A few days ago, I bewailed a recent poll indicating that our fighting men and women in Iraq believed that they were sent there because Saddam Hussein had engineered 9/11 -- which, of course, is simply not the case. I wrote:
I respect the men and women of our armed forces -- I really do. But when I read these poll numbers, I cannot help asking myself: "Why bother to issue helmets? Their skulls are made of harder stuff." Do we have any hope of infiltrating some truth into those confused craniums?
A reader named Dennis slightly misunderstood my intentions: I did not intend to slam the troops; I am angry at a malfunctioning press and our slipshod education system. I am angry at a culture which puts a gun into a young man's hands without putting some very necessary facts into his brain. Even so, Dennis' response is worth studying:
In the first paragraph, you ask "Do we have any hope of infiltrating some truth into those confused cranims?" The answer is 'not really'. You have to imagine that in these days of 'civilian' dumbing down of our media, how do you expect the armed forces to have access to real info, especially in a war zone? Do you also realize that the average troop (army and marine, especially infantry) are perhaps high school educated at best? I spent 3 years in the Army Infantry Airborne, and my friend, that is not a haven for free debate and intellectual discorse. You are conditioned to obey. That is it. And believe me, you are lied to as well, and then some. The fact is that our troops have very little real info to go by. And you had better not question what the commander-in-chief asks. It is the word of the lord. We had an expression in the 82nd Airborne: we are like mushrooms, kept in the dark and fet shit.
In your second paragraph you say: "Them good old boys have definitely been drinking too much whiskey and rye. If Rush Limbaugh told those poor, easily- hornswoggled kids (most of whom -- let's face it -- are southern"
I can tell you that alchohol was one way to escape the reality of the service, when one didn't know if one were to live or die the next day. And for what? Can you imagine knowing the truth about how shitty this war promoted? What motivation makes you get up in the morning to put on your boots and pull patrol thinking about land mines and suicide bombers every freaking minute? how do they sleep at all? Let me tell you, you need to believe in a nicer truth to make it through the day. And the fact is, these are poorer and undereducated people, who else would go through that crap voluntarily, day after day?
...I think your anger towards the administration leaks over into an area where it is not relevant. You seem to blame the people in uniform for the lack of understanding in the war. Hell, even the freaking pres and all the assholes who continue to support this (congress) don't even know the truth about why those guys and gals are still there! C'mon man, leave them alone. They are freaking dying, or maybe worse, returning to this country maimed for the rest of their lives (some 30,000 have been injured), to find a lost job, eviction notice or even an absentee spouse. Simply because they had the honor to do what their commander-in-chief asked them? I think you are being unfair in your criticism of the soldiers in this article. It ain't their fault. And let me tell you, in wartime, if you start asking too many questions and figure this war is for the birds and decide to split, YOU FACE THE POSSIBILIY OF BEING SHOT OR JAILED IN LEAVENWORTH. Something you are reminded of on a daily basis. You think the civilian population has a game of mind control played on them by the fuhrer and his terrorist terror tactic, try being in the service and having guns pointed (figuratively and literally) at you if you don't obey. Talk about waking up to a nightmare. OK i ramble, but I think you get my point. I can definately sense you have never been there, but that's OK. Just wanted to enlighten you because i think you can handle it
In a follow-up email, Dennis added:
I do think that as a whole people tend to underestimate the circumstances of soldiers in post-vietnam service. In combat line units the mentality is a group and conform mentality, without the benefit of free speech. They pay the highest price for our "democracy', foreign policy and imperialism.
This Wonkette story adds to the picture. Apparently, the Powers That Be hope to prevent our warriors in Iraq from receiving any information not approved by the Republican Party -- even if doing so requires the censoring of email. Here's the scoop, according to a Wonkette correspondent in the service:
Just to let you know, the US Marines have blocked access to "Wonkette" along with numerous other sites such as personal email (i.e. Yahoo, AT&T, Hotmail, etc), blogs that don't agree with the government point of view, personal websites, and some news organizatons. This has taken effect as of the beginning of February. I have no problem with them blocking porn sites (after all it is a government network), but cutting off access to our email and possibly-not-toeing-the-government-line websites is a bit much.
Initially all web blocking was done locally at the hub sites in Iraq. If you wanted a site "unblocked" you just had to email the local administrator with a reason (like, "I'd like to read my email, please."), and if it wasn't porn or offensive, they'd allow it. Now, all blocking is done by desk-weenies at the USMC Network Operations Center in Quantico, VA, who really don't care if we get our email (or gossip) out here, as they get to go to happy hour after working 9 to 5 and go home to a nice clean, warm home with a real bed! (Sorry, I'm a little peeved.)
Meet the new American soldier: He has goggles which allow him to see at night -- yet he remains blind.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – The Gift That Keeps on Giving - or are there really some things worse than death.
