[Peace-discussion] Moral Courage (i am a Veteran for Peace,~wm~ Medic, Nurse, Army 81-85)

[Makers of Peace]

--0-352548272-1216822536=:99041
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Welcome Home, Soldier: Now Shut Up
by Paul Rockwell

There are two kinds of courage in war =97 physical courage and moral courag=
e. Physical courage is very common on the battlefield. Men and women on bot=
h sides risk their lives, place their own bodies in harm=92s way. Moral cou=
rage, however, is quite rare. According to Chris Hedges, the brilliant New =
York Times war correspondent who survived wars in Latin America, Africa, th=
e Middle East and the Balkans, =93I rarely saw moral courage. Moral courage=
 is harder. It requires the bearer to walk away from the warm embrace of co=
mradeship and denounce the myth of war as a fraud, to name it as an enterpr=
ise of death and immorality, to condemn himself, and those around him, as k=
illers. It requires the bearer to become an outcast. There are times when t=
aking a moral stance, perhaps the highest form of patriotism, means facing =
down the community, even the nation.=94
More and more U.S. soldiers and Marines, at great cost to their own careers=
 and reputations, are speaking publicly about U.S. atrocities in Iraq, even=
 about the cowardice of their own commanders, who send youth into atrocity-=
producing situations only to hide from the consequences of their own orders=
. In 2007, two brilliant war memoirs =97 ROAD FROM AR RAMADI by Staff Serge=
ant Camilo Mejia, and THE SUTRAS OF ABU GHRAIB by Army Reservist Aidan Delg=
ado =97 appeared in print. In March 2008, at the Winter Soldier investigati=
on just outside Washington D.C., hard-core U.S. Iraqi veterans, some shakin=
g at the podium, some in tears, unburdened their souls. Jon Michael Turner =
described the horrific incident in which, on April 28, 2008, he shot an Ira=
qi boy in front of his father. His commanding officer congratulated him for=
 =93the kill.=94 To a stunned audience, Turner presented a photo of the boy=
=92s skull, and said: =93I am sorry for the hate and destruction I
 have inflicted on innocent people.=94
The Winter Soldier investigation was followed by the publication of COLLATE=
RAL DAMAGE: AMERICA=92S WAR AGAINST IRAQI CIVILIANS, by Chris Hedges and La=
ila Al-Arian. Based on hundreds of hours of taped interviews with Iraqi com=
bat veterans, this pioneering work on the catastrophe in Iraq includes the =
largest number of eyewitness accounts from U.S. military personnel on recor=
d.
The Courage to Resist
We cannot understand the psychological and moral significance of military r=
esistance unless we recognize the social forces that stifle conscience and =
human individuality in military life. Gwen Dyer, historian of war, writes t=
hat ordinarily, =93Men will kill under compulsion. Men will do almost anyth=
ing if they know it is expected of them and they are under strong social pr=
essure to comply.=94 =93Only exceptional people resist atrocity,=94 writes =
psychiatrist Robert Lifton.
How much easier it is to surrender to the will of superiors, to merge into =
the anonymity of the group. It takes uncommon courage to resist military po=
wers of intimidation, peer pressure, and the atmosphere of racism and hate =
that drives all imperial wars.
Silencing the Witnesses to War
War crimes are collective in nature. Especially in wars based on fraud, sol=
diers are expected to lie =97 to their country, to their community, even to=
 themselves.
The silencing process begins on the battlefield in the presence of officers=
, power-holders who seek to nullify the perceptions and personal experience=
 of troops under their command.
In his war memoir, Aidan Delgado describes attempts of his commanders to su=
ppress the truth about Abu Ghraib. First his captain says the Army has noth=
ing to hide, Abu Ghraib is just a rumor. But then the captain continues: =
=93We don=92t need to air our dirty laundry in public. If you have photos t=
hat you=92re not supposed to have, get rid of them. Don=92t talk about this=
 to anyone, don=92t write about it to anyone back home.=94 In the U.S. mili=
tary, the truth is seditious.
