by an anonymous U.S. soldier stationed in Iraq
You would think with the Army's propaganda about camaraderie, abhorrence would not exist in the Army. It does. The most powerful Army in the world has such things in it. Regular Army hates the Reserve Army, and vice-versa. Airborne personnel hate non-Airborne personnel, and vice-versa. Infantry hate non-Infantry, and vice-versa. Enlisted hate Officers and Junior Enlisted hate NCOs. The Army, being as childish as they can be, even came up with names so it's not that blatant that we are making fun of each other. Such as: Non-Airborne personnel are called legs and non-Infantry personnel are called POGs (Personnel Other Than Grunt). The hatred doesn't just stop with each other. We hate the food at the chow hall, we hate that the mail is so slow, we also hate the fact we have to be in Iraq for an entire year.
In some cases male soldiers hate female soldiers. Why? "An Army of One," right? Females get away with absolute murder. I can remember one instance in particular. A female soldier was a jump refusal on an Airborne Operation. While males would get a Field Grade Article 15, 45 days of extra duty, 45 days restricted pay, and loss of rank. She got a Summarized Article 15, 7 days extra duty, 7 days restricted pay and no rank taken away. She definitely wasn't an outstanding soldier. Now, when I talk back to a NCO I have to drop and do push-ups, when a female talks back all she has to do is bat her eyes and make it sound like flirting. The last thing is work details. Females get out of all kinds of work details because they are the "weaker sex." Why did they join the Army? They had to have known manual labor exists in the military. I'm not sexist. There are some really outstanding females in the Army. They do their jobs because the have self-respect and don't use the fact that they are female to get out of work.
With all this hatred, why even bother joining the Army? I'm glad you asked. Let's look at the most common answers I've heard: (1) Toughen up a little bit. I'm more of a coward now then before I joined the Army. When a superior yells at you they put you into a "submissive position" called parade rest. The opposition would say that we do it to show discipline. I would like to think the Army wouldn't let people in that don't know the difference between discipline and just plain stupidity. (2) Money for college. Okay, I can buy that. If everyone had money for college no one with common sense would join the Army. The American society needs to keep people uneducated and unskilled so they can fill those open slots in the Army. (3) Travel. Go to third world countries, kill innocent children and watch your friends die around you. Not exactly Bermuda. The people that I meet that say they joined the Army to travel complain the most about being away from their families.
Once people see the Army for what it truly is, why bother staying in? Most common answer I've heard is: I have a family now. There are well over 40 million families that aren't in the Army that are doing just fine. Another reason they reenlist is the relentless rhetoric of their NCOs. These people realized they made a horrible mistake. They wasted their youth and health for nothing. Most of these people are barely qualified to flip burgers. They rather stay in and make lower enlisted feel stupid. Misery loves company. Reenlistment bonuses are another reason people stay in. They bribe you with such things as station of choice. Unlike many on my friends I have PCSed before. It's the same hypocrisy, ignorance, submission, and brutality everywhere. The Army will also use deception to get you to reenlist. People that would have never reenlisted at Ft. Bragg did it while in Baghdad. The Army twisted their perception. In Baghdad soldiers aren't exposed to the wonderful things in this word that have nothing to do with the Army. Blue sky, green grass, family picnics, alcohol, intercourse, Taco Bell, just general civilian life, all aren't available out here. The soldiers that reenlist see desert, a blazing sun, unbearable heat, soldiers everywhere, no hope, no life, they get confused and think this is it. That this nightmare is all there is. When the reenlistment NCO came to me, I looked straight in the eye and said, "I'd rather go through the pain of losing my mother over and over again than reenlist."
I'd like to now talk about general things in the Army that really irritate me. One big one is that if you have any talent whatsoever your NCO will take credit. When my friend sings in front of Sergeant Majors his NCO will shout "that's my soldier!" The Sergeant Majors will even congratulate the NCO for having a great soldier and then ignore the soldier himself, as if he deserves any credit whatsoever for his soldier's talent. If you don't watch your back NCOs will also tale credit for your work. Another good one is if you're an E-4 or below you're automatically a child. I've met a PFC with the same education as a company commander. Yet, if a NCO with less that a high school diploma tells him to do something and he knows a better way, he gets in trouble for talking back. Actually I have a quote that explains the Army perfectly. "We give up our basic rights and freedoms to protect other peoples." Most of those people I'm "protecting" don't care or would spit on the ground I walk on. Two of those rights I gave up when I signed that contract is freedom of speech and freedom of individuality. If anyone has the ability to form a separate thought they need to get out of the Army. The Army hates individual thought. They will either go crazy for biting their tongue all the time or they'll get in big trouble for always talking back. Freedom of speech is an important freedom to me. I can actually get in trouble for writing the truth. Where is the justice in that?
The real travesty is my current position in Iraq. The only thing I'll have to show for my time spent in Iraq is Depleted Uranium in my system. The powers that be even decided that we shouldn't get a separate medal from the people that served in Afghanistan. I used to watch WWII movies on TV, which was the Army I thought I was joining. I though male and female soldiers were treated equally, I thought NCOs would care more about their soldiers then their evaluation reports, I thought I was joining a brotherhood-not a bunch of children hating each other over petty differences. I've only had my heart broken once in my entire life, and the Army did it over and over again.