ReplyDeleteThe other evening I spent watching old tapes of interviews with Vietnam veterans. One of the most moving was an unedited tape I had from WGBH - a tape of then returned vet (Frank) who recounted his experiences of combat and the even more horrific repercussions ten years later in the form of more and more vivid nightmares. “These dreams were worse than the events I experienced when I was over there. When I was there, I was Rambo, John Wayne. Now I am experiencing all the horror I protected myself from. Three months ago the dreams turned into Technicolor. The blood and carnage is more than I can bear.” An attached producer’s postscript noted that since the taping (in 1981) Frank has had two more incidents of breakdown and has been committed twice for these ongoing psychotic attacks.
In the seventies and eighties, I spent time working with Vietnam vets and produced a film with a psychologist friend who was using interviews such as the one with Frank to assist in her work with vets and their families. We found that, although many vets were understandably traumatized by some of the much touted (baby-killer) responses of the “New Left,” the deciding factor in their re adjustment to civilian life was more often than not the return to a loving supportive family and spouse.
The Vietnam War cut a bloody swath through a whole generation of American (mostly) men. They were the forgotten soldiers and have been shunted aside by the public and the politicians eager to put a humiliating, loosing war behind us.
Now I’m afraid we are producing a whole new generation of similarly displaced veterans. There is no doubt that Iraq is an even larger debacle than ‘Nam. “Support our Troops” is nothing more than a slogan of an administration and a Secretary of Defense more bent on PR than real substance. Many with an uncaring shrug impotently recognize the scandal of the neglect of returning soldiers with mental and physical disabilities.
Frank said he sometimes wished he had died in Vietnam.
When these soldiers return from Iraq without benefit of proper debriefing, without the full medical support they should receive, they will be in pretty bad shape. When they return to a society that tells them the full magnitude of the lies, deceit and misinformation that they were fed by their Commander in Chief – it might not be too unexpected if some of them go a little bit crazy(er.) The report has it that fully one third of returning vets suffer severe mental problems resulting from their service. Frank’s true PTSD problems didn’t hit until almost ten years after his initial combat experiences. Is it realistic to expect that very many survivors of “Iraqi Freedom” will escape these horrors that continue to haunt their Vietnam vet brethren?
I wish that our president, who avoided doing his own duty in Vietnam, had even a microscopic understanding of combat - its traumas and consequences. Back then he hid from the horrors of a misguided foreign policy behind his father’s pants legs the way he now hides behind the pants legs of his minders and the secret service who protect him from a betrayed American people. I predict that he will need this level of protection from the wrath of the veterans of “Iraqi Freedom” for the rest of his life.
I wish George W. also knew more about karma, geopolitics and his own Holy Book:
"For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind (Hosea 8:7)
Bob Boldt
Jefferson City, MO
I suspect the blocking of emails and etc is more about preventing information getting OUT than prevent information from getting IN. You can furnish your own examples of why they'd want to do that.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I forget his name, but wasn't that ex-footballer who died while serving in Afghanistan and received all sorts of media attention and praise when he first joined up following September 11th 2001 and then the massive blitzkrieg following his ‘dramatic death in combat’...but more recently it was been revealed it was a pretty ignominious friendly fire death which the Pentagon rather cravenly covered up, actually a pretty serious leftist? I remember reading when new information was coming out a few months ago how he and the rest of his unit had some pretty harsh, and true, things to say about their involvement in Iraq and were more interested in going to Afghanistan, and rightly so since that’s where the criminals responsible for September 11th 2001 are hiding out which is the whole reason why he joined up, and hadn’t his brother arranged for him to meet Noam Chomsky when he got back to the states?
Anyway my point being, which took a while to get to, is that this guy didn’t exactly sound like the sort of person being talked about here, although initial propaganda efforts certainly tried to make him the poster-child for what is being discussed.
LamontCranston
Woah. I've never read that Pat Tillman considered himself a leftist, or was considered one by anyone, only that his death, from friendly-fire, is something the government, the media and allegedly the NFL itself have gone to great lengths to suppress information about.
ReplyDeletePat Tillman definitely opposed the Iraq War. I found a good San Francisco Chronicle article in a very quick search at http://tinyurl.com/dkjr7. A quote towards the beginning is "Interviews also show a side of Pat Tillman not widely known — a fiercely independent thinker who enlisted, fought and died in service to his country yet was critical of President Bush and opposed the war in Iraq, where he served a tour of duty. He was an avid reader whose interests ranged from history books on World War II and Winston Churchill to works of leftist Noam Chomsky, a favorite author." The whole article is worth reading.
ReplyDeleteMore on Mr. Tillman from a recent CNN.com blurp:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cnn.com/2006/US/03/04/tillman/
Pat Tillman, that is the guys’ name.
ReplyDeleteAnd an update: A criminal investigation of sorts has been opened by the Pentagon to investigate his [alleged] friendly-fire death.
I remember when the real facts about that were coming out, referenced in my earlier post, that Cannon speculated it was criminal. But at the time, and still, that doesn't square away with me because by all accounts his unit agreed with him re: Iraq, although of course they could have easily been lying.
Lamont Cranston.