Two years ago, Marine Sergeant Jimmy Massey published his riveting autobiog=
raphy (written with Natasha Saulnier) in France and Spain. How the Marine C=
orps - through indoctrination and intimidation - transforms a homeboy from =
the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina into a professional killer who murder=
s =93innocent people for his government=94 is the subject of Massey=92s uns=
ettling, impassioned, Jar-head raunchy, and ultimately uplifting memoir, CO=
WBOYS FROM HELL. (No U.S. publisher has picked up the book. A Marine who sp=
eaks truth to power is not without honor save in his own country.) In Chapt=
er 18, Jimmy describes a seemingly minor encounter with his captain. Here M=
assey gives us a look into the process of human denial in its early phase.
Massey has just participated in a checkpoint massacre of civilians. His sen=
se of decency, his sanity, is still in tact. Like any normal human being, h=
e is distraught. The carnage of the war, the imbalance of power between the=
 biggest war machine in history and a suffering people devoid of tanks and =
air power =97 the sheer injustice of it all =97 begins to take its toll on =
Massey=92s conscience.
In the wake of the horrific events of the day, his captain is cool. He walk=
s up to Massey and asks; =93Are you doing all right, Staff Sergeant?=94 Mas=
sey responds: =93No, sir. I am not doing O.K. Today was a bad day. We kille=
d a lot of innocent civilians.=94
Fully of aware of the civilian carnage, his captain asserts: =93No, today w=
as a good day.=94
Relatives wailing, cars destroyed, blood all over the ground, Marines celeb=
rating, civilians dead, and =93it was good day=94!
The Massey incident goes beyond the mendacity of military life. It concerns=
 the control, the dehumanization of the psyches of our troops.
As one Vietnam veteran put it years ago: =93They kept fucking with my mind.=
=94
In 1994 Jonathan Shay, staff psychiatrist in the Department of Veterans Aff=
airs, published a pioneering work on post traumatic stress =97 Achilles in =
Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character. According to Shay, who=
 recorded volumes of testimony from Vietnam veterans, commanders routinely =
try to efface the perceptions and the normal feelings of compassion among A=
merican troops. Military necessity, including the ever-present need for pol=
itical propaganda, determines what is perceived, and how it is perceived, i=
n war.
It was an extremely common experience in Vietnam, Shay writes, to be told b=
y military superiors dealing with crime and trauma: =93You didn=92t experie=
nce it, it never happened, and you don=92t know what you know.=94 And it wa=
s fairly common for traumatized soldiers to say to reporters: =93It didn=92=
t happen. And besides, they had it coming.=94 Shay recorded the testimony o=
f one veteran who, in great anger, describes the pressures to alter his per=
ceptions of collective murder.

=93Daylight came, and we found out we killed a lot of fishermen and kids=85=
You said to the team, =91Don=92t worry about it. Everything=92s fucking fin=
e.=92 Because that=92s what we were getting from upstairs. The fucking colo=
nel says, =91Don=92t worry about it. We=92ll take care of it. We got body c=
ount.=92 They=92d be handing out fucking medals for killing civilians. So i=
n your mind you=92re saying, =91Ah, fuck it, they=92re just gooks.=92 I was=
 sick over it, after this happened. I actually puked my guts out=85But see,=
 it=92s all explained to you by captains and colonels and majors. =91Fuck i=
t, they was suspects anyways. You guys did a great job. Erase it. It=92s ye=
sterday=92s fucking news.=92=94
Willful Ignorance at Home
The collective process of denial on the battlefield eventually extends to t=
he homeland. Returning soldiers, to be sure, are often honored, but only so=
 long as they remain silent about the realities, the pathos, the absurd evi=
ls of war. Willful public ignorance is a source of pain for veterans.
Ernest Hemingway=92s brilliant short story, Soldier=92s Home, published in =
1925 after World War I, gives us insight into the reluctance of civilians t=
o address the psychic needs of soldiers back from war.