Why go to war in Iraq? It's pretty obvious why we went to war in Iraq, oil. In fact former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was quoted as saying, "Oil is much too important of a commodity to be left in the hands of Arabs." So what does the soldier over here think we went to war? The truth is most of them really don't care. They hear things like tax-free paychecks, hazardous duty pay, and save pay (money you get for what area you are in). They hear these things instead of the screams of children being slaughtered. The people that do have an opinion gave the following reasons that I've broken down.
The Iraq people were oppressed everyday by a brutal regime. Most Iraqis are complacent about the situation. Saddam didn't affect them on a daily basis, so most of them didn't care. However, the coalition forces do affect them on a daily basis. That's why so many of them are joining the insurgents.
Saddam Hussein supports terrorism. As of right now there is no evidence that Iraq was ever evolved in terrorist activities. Besides, supporting doesn't necessarily mean involvement. I support minority rights, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't bomb a white owned franchise.
Saddam Hussein killed the Kurds by gassing them. I will admit the Saddam was a horrible person. However, what you won't read about is that the US supported him when he gassed the Kurds. Even a US contractor (Teledyne, Inc.) sold over 10,000 cluster bombs to Iraq; the fact is that the US supplied Iraq with the very chemicals he used on the Kurds!
Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. When we first got to Kuwait we had to have our Chemical Masks on us wherever we went. After the end of "major combat operations," we put our masks away in a conex. They've been there ever since. I must be confused the US has more that enough weapons to kill everyone in the world twice and I don't see anyone invading us. What people are really oblivious to is the US trying to take the Weapons of Mass Destruction out of Iraq, yet selling over $30 billion dollars in arms to the Gulf Region.
Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden were co-conspirators on 9/11 and that they are cohorts in general. This is absolutely not true. Saddam has been known for persecuting Osama Bin Laden's religion. Saddam has also spent over 30 years opposing Islamic fundamentalism. In addition they found Saddam last week in a hole in Iraq. Where was he supposed cohort Bin Laden at. I thought they were friends.
Someone once told me that we go to war for the corporations. I didn't believe him at first. Now I get it. "AT&T Salutes the Military!" Yeah, they salute us so much they find it necessary to charge us 90 cents a minute plus a $2.50 connection fee. They exploit the fact that we would pay anything to talk to our families. If they want to talk about "saluting" why don't we ask them why they laid off 40,000 employees in 1996 while their chairman Robert Allen made $16 million dollars? So, they salute us for "defending" them while the people that actually made them rich get fired. I also notice something at our PX (the place where we can buy various items) the employees there were issued full sets of Desert Camouflage Uniforms. Yet, the power that be decided the Reserve soldiers should have to were Battle Dress Uniforms out here. My theory is that since the PX sells such items as Marlboro, Miramax DVDs, and various CDs , the corporations pay for them to look normal out here while the soldiers actually fighting stick out like sore thumbs.
I would like to talk about President Bush for a moment. He is my Commander and Chief. I am well aware of the contract I signed. I will do his orders and the orders of the officers and NCOs appointed above me. Having put all that out my opinion is that President Bush is in way over his head. We invaded Iraq on a pre-emptive strike. That is the same reasoning Adolf Hitler used when he invade Poland in 1939. We gave Iraq $87 billion dollars. That's more money then we've ever spend to help rebuild a country we destroyed. What I don't understand is why we're spending that much money when children in American aren't eating tonight and they have to sleep in cars. The children in Iraq hate us. They are too young to even know what's going on, yet they spit at us and throw rocks at our convoys. Then those same children turn around and ask us for food. So who has he helped? Americans sleep better at night from a threat that didn't exist?
350 dead. Who has he helped? Children will now grow up fatherless, I know how hard that is. Who has he helped? Young wives with dreams of their husbands coming home. Gone, widowed before 20. Who has he helped? Osama Bin Laden is still on the loose. Who has he helped? My friends are dead. They are not coming back. Who has he helped? 350 dead. Who has he helped? Every time a soldier dies in "Operation American Blood for Iraqi Oil," I feel the pain as if I grew up with the person. Now I've seen what happens when you force people into democracy. 350 dead. I hope he's happy.
There is one more thing I want to talk about before I concluded this report. One of my very good friends died out here. We held a memorial service for him. Nice little ceremony. I was happy to see such a large turn out. A lot of Sergeant Majors and Senior Officers showed up. I thought that was odd because they didn't know him. One very senior officer was overheard saying, "Who is this for, again?" Let me write that one more time, "WHO IS THIS FOR, AGAIN?" He had the audacity to come to a memorial service in which the deceased probably would not have wanted him there and then say something like that loud enough to be heard! I wasn't going to cry at the memorial service. After I heard that I almost lost it. Just showing up to make it look like he cares. On top of that, those seniors got to salute his memorial before the people that actually knew him and loved him did. If that wasn't bad enough, instead of offering their condolences, they high tailed it out of there. I'm not surprised something like that could happen. The Army appoints men to such high positions that common decency and tact evades them. Their stature is so high no one will even say anything to them. They do horrible things like that and get away with it. We got snuffed by a stupid Army tradition. They've wasted more of their lives in the Army then you, which means they have the right to cut you off in the chow hall and make a mockery of a friend's death.
Through out this report, I talked about the atrocities I witnessed though my choices. I choose the Army. I choose to go to Airborne School. I choose the 82d Airborne Division. Now I choose not to be silent. The report is the truth. My inspiration and excerpts come from Land of Hypocrisy written by Kennie Anderson. I always try and end a paper with a quote. This is the one I found most fitting for this paper. "How long, not long, 'cause what you reap is what you sow."- Zach De La Rocha, Rage Against the Machine.
