it's winter solstice. the darkest day of the year. today is also the day the marines involved in the Hadetha scandal were charged with murder. 13 counts.
i'm so confused how men who go to war can be trained to kill, then, are left to navigate the messiness of who is friend and who is foe. after months at war, does everyone become a foe?
civilians are killed everyday in this war. it's ridiculous to believe that ONLY our enemies are being killed. but we don't call that murder. we call that spreading democracy.
does anyone else see how fucked up this is? that men at war are being charged with murder? isn't that the point of war? isn't it a bit righteous of our own governement to punish these men who they say got it wrong, when they got this whole damn war wrong.
a good friend of mine, a solider in iraq, ends every email with this message.
"People sleep peacefully at night because brave men stand ready to do violence on their behalf- George Orwell" i don't sleep peacefully and i don't want ANYONE to do ANY violence on my behalf.
so does that make him my friend or my foe?
4 comments:
Those soldiers were pissed because one of them died when their hummer was bombed. First they claimed the bomb simultanesously killed 13 civilians. It was later discovered that out of anger and revenge they went into peoples' homes that night and killed 13 innocent Iraqis, mostly women and children still in their pajamas, none of whom had anything to do with the car bomb. Iraqis don't wear pajamas outside. This is why the soldiers are being charged with murder and this is why this war is wrong. Over 650,000 civilians have already died.
Betsy
thanks betsy,
i agree, this war is wrong. so many things about it are wrong. including the actions of these soliders.
You know, I had coffee the other day with one of my former students who just finished basic training. He is going to be a combat medic and we talked about the possibility of him being sent to Iraq or Afganistan... and I just kept on thinking, "God Ben, you're only 18! ONLY 18!" He can't even buy a beer, yet we send him off to fight.
NPR's been running a series on All Things Considered about the Army's refusal to acknowledge and treat soldiers with PTSD -- they punish soldiers who exhibit symptoms.
There are no winners. Anne is right -- this is so totally fucked up.
It only makes you naive.
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