The simply told story is about a young man named Krebs who returns to his h=
ome in Oklahoma. At first Krebs does not want to talk about the war. But so=
on he feels the need to speak =97 to his family, his neighbors and friends.=
 But as Hemingway tells us, =93Nobody wanted to hear about it.=94 His town =
did not want to learn about atrocities, and =93Krebs found that to be liste=
ned to at all he had to lie.=94
There=92s the rub. His ability to assimilate into civilian life depended on=
 his willingness to fabricate stories about the war. Soldiers are not only =
expected to lie on behalf of the military during the course of war, they ar=
e also expected to participate in homecoming rituals that preserve the civi=
lian fantasy of war=92s nobility.
In Hemingway=92s story, the pressure to lie is so powerful, Krebs begins to=
 manufacture stories about his experiences in battle =97 just to get along,=
 just be able to lead a normal life.
Repression, however, is a major cause of mental illness and loneliness. Kre=
bs morale deteriorates. He sleeps late in bed. He loses interest in work. H=
e withdraws into himself.
That=92s all Hemingway tells us. It=92s a quietly told story, all the more =
powerful for its understatement.
There is a connection between Hemingway=92s war-informed fiction and real l=
ife. As Shay notes, there is a tension between a soldier=92s need to commun=
alize shame and grief and the unwillingness of civilians to listen to troop=
s whom they sent into battle. One Vietnam veteran told the following story:

=93I had just come back from Vietnam and my first wife=92s parents gave a d=
inner for me and my parents and her brothers and their wives. And after din=
ner we were all sitting in the living room and her father said: =91So, tell=
 us what it was like.=92 And I started to tell them, and I told them. And d=
o you know that within five minutes the room was empty. They were all gone,=
 except my wife. After that I didn=92t tell anybody what I had seen in Viet=
nam.=94
Welcome home, soldier. Now shut up.
Notwithstanding clich=E9s and pieties about support for troops, those who p=
romote war are often the least likely to share the burdens and memories of =
war when soldiers return. When Ron Kovic, who was paralyzed from the chest =
down during the war in Vietnam, steered his wheelchair down the aisle of th=
e Republican National Convention in 1972, the delegates spat on him and che=
ered for Nixon =97 =93Four more years.=94
W.D. Erhart, Vietnam veteran and author of Passing Time, never forgot the h=
orrific episodes of his tour in Vietnam. In his first autobiography, he tel=
ls a friend about his speech at a Rotary Club. =93I even put on a coat and =
tie and went to the Rotary Club. The Rotary Club, for chrissake. I laid it =
all out for =91em. I told =91em about search and destroy missions, harassme=
nt and interdiction fire, winning hearts and minds, all that stuff=85Was I =
ever sharp that day.

=93Now listen. You won=92t believe this. I got done and nobody said a word.=
 No applause. Nothing. Then this skinny old fart shaped like a cold chisel =
gets up and says he=92s a retired colonel, and he thinks we should keep on =
pounding those little yellow bastards until they do what we say or we kill =
=91em all, and he tells me I can=92t be a real veteran because a real veter=
an wouldn=92t go around badmouthing the good old U.S. of A., and the whole =
place erupts in thunderous applause.=94
Welcome home, soldier. Now shut up.
Today Georgia Stillwell is a mother of a 21-year-old Iraqi war veteran. Her=
 son is now homeless, unemployed, and despondent. Early one morning he drov=
e his car over an embankment. She says that her son is a mere physical shel=
l of himself. =93My son=92s spirit and soul must still be wandering the str=
eets of Iraq.=94 It is not simply what happened in Iraq, but how veterans a=
re treated at home when they seek to unburden their souls, that reinforces =
post-traumatic stress. On the night he drove the car off the road, he was c=
rying, talking about the war. =93His friends tell me he talks about the war=
. They describe it as =91crazy talk.=92 He wants the blood of the Iraqis he=
 killed off his hands.=94
=93Each generation,=94 writes Chris Hedges, =93discovers its own disillusio=
nment, often at a terrible price. And the war in Iraq has begun to produce =
legions of the lost and the damned.=94 For our morally courageous veterans =
=97 for all of us, really, who seek forgiveness =97 only the truth can heal=
.
BlackCommentator.com Guest Commentator, Paul Rockwell, is a writer living i=
n the Bay Area. He is also a columnist for In Motion Magazine. Click here t=
o reach Mr. Rockwell.
