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Mahoning Valley veterans pleased and leery of impact of US pullout
Was mission accomplished in Iraq?
YOUNGSTOWN
Several local military veterans are pleased that United States forces will be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of the year.
The U.S. war in Iraq began in March 2003.
“It’s nice we’re finally pulling out, but it’s a hard decision for the country,” said Susan Skrzynski, service officer with the Mahoning County Veterans Service Commission.
Skrzynski, who retired in 2007 after 25 years with the Ohio Army National Guard that included a tour in Iraq in 2004 through 2006, said she has mixed feelings about the decision.
She said she is concerned that Iraq will go back to where it was before the U.S. got involved. She had hoped that a small contingency force would have stayed.
“I think the Taliban will go back to running the country,” said Skrzynski, who was the operations sergeant for Charlie Co., 216th Engineers at the former Ravenna Arsenal.
“It’s good to see the troops come home,” said John P. Brown III of Youngstown, former state and national AMVETS commander, who visited Iraq in 2007 when he was national commander.
“The morale was good there. I just hope that the young men and women weren’t injured or killed in vain, and that we take care of the people who came home and are coming home,” he said.
“I am thrilled to hear that we are leaving for good, as it seems,” said Robert Guttersohn, a staff writer at The Vindicator who served three tours in Iraq ranging from the invasion in 2003 to 2005.
“Much like [Moammar] Gadhafi, the world is a better place without Saddam Hussein. With him [Hussein] still in power, who knows if this Arab Spring would have ever happened,” said Guttersohn, a former paratrooper in Bravo Co., 2nd Battalion, 325 Airborne Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division.
But, he said, it is debatable if Saddam’s removal and the establishment of democracy in Iraq were worth thousands of lives on both sides.
“Nonetheless, most of our military was not properly trained for the urban, guerrilla warfare soldiers face over there. And the longer we stayed there, the more soldiers would have died,” Guttersohn added.
“I’m not sure we can call this a victory,” he continued. “Victory is in the hands of the Iraqi children that grow up without an American presence there. If democracy in Iraq continues well past when I or anyone else involved in the fighting there dies, then maybe we can call it a victory.”
Army Reserve Sgt. 1st Class Chris Vierra, unit administrative supervisor for the 347th Quartermaster Co., which is part of the 475th Quartermaster Group at the Army Reserve Center in Farrell, Pa., said some of the troops will be disappointed that they can’t go to Iraq and support their country.
But there will be other places to go and they will probably volunteer for those contingencies, she added.
That being said, Vierra said everyone is happy to support the president.
Likewise, a statement from the 910th Airlift Wing at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station in Vienna, said the personnel there are “proud to have carried out the orders of our commander-in-chief supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom since the start of the war and during the past eight years.
“We remain proud of our citizen airmen who have answered the call in defense of the nation. We remain ready to support our national security objectives,” said Col. Craig Peters, commander of the 910th Operations Group.
Over the eight-year period, more than 3,000 sets of orders have been cut to send 910th personnel to Iraq and other forward-deployed locations in the Middle East, said Maj. Brent Davis, chief of public affairs for the 910th.