Afghanistan: An Individual Soldiers' Perspective-Part 1

And he is going to enforce what they tell him to enforce, and if a freedom fighter gets in the way.

He is simply going to kill him or her.

Many of you know that I am currently deployed to Afghanistan. I want to share something with you that I went through out here very recently, if for no other reason than to understand my perspective, irrespective of ones feelings on the political and social implications of the war. This isn't a commentary on that. It is simply my experience. If you wish to opine on the political issues of this war, be my guest. If you wish to rail against me, by all means do so. But know this, until you've had to do what I have, don't pretend to understand, or be able to second guess my perspective on things. The quote above is from a former member, I remembered this post in particular because I've heard so much garbage like this on ATS before. This is sort of a response to that post. At the very least, you'll have my view of this on record:

My second mission was a medevac chase mission. My helicopter is responsible for protecting the medevac bird from enemy action.

Call came in and we rushed to the bird. We were up on comms and taking off on the mission when the details came in:

"Patient is pediatric". I thought...OMG they hit a kid?

"Be advised patient is a 6 month old infant."

That's when my heart sank. I couldn't believe it. IED hit a civilian vehicle wounding this little girl to the point where she had damage to her face from shrapnel and had her leg severely damaged in the blast, which led to it being amputated. It was a remote detonated device. Meaning someone had control of it and knew what they were doing. Probably using civilian casualties to try to draw ground guys in to secondary devices, but that is speculation on my part.

She survived. She could have easily died.

The "Freedom fighters" are anything but. I don't expect anyone to agree with the war. Hell there's hardly any support for the war to continue among troops themselves. No one wants to be in this crap hole country.

But at the end of the day the people we are fighting are NOT the good guys. They are NOT freedom fighters. They are murderers and terrorists and f'ing child killing monsters. They are tyrants who brutally subjugate women-denying them jobs, education, and any sense of self worth.

The post quoted above admonishes the notion of a soldier killing this enemy. The Taliban.
I admonish the sentiment of the post entirely. I do not hold reservation for them. I have no respect for them as a fighting force. They are without honor. Killing them would not disturb my sleep in the slightest.

There you have it. My perspective as I understand it. From my own experience. Make of it what you will.

Salute my friend stay safe and don't start taking it personal or it will eat your soul for the rest of your life...Very simple the thing called war in it's most basic form....it is kill or be killed and I never met an opponent that deserved to live more than me...so no regrets on my part. Those who take the crap personal are still messed up to this very day.

I feel truly sorry for you guys with the multiple deployments and the culture you have to put up with while deployed...again stay safe and one day come back to the world.

reply to post by projectvxn


S&F,

a tragic account of the front lines and I cannot help but only respect what you and your fellow service men and women are doing out there

The politics behind the war might very well suck, we might all argue and squabble over the justification for having troops out in Afghanistan but I think that all to often we forget about the people who are actually out their in the first place and what their perspective is on whats going on. So with that said your perspective if perhaps one of the most valuable on ATS right now when it comes to Afghanistan.

You have my respect and I wish you all the best on your deployment, please keep us all up to date on how you are getting on and any information you can provide.

Thank you for your service. I am from the Vietnam era. Now my friends sons and grand sons are serving over seas and pray for them and I will pray for you. Personaly I just wish our goverment would bring home all our troops and let them work it out for themselves. Why dose the U.S. have to be the worlds police force?
Please stay safe!

reply to post by projectvxn


I am sure that there are a few 10.000 people that have a similar story to tell about US forces.




Where is the honour?

reply to post by projectvxn


You Sir are an honourable man, I know this from reading your posting history.

"What you have seen, cannot be unseen".

May God continue to be with you and your unit & see you home safely.



ETA:
My Goodness, NeoParadigm is at it again :shk:

So you read my post and then edited yours to add "Where is the honour?" and the video - pathetic, and predictable.

I'll give you 10/10 for consistency though.

reply to post by projectvxn


Thank you for your service.

I don't think it is my place to comment beyond that I think it is important for the world to see a perspective such as this.

There isn't just one point of view, there are hundreds of thousands, each soldier, each side and each civilian, all with differing perspectives. And, it is through this we, the non serving individual, get a glimpse of what the reality it is, cobbled together from pieces such as this.

Originally posted by NeoParadigm
reply to post by projectvxn

 

Where is the honour?

edit on 29-8-2013 by NeoParadigm because: (no reason given)

As to the poster above with the video. The saying "war is hell" comes to mind and I do not think it is appropriate to generalize like you have.

Thanks for the post. Stay safe.

The US has been responsible for millions of civilian casualties on dozens of fronts for hundreds of years. You'll have to try harder to demonize the poor third-world freedom fighters for me to see things your way. Their ways may be primitive and mysogynistic and cruel, but imo, that's their business. I thought we were there to protect poppy fields anyway.

reply to post by MDDoxs

The saying "war is hell" comes to mind and I do not think it is appropriate to generalize like you have.

