Some Thoughts on Veterans (my comments in bold)

(2/4) “The 2nd Battle of Fallujah began on November 8th, 2004. The plan basically called for the entire 1st Marine Division to form a giant line and advance through Fallujah from north to south. The city was overrun with insurgents. My company commander ordered the platoon that I led to establish a forward position. Forty-six of us snuck across a highway at 3 AM to seize a building 150 meters in front of everyone else. It was a candy store. The guys were excited at first because the place was filled with chips and soda. And we were starving and thirsty. But all hell broke loose when the sun came up. RPG’s started slamming into the side of the building. We could see guys in black sneaking up all around us. My platoon sergeant was shot through the helmet and knocked unconscious. Another of our guys got shot in the femoral artery and his blood covered the floors. And we couldn’t get out. Every exit was dialed in with machine gun fire. You couldn’t even poke your head out. We were pinned down all day. And suddenly my company commander is on the radio saying that we’ve got to advance. And I’m shouting into the radio over the gunfire that we're probably going to die if we leave the store. I’m shouting so loud and for so long that I lost my voice for four days. But he’s saying that we have no choice. He’s being pressured by his commanders, all the way up to the generals. And the generals are being pressured by the White House. And all my guys are looking at me because they know if I lose that argument, we're going out there. And I lose the argument. And I tell them that we have to go. But instead of running out the door, we piled a bunch of explosives on the back wall, and we blew it out. And we ran. And everyone survived. Twenty-five guys were wounded, but everyone survived. A lot of that was luck. And a lot of that was our platoon and how good those guys were. But I also feel that my decisions mattered that day. And if I had decided not to serve, and stayed home, it could've ended much worse. So no, I don't have any regrets about going to Iraq.”A photo posted by Humans of New York (@humansofny) on Aug 10, 2016 at 1:00pm PDT

I'm going to write more on veterans, how we're treated in the world and the veteran-civilian divide, but let me comment on this first. Here we have something of what I expect from the world when a person says something about the war. Below are some of the comments:



monztulcey@rachel.ical read this onek_g_r7You are a brave man, thank you for defending and protecting our country.czy_1Courage. Wisdom. Ingenuity. And then some.zahra.siddiquia@kevin_oconnor2095 What absolute rubbish. Your ignorance is overwhelming, Kevin. If you understand what it means to defend your people, surely you'd understand what it means to the Iraqi people to defend themselves against invaders who have destroyed their country. Surely, you can't be so blinded by your ignorance to realise what you're actually saying.dannymack12@dick_chevy13 @mikep1210ro_jo95This is awesome. True American hero @maryhelenjoneslailygulWow a very different perspective I've never come across before thank you for sharing your storyerikaoakvik@courtney_mjohn - we can never thank our servicemen and women enough.virginiavk@anthony_minor Interesting, so why not go and give this dictator a hand at murdering people? :/ That's not even the real reason behind that war, just a false pretext: there were true genocides happening in Rwanda and the Balkans, and I don't recall the US intervention... Guess there was no interest at all to play superhero in those cases. Tell me how Iraq's situation has improved after that? I would not have taken the time to reply if you (as many others) simply defended war as mechanism to solve a conflict, but to imply this was a humanitarian intervention?!? You make me laugh... US has only a slight idea of what war really is because of their veterans, but the society in general is completely clueless: you have not seen war for centuries. You just have this tendency of going to other countries and create chaos, which is why many talk about war as if they were playing a video game: you have not seen your entire town tear to pieces, your family dead, you're whole live interrupted. I don't deny that some probably think they are doing the right thing, but how many ISIS do we need to create before realizing that societies also need to follow their natural course of evolution? That you can not impose change nor your values through force?kellie.sanfordThank you thank you! You are a hero and so much more!samar_zwaylifThese posts will bring a lot of negative feelings to a lot of people, these wars are stil fresh and their consequences experienced by many all around the world.. Soldiers and civilians.. Don't think it's a good idea to remind anyone of them now :/ as an iraqi who was a kid during that war i don't hate this man or any other soldier that was following orders but i can't bring myself to accept the 'regret' comment either.peteramahonyIts certainly true that socioeconomic status, education, etc in America is unfair, but that's not the point you should take away from this and not a reason to give him a hard time. If you reeally want to convince yourself that those people who have had the luxury of a higher education are equally as likely to make good decisions when there are lives on the line... as somebody uneducated... well... Thats just a bit dense. I think he's just stating fact. (This is also coming from somebody without a college education).georgemm90@b_b_03mommacantlinThank you for your service. Thank you for your perspective. But I am scared there are 2 more posts to come..hakadhHero complex ..?etemi@worstmomri Totally agree. I thought it was just me. Hoping next segment disproves this impression.auntiedru623Thank you for your story and most of all thank you for your service!!!!niamhquilty@rebeccadooley7katiesjourneytoabetterlife@alittlemeg I don't think you make those "who have been raised to hate and kill for not other reason than that's what they were taught" see the error of their ways by waging war on their country. Neither Afghanistan not Iraq had anything to do with 9/11. And both countries have been suffering for over a decade now. Completely unstable. That has also something to do with the hatred some people there feel towards the Western countries. There are no easy solutions, but I do think we have to go at it from more different perspectives than just a military one. In my view that only increases hatred, because if you're suffering, if you've lost family members, friends, your home, a safe place to live, some people need to put the blame on somebody and I believe the wars in the Middle East have rather increased extremism and done quite the opposite of wanting to make the world a safer place.remoteviewerwpa@elliotdaljungberg as my brother often says, i don't know sh*t about being in the army, but is there a difference between seizing a building and hanging out in it eating candy/drinking soda while an enemy squad sneaks up on you? it just sounds like an erroneous disadvantage.