[Dean's World] Dave Price: An Antiwar Liberal Helping In Iraq

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Posted by Dave Price:
An Antiwar Liberal Helping In Iraq
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1199987205.shtml


   Pay attention lefties, [1]this is what a true antiwar liberal looks
   like.:

     As David Matsuda tells it, he's probably the last person you'd
     expect to see in a U.S. military uniform climbing out of an armored
     vehicle in Iraq.
     An anthropology professor from the East Bay campus of California
     State University near San Francisco, he's a self-described peacenik
     who opposed the war in Iraq, did his academic research in Guatemala
     and never carries a gun.
     "I'm a Californian. I'm a liberal. I'm a Democrat," he says. "My
     impetus is to come here and help end this thing."

   Imagine that, helping our troops out of concern for Iraqis, rather
   than using faux-concern as a political tool to force the departure of
   U.S. troops on the basis that war = bad and discrediting the evil
   warmongering Bushitler is more important than the fate of Iraqis
   anyway.
   And he really does help:

     "It's a huge asset," said Staff Sergeant Dustin "Boogie"
     Brueggemann who, as a tactical psychological operations specialist,
     has spent the past year trying to win hearts and minds in Adhamiya,
     until a few months ago one of the most violent strongholds of Sunni
     Arab militants in Iraq.
     Further up the command chain, Lieutenant-Colonel David Oclander,
     deputy commander of the 5,000 soldiers of the 2nd Brigade Combat
     Team of the 82nd Airborne Division, said Matsuda had given a
     presentation on how Iraqis resolve conflicts that proved valuable
     in approaching Shi'ite clerics.
     "The HTT has been a great help in making sure that when we dialogue
     with them, we dialogue with them in a way they understand and
     appreciate," he said.

   Read the whole thing. It's great to see some people understand the
   difference between principle and partisanship.

References

   1. http://real-us.news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080109/us_nm/iraq_anthropologist_dc_4