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What General Kelly feels about Iraq, 10 years later

Gen. John Kelly was an assistant division commander in 2003 when the Iraq war started. He returned in 2008 as commanding general of Multinational Force-West, which included al-Anbar province. Pictured above, Kelly signed over security control of the province to Iraqi forces. At the Pentagon on Wednesday, this was his answer to what his feelings ...

By Kevin Baron

March 20, 2013, 8:54 PM

Gen. John Kelly was an assistant division commander in 2003 when the Iraq war started. He returned in 2008 as commanding general of Multinational Force-West, which included al-Anbar province. Pictured above, Kelly signed over security control of the province to Iraqi forces. At the Pentagon on Wednesday, this was his answer to what his feelings were, as the war’s 10-year anniversary passes.

“I don’t know, I was there right now, I think I was just pulling into Nasiriyah this time 10 years ago. I’d just been promoted to one-star. I was driving by some vehicles in Nasiriyah, I remember seeing these bodies burned beyond recognition. I thought they were Iraqis, come to find out they were Jessica Lynch’s unit there.

“I think — we’ll let the historians and the rest of them make the decisions. I just think that we fought — we went there for the right reason, we fought the war honorably. A couple million young Americans that went there did their duty to their country. Left four or five thousand behind. So I think, their legacy is just that — you know, we don’t start ‘em, we just fight ‘em. And I think those boys and girls did a real good job fighting that war. And who knows how it’ll turn out, so long as it’s Iraqi-good enough, it’ll still be better than what they had under Saddam.”

Kevin Baron is a national security reporter for Foreign Policy, covering defense and military issues in Washington. He is also vice president of the Pentagon Press Association. Baron previously was a national security staff writer for National Journal, covering the "business of war." Prior to that, Baron worked in the resident daily Pentagon press corps as a reporter/photographer for Stars and Stripes. For three years with Stripes, Baron covered the building and traveled overseas extensively with the secretary of defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, covering official visits to Afghanistan and Iraq, the Middle East and Europe, China, Japan and South Korea, in more than a dozen countries. From 2004 to 2009, Baron was the Boston Globe Washington bureau's investigative projects reporter, covering defense, international affairs, lobbying and other issues. Before that, he muckraked at the Center for Public Integrity. Baron has reported on assignment from Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and the South Pacific. He was won two Polk Awards, among other honors. He has a B.A. in international studies from the University of Richmond and M.A. in media and public affairs from George Washington University. Originally from Orlando, Fla., Baron has lived in the Washington area since 1998 and currently resides in Northern Virginia with his wife, three sons, and the family dog, The Edge. Twitter: @FPBaron