I thought this was interesting. I pulled this off the Antiwar.com blog. The author, Brad Smtih is a true “war hero” and truly knows the meaning of service to others:
Comment by Brad Smith
2009-03-08 09:34:06
Coming to grips with the fact that one can become an animal is one of the hardest parts of serving in combat. If you haven’t been in actual combat where the stress goes on day after day, I wouldn’t expect you too understand, but I’ll try. You just get to the point where you want to kill them all so you can go home. Your brain kind of goes into a hyperactive overdrive, your senses become sharper your fight or flight response gets overstimulated. It’s not until you get back and realize that your no longer like the people you left behind at home that the “high” wears off. Your still looking around corners afraid to be around crouds etc. It’s also normal to want to go back, at least while your in combat you feel “normal” again, when you get home you feel anything but normal. This is what WE do to the people WE send out to fight.
You shouldn’t blame the soldier for having the only sain psychologic reaction that a hunted animal can have. Of course it’s also normal for any vets to want to justify their actions and the more wrong you are the more you will attempt to justify. When you can no longer justify you can go one of two ways. Either blame those who sent you or blame yourself. Accepting responsibilty for taking part in murder isn’t something that is easily done, hence the many suicides. It took me years to accept what I had done and I still spend time blaming those who sent me and myslef. But I no longer justify what I did. War is wrong both taking part in it and sending out the troops. I would also say that the American people who allow this to happen should take their share of the blame.
Much of the anti-war work that I do, from marching, to blogging to working on anti-recruitment comes from an attempt to atone for my actions. I also don’t want to add the extra guilt of not trying to stop the next war or sending out the next young person who blindly does as his society tells him to. Society sends these people out to war and then convienyently blames them for becoming the animals they need to be to survive.
So for the joes out there, Stop blaming youself but learn to accept the responsibility of your actions. For the anti-war crowd keep working and maybe you will still be able to sleep at night. For the rest of the US wake up and join anti-war movements and bring our sons and daughters home.
There’s a lot to like there, but it still sounds to me like he’s shifting blame. The US has a volunteer army. Who volunteered him for service?
And I don’t think blaming a non-existent thing like “the American People” is a valid idea. The average American, even one that is anti-war, is powerless do much of anything to stop the Mob that is the government from attacking whomever it pleases. I would blame people for being ignorant and unaware of what’s going on, but not for engaging in murder.
This link below is to an interesting study of the states with the most freedom and liberty. Download it and give it a read. Guess which state wins overall? You’ll have to read and see….
Freedom in the 50 States: An Index of Personal and Economic Freedom
Well, you can’t quantify “opportunities” and the like. And would you want to live in North Dakota? No offense to N. Dakotans, but I couldn’t do it. I’d die in the winter.
I thought this was interesting. I pulled this off the Antiwar.com blog. The author, Brad Smtih is a true “war hero” and truly knows the meaning of service to others:
Comment by Brad Smith
2009-03-08 09:34:06
Coming to grips with the fact that one can become an animal is one of the hardest parts of serving in combat. If you haven’t been in actual combat where the stress goes on day after day, I wouldn’t expect you too understand, but I’ll try. You just get to the point where you want to kill them all so you can go home. Your brain kind of goes into a hyperactive overdrive, your senses become sharper your fight or flight response gets overstimulated. It’s not until you get back and realize that your no longer like the people you left behind at home that the “high” wears off. Your still looking around corners afraid to be around crouds etc. It’s also normal to want to go back, at least while your in combat you feel “normal” again, when you get home you feel anything but normal. This is what WE do to the people WE send out to fight.
You shouldn’t blame the soldier for having the only sain psychologic reaction that a hunted animal can have. Of course it’s also normal for any vets to want to justify their actions and the more wrong you are the more you will attempt to justify. When you can no longer justify you can go one of two ways. Either blame those who sent you or blame yourself. Accepting responsibilty for taking part in murder isn’t something that is easily done, hence the many suicides. It took me years to accept what I had done and I still spend time blaming those who sent me and myslef. But I no longer justify what I did. War is wrong both taking part in it and sending out the troops. I would also say that the American people who allow this to happen should take their share of the blame.
Much of the anti-war work that I do, from marching, to blogging to working on anti-recruitment comes from an attempt to atone for my actions. I also don’t want to add the extra guilt of not trying to stop the next war or sending out the next young person who blindly does as his society tells him to. Society sends these people out to war and then convienyently blames them for becoming the animals they need to be to survive.
So for the joes out there, Stop blaming youself but learn to accept the responsibility of your actions. For the anti-war crowd keep working and maybe you will still be able to sleep at night. For the rest of the US wake up and join anti-war movements and bring our sons and daughters home.
Peace !
There’s a lot to like there, but it still sounds to me like he’s shifting blame. The US has a volunteer army. Who volunteered him for service?
And I don’t think blaming a non-existent thing like “the American People” is a valid idea. The average American, even one that is anti-war, is powerless do much of anything to stop the Mob that is the government from attacking whomever it pleases. I would blame people for being ignorant and unaware of what’s going on, but not for engaging in murder.
I have been reading Brad’s posts for a few years and the thing that impresses me:
He admits he was wrong and has made a genuine effort to change.
He is trying to help others from making the same mistakes.
He is still in the learning process.
He has a positive attitude and wants to help others.
Someone needs to tell about spell checkers.
And someone needs to tell me about complete-sentence checkers.
Jesus, what happened to the site?
This link below is to an interesting study of the states with the most freedom and liberty. Download it and give it a read. Guess which state wins overall? You’ll have to read and see….
Freedom in the 50 States: An Index of Personal and Economic Freedom
http://www.mercatus.org/PublicationDetails.aspx?id=26154
Hmmm….very interesting Mikel….but why would Scott move to a less free state???
Well, you can’t quantify “opportunities” and the like. And would you want to live in North Dakota? No offense to N. Dakotans, but I couldn’t do it. I’d die in the winter.
MSNBC is running a poll on how Obama is doing. Go and vote and then see the very surprising results. And I thought MSNBC was pro-Obama:
Give President Obama a grade
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29493093