Copyright =A92002-2008 www.BlackCommentator.com=20


Love and Light, wm and lynn McLean (a.k.a "dirt and trudge")
the Blueberry Peace Farm, Magee, MS, U.S.A.,=A0EARTH=A0

http://blog.360.yahoo.com/dirtandsludge=A0 our "flog" (Farm Log)
http://members.aye.net/~hippie/real.htm

http://legitgov.com/
CITIZENS FOR LEGITIMATE GOVERNMENT
=0A=0A=0A      
--0-352548272-1216822536=:99041
Content-Type: text/html; charset=windows-1252
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

<table cellspacing=3D'0' cellpadding=3D'0' border=3D'0' ><tr><td valign=3D'=
top' style=3D'font: inherit;'><H2>Welcome Home, Soldier: Now Shut Up</H2>
<DIV class=3Dpost-credit>by Paul Rockwell</DIV>
<DIV class=3Dpost-body>
<P>There are two kinds of courage in war =97 physical courage and moral cou=
rage. Physical courage is very common on the battlefield. Men and women on =
both sides risk their lives, place their own bodies in harm=92s way. Moral =
courage, however, is quite rare. According to Chris Hedges, the brilliant N=
ew York Times war correspondent who survived wars in Latin America, Africa,=
 the Middle East and the Balkans, =93I rarely saw moral courage. Moral cour=
age is harder. It requires the bearer to walk away from the warm embrace of=
 comradeship and denounce the myth of war as a fraud, to name it as an ente=
rprise of death and immorality, to condemn himself, and those around him, a=
s killers. It requires the bearer to become an outcast. There are times whe=
n taking a moral stance, perhaps the highest form of patriotism, means faci=
ng down the community, even the nation.=94</P>
<P>More and more U.S. soldiers and Marines, at great cost to their own care=
ers and reputations, are speaking publicly about U.S. atrocities in Iraq, e=
ven about the cowardice of their own commanders, who send youth into atroci=
ty-producing situations only to hide from the consequences of their own ord=
ers. In 2007, two brilliant war memoirs =97 ROAD FROM AR RAMADI by Staff Se=
rgeant Camilo Mejia, and THE SUTRAS OF ABU GHRAIB by Army Reservist Aidan D=
elgado =97 appeared in print. In March 2008, at the Winter Soldier investig=
ation just outside Washington D.C., hard-core U.S. Iraqi veterans, some sha=
king at the podium, some in tears, unburdened their souls. Jon Michael Turn=
er described the horrific incident in which, on April 28, 2008, he shot an =
Iraqi boy in front of his father. His commanding officer congratulated him =
for =93the kill.=94 To a stunned audience, Turner presented a photo of the =
boy=92s skull, and said: =93I am sorry for the hate and destruction
 I have inflicted on innocent people.=94</P>
<P>The Winter Soldier investigation was followed by the publication of COLL=
ATERAL DAMAGE: AMERICA=92S WAR AGAINST IRAQI CIVILIANS, by Chris Hedges and=
 Laila Al-Arian. Based on hundreds of hours of taped interviews with Iraqi =
combat veterans, this pioneering work on the catastrophe in Iraq includes t=
he largest number of eyewitness accounts from U.S. military personnel on re=
cord.</P>
<P><STRONG>The Courage to Resist</STRONG></P>
<P>We cannot understand the psychological and moral significance of militar=
y resistance unless we recognize the social forces that stifle conscience a=
nd human individuality in military life. Gwen Dyer, historian of war, write=
s that ordinarily, =93Men will kill under compulsion. Men will do almost an=
ything if they know it is expected of them and they are under strong social=
 pressure to comply.=94 =93Only exceptional people resist atrocity,=94 writ=
es psychiatrist Robert Lifton.</P>
<P>How much easier it is to surrender to the will of superiors, to merge in=
to the anonymity of the group. It takes uncommon courage to resist military=
 powers of intimidation, peer pressure, and the atmosphere of racism and ha=
te that drives all imperial wars.</P>
<P><STRONG>Silencing the Witnesses to War</STRONG></P>
<P>War crimes are collective in nature. Especially in wars based on fraud, =
soldiers are expected to lie =97 to their country, to their community, even=
 to themselves.</P>
<P>The silencing process begins on the battlefield in the presence of offic=
ers, power-holders who seek to nullify the perceptions and personal experie=
