Topic awaiting preservation: Read, think, comptemplate.

The Unknown Soldiers

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One of the soldiers interviewed in a recent documentary, titled "The Ground Truth," said that post-traumatic stress disorder is going to be to the Iraq War what Agent Orange was to the Vietnam War. Do you agree?

Yes. I have talked to many people who've been in the war zone. Perhaps I had a unique relationship with these soldiers because I was not an officer but a civilian; I didn't have direct control over them. Many of them felt more comfortable in allowing themselves to talk to me. They would talk about the nervousness they constantly felt, especially after the first part of the war ended and it became more a guerilla war. And they'd get attacked while sitting around waiting for orders to come in or just driving along the road. It started driving them batty. They were afraid and unsettled ? it was different from charging ahead.

Many would break down talking about seeing their buddy get hurt or killed. They would even talk about the Iraqi soldiers ? how awful it was, all that carnage. One guy hadn't slept for a long time because of nightmares because of what he saw early in the war, when we were killing high numbers of Iraqis. And he saw some of them got run over by tanks. He just couldn't get those images out of his mind.

They talk about hearing screams of comrades or enemies or civilians, or children. To see it and be there creates a lot of reaction. Sometimes they might initially act really tough, but underneath it all most soldiers have a lot of humane feeling. They feel this horror very deeply ? more than many are willing to admit.

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As a War Veteran, this caught my breath in my throat. I salute those who are laying it on the line. You have my respect.

WebShaman | Asylum D & D | D & D Min Page

(Edited by WebShaman on 10-24-2004 16:47)

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But the soldiers don't seem to be questioning the war even though the initial reasons for the war such as WMDs have crumbled. I saw a CNN report on how many of them now see the reason for doing their job is to take care of their buddies ? to make sure that everyone gets to go home in one piece.

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In a document to be aired monday or tuesday on french TV, some american soldiers in Iraq talk, without the presence of a superior of a communication representative, about their feeling about this war. Some of them also served in Afghanistan. The extracts of these interviews that have been showed so far show some soliders who have already spent 8-9 months and their feelings are mixed : on one hand they think that was a good thing to remove Saddam and "free" the Iraqi people, but on the other hand they say they've been sent to find some WMD and because of a link between Saddam and Bin Laden and it is clear that there is none of them. One of the soliders ended with a reflexion about who the USA thought they are and how could they pretend to teach a people how to rule its country. He more or less said that: "The USA have an history of about 4-5 centuries, while the Iraqi civilisation exists since more than 2 milleniums"



(Edited by poi on 10-24-2004 16:31)

WS, having to fight in any war is a terrible thing. I think we all agree about that.

What bothers me about the reply you just got, however, is that it seems to take a fact of war and use it to criticize the reasons for the war. Wars are either justified or they're not. In each case the human toll is the same.

poi, even if you agreed with the war, we would still have soldiers traumatized. Can't you ease up on your rhetoric even a little when it comes to such a serious topic as this?

: . . DHTML Slice Puzzle : . . .

I know Bugs - and I know that you know that.

Still, I think that many tend to forget, that soldiers are also human. In a time of war, when our servicemen and women are being wounded, dying, and basically silenced, the side of the soldiers needs to be told.

Bugimus: I was just expressing a voice the person interviewed in the article pointed by WebShaman hasn't heard. And actually my reply went in the way of WS by re-affirming that the soldiers are human and have some doubts they usually do not express in front of a camera.



(Edited by poi on 10-24-2004 18:26)