I was just wondering as when we had our bathroom done recently the youngster turned out to be 22 and just back from Iraq. The bullet had entered his lower left rib cage, gone up thru the lung, skimmed the top of the other lung and out thru the shoulder blade.
I was kind of embarrased. i had never been asked to go to war, and probably wouldn't have if requested. This young man had bought the whole shabang and was, shall we say, disillusioned. He told me why, how and when and such as to the war and why we shouldn't be there. Of how military discipline only increased and was actuated when cameras and journalists were around, and how he and his pop, a Vietnam vet had little to say to each other now. His dad was so against him going.
I bring this up cos I've just learnt that a very local lad who was enraged at 911 signed up to go to war in Iraq to kill the terrorists who did the 911 thing and now won't be coming back to bother anyone with his ignorance.
Myself i feel that governments should be held accountable for the lies they tell. Of course, this will never happen.
But I wonder if anyone else has met a young person who has been thru this.
He, rather embarrassingly for me, told me I was the first person of my age who had had the time to listen and thanked me for listening. I was kinda taken aback by that last remark. Don't they debrief and counsel these poor kids. he certainly hadn't had anything except putting back together the body and some pills to help him sleep. shock
Very sad.
The culture here is that all military are heroes and the kids buy into it, especially when they want to gain respect. Certainly, some soldiers are heroes but at what cost?
My brother started his six month tour of duty in Iraq this week. He has several hundred "boys and girls" to take care of and I know he will take it hard if anything happens to any of them.
I know quite a few guys who've been to Iraq - other than my sister and brother in law. My friend Will worked in bomb disposal. His stories alone are enough to convince you that sending kids to war is madness. For example, yesterday he was describing how bomb disposal units are led by one adult who gives orders and the work is carried out by kids who have played on X-Box's alot. The adult would be up to 25. Will is all for the war, and feels very proud. He's very much of the "no-ones being told the good things" mentality. My friend Greg lives next door and was in the marines - he did two tours of Kosovo and one in the first six months of Iraq. He doesn't talk about Kosovo much but says it was much worse. He was a sniper and really doesn't like how easy killing is. He hates the Iraq war from a policy point of view - he thinks removing Saddam was honorable but thinks the idea of honoring those who've already died by having more die is insane.
Both my sister and brother in law are for the war. My sister is in telecomms and was there for only 3months until she was medically discharged for back problems. My brother in law is a medic and was one of the first to go in. But both heavily criticise the way the US are running the country.
A friend of mine who I took a bunch of maths classes was involved in the main invasion but I never asked him too many questions and he didn't talk too much. Also, my wife's cousin was over there for a year. One of his jobs was to photograph bodies in case of later issues. He seems like one of those all American types.
I don't know anyone who has gone to serve in Iraq and as you all know Canada is not involved anyway. But on Labour Day weekend my Missus and took a 3 night weekend package to Rochester, New York.
The people at the desk at our hotel were all friendly and helpful young women, all in their early twenties I'd say, who made our stay great, as nothing seemed like too much trouble. On our last day, I overheard one of the women say that her husband had just gone to Iraq.
I was so curious I had about a 20 minute chat with her about it. Her husband had only gone the week before. He had been a reservist but got called up. He's a patriot but is suspicious about the motives for the war and thinks they're being used. There were tears in her eyes throughout the conversation.
For me it really hit home. When you live in another country and just watch it on U.S TV you still feel detatched. Now here was a young women shaking with fear, wondering if her husband was coming home. She was at the sort of age where she should be going to clubs after knocking off work, not having such a heavy burden.
We also noticed leaflets in the Post Office (when we were sending Corrie tapes to a fellow Britnetter wink ) instructing all young American men to register themselves (In case there's a draft I guess) and stating that it was an offence not to. That made it hit home too.
My husbands cousin has gone twice, she is a navigator in a B1. She said there was not a lot of danger unless she left Baghdad airport by road. For those in the front line it must be far worse. Also a coworker of mine (nurse) had to go as he was still in the reserves, only by a few days.
I do remember when I first got here working with someone who had been out of the Marines a month or so. Very quiet. I remember people pulling their hair out once because of some deadline and he was smirking. He said something like "They say they're stressed" He then went on to recall going around Bosnia and saying that 14 year old kids would pull guns on them. "That's stress" he said.
I'm glad that the Democrats actually had the balls to have a closed session in the Senate about the intelligence "failures" yesterday.
I'll say this - whoever decided that reservists and National Guard should be deployed absolutely disgusts me. Especially as they argue that there needn't be more troops sent. I hope that in the years to come this kind of action will be illegal.
There ought to be more like that young man willing to speak out against the war.
My side business received an order yesterday from what we believe is a reservist in a remote area of Iraq, who needed the basic equipment to clean his vehicle's .50 caliber Browning MG.
We'd heard this was going on in the trade but it's disgusting when you think that the soldiers we are supposedly supporting are having to buy their own weapon maintenance equipment. evil
Last year me and the wife "adopted" a unit through my stepdaughters school, a lot of them just wanted someone to write to. We sent them cards, candy, writing equipment. They were great guys and girls, and they were very frightened.
Our next door neightbor is in Texas at a VA burns unit after his convoy was blown up.
Another kid we insure just came back from Tikrit and said "it's sucks......." However he also came back with 450,000 Iraqi dinar and said, I hope the currency goes up when they start exporting oil..........
The day I read your post I saw this homemade sticker on the back of a Scion, "My Marines died behind a lie in Nasriyah March 2003", among other stickers (harley-davidson, bring them home safely type). I stopped next to him at a light and was expecting to see a clean cut marine for some reason and instead it was a guy I estimate 27-28 years old big beard, tattos, bandana a modern day post war hippie like the men from vietnam who came back. I also noticed his DOD sticker (gives permission to enter bases) and with the way he looked he definately wasn't enlisted so he must be getting some sort of disability. I immediately felt so much empathy for him. The way he writes "My Marines" he had to of been a Sgt or 2nd Lt. and carries the burden of them boys and girls that may have died, along with whatever he may have been on disability for. No matter how deep the wound and how well it may heel scar tissue never goes away. I salute veterans don't care which war or the politics behind them they have experienced matters in life we could never even try to comprehend simply because we will never experience them.Prayed for peace in his life he was a child at one time just like me.
Oregon Marine killed on patrol
There is a video of the news story that was on TV towards the bottom of that page.
I knew Tyler when he was aged between 16 and 19 as his parents live a few doors up from me. He used to come around my house and play with my former step-son and I thought he was a really good lad.
I was stunned to read of his death yesterday. :sad: