Sherman Snyder has heard some of this from his son. He doesn't hear from him as regularly as he'd like. It's hard to make a phone call or write a letter when you're under attack. Sherman said his son has kept in touch with his wife, Stephanie, and 7-month-old daughter, Ann Marie. They are living with Sherman in Gettysburg while Jonathan is overseas.
His son doesn't say a lot about what's going on in Iraq. He does say, though, that things aren't going well.
And he does question the war.
"I feel about the same way he does," said Sherman, who works for a weatherization company. "We've lost 1,000 soldiers for nothing."
Sherman said, "I don't blame those boys over there. They're doing their job. But the people who got us into this . . ."
The people who got us into this.
You know who they are. They are the same people who told us we had to fear Saddam's weapons of mass destruction and his ties to the people who attacked us things that turned out to be fiction. They are the same people who are now saying they'll delay any large- scale military action in Iraq until after the election playing politics with the lives of guys like Jonathan Snyder.
Sherman said Jonathan has told him that he's supposed to leave Iraq next February. He'll believe it when it happens.
His son, he said, went into the Marines to protect this country. Now, Sherman said, he doesn't know. He just doesn't know.
