A profound comment on our violent culture.

[alfredo]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/comics/king.htm?name=Mutts

[niyad]

1. k &r

[patrice]

2. Sad thing is: that's bragging rights for many "men" - AND - it's the

absolutely surest sign of weakness and vulnerability too, due to its mindlessness.

Case in point: Blackwater, "Kill, Kill, Kill. Don't think or try to figure anything out just Kill, Kill, Kill" = Abu Ghraib amongst hundreds of other atrocities, which we'll never know about, and for which our Troops suffer the blame.

[alfredo]

4. Those soldiers and mercenaries will come home to wife and children.

They will have a very difficult time turning off the training, burying the horrors. They will become what bush has created. He won't have to pay for it, we will.

[patrice]

5. You have put your finger on absolutely the most profoundly sad

thing about it all (and I speak as a ((non-combat)) Veteran with several combat Veterans and other Veterans in my family, including one who was in Delta Force during Shock and Awe).

No matter whether it was right or wrong, nor whether it ***ever*** had a chance of succeeding, these people are fundamentally changed. And that change is of such a nature as to NEED more blood in order to justify itself.
This is why, though I cannot agree with those who CHOOSE death and destruction in the name of _________, I have to say that they pay a particularly severe sacrifice even if they get out of it alive and "unharmed", i.e. their Humanity.

**Only the strongest** amongst them can keep ahold of his/her Humanity by saying in effect, "This is what I did. It stands on its own merits and its own faults. My actions do not NEED to be repeated by others, nor the slavery of future generations, to validate me."

[alfredo]

6. I was not in a war zone, but I was at a state of war 24/7. The stress

was incredible in my chosen MOS. Copying morse code 8 to 16 hours a day will drive you nuts. It's left me with a loud ringing in both ears. Some things that happened, USS Liberty during the six day war, and the Somali Referendum were very traumatic and have left me PTSD. So did a couple attempts on my life. One was on the same day as the assassination of RFK.

I can't imagine those who have to face life and death day in and day out. The guys in Iraq don't get any relief, there is no safe areas where they can relax and recharge their batteries. We had sex drugs and rock & roll to relax us. We didn't have to live in ballistic vests. We could walk down the streets with little chance of harm. Things were falling apart the last few months I was there, but I left before the shit hit the fan.

[rainy]

3. profund indeed! When you meet violence with violence you become them.

[alfredo]

7. bush has become the new Saddam.