Very harrowing story, DD, S & F!

In Viet Nam, it was taking 'ears'... In Iraq, it's making interrogations. Both types of horrors stem from the enormous stresses suffered by troops who witness deaths of thier buddies, and then deal with those losses by entitling themselves to inflict a greater atrocity on the enemy.

I support our troops, always; and have special respect for Veterans who have lost fellow soldiers in wars. And I love America with all my heart; it's just that something ...I don't know... something diabolical, immoral, or insidious evil has crept in over the last couple decades, that is hard to describe, and even harder to directly identify; but the soldier in the article has touched on a valid point, about "the billionaires who send us to war".

Frightening to me, is how many law-makers own stock in, and profit from the weapons manufacturing industry. And more incredulous to me, is how our elected officials keep pumping billions of dollars into these wars, while the economy tanks! . . .and we do NOTHING except sit here typing. . .

I think one of the most disturbing legacies of the 21st century will be how we allowed warring govs. to conflagrate our planet, and especially the development of unmanned aireal vehicles, unmanned armored vehicles, and remote-controlled weapons to not only kill innocent people, but also take the honor out of battle. (And of course, used these technologies to spy on citizens, identify any threats to thier continued power, and oppressed the remaining ones through mainstream media manipulation).

. . .enough, before I really get going!

Putting in my $.02 now. I was in the military for 12 years, my last 6 as an airforce medic. I generally tended to see our af medics as a bit of a cut above, they were mostly more intellectual than the army guys i was stationed with during my time in the army. So i generally felt a little different about my service in the AF, a bit more proud and ....well....human. We were treated with much more respect, we were taken better care of, and we had more options for advancement and education. Then on one FTX i was in a class with others as they were showing some presentation mixed in with all our medical classes. It was a "patriotic" piece, complete with country music and uplifting pictures and all the rest. Then it came to a couple slides....one showing the words "our soldiers!!" and it showed a bunch of proud strong young attractive americans holding up a flag. Then it showed a slide stating "their soldiers!!" and it showed a bunch of dead arabs falling out of a blown up vehicle. I was completely offended that they felt the need to demonize and humiliate these people in order to make us feel like we were strong, in order to get us to do what they want us to do. It was the rankest form of propaganda, of dehumanizing the foe, and i felt it was an extreme insult to my intelligence and to the intelligence and humanity of everyone else in the classroom and was disappointed to find that i was the only one in the room that felt that way. Patriotism, nationalism, these in my mind are just other names for racism and bigotry, and that was the final moment of my enlistment in the military. I resigned shortly after, and to this day feel sad that i live in a land where people willingly sit there and are spoonfed hatred and racism, and think thats ok, and use the feelings instilled by such things to calm their conscience as they go into other lands and kill people who have never set foot on our soil, or ever planned to kill me or mine. To my mind this can be nothing but the fruits of fear and hatred, and our soldiers but victims of hatemongering and corruption. THIS is why suicide rates among soldiers are skyrocketing, and THIS is why we have such massive levels of PTSD. For soldiers fighting with a clear conscience and for something they KNOW they can believe in, its a massively different story. I have a friend who was a forward observer, and he would radio in the bombing targets. Then he would stand and watch as the target he called in, PLUS the park full of children next to it would get immolated in a ball of fire. He is now discharged by the military, and barely living on disability with massive psychological trauma, and i can gaurantee you its the park full of children keeping him up at night. Our tactics and weapons are not NEARLY as accurate as we are led to believe, and the civilian casualties are massive (though they are all reported as "terrorists" in news casts) and not always unintentional, as in fallujah where all males over 15yrs of age were turned back to the city and then it was destroyed. THESE are the reasons for PTSD and nightmares, and rightly so. If this isnt terror than i dont know what is, and its a terror thats inflicted upon our young naive soldiers as well.

Ok...We all need to turn it down one notch...During my time in Afghanistan with my team I/WE never witnessed the senseless killing of INNOCENT civilians, Our mission was not to go there and eliminate women and children, It was to establish ties with Afghan freedom fighters and build a repoire with tribal leaders who in fact have done wonders for us with good actional intelligence on enemy strongholds and AQ training grounds along with all the other happy horsepoop , We also acted as doctors, teachers, instructors, and most of all soldiers. Did senseless killings happen?,Not on our watch but I would venture to say yes, The occasional bomb would miss its target or an AC-130 was off it mark, These things happen but never did we or any american soldier under my command kill in cold blood, If lives were lost it was because my team and myself were in harms way and we were coming home at the end of the day.Not on our watch.. So in closing, I never saw innocent lives taken, We are the consumate professionals, If I took somebodys life it was justifed in order to preserve the lives of my team and myself.

