Iraq vets: Let’s stay, win
March 27, 2008
Iraq vets: Let’s stay, win
By WILLIAM PETROSKI
Des Moines REGISTER STAFF WRITER
A group of Iraq war veterans rallied at the Iowa Statehouse on Wednesday to urge that American troops remain in Iraq as long as needed to ensure peace and political stability in the region.
The “National Heroes Tour,” sponsored by the 21,000-member Vets for Freedom, is in the midst of a 14-state bus trip scheduled to end April 8 in Washington, D.C. The veterans participated in a debate Wednesday morning at the University of Northern Iowa before heading to Des Moines, where they addressed about 150 to 200 people and had a barbecue lunch on the steps of the Iowa Capitol.
“Our message basically is that we want to win,” said Brandon Shepherd, 24, of Cedar Falls, a UNI student who served two tours in Iraq with the Army’s 101st Airborne Division.
Ben Hayden, 24, who graduated from Ankeny High School in 2003, served two tours in Iraq with the Marine Corps. Now he’s a student at the University of Iowa.
“The American people need to give us a chance. They need to give the troops a chance,” Hayden said. While a few soldiers in Iraq may disagree with the war, “the guys who are on the front lines, who are doing it every day, want to keep doing it.”
The nonpartisan Vets for Freedom didn’t attract any counter-protests in Des Moines, although on Tuesday a high school principal in Forest Lake, Minn., made national news by canceling the group’s plans to speak to about 150 social studies students. The veterans appeared instead at an American Legion post.
Pete Hegseth, a Minnesota native and executive director of Vets for Freedom, is a Princeton University graduate who served a tour in Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division. During a visit to The Des Moines Register on Wednesday, he said he came home from Iraq frustrated with the U.S. military’s strategy, believing Americans lacked sufficient forces and were using the wrong tactics.
But Hegseth said that when he returned to Iraq three weeks ago, he saw profound improvements in response to the U.S. troop surge. He described walking through an area of southeast Baghdad where American and Iraqi forces had previously been unable to enter without a sustained gunbattle. Now Americans are walking through the same area without hearing a single shot fired, he said.
“It was literally like day and night from what I had seen” before, Hegseth said. “Markets were not just open; they were absolutely booming.”
Hegseth declined to speculate when American forces can leave Iraq, but said he hopes it won’t be more than two or three years.
He also said it may be necessary to establish a permanent, but much smaller, U.S. military presence in Iraq, similar to postwar Korea and Germany.
“We have the opportunity, despite all the problems and all the violence, to have some level of a moderate Arab government in the Middle East that is allied with us and is taking the fight to our enemies,” Hegseth said.
Several state legislators who attended the Statehouse gathering said they agreed with the veterans’ stance on Iraq.
“I think it’s really great that we could get them here and have them tell the side of the story that we are not usually hearing,” said state Sen. Brad Zaun, an Urbandale Republican.
Reporter William Petroski can be reached at (515) 284-8547 or bpetroski@dmreg.com
Jim Funk of Ames, right, enjoys a laugh with former Army staff sergeant David Bellavia after getting his copy of Bellavia’s book autographed Wednesday during a stop of the “National Heros Tour” at the Capitol. Funk served in Iraq with the Iowa National Guard from September 2006 through September 2007.
Jeremiah Workman, left, and David Bellavia leave their bus Wednesday morning for an Iraq war debate at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. Four members of Vets for Freedom participated in the debate on the UNI campus.