“It’s kind of like SWAT,” he said. “We’ll go on raids, kicking people’s doors, search the homes...

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2007/02/27/news/doc45e4808c0f03f706826250.txt

Regional report: Soldier shares Iraq experience with kids

MANSFIELD — On the eve of his return to Iraq, Bellflower native Ken Shelton took time to answer questions from fourth-grade students at Blue Ridge’s Mansfield Elementary School. snip

“It’s kind of like SWAT,” he said. “We’ll go on raids, kicking people’s doors, search the homes for any bomb-making material and excessive weapons.”

Shelton, who since has returned to Iraq, is in his second tour of active duty. After serving time in the National Guard, he decided to re-enlist and make the military a career.

“I actually missed being on active duty so much I had to go back.”

[Kutjara]

1. Indoctrinating another generation of God's little soldiers.

I wonder how many SWAT teams have to dodge IEDs during their missions?

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. I wonder if the families of the 3161 dead soldiers

realize their loved ones were on a swat team?

[wake.up.america]

3. Sounds like fun!

[durrrty libby]

4. Parents throw a fit if their kids learn about gay marriage,

but war tactics are just hunky-dory





:argh: :freak: :hangover:

[BushOut06]

5. "We even get to torture them like Jack Bauer does!"

"And if they run, we get to shoot them! Whoop-de-fuck!"

And I'm supposed to support these troops? Excuse me, but NO. I realize there are some good men and women over there, but I will NOT support them while they are over there engaging in all sorts of illegal and barbaric behavior.
:sarcasm:

[endarkenment]

6. Winning them hearts and minds.

Yeah that'll work just fine. Raising an entire generation of Iraqis who want to kill every american they see is a brilliant plan.

[Maat]

7. I was having lunch with one of the Iraqi moms who came to visit in California last year.

The Global Exchange Network brought them.

She asked if I had any idea what it was like to see something like that. I said, "Yes." She appeared to be quite shocked. I told her that I had been a social worker for seven years, and had been a worker that responded to the methamphetamine lab raids (or went with the officers on certain occasions). They were dressed in full military gear (paramilitary?). Frequently, they had masks on. Everyone was ordered to lie down when they barged in unannounced, and it was not unusual for the "suspects" and their family members to get hurt in the process.

I'm probably not expressing the whole thing in the best way, but it was always a shocking thing to see.

Then I told her about the profoundly traumatic and violent environments in which many of America's poor children were raised. The tragic thing? Many times, these young adults were the ones who ended up in the military, going on the raids in Iraq. I told her that each had been trained to be a certain kind of person, but frequently it was not an empathetic, nonviolent one.

Tragedy stacked upon tragedy is what it amounted to. That was the point I was trying to get across. She seemed a bit shocked that children grew up in those conditions in affluent California.