NEWS: Support The Troops, DAMMIT! (Part Deux)

POLITICS: Support The Troops, DAMMIT! (Part Deux)

As I read through the comments regarding my last piece, I couldn’t help but notice that some members made some very good points.

Some members commented that they do not feel safer because of what I do. The truth is, they aren’t. What I do, has nothing to do with any of you being safe. My job is to track convoys and keep them safe. Your safety lies in the hands of people who make a lot more money than I do. Blame your lack of safety on Bush, Rumsfeld, Gates, Casey and Petraeus. Those are the people who give us our missions. Those are the people who are not handling the Iranian and Syrian border. Those are the people who aren’t pressuring the Iraqi government to make progress. Those are the people who aren’t telling my bosses to bring the madness to the organizations who make you unsafe.

Other members called my willingness to follow orders “mindlessness” and an “abdication of personal responsibility”. I beg to differ. The fact that I have the desire to sit down and write this precludes the idea of me being mindless and I am fully aware of my personal responsibilities. I am personally responsible for what I personally do. Personally, I track convoys.

But most disturbingly, I realized that many people were operating under the assumption that as recruits, we were fully informed and fully aware of the intricacies and complex dynamics of the organization we were about to enter and therefore complicit in its activities whether we were to contribute them directly, indirectly or not at all. In my opinion, that is completely wrong.

Joining the military is a life-altering decision. Unfortunately, the recruitment process is very much geared to young people and is very often a deceitful, manipulative process. The average age of the first termer (serviceman in the midst serving his first contract) is nineteen. Nineteen. How can anyone expect a nineteen year old kid to understand the magnitude of the decision they’re making when they sign that contract? I’m not saying that being young is an excuse. But, would anyone really be terribly surprised?

It wasn’t until well after I joined the Army that I realized the gravity of the situation in which I had placed myself. In hindsight, I should have done more research. I should have networked more. I should have talked to more people, asked more questions. Even still, knowing what I know now, I would have made the same choice. I would have done everything exactly the same and I would have ended up here all over again.

I haven’t killed since I’ve been here. If I have to, I will. I’m under the impression that we aren’t really supposed to talk about confirmed kills. But if I had one, I wouldn’t be proud of it. I wouldn’t be ashamed of it either. It’s not like we’re all running around here getting drunk and killing up folks.

Escalation of force. [If you are in the Army, feel free to page down.]

Escalation of force is a big part of the Rules of Engagement. Translated: who or what you can fuck up and how badly you can fuck them or it up. I can’t tell you how many classes I’ve had on EOF and ROE. There are some crazy assholes out there. But those of us who have a shred of sense know that we are not allowed to rape kids or kill families or fuck with detainees.

They teach us to:

What you just read (or skipped) is written in a card that I, and everyone in my Brigade have in their left shoulder pocket.

ROE is no joke to the military. All those pieces of shit who committed those war crimes are in jail. Well… almost all of them. They warn us over and over how serious ROE is. After the Abu Ghraib story broke, we were all sent to extensive mandatory training about how to treat detainees.

I remember an example that the instructor gave:

We’re not allowed to be assholes to these people. Many of them thank us for our presence. MJT's interview with the interpreter resonated strongly with me as I often work closely with those in my battalion. They work for us be because they want peace. They believe that helping us will bring that to them. They work extremely hard and they are out there in harms way next to my brothers and sisters. They are make much less than I do and risking much more.

Recently, one of my favorite translators who goes by the name of Martinez lost two of his family member to death squads. I cried for him when I learned this. And I don’t fucking cry. The next time I worked with him, I expressed my sympathies and I cried again. And I don’t fucking cry. I asked him if he wanted to go home and stop working for the Army and he said, “No, I want to work for the Americans. My family may be gone but my country is still here. I must do something. I must make change.”

I asked him, “Why do you believe that you are helping Iraq by working with us?” He replied, “Because when I talk to my people, they tell me I am brave and they thank me.”

They thank him and it makes him feel good. Go fucking figure.


OhSoOrdinary wrote a very pleasant blog about why she joined the Army and hopes that you will read it in order to understand the meaning of "free stuff".

Well I shall be over there doing a similar job soon enough once back from Korea, so regardless of what people think, YOU keep safe as possible, and keep the convoys safe.

Jason

Does this mean you get to shoot them in the face until they look like hamburger? Or does that mean you stop pursuing them if you lost sight of them?

/salute

Thank you.

Thank you for everything, you are much braver and selfless than I could ever be!

