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Showing Original Post only (View all)Heartbreaking: Here's what a U.S. soldier said when asked to justify the war on terror [View all]
November 5, 2015 by Sophie McAdam
"You grew up wanting so bad to be Luke Skywalker, but you realize that you were basically a Stormtrooper, a faceless, nameless rifleman, carrying a spear for empire, and you start to accept the startlingly obvious truth that these are people like you."
When a Reddit user posted an open question to U.S soldiers asking them how they justify their actions against innocent civilians abroad, he probably didnt expect this candid response
You kill. Watch friends die. Its usually quick, almost never quiet, but for the rest of your life, when you remember sitting at the bar with them, theyre blown open. You picture the nights you spent downtown at Scruffy Murphys, but instead of the stupid hookah shell necklace, your boys jaw is blown off, and his left eye is ruined, and hes screaming. You fight, you kill, you watch friends die, and you notice a distinct lack of change. You kick in doors and tell terrified women to sit on the floor while you and your friends ransack their home, tearing the place apart, because they might be hiding weapons. There is no reason to believe this house in particular is enemy, same for the next one, and the one after that, or the seven before; they just happened to be there, and maybe they had weapons. Probably not, they almost never did.
The moving testimony is just a snippet from the refreshingly honest reply given by U.S soldier Daniel Crimmins when asked how military servicemen can be so blasé about drone strikes and other civilian deaths due to the War On Terror.
http://www.trueactivist.com/heartbreaking-heres-what-a-u-s-soldier-said-when-asked-to-justify-the-war-on-terror/
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Heartbreaking: Here's what a U.S. soldier said when asked to justify the war on terror [View all]
JohnyCanuck
Nov 2015
OP
Please, DU. Give me a way to upvote (or downvote) individual comments. This is a +++.
erronis
Nov 2015
#41
Yes we do. You ignore it because you want to. And you ignore the Balkans example.
7962
Nov 2015
#102
And most of these "volunteers" do so because they were fooled to believe that it was either
rhett o rick
Nov 2015
#61
You are wrong. The majority do not sign up because of romance/duty/patriotism.
KittyWampus
Nov 2015
#101
I agree this is a huge problem. But poverty isn't on the agenda of a Goldman-Sachs sponsored
rhett o rick
Nov 2015
#103
I heard a top VA psychologist say exactly the same thing at a PTSD conference decades ago
pinboy3niner
Nov 2015
#93
Yes, that is heartbreaking. And very powerful, I hope he has a lot of support in his life. nt.
polly7
Nov 2015
#2
How many warriors appear on TV news compared to their commanding Generals and politicians?
Fred Sanders
Nov 2015
#3
" You go to war with the army you have". Inferring sit down and shut up!
The Wielding Truth
Nov 2015
#92
There are things like free base housing, including for dependents (though not on active duty, of
merrily
Nov 2015
#31
I've lived in U.S. apt. style base housing and been invited to base homes where officers live.
merrily
Nov 2015
#78
This year I'm dedicating Remembrance Day to the memory of Shidane Arone (Trigger Warning)
GliderGuider
Nov 2015
#6
One of the reasons to never go to war, of not make the decision lightly is that people dehumanize
uppityperson
Nov 2015
#8
I don't watch movies with names like that, so I don't know exactly what you mean.
valerief
Nov 2015
#35
The question was rhetorical. The entertainment industry is not all feeding the military frenzy
merrily
Nov 2015
#34
Since WWII, we fought in Korea, Viet Nam, Cambodia, various places in Africa, too many to name
JDPriestly
Nov 2015
#12
But war is always like this, and we keep having them. The kid of the 60s and their kids
jtuck004
Nov 2015
#16
I am not going to blame any 20 year old who grew up on jingoism from Dems and Repubs for a thing.
merrily
Nov 2015
#24
''Money trumps peace.'' -- appointed pretzeldent George Walker Bush, Feb. 14, 2007
Octafish
Nov 2015
#39