As a Soldier...

[ObsidianPrime]

NOTE that this post was, originally in conception, a reply to the Iraq Body Count thread, also in World News (http://www2.startrekvoyager.com:8080/viewtopic.php?t=27192), and while in the making it strayed quite far from its original intent. So far that I decided to make it it's own thread. That, incidentally, is the reason that the original issue, civilian casualties, is never actually addressed in the rest of the post ^.^
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As a serving active-duty American Infantryman, I don't know if I can stress enough to the individuals who are interested in this particular thread the pains to which soldiers, at least those soldiers with whom I am directly aquainted, will go to avoid what the media, the military, and perhaps most importantly the Geneva Conventions term 'collateral damage,' especially the kind that kills civilians.

It's something that our leaders talk about very often, and at length. I'll be the first to state that the men on the ground wearing all the armor and carrying around the high-powered assault weapons are not the kindest or most morally pure individuals I've ever met. You have to bear in mind that you're talking about the kind of person who was willing to invest multiple years of their lives, most of us directly after getting out of high school, to becoming proficient at ending human lives. There is a tendency, especially among right-wing-type thinkers, to glorify the military and soldiers, but that's simply not fair. We're normal people, like everyone else. We have financial problems ALL the time, about seventy percent of the soldiers I know are probably clinical alchoholics (and most of the rest of them were at one point in their careers), and I'd have to say that ninety-five percent if not more of the soldiers I've met in my year in the Army were heavily involved in the recreational use of various illicit drugs in their pasts. It's a frequent idle wish that the Army would just stop its random drug tests so we could go back to our favorite poisons.

No, we're not the people that you think we are. I have yet to talk to a soldier of any rank or MOS (which is an Army acronym that translates as 'job') who wanted to go to Iraq or Afghanistan, or to deploy anywhere else for that matter. The weather conditions are extreme; more than uncomfortable, the heat and sun WILL kill you if you don't drink extraordinary amounts of water. We don't want to be away from our families, we don't want to be away from our homes. We don't want to have to think, everytime we walk down a street, that every single window, nook, cranny, vehicle, or pedestrian could have a weapon that they're planning to turn on us, or worse, a cell phone which could detonate six pounds of explosives that we're about to walk or drive right over. When you're watching the news, and some officer or politician talks about the troops and how excited and happy they are to be serving their nation by fighting the global war on terror, they're blatantly lying to you, through their teeth.

Yes, we voulenteered to serve. By now the vast majority, if not all, members of every Service in America have either enlisted or reenlisted during the GWoT. Do we want to have to go overseas and get blown up and shot at? Of course not. We're not insane. Speaking for myself and my buddies, we just want to stay back at our nice Army base, go out into the feild a couple times a week to shoot and stumble about in the woods, at night, trying to get used to our night vision, and go out, get absolutely annihilated, and tear up the town on the weekends. We could care LESS about the freedom of millions of people who live in a place that resembles hell on earth, some of whom desire ardently to destroy everything that we love. Honestly, in my opinion, my own life or the life of one of my freinds is not worth a thousand of theirs.

There are a lot of you out there who will judge me for saying that, and I probably can�t stop you, but for those of you who will keep an open mind the state of the matter is that you�re not in the Army, you�re not in the military at all, you never have been, and you�re probably looking at never being so in the future. Anyone who has been or is of the right mindset to desire to be in the future will probably not be among those this particular comment is directed at. I do a job that less than one-half of one percent of our nation�s citizens want to do. People will work at McDonald�s for their entire lives rather than join the Army, and especially rather than join the Army�s Infantry. People like that, and otherlike people who will take offense to my valuing my own life, or the lives of my friends and loved ones, more than thousands of people I�ve never met, simply will never understand what it�s like. If you are one, try to open your mind a little, but be careful because the hinges are probably pretty rusty and if you break the hatch off, your brain will fall out. If you�re not, just ignore them and read on.