I believe people who think negatively about the military soldiers should try it out before saying anything. Or trying to be a soldier's spouse or child. It isn't fun..but I know if those people didn't do it noone would. Wouldn't you rather have people out there willing to go through whatever it takes for this country? If we didn't have those people I know other countries would try to bring us down. With out those people, they would succeed. The soldiers are there for when you panic, for when you are in need, to keep the USA enemies at bay. No need for haters.
An American soldier, even to an enemy, has to be humane, protect and sacrafice, for other persons and/or missions in their care. We can't blame everyone for an idiot's mistake or for one person NOT following the rules. Again..support your soldiers but if you don't like what's going on take it up with the person who HAS the power.

It means, if they are PID but then we determine they are not who we believe they are, we must end pursuit.

Very well stated piece.

I have to admit I was not a fan of the previous article as I thought it didn't address, well, jack shit honestly. It is a very important issue and I think this article makes SO MANY statements and really addresses the issues the way I think you meant to the last time but failed. I didn't realize the military was really doing anything to educate/train on conduct and it was a great insight I gained in your posting. My neighbor served 2 years in Iraq and we talk often about his experience, but his attitude is very different and very cynical. I think you make a good point about the soldiers end of things and your right people should support the troops and not lay all this bullshit talk about personal responsibility to someone who must only take orders and not question things. I try very hard to not feel anger when I look at someone in uniform but I don't think that in this war scenerio I could ever bring myself to thank them, especially if it only motivated by free stuff.

-most sincerly.

What a well-written, intelligent response to some of the spittle that was drooled all over the last thread in response to your original story. Good job.

Keep safe!

Once again, very well said

Well thank you, that's what I did In Iraq, I did convoy's, I made it back safe, so there for you did keep me and my convoy safe.

Thank you for being brave enough to post something that is positive on these negative boards.

From a letter my husband wrote me when he was trying to decide whether or not to go back to Active Duty.

Just kind of another viewpoint on why someone would be willing to go and kill, and risk being killed.

All well and good. And his fervor is admirable. Just two points. A) the current invasion and occupation of Mesopotamia has nothing to do with 9/11 and B) the bombings of 9/11 were not acts of war, they were criminal acts covered under then current US code. The fact that they were perpetrated by foreign actors makes little difference. It is not possible for an individual to commit an act of war, only other nation states can do that. Individuals do crimes. As such, your husbands desire to join the military in response was unnecessary, since the capture of ObL was a matter for criminal authorities, armies unnecessary.

This:

Should go on a recruitment poster. It is the most meaningful thing that has been said about the modern military and the "modern nation states" that use it to accomplish political objectives.

But this

Just makes me sad.

His only point to me was that he knew a lot of bad shit was going to go down and he'd rather be there leading young soldiers than allowing shitbags who have no sense or moral decency to do it for him. That is his reason for being in the military.

Unless that person happens to oh I don't know lets say form his own private army and take over a country like say afghanistan. So tell me nick exactly how many officers would have been necessary to serve that arrest warrant?

When I was in basic training I met a young soldier, a recruit like myself, who moved to America from Iraq in 2000. He told us stories about Iraq. About how war literally followed his family from place to place. He had a frightening life, and he is an amazing young soldier. He inspired me, he made me believe that what we were doing in Iraq was right (even if perhaps we ended up there under false pretenses), he believed it was. He told us the reason he joined the Army was because he didn't want to just watch someone else protect his country. He felt that he should be there, protecting his country. He also believed that the Iraqis need to stand up for themselves and defend their country themselves and stop depending on us. He really made me proud of what I was doing, even more so than I already was. I am proud to be a soldier, and one day I will be proud to earn my commission and be a leader in an Army that desperately needs good leaders.

"Intricacies and complex dynamics..." US foreign policy and military actions historically and at present serves the defense industry and corporate interests in general; it does not serve the defense of its citizens and the public good. Bush lied about WMD in Iraq. How much more do you need to know about "intricacies and complex dynamics"?...

What a cop out. If nineteen-year-olds are not competent to make such decisions as joining the military, voting or getting married with informed intelligence, then why are they permitted to do so? And if, having joined and discovered the error of their decision, they continue to serve because they are compelled to follow orders, well, they are acting against their own consciences. Perhaps I would do the same, if I were in their shoes, if I lacked the courage to risk court-martial and the feelings of having betrayed my buddies.

Nevertheless, I will always encourage people to be honest with themselves, and I will try not to be judgemental of them when or if they fail to do the right thing...

2 Parts here: 1) The CIA has done it's policing and exterminating very well in the past.

2) Another good article soldier. Thanks

He did. Maybe you remember the IAEA inspectors' report being delivered to the UN, and American personnel taking it away before anyone else could look at it?

bin Laden did nothing of the sort. You maybe remember the Taliban offering to deliver al-Qaeda's personnel in Afghanistan to US hands, after September 11.