HONOR OUR VETERANS, END IMPOSSIBLE WARS

Captain Roger Hill

I spent the first year of my Army career in South Korea preparing to fight the North Korean military. After Korea, I saw heavy combat during the surge in Iraq and again in pre-surge Afghanistan. I was also afforded the awesome yet humbling responsibility of presiding over dozens of military honors in Arlington Cemetery as a member of The Old Guard. I am honored to have trained, led, lost, and laid to rest America’s finest.

Along with the unique perspective my service has granted me, I have also developed a healthy skepticism for our nation’s foreign policymakers. I am especially heartbroken by the gross mishandling of the now two decade war being waged in the Middle East. My insights are hard fought and have nearly landed me in prison. They are captured in my book, Dog Company, A True Story of American Soldiers Abandoned By Their High Command.

Our foreign policy failures will continue to play out unless we begin a new legacy with a prompt and decisive withdrawal of our conventional forces from the Middle East. During the 90’s General Eric Shinseki served as Commander of the NATO Stabilization Force charged with stopping the genocide of
Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina.1 Shinseki’s experience in Bos-Herz made him one of the leading experts on stability operations2 of his time. In 2003, Shinseki was called to testify  before the U.S. Senate.

In his testimony, Shinseki referenced military doctrine and his vast experience when stating that the U.S. would need more than double Rumsfeld’s 145 k troops in order to meet success in Iraq. U.S. military doctrine advises a ratio of at least one soldier to every fifty population, inferring that 480 k troops were needed to successfully operate in Iraq. Shinseki was encouraged to step down from his post as Army Chief of Staff shortly after giving his testimony. Iraq saw less than 170 k troops at the peak of the surge in 2007. ISIS retook Iraq with little resistance in 2014.

The bungling of the Iraq and Afghan wars has come at a high price. Thousands of lives have been lost and/or severely altered, to include the rising epidemic of veteran suicides. Eighty percent of
marriages end in divorce for spouses who have deployed more than twice. It is estimated that the war on terror has cost nearly $3 T.  All this while suffering our nation’s reputation and influence around the world. But I would argue that the greatest casualty of this war has been our own “national will”.

We will be hard pressed to recover from yet another generation of Americans and veterans
feeling that they can no longer trust our government to do the right thing when it comes to engaging in and fighting our nation’s wars. As a veteran my message is simple. Once you have deemed it
necessary to my fellow soldiers and me to fight, then send us with the manpower and resources necessary for us to win and come home.

If you send us, then please back us, and that includes underwriting the unavoidable collateral damage that will occur in war. Roger will be in Naples to honor our military veterans during the 1st
through the 5th of November 2019.

Please visit www.captainrogerhill.com or @CPTRogerHill or @DogCompanyThe Book on Facebook for more information.

HONOR OUR VETERANS, END IMPOSSIBLE WARS
[1] http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/bosnia.htm
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stability_and_support_operations
[3] https://www.cnn.com/2013/03/20/opinion/mills-truth-teller-iraq/index.html
[4] https://www.vox.com/world/2018/11/20/17995812/isis-islamic-state-18- things-you-need-to-know
[5] http://fortune.com/2018/09/11/war-terror-spending-debt/