I was watching a news report on a soldier who just returned from the war in Iraq (yes the war that officially ended two years ago). He was describing the constant fear of being ambushed or killed by a suicide bomber. He talked about how he worried about his soldiers, his soldiers’ families, and his own family. What would happen to them if he died? His son was only a year old, “he would never remember me” he whispered, his eyes filled with tears. He’s going back to Iraq in two months. He’s going back to the place he called “pure hell on earth.”The reporter asked him what this experience had done to him. He sat for a moment looking in to the camera, his face working to hold in the emotions that were streaming from his eyes: sadness, grief, fear, pain. “It has changed me” he said. “I know longer believe in happy endings.”
“War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children.” – Jimmy Carter
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3 comments:
I wonder if you took a more scientific look at the soldier's thinking in Iraq that you would find that this one soldier held a very minority view. Just a thought.
Anon - what does that mean? Scientific look? What horse crap. Every single soldier is scared to death, the same way you would be if they handed you a gun and walked you through the minefield aka Iraq wearing the big American flag target on your shoulder. They do their job, the job they signed up for, every day, with honor and bravery. But they are human, allowed to make mistakes, feel pain, grief, anger. They are not machines that are easily dispensable and replacable.
Anon - I disagree with you. My posting was not about the soldier's personal opinion of the war - it was about being a human being, his worry and love for his family, his fear of death. I believe that if you polled the soldiers in Iraq right now, the majority would have those feelings. I agree that there would be a greater disparity in their feelings about the war in general. I also believe that for the most part, our soldiers are brave. But they are still human, and allowed to worry about those that they love. You missed the point of my post - completely.
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