All of these things, I'm pretty sure, are probably illegal for me to say. Oh, well. This war is an abombination. It was entered into without a concrete plan and now the only way to keep the situation from totally collapsing is to throw wave after wave of our nation's uniformed servicemen and -women at it. So far the majority of them have made it out unharmed.

I fervently support removing Saddam Hussein. I would support the United States removing violent, despotical national leaders anywhere in the world, so long as such actions didn't comprimise our national security, et cetera, et cetera. But when our nation undertakes such an action, it has to be undertaken with a sound, well-reasoned plan. Our government had NO plan. Anyone who knew anything about our military would have been able to tell you that we were capable of swatting aside Iraq's pathetic excuse for a uniformed service in an extremely short amount of time. It is inexcusably criminal for a leader to have put the men and women under his command into a situation like that, which he full well knew would be concluded in an incredibly short timeframe, without already knowing at least the broad strokes of what would have had to be done in order to stabilize the situation once we took over.

And THEN, to just continue to throw warm bodies at an absolutely unteneable, unwinnable strategic, tactical, and political situation without even trying any other approaches to the matter! Dear GOD I can�t even think of words to express how�absolutely FOUL, how INEXCUSABLE such a thing is! Good GOD what is the matter with the twenty-six percent of our nation�TWENTY-SIX percent of America!�who still approve of the War In Iraq (no mention of the one in Afghanistan, we must be winning that one because you don�t hear much about it). I don�t know. Maybe they haven�t had friends or loved ones put in harm�s way? Maybe they don�t have friends who have cousins who have been wounded, mangled, or killed in a desperate, pathetic attempt by the government to maintain the status quo in a nation which is literally the CENTER of MILLENIA of continual warfare.

I�m sorry. I love America. America is a big deal. However, America is just not enough of a big deal to stop war in the Middle East. Since before recorded history, wars have been fought in the Fertile Crescent. Baghdad is built on top of BABYLON, for the love of mercy. How could anyone think any good could come of this? Not now, anyway. The decisions which lost this war were made before the first shot was fired, before the first troops were mobilized and deployed to forward staging areas in the surrounding nations.

The only thing left for us to do is to pull out, completely, and allow the nation to collapse into the civil war that we�ve caused. Had we been prepared for the sectarian conflicts, had we had comprimises to offer leaders, had we had things ready, lined up and waiting, to offer to all of the people of Iraq, things that they needed or wanted enough that the vast majority of them would be willing to at least go along with us for a little bit�

I could go on for hours. I have in the past. Technically, according to military regulations, for soldiers to discuss such things among themselves is illegal. To express this kind of disapproval (blatant and undying hatred) for established policies and lawful orders of my superiors is a serious breach of regulations. I could probably get in far more trouble than I�m aware of for posting this here�but I swore an oath, part of which was to defend the United States against all threats, both foreign and domestic. If stating what I feel to be the truth, on an obscure (at least, I�m sure, to the majority of military personnel) internet forum is a violation of that oath, then I suppose I don�t deserve to wear the uniform.

[WeAz]

I can't express what I feel right now, but thank you.

[Arellia]

Well... this guy being the guy I'm going to marry... most people here know that I agree with him. Possibly why we get along so well. Anyway... my comment? He knows what he's saying... and I'm proud that he's mine. And as the wife of a soldier, carrying the burden that every military family shares that has someone going to war, I sincerely hope the war ends. For the good of this country, and the good of the men and women who serve it. For better or worse.

[Valathous]

Very, very good post. It's nice to see an opinion from another one of our armed officers of the site. If I'm not mistaken there are a few other users on this board who are members of one armed force or another. Hopefully they'll offer their opinions, for or against, in this topic, too.

Very informative, very deep.

[squiggy]

I salute you, soldier. Thanks for being in the "world police" when you could be living like the rest of us.
I am glad to think that my views on this stupid pointless war are shared with some of the soldiers fighting it, and I am honored you have the courage to post this.
Not all soldiers would post something like this on public forums.
So again, I salute you. You deserve more then that, but it's all I have to give.

[PrankishSmart]

That was... simply brilliant