I would die for you, hippies.

This week was insane for me. I am very anti-war. i hate death and think that war is unhealthy for children and other living things. I have always said that i support my troops, because they are only doing their job. They really have no control over where they are sent and what they are placed into... (I am not talking about POWs who are abused in abu grabe, or people who intentionally kill innocent people, etc. do not misunderstand)
This week, my friends parents and large extended family were staying at the beach real close to our home. We are good friends of the family and we invited them over for a crab feast/party. The last people to get here were two family members i had never met before... Christian and Megan. They are a young married couple (both 23) and i found out that he is a soldier who has been on two tours in iraq and is going back for his 3rd shortly.
I dont know if it was my curiosity or simply my own affliction to start serious conversations under drunken circumstances that led me to strike up a war conversation with him, but i did it.
I have been really confused ever since...
He is a good man. He is a smart man. He is the first iraq soldier i have ever met. And guys, i dont mean to put myself out there for scrutiny, but i have a lot of respect for him.
Its this weird thing that i dont know how to describe...but when he asked me if i was against the war, i told him yes, that i am. But i also told him that even though i do not support his cause, i do support his job...the military, that is. I expressed that his services could probably be better used here. We discussed many things that night, about immigration, about war, about how we can't pull out from iraq as soon as we want to because we may set off a more grave series of events, etc.
It was the strangest thing that has ever gone down for me. Here we are: political polar opposites, me (the hippy and him the soldier) discussing things openly and feely and without conflict. Without judgement. When he turned to me and said: you know, i guess this is what i am fighting for, the freedom to speak and the freedom to do the things you want to do. this is what i want for the people in iraq...for people not to be scared to visit with family and meet new people and have open conversation... I would die gladly for you.

I dont, even today, know what to make of this. I am both honored and blown away. He is there...I am here. Left and Right; Hippy and Solider.

I felt as if it was my summer of love. As if i was the one being photographed putting a flower in the barrel of someone's gun. As if i had just been enlightened and confused all at once.

He acted as if it could all be summed up in a sentence when i hugged him and thanked him... "Please dont thank me, this is my job"

 

Too very bad that's not why we are actually there, and an American military presence may never be enough to give those rights to the Iraqi people. Afterall our ancestors had to fight for them themselves. It's sad that some young people serving over there see that as their role, because it was a lie in the beginning and it's a lie now.

In Vietnam we were fighting the communist menace. Not many really bought into that line though. Maybe that's why they had to institute a draft. Be careful young'ns, Washington is still keeping draft roles.

 

That's amazing. I am glad you had an experience like that. I feel pretty much the same as you - I don't like the war, but I understand it's their job. I can't condemn him or any of the other soldier for what they do, but the people that send them there.

It is always such a touchy subject, because you don't want to tell them it's a waste of time (and that they bad people for what they do), because then that devalues the people who died there.

War is just another fact of life, it is good that we have people who are willing to die for us so we can have our freedoms and lifestyle. I just would like to see the people who are making these decisions own up to them, for the killing of precious lives. On both sides.

 

Well, we do need both. Yin and yang, if the Hippies were in charge then the conservatives would be the radical minority and the situation would be reversed and identical, like a black and white photo put in negative color. I'm not saying that we have to agree, the struggle is a constant as well. Now it's the two snakes that hold each other by the tail. If either lets go, the other will run rampant.

Yikes, I need caffeine. . .

 

gardener, what you are saying is valuable, but a bit dismissive: yes, it would be nice if we could just not have the war and the lies, etc. but it is what it is. These people are PEOPLE their lives as valid as our own, and its crazy to think, "this guy is just like me"

But to address your feeling about the draft, i think that it is unrealistic. There will not be a draft for this war because it is so unpopular and i think that this country will not call upon a draft for such controversial matters. That was veitnam, not iraq. Perhaps that was the one thing our country HAS learned from the ordeal, if nothing else.

We DO need both yin and yang to keep a balance...it is just strange to be faced with it in such an immediate way. I was in awe of the power of the cosmos that night. As i sat with someone i barely knew, sharing drinks and cigarettes and conversation, thinking to myself that this was a person worthy of knowing. Also knowing that he COULD soon be dead, and thinking how sad and wasteful that would be. But the way he sees it, he wants to bring people liberty, and while that is a noble pursuit, it is contained under a veil of lies. I think that on some level he knows that. I think that he is bent between a world that is his reality and a world that he envisions, and in that respect, we are all the same.