But it is OK for the OP to do so with the Taliban?

reply to post by MDDoxs

I don't think it is my place to comment beyond that I think it is important for the world to see a perspective such as this.

The perspective of a biased soldier that thinks his side has the moral high ground over his enemy?

Or a perspective of someone that volunteered to go to war and now is complaining about how much it sucks over there and how much he doesn't like his enemy, on an internet forum?

I am sorry, I mean no disrespect but this makes me mad. I respect you for being a militairy man but I find the fact that you would post this, while being deployed, a bit aggrevating.

Just do your job and stay safe.

reply to post by NeoParadigm


You forget this is an opinion/perspective piece. It can chronicle whatever he wants.

Instead, you have presented an unrelated video, questioning honor? An instance the OP was not involved with as far as we know.

My concern is you are applying the inferred concept of "dishonorable actions" to everyone one in the service. I cannot comment much more then that, as I am not a servicemen. But, I can call-out wide sweeping generalizations.

If you had said "this example is not honorable" then I would not have bothered to comment.

Originally posted by NeoParadigm
reply to post by MDDoxs

 

The saying "war is hell" comes to mind and I do not think it is appropriate to generalize like you have.

But it is OK for the OP to do so with the Taliban?

edit on 29-8-2013 by NeoParadigm because: (no reason given)

The Taliban, like the US, Has a documented History.

No one is denying that we have individuals who have committed heinous crimes. We put that out for all to see. I make no excuses for it.I can only tell you that I would never conduct myself in such a fashion, nor do I know any soldiers personally who would. I do know they are out there. As an Army we go to great lengths to protect the population. My next thread will focus on that once the mission in this particular area is over and the FOB has been closed down. We punish our criminals, when we catch them.

That said, unlike the Taliban, we don't celebrate our crimes. They take pleasure in the disgusting things they do. It is very well documented. Everything from acid in the face, to murdering a woman who has been raped, to setting off an IED and severely wounding a 6 month old baby.

reply to post by MDDoxs

Instead, you have presented an unrelated video, questioning honor? An instance the OP was not involved with as far as we know.

He was talking about his enemy killing children and how they have no honor.

I posted an example of American forces doing the same.

Is the point that hard to understand for you?

reply to post by NeoParadigm

The perspective of a biased soldier that thinks his side has the moral high ground over his enemy?

The validity of his opinions within the perspective aside, I would say damn right it is important and you would be ignorant to dismiss it. The whole point of this thread is to give us, the reader a vantage point of events we would otherwise be ignorant of.

You don’t have to agree or accept it. Just take it for what it is.

Furthermore, I have seen you in other threads dragging petty arguments on, so I will engage you no more.

reply to post by projectvxn


I don't want to go down this route, but for every bad thing you say about the Taliban, I can counter it with something bad about Americans.

Some American soldiers even rape there own female collegues.

reply to post by NeoParadigm

The perspective of a biased soldier that thinks his side has the moral high ground over his enemy?

People who intentionally kill civilians do not have any moral ground to stand on. I don't care what side of the war you're on.

Or a perspective of someone that volunteered to go to war and now is complaining about how much it sucks over there and how much he doesn't like his enemy, on an internet forum?

I know what I signed up for.

It does suck over here. I'd like to invite you to come here. Just for a week without any of the hard work I have to do. I'll even lend you my bunk.

And the enemy is a morally bankrupt group of barbaric men who don't even try to make a distinction between civilian and military targets.

I am sorry, I mean no disrespect but this makes me mad. I respect you for being a militairy man but I find the fact that you would post this, while being deployed, a bit aggrevating.

Why? Because you don't like the story? Because my personal perspective is offensive to you? I don't quite understand this.

Just do your job and stay safe.

I fully intend to. Thank you.

reply to post by NeoParadigm


They sure do.

And it's not just the females. Male on male rape is an issue also.

It is a subject often discussed from company to division level. It is an issue we take seriously. I do especially.

But not the subject of this thread.

reply to post by projectvxn

Why? Because you don't like the story? Because my personal perspective is offensive to you? I don't quite understand this.

Because you are a soldier on a deployment. You are not a journalist, and you shouldn't be sharing your personal feelings and war stories on a public forum as long as you are over there.

Focus on the job and get home safe.

I'd like to invite you to come here. Just for a week without any of the hard work I have to do. I'll even lend you my bunk.

Honestly, If you would arrange the transport I would come over and do the hard work too.

reply to post by NeoParadigm

Because you are a soldier on a deployment. You are not a journalist, and you shouldn't be sharing your personal feelings and war stories on a public forum as long as you are over there.

First of all I can share what only what is not protected information.

I shared my experience. Secondly I don't need a lesson in OPSEC from you.

reply to post by projectvxn


Yes you can, the reason why I said it is not safety issues.