Lt. Col. Joe Repya makes us proud to be Americans from Minnesota. He is a retired Army Reserve Officer who re-upped for active duty at age 58. He is now 59 and serving in Iraq. We wrote about him this past September in “Col. Repya reports for duty.” This morning he writes from Camp Victory in Baghdad:
I was so upset when I read the Star Tribune’s Editorial today that I sent off this letter below to the editor from my duty desk in Baghdad, Iraq. The voices of millions killed by Hitler, Stalin & Pol Pot are rising from their mass graves and demanding an apology. Durbin is wrong and the Star Tribune is wrong even more. Clearly they are not on our side! Soldiers over here keep asking me why America has forgotten 9-11. I keep telling them that the liberal media won’t let the American people see the images of the murdered and tortured Iraqis we find every day over here. Please keep up the fight back home and I promise the American military will win the war over here!
Here is Col. Repya’s letter to the editor of the Star Tribune:
Your editorial “Durbin’s Message/US Must End Prisoner Abuse” proves beyond any doubt that the Star Tribune Editorial Staff has no idea of who we are fighting and why! As a soldier in Iraq, I was highly insulted by the comments of Senator Durbin and his pathetic excuse of being “misunderstood.” So I offer a suggestion. Let’s divide up these victims of “the hellhole America’s military has created” at Guantanamo and allow them to spend a weekend at the homes of the Star Tribune Editorial Staff and Senator Durbin. America’s military will anxiously await the report on the impression they will make on you and your families.
Joseph Repya
LTC, Aviation
MNC-I LNO
101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)
Camp Victory South
Baghdad, Iraq
In a subsequent note this morning Col. Repya adds:
I do feel old around these kids. Your chest buttons would burst with pride at the job these young men and women are doing here. Did I mention it is a toasty 108 today? A cold front moved in and dropped it from last week’s high of 118. Keep up the fight.
For more on Col. Repya, see “Lt. Colonel talks about returning to Iraq” and “Army recalls 58-year-old retired officer from Eagan.”
UPDATE: The all-seeing Glenn Reynolds comments at Instapundit: “It almost seems as if there are more people writing the Strib than there are reading it…”
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