USA: 'I feel that we've supported just as much as we could,' says the widow of a U.S. Marine as Iraq moves closer to civil war

Record ID: 859364

  • Title: USA: 'I feel that we've supported just as much as we could,' says the widow of a U.S. Marine as Iraq moves closer to civil war
  • Date: 16th June 2014
  • Summary: NORTH HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (JUNE 16, 2014) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) KAREN NAVARRETE-BELL, SAYING: "I wish I could support, saying, 'let's send more troops,' but I just can't there's just so many lives that have been lost, so many families that have been affected, and it's created a different type of dynamic here, back at home, and so many lives that have been affected here as well, there's a lot going on over there too, many lives are lost, and it's just a horrible place to be at this time, but at the same time, I feel like there's just, I feel that we've supported just as much as we could."
  • Embargoed: 1st July 2014 13:00
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  • Location: Usa
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  • Country: USA
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAYVJ82LFSTP1WH5IW1DWJ193R
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  • Story Text: As Iraq inches closer and closer to a civil war after recent violence threatens to undo years U.S. peacekeeping efforts, one Marine widow says it's too much to bear.

    "How I feel about it now, and I feel like it's devastating, what's going on over there, but again, I feel like a high price has been paid already," says Karen Navarrete-Bell, whose husband Marine Staff Sergeant Vincent J. Bell served three deployments to Iraq and died during his second deployment to Afghanistan on November 30, 2011. Vincent Bell was awarded a Purple Heart posthumously for his service.
    Navarrete-Bell is currently pursuing a masters degree in social work from the University of Southern California, and devotes her time to working for a non-profit organization called The Soldiers Project, which helps returning veterans as they assimilate back into society. She says that after losing her husband in the war and seeing Iraq fall into violence after years of painstaking U.S. missions to the Middle Eastern nation makes her question why troops were ever sent there to begin with.

    "There are times when I feel like 'well look at all these lives that have been lost? what were we there for in the first place? Look at where it's at now?" she says.
    "It's very devastating."
    Militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have routed Baghdad's army and seized the north of the country in the past week, threatening to dismember Iraq and unleash all-out sectarian warfare with no regard for national borders.
    The fighters have been joined by other armed Sunni groups who oppose what they say is oppression by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shi'ite.
    U.S. president Barack Obama drew a firm line last Friday, saying he is reviewing options on Iraq but there is no plan to send American troops back to the country, a position which Karen Navarrete-Bell supports.

    "I wish I could support, saying, 'let's send more troops,' but I just can't there's just so many lives that have been lost, so many families that have been affected," she says.
    "I feel that we've supported just as much as we could."

    "I don't think I've ever spoken about it publicly. And I think that's why its difficult for a lot of people to relate to what's going on over there, when there's just so many people who are in my shoes, so many families. It's really hard to jump on board with what's going on in another country, when there's so many issues on the home front," says Karen Navarrete-Bell.
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