2 of 7 NCO's Who Wrote NYT Op-Ed Critical of War Die in Iraq

by: Maura

Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 14:03:20 PM EDT

To believe that Americans, with an occupying force that long ago outlived its reluctant welcome, can win over a recalcitrant local population and win this counterinsurgency is far-fetched. As responsible infantrymen and noncommissioned officers with the 82nd Airborne Division soon heading back home, we are skeptical of recent press coverage portraying the conflict as increasingly manageable and feel it has neglected the mounting civil, political and social unrest we see every day.

Two of the seven brave soldiers who spoke out against our failed strategy in Iraq were killed in Iraq on Monday:

Sgt. Omar Mora and Sgt. Yance T. Gray died Monday in a vehicle accident in western Baghdad, two of seven U.S. troops killed in the incident which was reported just as Gen. David Petraeus was about to report to Congress on progress in the "surge."

Mora, 28, hailed from Texas City, Texas, and was a native of Ecuador, who had just become a U.S. citizen. He was due to leave Iraq in November and leaves behind a wife and daughter. Gray, 26, had lived in Ismay, Montana, and is also survived by a wife and infant daughter.  [...]

The Daily News in Galveston interviewed Mora's mother, who confirmed his death and that he was one of the co-authors of the Times piece. The article today relates: "Olga Capetillo said that by the time Mora submitted the editorial, he had grown increasingly depressed. 'I told him God is going to take care of him and take him home,' she said. 'But yesterday is the darkest day for me.'"

Their fathers spoke with pride today about their sons' courage in speaking out. 

I was already depressed today, but this is just unspeakably awful.  As I mentioned to CTBob when he decided to take a break from blogging, a sustained diet of outrage and injustice is just not healthy.  For my sanity, I'm off to the water to take some of my own medicine for the rest of the afternoon.  It sure is beautiful outside, in that eerie way that the sky was so perfectly blue on the morning of 9/11.  I'm going to try to enjoy a few hours of it.