One Iraq veteran's story

Like I said elsewhere in CURRENT'S Comments--I met him in Boston. Nice kid (I came of age during the Vietnam War). At least he's trying to atone. I wish him a lot of peace. WE NEED A LOT MORE LIKE HIM!!!

hmmm... almost sounds like Cosmo' thinks this guy may just have had a bad day =P like maybe this guy was only lucky enough to discover conscience because his marksmanship wasn't what he thought it should have been that day pot-shotting guys riding their bicycles and shooting into mosques without warning, or for little more than obsequious relief from boredom and general frustration, perhaps? but being out there probably tests the best and worst of us, and the futility of that for anyone is likely too much for too long; and especially as chique well points out, when you have commanders with such bs juvenile attitudes...[does anyone remember the pictures of the iraqi captives terrorized with dogs and naked pyramids while chicks in USA camo straddled them...where were the commanders then, some asked. placidly watching perhaps?]

but realistically, hate is an indispensable fuel for vigilance and motivation when you have to become a killer to survive. and still the military, though so attuned to the psychology and "modernity" of warfare, still doesn't make it any part of the business to assess the implicit collateral damage we know our soldiers will be and are suffering. tiki' has a right to rage and bringing up Vietnam can possibly make things easier for a whole new generation of vets, some of whom, postwar, may be coming back with a lot less sense than the already "less sense" some may have taken with them on leaving in the first place.

tikiman. i could not agree more.

wow~!

It's heartbreaking that the youngest of our military are forced into these things by their commanders who choose to play by their hate rules instead of the books. Even sadder that they shouldn't have been there to begin with. It's way past time to bring them home, we've caused enough hatred toward us in that corner of the world to keep it going for a very long time. These guys speaking up are heroes.

My heart really goes out to him. It had to take so much courage to stand up and admit all those things. I hope he is getting all the help that our nation can give him.

Wow, that's a great video. I'm so proud of people like this that step up with a set a balls because if they didn't have a heart of a lion before they joined an infantry branch, they sure as hell do after finding out what war is all about. War is hell. and from what I can surmise the infantry branches of the military have just absolutely went down the drain with their values. Then again, maybe I'm wrong maybe it's always been that way. I wouldn't know...1775-2008 covers a lot of history.

We are collecting stories from soldiers and others who have been affected by the war at:
ttp://current.com/items/88880197_voices_from_iraq_stories_that_define_the_war_of_our_generation

I would really, really like this to make televised news in this nation.