Shadow's Taxicab reports: Fighting each other over here when they’re not over there

[shadowknows69]

Fifteen years of driving taxi on and off near a base has left me with many questions. Right near the top of the list is: How the hell do our guys get along well enough to fight together? The easy answer of course is there are no enemies in the same foxhole and I suspect 99% of our troops adhere to this out of simple necessity but, boy, do they like to beat the shit out of each other when they’re back home.

Even when I’ve driven during times of peace soldiers have always tussled with each other. I’m sure any military DUers can confirm the rivalries that exist between different units and platoons and occasionally they reach the physical stage. Boys will be boys and some girls will act like dumb boys when you throw enough alcohol, angst and social interaction together and the bars are always the sites for fights between soldier and soldier or troop and townie.

It should probably be no surprise that the troops coming back from war seem to be loaded for bear a bit more when they go out than the ones I used to transport during peace. Many state their intentions to each other to kick ass as the ride in my cab. Many times they have a particular target in mind from another unit. Other times it’s just “kick anyone’s ass” night. We train our people so combat, conflict, chaos is normalcy. Who doesn’t like to feel normal?

The racial hatred I’ve heard spewed in my cab concerns me greatly as well. I’ve had carloads of guys that should be poster boys for a white supremacist group. The venom toward the Iraqi population is as bad as you might expect as well. Many can’t or won’t see the forest for the trees when they make comments about how the Iraqi people are scummy and live in squalor, or they are “animals”, while failing to notice the depleted uranium shells all around that have caused these conditions.

One example of our troops making enemies of their brothers happened this weekend. I had a van load of guys from one barracks and the one directly next tom me was on his phone trying to get information on a guy in his unit that had not been injured in the war as I originally thought but was in the hospital due to being ganged up on the night before at a club. It turned out the men that assaulted him were all from another unit, a scout recon unit apparently. This man was on the way to the bar that it happened at and apparently no one had gotten in trouble but he knew who had attacked his friend. He was in the process of rallying more guys from his unit for the express purpose of finding the perpetrators and dishing out some payback. He was quite confident in his ability to start this riot and remain in the bar’s good graces as he was friends with all the bouncers.

Perhaps the lack of an enemy when troops come back cause them to invent one and what better enemy than the troops you have to fight with in war but don’t particularly like in peace. As I said it has always gone on but the ones coming back from war seem to be more brutal in their rhetoric and their action. I drove by the bar later and the police we’re breaking up a fight. “The wheel is turning and you can’t slow it down.” Always tip your cabbie.
Shadow out.

[havocmom]

1. Beyond the stress and mental health damage this war inflicts,

what the hell do we know about the drug cocktails the DOD insists on giving the troops? We are told it is to protect them, but told that by the same folks who lied to go to war is no comfort to me.

Lots of new work done on psycho-active drugs and Big Pharma sure as hell has been paid off by the GOP and bush/cheney junta via legislation which has been most profitable. Makes me wonder what Big Pharma has done for the junta besides campaign donations.

I refuse to don tin foil about my concerns. Any group of politicians who advocate mental health screenings (and medication, if THEY decide it is needed) for all Americans while insisting universal health care is not necessary...

They are not to be trusted.

I want to know what drugs they are really pumping into our troops.

Thanks for you continuing notes from the road, shadow. Much appreciated.

[pnwmom]

2. So we're turning boys into . . . what?

This is depressing as hell. But thanks for your insights, Shadow.

[shadowknows69]

3. Kick for the afternoon

cause I'm a whore that way. B-)