nce of troops under their command.</P>
<P>In his war memoir, Aidan Delgado describes attempts of his commanders to=
 suppress the truth about Abu Ghraib. First his captain says the Army has n=
othing to hide, Abu Ghraib is just a rumor. But then the captain continues:=
 =93We don=92t need to air our dirty laundry in public. If you have photos =
that you=92re not supposed to have, get rid of them. Don=92t talk about thi=
s to anyone, don=92t write about it to anyone back home.=94 In the U.S. mil=
itary, the truth is seditious.</P>
<P>Two years ago, Marine Sergeant Jimmy Massey published his riveting autob=
iography (written with Natasha Saulnier) in France and Spain. How the Marin=
e Corps - through indoctrination and intimidation - transforms a homeboy fr=
om the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina into a professional killer who mur=
ders =93innocent people for his government=94 is the subject of Massey=92s =
unsettling, impassioned, Jar-head raunchy, and ultimately uplifting memoir,=
 COWBOYS FROM HELL. (No U.S. publisher has picked up the book. A Marine who=
 speaks truth to power is not without honor save in his own country.) In Ch=
apter 18, Jimmy describes a seemingly minor encounter with his captain. Her=
e Massey gives us a look into the process of human denial in its early phas=
e.</P>
<P>Massey has just participated in a checkpoint massacre of civilians. His =
sense of decency, his sanity, is still in tact. Like any normal human being=
, he is distraught. The carnage of the war, the imbalance of power between =
the biggest war machine in history and a suffering people devoid of tanks a=
nd air power =97 the sheer injustice of it all =97 begins to take its toll =
on Massey=92s conscience.</P>
<P>In the wake of the horrific events of the day, his captain is cool. He w=
alks up to Massey and asks; =93Are you doing all right, Staff Sergeant?=94 =
Massey responds: =93No, sir. I am not doing O.K. Today was a bad day. We ki=
lled a lot of innocent civilians.=94</P>
<P>Fully of aware of the civilian carnage, his captain asserts: =93No, toda=
y was a good day.=94</P>
<P>Relatives wailing, cars destroyed, blood all over the ground, Marines ce=
lebrating, civilians dead, and =93it was good day=94!</P>
<P>The Massey incident goes beyond the mendacity of military life. It conce=
rns the control, the dehumanization of the psyches of our troops.</P>
<P>As one Vietnam veteran put it years ago: =93They kept fucking with my mi=
nd.=94</P>
<P>In 1994 Jonathan Shay, staff psychiatrist in the Department of Veterans =
Affairs, published a pioneering work on post traumatic stress =97 <EM><A hr=
ef=3D"http://www.amazon.com/dp/0684813211?tag=3Dcommondreams-20&amp;camp=3D=
0&amp;creative=3D0&amp;linkCode=3Das1&amp;creativeASIN=3D0684813211&amp;adi=
d=3D1XCNT2R254SR7R0TX5N3&amp;" target=3D_blank>Achilles in Vietnam: Combat =
Trauma and the Undoing of Character</A></EM>. According to Shay, who record=
ed volumes of testimony from Vietnam veterans, commanders routinely try to =
efface the perceptions and the normal feelings of compassion among American=
 troops. Military necessity, including the ever-present need for political =
propaganda, determines what is perceived, and how it is perceived, in war.<=
/P>
<P>It was an extremely common experience in Vietnam, Shay writes, to be tol=
d by military superiors dealing with crime and trauma: =93You didn=92t expe=
rience it, it never happened, and you don=92t know what you know.=94 And it=
 was fairly common for traumatized soldiers to say to reporters: =93It didn=
=92t happen. And besides, they had it coming.=94 Shay recorded the testimon=
y of one veteran who, in great anger, describes the pressures to alter his =
perceptions of collective murder.</P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>=93Daylight came, and we found out we killed a lot of fishermen and kids=
=85You said to the team, =91Don=92t worry about it. Everything=92s fucking =
fine.=92 Because that=92s what we were getting from upstairs. The fucking c=
olonel says, =91Don=92t worry about it. We=92ll take care of it. We got bod=
y count.=92 They=92d be handing out fucking medals for killing civilians. S=
