Men on the Inside

I found a perfect article on a website called ALternet. It’s titled, “Soldiers of the “War on Terror” Speak Out”. Since we’ve been talking about the emotions of a soldier during war, I figured this article would shed some light on some of our views. The article describes the soldiers’ training as some sort of brainwash, telling them to view the Iraqis as “less than”, dehumanizing them and therefore easier to kill. The soldiers talked about, according to the article…

“…their complete lack of training in Iraqi culture and language and their conditioning before leaving U.S. soil to think of Iraqis as “less than,” as “Hajis;” a term once reserved for pilgrims to Mecca, now turned inside out to demean and dehumanize. “Haji” has become to the Iraq occupation what “Gook” became to the Vietnam and Korean wars. When people are dehumanized, it becomes easier to kill them.”

I admit, may be a little cold-hearted at times and show little emotion, but even I felt a little disturbed about a particular soldier the article talked about. A “broken soldier”, Kristofer Goldsmith was discharged with misconduct for attempted suicide. The article reads…

“Kristofer Goldsmith was a good soldier, graduating at the top of his basic training class and receiving a 94.6 percent average in his Warrior Leadership Course. But after four deployments in Iraq and almost shooting a six-year-old boy, he said he became a “broken soldier.” He was due to get out of the service when he, like some 80,000 other soldiers, was “stop-lossed” and ordered to redeploy to Iraq for a fifth time. Plagued by mental anguish the day before he was to leave, he tried to kill himself with alcohol and prescription pills. Although finally released, his discharge papers state, “Misconduct: Serious Offense” because of his suicide attempt. He showed the audience a picture of himself in uniform as the proud soldier, then slammed it down on the table saying “This boy is dead.”

So, really nothings changed since the sixties and seventies. Our conclusions about the loss of innocence are very much true. A man can leave this country with the purest of all hearts, and return an anguished, yet, conditioned killer.