Usually I do not write blog posts after a long night out. However, what happened tonight is worth a blog entry and I have a personal urge to write it down before I forget what happened.
We were out at the bars in San Diego and on the way back to the hotel when we met an Afghan War veteran, a pretty young guy, maybe 25, at a pizzeria. He certainly was intoxicated, just as everyone else in this area. Buying him a slice of pizza and involving him into a lengthy talk revealed many things that you would not want to know about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, nevertheless it was invaluable (and frankly quite shocking) to hear them. It gave an interesting insight into the motivations of American soldiers and the American society as a whole.
This young guy was about 18 when he went to Afghanistan and was honorably discharged for psychological reasons 2 years later. He was talking about how badly he wants to go back to combat, speaking about it as a drug, the adrenaline rush that no other drug (or sex) can replace. He talked about how surviving a combat, and with that facing death in the heat of a fight, becomes addicting, how first-timers throw up through the window of a Humvee before and how proud they are afterwards. How this feeling of superiority and adrenaline becomes an addiction.
While I can (in some ways) understand this view, I was baffled by what followed: A description of how killing civilians (with his own hands) was a good act and necessary. Why? No survivors, no revenge! That is what it boiled down to. Killing the children will prevent revenge! He talked about special units going into bombed towns and cities killing surviving men, women, and children for the sake of preventing revenge against Americans. Whether or not he was part of these teams remained unclear to me. At least he was talking about killing people in close combat, although he did not go into any details. The regrets and bad dreams he had were drowned in alcohol. I was barely able to hide my disgust.
While he was very proud of the fact that he honorably served his country, he showed at the same time a deep hatred against "all Muslims". Why? "Have you seen The Hurtlocker? They blow up women and children, just like in the movie!". It was not clear whether or not he witnessed it himself but from what he said it was clear that in his world view all Muslims deserve to die. A very one-sided world view, certainly dismissing millions of peaceful Muslims in the world. Also, it does not take into account reasons for suicide bombings, e.g., desperation due to losing whole families in drone strikes or living under military occupation for years and years. The world is so easy if you ignore your own role.
At the same time he was also very angry about what he was actually fighting for. Seeing shows like "Honey Boo-Boo" and other scripted reality shows on TV certainly does not fit into his view of this country. He also seems to have a certain contempt against young people not having served in the army, enjoying their lives without having fought in combat.
Overall, it reminded me of what I have been reading about the first world war in Germany: highly motivated soldiers going into war, coming back with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD, formerly known as shell shock), being highly disillusioned while the rest of the country treats them as heroes, being euphoric and overly positive about the war (I recommend "All quite at the Western front" by Erich Maria Remarque). This country has long forgotten the cruelties of war in general and what it means to civilians and soldiers alike (remember that the last war on American ground has been centuries ago and was a civil war which was by far not comparable to today's wars). As a consequence, it has taken war as a normal, daily-life situation, producing nothing but (dead) heroes. While I certainly do not want the US to undergo the horrors that Europe and many other areas in the world had to go through during the last century, I do wish that this country becomes more aware of what war means. It is never the black-and-white clear-frontier conflict you may wish to think of!
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