by Veronica Prout
COMMUNITY EDITOR

Quite often, we speculate about the war in Iraq questioning ourselves about whether or not we should remove our U.S. troops. We debate using information given to us by the media and our country’s leaders and politicians. But what do our soldiers think? Jonathan and Jesse Ansorge are brothers. Jon, 22, deployed for the first time to Iraq last week on Friday, Feb. 16. His brother Jesse, 20, is currently in the National Guard and has the possibility of deployment to Iraq within the next six months. Sergeant Victor Paolino, 27, was among the first company of troops sent to Iraq back in 2003. Last week, I interviewed these United States soldiers, the brothers together and Sgt. Paolino separately, about their views on the War in Iraq. This is what they said.

Interview with the Ansorges:
VP: How do you feel about being deployed to Iraq in two days?
Jon: It is really nice being home. But I’m getting kind of bored.

VP: Do you want to go to Iraq?
Jon: Honestly, think of it this way: it’s really hard trying to figure out something to do back here. Ya know? It’s weird having time off.

VP: Why are we still in Iraq?
Jon: I don’t know how to answer you that.

VP: Then, should we leave?
Jesse: I couldn’t answer that either. I don’t really know. All we know is our task. My question that I’m beginning to wonder is: is there a clear plan in Washington? I don’t have a problem going over there and serving. I mean, I’d just like to know that people up there in Washington actually know what they’re doing and actually have a clear plan. So far I haven’t heard any clear plans or a clear solution from them.

VP: Jon, do you know what you’re going to do when you get to Iraq?
Jon: We really aren’t given the bigger picture. I mean the plan, whatever that may be, doesn’t come along down the line that far.
Jesse: We have a job to do. We are just given orders. We follow those orders.
Jon: That is about it.

VP: So you don’t know why you’re there?
Jon: Well, you do and you don’t. As far as the whole long term plan is, it is more complicated than we really need to worry about at our level. The politics aren’t my business. I get paid to do a job. And that’s what I do.

VP: What did you think when we removed Saddam Hussein from power?
Jesse: Well, when you look at it, it’s kind of a lose-lose situation, because with Saddam Hussein in power, he was obviously a bad person. He tortured and killed his own people, but at the same time he provided a sense of stability, sort of, that the country had then that I don’t know Iraq has now, because you have the clash of cultures.
Jon: The people that were executed, who were tortured and killed, are the ones that are free to wage their own private war on the U.S. right now.

VP: So is it the same group of people that were tortured and killed who are now also the insurgents attacking the U.S. in Iraq?
Jon: Yeah. You know, everybody had a personal agenda.

VP: Are the people threatened the same people trying to kill U.S. soldiers now over in Iraq?
Jon: Well, they’re free to do whatever they want now. They’re not under Saddam’s control, and they’re not worried about being executed by Saddam’s regime. A lot of it has to do with their religious beliefs. Each religious clan for some reason has issues with the other. Family leaders are listening to a religious leader. They believe that what comes from their religious leader—their cleric—comes directly from Allah. If their religious leader tells them something, “This is what Allah wants,” then they go out there and do it. Each clan is trying to buy power in the new government. People are being executed for supporting the Americans. People are being executed for not supporting the Americans. They’re being executed because their Sunni or their Shia or just plain because they look funny.

VP: What do you think we need to do to help with these issues?
Jon: Honestly, I don’t know. Like I said, the politics aren’t my thing. My purpose in life, ya know, I got two people in my truck that I’m responsible for. That’s what I care about. That’s it. That’s my purpose in life. While I’m in Iraq, my purpose is to ensure that they come home and see their mother and father, whoever, when they get back.

VP: What do you think when you see such signs as “send the troops home” or “no war in Iraq”?
Jon: They’re entitled to their opinion. Whether they like it or not, the job we do enables them to have their opinion. As long as they’re protesting like that, then I don’t care much of it.
Jesse: As long as they’re certainly not taking it out on the troops themselves because the troops, we are just following orders. It wasn’t our decision to invade Iraq. It wasn’t our decision to not invade Iraq. We’re doing a job that was assigned to us.

VP: So John, you’re leaving for Iraq in a matter of days. What do you expect when you get there?
Jon: Honestly, I try not to expect anything, except maybe the worst.

VP: What do you think you’ll be doing in Iraq?
Jon: Training police. Train Iraqis. Make them self-sufficient.

VP: What can you expect from the Iraqis themselves?
Jon: During the day they’re working with us, and at night they’re out there on the roads planting bombs for us. When there’s a place that hasn’t been hit in weeks, it’s because there’s probably someone there who isn’t legit—someone they want for some reason to keep alive.

VP: What do you think their plan is?
Jon: (laughs) Honestly, I don’t know. Everybody’s got some plan over there. Everybody’s got an ulterior motive.

VP: What do you think the Iraqis think about the Americans being there?
Jon: I’d say about 80 percent of them support us. You got a whole block of people that support the Americans and one guy on the block that doesn’t, and nobody knows who he is. They don’t talk about it. They just place bombs on the side of the road for us.

