Brownlee says it's a mistake to pull out now

Abandoning Iraq now would be a huge mistake, Maj. Jimmy Brownlee of Charleston said by telephone Wednesday from the country he's helping to defend.

"I think a lot of people don't get the gist of what would happen if we pulled out," Brownlee said on the fifth anniversary of the war, which also happens to be his 42nd birthday.

"Everything we have fought for and won and all the blood that has been shed with nearly 4,000 Americans dead would be for naught," he said. "We came in here, and we owe these people a chance to get their society back up and running. It's slowly getting there, and it's going to take a little bit of time. We have good momentum."

Though he said it was calm Wednesday in his area of operation just south of Baghdad, new reports say the war could take another five years or more to stabilize the nation, establish democracy and root out insurgents.

"Whether it's five years or a little longer, we owe it to ourselves and to the Iraqis to see it through to the end. I don't think we can just pull out."

Brownlee is on his second tour of duty in Iraq. He was there for a year when Baghdad fell five years ago. "I didn't think it was going to last this long," he said.

While he's counting down the days before he comes home, "118 days left," he said with glee, he is prepared to go back for another tour if necessary.

"Nobody promised me I would ever sit home for the 20 years I volunteered to do," Brownlee said. "If I have to come back for another two years of the five years I have left, then that's what I'm going to do."

Reach Warren Wise at 745-5850 or