President Obama’s announcement late last month that American troops in Iraq will return home by the end of the year may be bringing the eight-year war to a close. But it is not sitting well with some of Brooklyn’s Iraq war veterans.
“If we leave without our goal being completed, if the Iraqi people can’t take care of themselves, then all of these years have been wasted,” says Ivan Hernandez, 24, from Sheepshead Bay, a Marine who served two tours in Iraq between 2006 and 2010 with the 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. He now works as an operations support analyst at Citigroup.
Christopher Lewis, 34, an exterminator from Gerritsen Beach who was stationed in Sadr City with Task Force 141 from 2004 to 2005, also has mixed feelings about Obama’s announcement. Lewis is worried that a rapid troop withdrawal could mean a return to the violence between Iraqis.
“A lot of us feel like our job isn’t done there,” he says. “These people don’t know how to protect themselves.”
He is also concerned about America’s safety. “The fewer people who stand on the front lines,” he says, “the more likely the terrorists are going to come here.”
Most of all, he does not want Americans to forget about the war after it ends. “People are now going to turn around and say it’s over,” Lewis says. “America needs to be reminded of the war every day, not just for 10 seconds on the news.”
John Gentile, 39, of Sheepshead Bay, who served in the Air Force from May 2007 to September 2007, worries about the fate and future of Iraqi children.
“I have two young kids, and the kids there are just like your own,” he says. “My wife would send me used clothes to give to them. If we leave, then we’re cutting all of the children short.”
He believes that troop withdrawal will not end America’s involvement in Iraq. “I see us back in a couple of years from now,” Gentile says, “and in worse condition.”
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