VP: Are there a lot of weapons there?
Jon: There are caches everywhere of weapons. You could be standing right above them.

VP: Are you scared at all?
Jon: Yes and no. I’d rather have my own face blown off than see somebody else’s. You forget about being scared. Sometimes you pull out your laptop and just watch a movie or something. If you worry about dying all the time, then your life is going to suck. I mean, when you get into your car and drive down to McDonald’s, do you worry about the drunk driver that might hit you? You don’t think about it.

VP: Has the military changed both of your lives?
Jon: Most definitely.
Jesse: I just want Washington to give us a clearer picture about what their long term plan was. I mean, it won’t stop us from doing our orders, but it would be nice to know instead of always having them sidestep the issue.
Jon: I could care less. At the level I work at, it really is something I have no control over anyway, so it really makes no difference to me what the major plan is.

VP: What do you think about how the media portrays the war in Iraq?
Jon: They portray it very negatively. Take the death tolls, for example. It sucks—granted—and the way we die is inherently more violent than typical deaths here in the States. But on the other hand, in four years we have lost roughly 3,000 troops. I mean, how many traffic fatalities have we had in the States this past year? Construction is dangerous. The mill industry is very dangerous. I mean, again, you don’t think about the drunk driver late at night on your way to Shari’s. Let’s face it, there’s a lot of risks here, too.

VP: Overall, do you think that Bush did the right thing sending American troops into Iraq in the first place?
Jon: When we went in, we had every right.
Jesse: Based upon the cause that we went in over there, looking for weapons of mass destruction and the likes, yes, we had good justification.

VP: What would you like the American population to know?
Jesse: I think the American population needs to continue to express their opinions, because that’s what my brother is over there for—to protect everyone’s constitutional freedoms.
Jon: A lot of people take their freedoms for granted. They need to exercise their freedoms.

Interview with Sergeant Paolino:

VP: Do you think we should stay in Iraq?
Victor: I believe that we should stay in Iraq but maybe not in the abundance that we are.

VP: Why did you decide to enlist?
Victor: I’m very patriotic. I feel that defending my country is the highest kind of honor you can do—serving and protecting what so many have died for.

VP: Do you think we should have gone into Iraq in the first place?
Vict: Yes.

VP: Why?
Victor: Because if we weren’t going to act, what else might have happened? Could we have been nuked? How many more people would have to die before we would start to do something?

VP: How is Iraq connected to 9/11?
Victor: From the evidence gathered, the terrorists from 9/11 were linked to Iraq. To be honest, I really don’t know.

VP: When did you arrive in Iraq?
Victor: I touched ground there on April 15, 2003.

VP: What did you do when you got there?
Victor: We took a convoy up to a place called Balad. We set up camp. A couple days later, two squads were tasked out to forward observation bases, one being in Al Falluja.

VP: What did you do there?
Victor: We supported the Calvary to neutralize the situation at hand.

VP: What situation?
Victor: Terrorists, people shooting at us, people causing harm to the Iraqi citizens and the U.S. troops.

VP: Did anything happen that was really unexpected?
Victor: Getting shot at was unexpected, but not really unexpected. If you went in like I went in and expected the worst, then nothing can really happen that’s all that unexpected. You just have to focus on the task at hand. You have to protect your fellow soldiers. You have to protect them because they are your family. After going through basic training, you have a new sense of honor and respect for soldiers. Not only do you have to keep your family in Iraq alive, but you have to work to keep the people back in the U.S. alive too.

VP: Were the Iraqis happy that America had gotten rid of Saddam Hussein?
Victor: For the most part, I would venture to say “yes.” But you still have the few stragglers who still believed in what Saddam was doing.

VP: What percentage of Iraqis do you think were happy that the U.S. was there?
Victor: If I had to say a number, I would venture to guess that about 80 percent of them were happy to see us there. It’s like this. That 20 percent that are not wanting us there, they’re the ones playing buddy-buddy with us during the day. Because number one, so that they can still maintain a job with us or, number two, so they can get to know the layout of the base and the post. But at night, sometimes you end up coming across those same guys that you were helping out during the day. But now, they’re shooting at you.

VP: Do you think we’re helping the Iraqis?
Victor: Oh yes, most definitely. If you see the look on some of these Iraqi kids’ and adults’ faces when we give them water, food, shelter, clothes, jobs—you can tell that they are thankful and glad to have us there.

VP: Is the U.S. over there killing women and children?
Victor: No, we’re not. We’re over there taking out people who have threatened U.S. troops’ lives and who have shot at U.S. troops and have made an attempt to shoot at a U.S. or Iraqi citizen.

VP: Do you think we’re doing more good than bad?
Victor: Most definitely.

VP: Are you supposed to return to Iraq any time soon?
Victor: That answer is unknown.

VP: Would you be willing to go back?
Victor: I’d be willing to fight for my country again, yes.