Troops are tired of this war...

Article Launched: 10/12/2005 11:01:24 AM
From Iraq, soldier seeks war's end
By EVAN LEHMANN, Sun Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- The flatbed gun truck failed in the desert night, leaving Sgt. Nicholas Pulliam and his freight of cut vehicle armor easing to the Iraq roadside.

The Chelmsford resident was near the end of a 25-truck convoy, following a “slacker” full of fuel, whose tail lights didn't work. The green chemical glow sticks taped to the rig as replacements slowly faded before the whole convoy rumbled to a stop.

“I was not in a safe place and I knew it,” Pulliam wrote in an e-mail received by his parents on Saturday.

The convoy, now towing Pulliam's truck, finally reached the restive city of Ramadi, a 35-mile trip that lasted more than three hours. It was received by insurgent gunshots; all seemed to miss, trailing bright tracers.

But Pulliam, a 43-year-old engineer with a law degree, had a bigger breakdown on his mind than an engine mishap: the United States' policy in Iraq.

Yesterday, he called for a complete withdrawal of U.S. troops before September 2006, titling his proposal “Rational Disengagement.” He posted it on an Internet blog, an online journal operated by Bedford activist Brian Hart, whose 20-year-old son, Army Pvt. First Class John Hart, was killed nearly two years ago in Iraq during an ambush near Kirkuk.

“I am just an American citizen-soldier who wants to see an end to this hemorrhaging and get back to my life away from Iraq,” writes Pulliam, who resides on Main Street with his wife, Awilda, and their two children, ages 8 and 10.

“Iraq will have some very hard times to follow our disengagement, but I see this as inevitable anyway so why should we (Americans) continue to bleed only to prolong the pain that is coming,” Pulliam writes. “I don't view this as defeatism, I view it as rationalism.”

In an age where soldiers are increasingly using the Internet to relay instant information about their experiences to spouses, family members and the public, some are going too far, says Lt. Col. Steven Bloyan, an Army communications director in Baghdad who tries to track soldiers' commentary on blogs (Web logs) and newspaper editorials.

Soldiers sometimes are admonished for violating operational security, such as discussing troop movements, or when and how convoys are attacked. The enemy can intercept such information and use it against coalition forces, he said.

But Boylan and an Army spokeswoman in Washington said they'd never encountered an active-duty soldier proposing troop withdrawals. It could violate the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which prohibits soldiers from engaging in political discourse while in uniform.

“Most soldiers at the unit level don't have the information at hand to make decisions on policy,” Boylan said in a telephone interview. “We implement the policy of elected leadership.”
Maj. Elizabeth Robbins in Washington said: “A blog is not significantly different than writing an editorial.

It's not a private communication with one's family members. Blogs are a form of publishing.”
In July, Spc. Leonard A. Clark of the Arizona National Guard was punished for criticizing the war on his blog. He was demoted one rank to private first class, fined $1,640 and sentenced to 45 days restriction and 45 days extra duty.

Robbins described those steps as administrative and nonjudicial punishments. She added that soldiers could face a court-martial in the most severe cases.

But high-profile disciplinary action of troops could be politically tenuous.

“There's a whole new generation of troops deeply concerned about the administration's policy in Iraq, and their voices must not be ignored,” said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. “Is the White House going to try and silence them?”

Next month, Pulliam will complete his second eight-year commitment in the military, first in the National Guard, then the Army Reserve. He joined in the early 1980s as a way to pay for college, said his parents, Brown and Lois Pulliam of Bedford. He has been serving in Iraq for about a year and his parents expect him to be discharged by early December.

A machinist at Al Taqaddum Air Base near Falluja, Pulliam harbors deep distrust of President Bush and vehemently opposes the war, his father said.

“He thinks it's a crime,” Brown Pulliam said of the war, “and that Bush ought to be impeached.”
His parents are unconcerned about possible disciplinary action, saying such possibilities are friendly compared to the threats of war.

“I don't see how that would be more dangerous,” Lois Pulliam said of military discipline.
She and her husband twice traveled to Washington during the 1960s to protest the Vietnam War.

“We thought we were helping to make sure nothing like that happened again,” Lois Pulliam said of that conflict. “Here it is happening again.”

Three months after the Oct. 15 referendum to approve Iraq's new constitution, the United States should designate Iraq security forces “competent,” Nicholas Pulliam says in his plan.
“American troop withdrawals would begin rapidly and be complete before September, 2006,” he said, noting that civil war is likely to occur.

“This result is nothing to fear or regret,” Pulliam said, pointing to the Vietnam War as an example of a sudden American withdrawal.

He also said the overthrow of Saddam Hussein could hasten democracy in Iraq, “even if anarchy, civil war and national partition is the ultimate cost for their better future.”

Brian Hart created the blog -- www.minstrelboy.blogspot.com -- as an alternative to the deluge of e-mails he received following the death of his son. He's become a vocal critic of the war and an advocate for increased supply of body and vehicle armor.

He doesn't track the number of people who visit the blog, but hopes an intelligent discussion on an exit strategy will fuel a grassroots uprising. Pulliam is the first soldier he's aware of to call for a withdrawal.

“We're going to start a parade, and then let the politicians jump in front of it,” Hart said in an interview yesterday.

Pulliam, too, hopes his words cause a stir, saying too many soldiers have died.

“We need to start somewhere,” he writes in the blog posting. “We need to save our soldier's futures.”

Evan Lehmann's e-mail address is elehmann@lowellsun.com.

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