This is my last post on this subject and im through answering questions now so I will walk away having given my eight cents worth and hope I was understood, I respect every pair of boots that has touched the grounds of Iraq and Afghanistan and I also respect the opinions of the wonderful people that have never served and I dont begrudge you for not serving but there will things you can never imagine or comprehend in a lifetime, . For the rest of my days I will never be able to replace the friends I lost in the GWOT, I will never sleep soundly, and I will never be me again. I actually sit up every night a pray to god that there is not another servicemember killed while serving his country...On a lighter note:..LETS GO PHILLIES...TWO MORE

I also have served more the one tour in OIF. In 2004 a guarded enemy prisoners of war at a small forward operating base, until they were transported to a different place. It was kind of like a transient holding area. We always treated them respectfully and often spoke the eldest EPW to try and get the group to calm down, because many Muslims respect their elders. We referred to the eldest as "hajji" because many of them had made the pilgrimage to Mecca and that it is a sign of respect. I do not speak Arabic fluently but it always seemed to work when we would say it to the crowd, someone would step forward; usually an older man. Look in a dictionary and see what that word means before going off the handle about racism. I have spent most of the best years of my life serving in the Middle East. I have never once seen or heard of a soldier killing people for no reason. Lives in this country are taken for trying to take the lives of American service members. Yes people die, some by hands of the US for trying to kill the American Soldiers or Marines on their right or left, but many innocent civilians are killed, tortured, kidnapped and executed by the insurgency. Many people on ATS claim that the Media cannot be trusted and is controlled by the government, “don’t believe anything they say” only when they say something that you disagree with, when anything is said negatively about the military folks jump all over it as if it were gospel.

[edit on 12-10-2008 by smoke screen]

Originally posted by DimensionalDetective

I threw families onto the street in Iraq, only to come home and find families thrown onto the street in this country, in this tragic and unnecessary foreclosure crisis. Our enemies are not five thousand miles away, they are right here at home, and if we organize and fight, we can stop this war, we can stop this government, and we can create a better world.

Aw man, this would make a lovely Obama / Biden 2008 ad. All it needs is a "Yes we can!" right after the very last sentence.

I can picture a television ad of this.. with a soldier, dressed in his full battle gear, saying this directly toward the camera, in that cheesy .. presidential campaign ad kinda way. You know, where you can tell the person was paid to speak? Lol ..

I truly feel sorry for this soldier.He doesn't see that he's not the terrorist.He doesn't have a grip on who the terrorists are yet anyway.The real terrorists are the world central banks and the corporations that have grownup around them.First thing we need to understand is the money to be made in this war.Iraq was not invaded just for oil as many people think.Look at the munitions that were expended the first few days.Look at the so called rebuild corporations.Billions and billions of dollars all of it borrowed from world central banks.The bankers and corporations have a field day all at our expence.The corporations control the media so you get to see what they allow.They control both the democrat and republican partys.Maybe you haven't noticed but when the corporations want something in opposition to what the people want the people are the loosers.This is the racket that general was talking about.They control the media so the people get a choice of a democrat or a republican and the third party they ignore.By ignoring the third party canidates the masses will not believe thier even in the running,which is pretty much the truth as they do thier job so well.The dems and repubs fight each other and the masses think they have two partys.They think one of these two partys are going to do something for them and end up with a bone once in a while.Jefferson warned us this would happen but we ignored him.So there are your terrorists.This poor soldier ends up feeling like he's a terrible person as the world bankers,corporations,
and both dems and repubs walk away smilling,thier pockets full of the loot they made on his and other soldiers backs and our bank accounts.Thier weakest link is the political system and they could be put down if no one voted dem or repub.However the masses block the way as they think one of those two corporate partys are going to do something for them.They just don't realise what they are going to do and it won't be pretty.

Originally posted by Combatmed1
Now I am getting ready to leave once again...My wife is tore apart and I don't know if our marriage will be able to handle the strain...We leave for MOB Dec 1st. Even though my personal life most undoubtedly will suffer, I know that I will once again be able to help those noble people...

May the Creator watch over you.

My full support and thanks goes with you.