Sunday April 6, 2008, 2:05 pm

And then again, maybe she was murdered out of fear she would be too vocal.

Thank you Mark.

Sunday April 6, 2008, 3:51 pm
Thank you for posting this Mark. Why isn't it simple and obvious to the whole world?

Please forgive me if I repeat, for a third time, the comment I added to the link to winter soldier (and everywhere and anywhere I can).

'We all know that Bush and his puppet masters were willing to pay in other people's blood for their middle eastern policy'. That is bad enough. But they were also willing to pay with other people's souls. To lie to them about what the job entailed, to send them to become monstrous - to wound their souls past healing - and to live with that for the rest of their lives. While Bush and Co stayed safe at home and not only never put their own lives or their own family's lives on the line but never put their own souls there either. While our once idealistic young men and women have to live with the knowledge, the absolute horror, of what they (and humanity) is really capable of, Georg W and his friends among the great and the good will never know the monster in the mirror. They can go on feeling just like the rest of us - that they are pretty good guys really, decent people who would always do the decent thing. (something everyone is good at convincing themselves about!) The combat veterans will never be sure of that again.'

The most important thing, for me, about this article is that it explains this important truth in the words of one of Bush's victims:
"It also made me think," Williams says, "what are we as humans, that we do this to each other? It made me question my humanity and the humanity of all Americans. It was difficult, and to this day I can no longer think I am a really good person and will do the right thing in the right situation."

Sunday April 6, 2008, 5:14 pm

Post that everywhere that you can, Sara.

I'm not sure that it is combat stress, seeing their buddies killed, or killing innocent women and children that pushes veterans over the edge, because in many cases there are people who have survived all that and worse intact. I think that most go to war firmly convinced that we are the good guys and that we are doing the right thing, and it is the eventual realization that this is not the case, that drives people mad.

It is our job to try to make that realization happen BEFORE people go to war, because once they leave they may not come back, or may never physically or mentally recover, and their victims are also irretrievable.

Sunday April 6, 2008, 8:52 pm
I hope we never get to find out what it really causes it, Mark. But it's the dirty little secret of all wars, I think. And sooner or later the 'good guy, and guy' think is going to fall apart in any war because the people fighting it, the ones that have to kill each other on behalf of 'King and Country (and oil company) are just the ordinary people. Not the decision makers. My grandfather used to tell a story about WW1. He was a 'British Marine' and a radio operator. He was with a couple of units that were fighting the Germans for one French town. One day they had it. 'Gerry' pushed, soldiers died and the next day 'Gerry' had the town. So the Brits pushed back. More died or were wounded. Back and forward and back and forward while the Generals sat behind the lines pushing pins into their maps. One day, deep winter and thick fog reigned and my Grandad's unit had to patrol the town perimeter. Brits were back in possession and the Germans were just on the other side of the town wall. So they were walking this wall, hunched over so their heads don't show above it and quiet as can be - trying to make sure no Germans were getting ready to attack under the cover of the fog. As they crept along they came to a place where the wall had been blasted and there was a gap of a couple of feet. Just for a few seconds the fog lifted. And my grandfather was standing right at the gap in the wall. He looked to his left and there, in a crouching position, holding his rifle and bayonet just like my grandfather, was an ordinary German soldier. His unit, too, was patrolling in precisely the opposite direction around the same wall - on the other side! The two men looked at each other for just a moment and then my Grandad raised his finger to his lips in a 'keep silent' gesture. The unknown German nodded to him and my grandfather adjusted his helmet, and each man followed his unit, half crouching on into the fog, patrolling the wall for the enemy.

That story has always summed up, for me, everything we need to know about war. Even when a war is a 'just' one, the whole good guy bad guy thing evaporates very quickly in the face of the truth. Who would ever sign up if they understood this? But we've got so much bs history and so many centuries of this being covered up to undo before we can ever make that realization happen. That's why I'm so passionate about Winter Soldier.