We all envision something...but that doesn't make it reality. The line was very blurred in those moments. Especially for me, being who i am and the way i read into things. Maybe it will not be a moment he remembers vividly and confusingly, but for me it was btoh edges of a sword melding together to form that blade. I felt like a swirl of emotion, both overwhelming and gripping.

You can not overlook the power of connection. The point was not to speak of war so much as it was to connect and realize. I am not sure that my realization is complete, but it has begun and it is harsh. It is sad. It is a test; i hope that i am making sense of myself here, but i am so taken aback by what i have experienced, that i am trying myself to hash it all out.

 

I wasn't trying to be dismissive, I have said the same thing to two young friends that I have that are currently serving over there. One in Afghanstan, and one in Iraq. One is mostly there because he gets hazardous duty pay for serving over there. And he likes money. The other because he feels like your friend. Someday when history has played out he will understand that he was used. I tried to get him to not enlist. But he had his mind made up. I just hope he does not return home broken. Yes I pray daily that they both come home intact. The one if he isn't killed will be fine, I am sure. The other when he discovers the true motives of this action, may suffer emotionally even though he returns home physically intact. And I worry as to whether or not his government will support him then.

 

yeah, that is a big thing that i was actually talking with a client i have. He is a liberal from montgomery county, MD. He was saying that one thing our government is guilty of is not providing aftercare for the troops, which is perhaps their most disgusting assalt. When someone dies in battle, or they come home completely broken people with bent pychological makeup, well, too bad...because no one is really going to do a whole lot about it.

Sure, people are monetarily compensated (if they're married), and i suppose these people can go to therapy...but at that point these things are left up to them.

People make these choices to go to war, much like your friend, gardener, for money...
or i suppose under a veil of bringing people justice... but people have to find their own justice. And i am with you on the fear factor; what is to happen when these people find out what has really happened over there? Why they were even there in the first place...it will be a dark day.

It is good to know that at the least, people are not as they were during veitnam. Peopel are not taking their hate and anger out on the troops, but rather on the administration. That is a good thing...for those who do it.

 

becuz konzpeeracy theoriez r kewlz!!!!!!!

 

I'm sure that you really do not care.

 

I won't even stoop to answering PAA. It would be a waste of time.

For Yem, don't fall into the trap that everyone treated the Vietnam troops with disgust or disdain. But realize the world had to be awakened to the fact that what was being done over there was wrong.

I had/have Vietnam Vet friends that returned and joined the peace movement, because they were outraged at what was happenning there. Not all of the peace movement spit on soldiers. Those were isolated incidents that occurred when teenagers on drugs responded incorrectly.

Vietnam Veterans against the war, they were active then, and they are still active. They were at the peace rally before the war in Iraq started.

http://www3.iath.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Resources/Primary/Winter_Soldier/VVAW_entry.html

 

It bothers me how people enlist solely for the financial rewards of the military and don't really believe in the cause at all... at least this guy believed that he was fighting for something good.

 

Yeah this guy believed that too, back during Vietnam.

http://www3.iath.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Resources/Primary/Manifestos/VVAW_Muller.html

 

I would just like to say, I ask no one to fight for me, don't ask me to make you a saint for doing something you signed on to do. I don't condone murder whether it be military, individual or civil/capital punishment.

I raise my voice and sing a song of PEACE. Stop the insanity now. Neither one side or another is more justified when it comes to murder. And neither side is "glorious" in battle in my eyes. To destroy others is an atrocity to life and the world in general.

 

Amen, brother.

I think that the respecting and connecting with someone we disagree with is more important than being right. Convincing others that this position is the right one has been a failure for millenia. Getting along with those who, in the face of all evidence, still maintain that is a path that we need to widen.

I'm glad that the OP had the experience of giving and receiving that kind of respect.

 

I know that one. My boyfriend's Air Force, for the money.

 

If you don't even want them around,

how could you possibly care about what happens to them in the end?

 

Some people who enlist come from the working poor class. This is their only way to pay for a college education so they can pull themselves out of their current situation. I commend those who do that, because not only will they get leadership skills, but a college education.

I hate the military recruiting ad's - but they are right. They give a person who might not have the skills now, the tools they need for later.

 

Why does it matter why someone joins?
In the end its the same result - they're a soldier.

 

Yeah, its the government's way of getting people who don't believe in a cause to risk their lives for it. They buy people... there's always an alternative to fighting... even to pay for a college education.

 

I hope those that sign on for the GI bill check their contracts carefully, because it's one of the first things that is cut by congress when they try to balance the budget. It's been eroded for years.