Guest Post from Banzai at the Daily Paul
I am tired, so tired.
President Obama, former Vice President Dick Cheney, many members of Congress and the talking heads on TV are once again pounding the drums of war,intensifying their banter after the August 2014 beheading of American journalist James Foley and the subsequent murder of Steven Sotloff. At 27 years of age, I have become all too familiar with war. After 8 years in the Army, every day the horrors of the wars in the Middle East hit close to home for myself and many veterans, as I’m sure it does for the people of Afghanistan and Iraq, and all the wore torn areas of that part of the world. Fortunately, Americans have the privilege of being insulated from those horrors. The new enemy, we are told, is the Islamic State, and from what we are told all we know is that we must stop at nothing to stop them.
Would James Foley agree? Is more war the answer?
I had the privilege of meeting reporter James Foley nearly four years ago this month. Mr. Foley came to my outpost in Afghanistan as an embedded journalist to tell our story to the world. As I was riding in a convoy next to him, our lead vehicle was struck by a recoiless rifle round through the windshield. The driver lost his arm and everyone in the vehicle was injured. Bullets were flying wildly around and the gunner in our truck was hit in the helmet with a stray round, throwing him down into the vehicle. Mr. Foley told our story to the world with his video camera. His report made the CBS Evening News and his report is still plastered over YouTube, like a dream that keeps reoccurring. Later that night, I had the privilege of sitting next to James on our ride back to the outpost. I talked about home and the attacks we had experienced throughout the bloody summer of 2010.
One of those experiences occurred on June 21st 2010, while the 18 man infantry platoon I was with was manning a checkpoint in eastern Afghanistan. We had been posted for nearly 4 hours, assisting Afghan police with a weapons checkpoint. A woman walked up to 4 of our soldiers and detonated a suicide vest, killing two of us and wounding and killing 12 Afghan children. As I ran to the aid of my comrades, I remember the smell of the carnage and the mangled human remains. I remember the complete and utter despair and hopelessness that would ensue. I remember the crying of parents, who were clutching on to the last breaths of their children, and I remember the courage of the Afghan police who came to the aid of us all. In that moment we were all human.
James Foley saw the horrors of war in Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria. He was compelled to tell us the stories of it and in doing so, he became part of the story.
War is hell. It is destruction of the soul, and anyone who tells you different, whether it be the President of the United States or the man next to you at work, has had the fortune of living an insulated existence. If security is what we seek, let it start at home, by securing our borders.
My war is over. My time as a fighting man is up, but much can be learned from my comrades and me. Let us discuss how to handle the Islamic State as a nation. Demand that our Congress debate it and vote on a resolution before we commit our nation’s youth to more war. The Constitution of the United States demands this. We can not afford disunity in war. After all, the 18 year old fighting man of today’s Army was only 4 years old on September 11th, 2001. Let us remember that James Foley didn’t die to be a poster child. He died telling us all the truth. Seek it! What is the Islamic State? How were they created? Who gives them their funding? When every American and every American newspaper can answer those questions, we will be ready for another war.
As for now, it appears the drums are pounding ,ever louder into the darkness. I am tired.
