Today on Facebook, after posting this well known quote from John Paul II, “Never again war! No, never again war, which destroys the lives of innocent people, teaches how to kill, throws into upheaval even the lives of those who do the killing and leaves behind a trail of resentment and hatred,” I was intrigued to get a “thumbs up” from a friend of mine who is a combat soldier stationed in Iraq. Via “Facebook Chat,” I conducted a short interview with him that was very moving to me. I wanted to share the transcript with you here.
Let this be a reminder that while the rhetoric of foreign policy has changed, the actual events of war continue in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Too often we have pinned the war-tail on the elephant, but the truth is that the donkey deserves that tail every bit as much as the elephant did. Some even want to say that the current administration finds itself in a Vietnam-like predicament, and, right or wrong, this much is true: War is a defeat for humanity—all of us; together, in other words.
(This transcript took place today around 1:30, Eastern Time; I have only edited it for grammar and syntax.)
Me: What runs through your mind when these words pop up: war and peace?
Soldier: Man, its kinda blurry, honestly like, Where does one end and the other begin?
Me: Right…
Soldier: Like, the Iraqi people want peace and want us out for peace, and then we want peace in Iraq but we insist we must stay here to keep the peace and in all actuality, the American convoys are the real targets, sure there is some civil unrest here, but for the most part we (American soldiers) are the money target.
Me: I see…
Soldier: And even now, we have no job here, but as it is, we must be here anyways with hatred on both sides, I hate the Iraqi people they hate us, I don’t want to hate them, but the situations I have been make it hard not to hate
Me: Of course…
Soldier: And so here we are full circle once again, we came in to help to have peace now there is hatred on both sides, so where does war end and peace begin?
Me: So true… How about home? Your family? Goat Cook Off (a local annual festival the small town we grew up in hosts every year on Labor Day weekend)? What is that to you? Peace?
Soldier: Home is home, I got my little girl, I got my friends and the Goat Cook off brings me back to more innocent times. Like, not innocent in the form of drinking and stuff like that, but innocent in the form of I didn’t know what it was like to take another man’s life or to see friends be carried off back to the states in a pine box.
Me: Are Iraq and home two different worlds to you? Are there connections?
Soldier: No, Iraq is misery and home is happiness, the only good thing that comes out of Iraq is my appreciation for my family and the luxuries I actually have back state side.
Me: I see. Is this view (the one you have shared with me) a common view, do you think?
Soldier: I can’t speak for all, and I’m sure there might be some that disagree but the majority of soldiers I know and live with, this is a shared view.
Me: Does it come with time, or is it pretty quick?
Soldier: It depends on your experiences, I’m a combat arms soldier so I see a lot of different stuff than that of say a finance soldier, so I say for combat guys like me who have seen real combat the view comes pretty quick for the most part but if you live your life on the base, its probably a slow process because you don’t see the graphic nature of combat first hand.
Me: Makes sense…
Soldier: Even now though we aren’t as “busy” kicking in doors or anything we are bored, we sit around and think about home, and how far we are from loved ones and it makes life very depressing.
Me: Do you have a sense of purpose?
Soldier: My first tour yes, we were going after “bad guys” doing raids kicking in door, things I was trained to do. Now, no we don’t do anything we trained our soldiers to do, we roll out every now and then to show a presence but for the most part we look at each other every day and ask the same question which we can never answer: Why are we here?
Me: What would your answer be?
Soldier: The same one we answer each other with: “I don’t know man.” Of course, that is within the ranks sergeant to sergeant, we make up bullshit answers for our soldiers under us to keep them motivated, but I think they know that I’m lying anyways.
Me: Did you ever have a different answer than that one?
Soldier : Ehh, before, yeah I guess, I mean, I was a soldier given orders to go get that “bad guy” and that’s what I did, I was making Iraq a safer place, but at the same time I wondered: Would this guy be a bad guy if I wasn’t in the country? Or, did some insurgent come and pay him 100 bucks to blow up that convoy and the guy really needs the money for his family… Its all conflicting and hard to tell if I did the right thing or not; by orders I did the right thing. And by him blowing up a convoy made me hate the Iraqi people just because those are my friends in that convoy… So with hate comes blindness, I believe.
Me: That’s truth man…
Soldier: I became blind to the real reason I was over there, it became, “take them out before they take one of my brothers out,” no real goal for the individual soldier just take them out before they get you or you buddy. If you look at the big picture in politics we are all pawns that maybe helped a big role, but, for the individual ground troop, it was all bout making you and the guy next to you come home, screw the big mission…
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