It’s 3:03 am. I’m doing the graveyard shift again and I’m watching PBS Frontline’s “Bad Voodoo’s War”. I’ve done my share of hard work in my life. In my 20’s I was an iron worker in Germany and I know to some extent how it is to share a shitty situation with others. It of course doesn’t compare to the bond soldiers form, but I do emphasize very strongly with the men. I know how it is to be working in extreme conditions, whether it’s the extreme hot or cold - please don’t think I’m comparing myself to soldiers, I’m just saying I can feel for them - I know iron work doesn’t compare to the fear of being blown up daily. The headline of this article is a direct quote from one of the soldiers, SFC Jason Shaw. He had joined the army at age 18 and four years later he was on his third deployment. The crazy part is that he could have opted to stay home, but he volunteered to go back, to accompany his friends in the platoon.
Misery likes company they say, but I think this goes a bit deeper than that. These soldiers on a daily basis go through more crisis, fear and danger to their lives than most of us will ever experience in a life time. The soldier don’t want to go on the missions because they know that every day they leave their camp, death can be near. I can see in the look of the guys that they’re just hanging in there. Toby Nunn, the platoon leader shares his personal feelings and it’s saddening to see that we’re wasting men like him and others. Most of the documentary deals with this platoon doing security details for transport convoys. At some point Nunn describes the convoy and they called it “the lettuce and tomato” convoy. He finished his comment by saying “yeah these supplies are probably going to some private contractor” - that’s something you don’t even want to think about it. While these men are leaving families at home, seeing relationships fall apart, loosing friends in battle and of course getting killed and injured themselves, the men in Washington are saying the surge is working. Ask the soldiers that are on their third, fourth or fifth tour of duty whether they think it’s working. It doesn’t make any difference to them - I’m sure of that.
An argument many republicans will bring up is that “they signed up for this” - let’s be serious here. Nobody in the army currently wants to be at war. Yes of course you have certain people that joined beause they were gung ho for action - however most soldiers don’t see action. They’re in a situation where every one of their move requires careful thought, as to not cause any conflicts with the Iraqi security personell. This reason and others, make it very hard for soldiers to protect each other. I’m an extremely anti-military person but I’ve never had anything against soldiers. Soldiers are guys and gals just like you and I trying to make it in life and not a single one of them wants to be at war for several years at a time.
Of course the people in Washington don’t think about it - I know Donald Rumsfeld doesn’t and never looses any sleep over the fact how many men he will personally have ruined with so very little so show for. Accordnig to recent reports we’re looking at hundreds of thousands of returning service men that are injured physically and mentally. The republican don’t give two cents about you - that’s the sad part. They don’t care about your families, they don’t care how your quarters look like, and they could care less that you’re ill equipped. While our heroes are risking their lives protecting assets for private contractors, those same private contractors don’t adhere to any laws, they get paid 10x times more than our soldiers do and they don’t have to answer to anyone. You can’t even blame ex military men for joining companies such as Blackwater because after all you can make more money and you don’t have anyone to answer to.
What this government has done, is completely demoralize our service men. Just like after Vietnam we’re seeing case after case where veterans are being denied proper care. To top it all off, John McCain the republican presidential hopeful rejects the new G.I. Bill. How do these people sleep at night?
You can check out SFC Toby Nunn’s Website Here: http://tobynunn.net/
Watch the PBS Frontline Documentary: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/badvoodoo/
This article was written by Arno - Author's Website
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