lvwilly
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I served two tours in the Helmand province in the last three years finding and destroying roadside bombs. I've been struck by these bombs, shot at by RPGs, mortars and machine guns, had friends lose limbs and some lost their lives. I've had the worst times of my life and also the best times of my life in Afghanistan. I was in the most violent district in Afghanistan my last deployment. I want to share some of my views with this board because I think the view of the American veteran is very misunderstood here.
I didn't join because I'm a sadistic killer who hates Muslims. I joined for the same reason as you would for your military, my country was at war and I wanted to help. My first tour I was ready to go win the war and create a peaceful Afghanistan where her people were free and we could have a long-lasting partnership together. I saw the wasted opportunities and wasted time and realized that the war wasn't going to be able to achieve this. At best we could set the groundwork for an Afghanistan that could determine its own future. I'm still hoping for this.
During my second deployment I had a lot of interaction with the locals. I tried to do everything I could to present a positive view of the US and Afghan governments when I talked to them. We couldn't always do that due to combat. One mission, we were traveling a long distance and were on a schedule we had to keep. We took a shortcut through a farmer's fields in order to avoid the roadside bombs. He came out to talk to me and was obviously visibly upset. I gave him a voucher for compensation and apologized which of course had little effect. We got out of the fields and no less than one kilometer later my truck was hit by an ied and we came under mortar and rifle fire. I was knocked unconscious and after coming to returned fire for the next two hours. I didn't go on a killing spree, I didn't blame the locals or that farmer, they were, as usual, caught in the middle.
Another day we were setting up for the night and an Afghan came up to us with his son who had been hit by a motorcycle and was badly injured. He looked like a bloody sack of potatoes, not moving at all but screaming his head off. We took him to our Doc and went back for a helicopter that evacuated him to the medical base. Everyone felt good about it and kept up on the news of this boy. He was there for a week but died from brain swelling. This took a huge toll on all of us. We felt like we did something positive but it turned out to be crap. A metaphor for Afghanistan as a whole.
I don't hate the Afghans and I don't hate Muslims, I detest extremists. That includes anyone who uses civilians as human shields on a regular basis (Taliban) and right wing war hawks in the US (evangelist republicans). These extremists on both sides make up a small percentage of the population but for some reason we allow them to polarize us and we adopt their views. The average Afghan farmer wants the same thing as me, to live in peace with his family. In a lot of Afghanistan this is the reality but the extremists (both sides) have hijacked the rest of the country and allow that to speak for Afghanistan. The twitter accounts for both sides (ISAF, Taliban) send out ridiculous propaganda. The Taliban talks of huge casualties and have even mentioned events I was involved in. They bloat figures and talk themselves up like they never take losses, they take huge losses and militarily are taking a beating every day. They are delaying political and development progress in Afghanistan and that is a victory for them. ISAF puts out the same thing every year, making progress. If that's the case I'd hate to see what no progress looks like because I don't see any progress.
I don't celebrate death. I don't want war. I don't hate Muslims. I made friends with our Afghan interpreter and still keep in touch with him. One day he's going to come here to visit me and I hope one day I can go visit him as well. If there are any questions or anything else anyone wants to know just ask me.
I didn't join because I'm a sadistic killer who hates Muslims. I joined for the same reason as you would for your military, my country was at war and I wanted to help. My first tour I was ready to go win the war and create a peaceful Afghanistan where her people were free and we could have a long-lasting partnership together. I saw the wasted opportunities and wasted time and realized that the war wasn't going to be able to achieve this. At best we could set the groundwork for an Afghanistan that could determine its own future. I'm still hoping for this.
During my second deployment I had a lot of interaction with the locals. I tried to do everything I could to present a positive view of the US and Afghan governments when I talked to them. We couldn't always do that due to combat. One mission, we were traveling a long distance and were on a schedule we had to keep. We took a shortcut through a farmer's fields in order to avoid the roadside bombs. He came out to talk to me and was obviously visibly upset. I gave him a voucher for compensation and apologized which of course had little effect. We got out of the fields and no less than one kilometer later my truck was hit by an ied and we came under mortar and rifle fire. I was knocked unconscious and after coming to returned fire for the next two hours. I didn't go on a killing spree, I didn't blame the locals or that farmer, they were, as usual, caught in the middle.
Another day we were setting up for the night and an Afghan came up to us with his son who had been hit by a motorcycle and was badly injured. He looked like a bloody sack of potatoes, not moving at all but screaming his head off. We took him to our Doc and went back for a helicopter that evacuated him to the medical base. Everyone felt good about it and kept up on the news of this boy. He was there for a week but died from brain swelling. This took a huge toll on all of us. We felt like we did something positive but it turned out to be crap. A metaphor for Afghanistan as a whole.
I don't hate the Afghans and I don't hate Muslims, I detest extremists. That includes anyone who uses civilians as human shields on a regular basis (Taliban) and right wing war hawks in the US (evangelist republicans). These extremists on both sides make up a small percentage of the population but for some reason we allow them to polarize us and we adopt their views. The average Afghan farmer wants the same thing as me, to live in peace with his family. In a lot of Afghanistan this is the reality but the extremists (both sides) have hijacked the rest of the country and allow that to speak for Afghanistan. The twitter accounts for both sides (ISAF, Taliban) send out ridiculous propaganda. The Taliban talks of huge casualties and have even mentioned events I was involved in. They bloat figures and talk themselves up like they never take losses, they take huge losses and militarily are taking a beating every day. They are delaying political and development progress in Afghanistan and that is a victory for them. ISAF puts out the same thing every year, making progress. If that's the case I'd hate to see what no progress looks like because I don't see any progress.
I don't celebrate death. I don't want war. I don't hate Muslims. I made friends with our Afghan interpreter and still keep in touch with him. One day he's going to come here to visit me and I hope one day I can go visit him as well. If there are any questions or anything else anyone wants to know just ask me.
