''The government should have had thousands and thousands of MPs waiting and ready to go in immediately afterwards. They planned meticulously how to take over the country, but I don't think they planned very well how to run it once it was taken,'' said Lance Cpl. Derek McGee, 26.
He came home to his fiance and family in Rhinebeck, and will return to work for UPS in Kingston in September.
''We're an infantry unit and they kind of used us as an occupying force,'' said Sgt. Chris Masterson, 25, a Wappingers Falls resident who left his pursuit of a business degree at Dutchess Community College to serve.
''I know we went in there and we hit hard, we hit fast and we did a whole lot of good. Where it went bad was way up above us -- the political side of it, establishing the government,'' he said. ''It kind of came to a screeching halt.''
Wednesday, August 6
So How Goes The Occupation?
Returning Marines are unleashing criticism on the lack of an exit strategy in Iraq. From the Poughkeepsie Journal:
