Las Cruces Soldier Shares Thoughts On Obama Visit To Fort Bliss

An endless war that changed from one deployment to the next.

That’s how Ashton Butler described his time in Iraq. Butler served two tours of duty in Iraq and said the second was dramatically different than the first.

“(It’s) a war that we could never win,” Butler said.

Butler said he felt helpless, struggling to survive during his second deployment in Iraq.

“Car bombs, roadside bombs, suicide bombers, attacks …,” he said.

Suffocating in unfathomable conditions, Butler said he never thought he would live to see the beginning of the end.

“I felt like we were just driving around until we got blown up,” Butler said. ?I was very scared, very scared.”

Talking about his experience is uncomfortable, but something Butler said it needs to be done.

“It wasn’t really a war, it was just I was driving until someone gets blown up or a vehicle gets blown up,? Butler said. ?Then we go back, reconsolidate and do it all again the next day.”

And five years later, after Butler returned home, thousands of American soldier continued living the same reality.

“We captured Saddam Hussein in 2004 but we’re still over there and I still can?t fathom that,? Butler said. ?I don?t understand why we’re still over there.”

As President Barack Obama announces the end of America?s combat mission in Iraq, Butler said it is not a celebration, but something that is long overdue.

“I firmly stand by President Obama pulling soldiers out because it needs to be done, it should have been done earlier,? Butler said. ?I?m glad he stepped up to the plate and started pulling soldiers out because there is no business for us to be there.”

The remaining 50,000 troops in Iraq, President Obama promised in Tuesday’s Address, will all return home by December 2011.