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In reply to the discussion: U.S. troops posed with body parts of Afghan bombers(warning graphic photos at the link) [View all]pasto76
(1,589 posts)ending the war. Which happens on DU a lot. Post article about troops doing something very bad, complain this is why the war should end. period. Im not disagreeing that it is long past time when any of my soldiers should die for this war, but this also could have happened in the first months. Typing that now, I would bet that it probably did.
Your reply is really appreciated. I can totally tell you from my experience, "getting some" during the iraq war was in fact, vindication of my/our being there. Because there were very few things to grasp to maintain some mental stability. It's the same mechanism by which people say (and say to me often), "look man we went over there to depose saddamn for reasons x,y and z. Are you really saying SSG XXXX died over there for NOTHING?!" They've marked their belief that something, anything was good about Iraq by equating superior soldiers and superior citizens of this country having been killed in that armpit.
Your reply also demonstrates a LACK of STIGMA that we are all enduring right now. As a veteran, every time I get mad, people think "omg PTSD case." Never mind that my stupid boss at work generated such an unsafe condition that me and my partner could have been killed....never mind that. Clearly Im PTSD.
LEFT and RIGHT perpetrate this stigma. If nothing else, when you see stories like this, you know someone is a veteran of this or any war and they are yelling about something - try and put yourself in our shoes. YOu DONT KNOW what war is like. YOU dont know how it changes every one of us. As an educated (biology degree) person, when we were mobilizing to deploy, I was "pretty sure" I was intellectualizing and projecting accurately what the experience was going to be like. I was 100000% wrong on each and every count.
anyway, thanks again. Im going to post your reply to my FB page.
Be Cool
SGT PASTO