o in your mind you=92re saying, =91Ah, fuck it, they=92re just gooks.=92 I =
was sick over it, after this happened. I actually puked my guts out=85But s=
ee, it=92s all explained to you by captains and colonels and majors. =91Fuc=
k it, they was suspects anyways. You guys did a great job. Erase it. It=92s=
 yesterday=92s fucking news.=92=94</P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG>Willful Ignorance at Home</STRONG></P>
<P>The collective process of denial on the battlefield eventually extends t=
o the homeland. Returning soldiers, to be sure, are often honored, but only=
 so long as they remain silent about the realities, the pathos, the absurd =
evils of war. Willful public ignorance is a source of pain for veterans.</P=
>
<P>Ernest Hemingway=92s brilliant short story, Soldier=92s Home, published =
in 1925 after World War I, gives us insight into the reluctance of civilian=
s to address the psychic needs of soldiers back from war.</P>
<P>The simply told story is about a young man named Krebs who returns to hi=
s home in Oklahoma. At first Krebs does not want to talk about the war. But=
 soon he feels the need to speak =97 to his family, his neighbors and frien=
ds. But as Hemingway tells us, =93Nobody wanted to hear about it.=94 His to=
wn did not want to learn about atrocities, and =93Krebs found that to be li=
stened to at all he had to lie.=94</P>
<P>There=92s the rub. His ability to assimilate into civilian life depended=
 on his willingness to fabricate stories about the war. Soldiers are not on=
ly expected to lie on behalf of the military during the course of war, they=
 are also expected to participate in homecoming rituals that preserve the c=
ivilian fantasy of war=92s nobility.</P>
<P>In Hemingway=92s story, the pressure to lie is so powerful, Krebs begins=
 to manufacture stories about his experiences in battle =97 just to get alo=
ng, just be able to lead a normal life.</P>
<P>Repression, however, is a major cause of mental illness and loneliness. =
Krebs morale deteriorates. He sleeps late in bed. He loses interest in work=
. He withdraws into himself.</P>
<P>That=92s all Hemingway tells us. It=92s a quietly told story, all the mo=
re powerful for its understatement.</P>
<P>There is a connection between Hemingway=92s war-informed fiction and rea=
l life. As Shay notes, there is a tension between a soldier=92s need to com=
munalize shame and grief and the unwillingness of civilians to listen to tr=
oops whom they sent into battle. One Vietnam veteran told the following sto=
ry:</P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>=93I had just come back from Vietnam and my first wife=92s parents gave =
a dinner for me and my parents and her brothers and their wives. And after =
dinner we were all sitting in the living room and her father said: =91So, t=
ell us what it was like.=92 And I started to tell them, and I told them. An=
d do you know that within five minutes the room was empty. They were all go=
ne, except my wife. After that I didn=92t tell anybody what I had seen in V=
ietnam.=94</P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>Welcome home, soldier. Now shut up.</P>
<P>Notwithstanding clich=E9s and pieties about support for troops, those wh=
o promote war are often the least likely to share the burdens and memories =
of war when soldiers return. When Ron Kovic, who was paralyzed from the che=
st down during the war in Vietnam, steered his wheelchair down the aisle of=
 the Republican National Convention in 1972, the delegates spat on him and =
cheered for Nixon =97 =93Four more years.=94</P>
<P>W.D. Erhart, Vietnam veteran and author of <EM>Passing Time</EM>, never =
forgot the horrific episodes of his tour in Vietnam. In his first autobiogr=
aphy, he tells a friend about his speech at a Rotary Club. =93I even put on=
 a coat and tie and went to the Rotary Club. The Rotary Club, for chrissake=
. I laid it all out for =91em. I told =91em about search and destroy missio=
ns, harassment and interdiction fire, winning hearts and minds, all that st=
uff=85Was I ever sharp that day.</P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>=93Now listen. You won=92t believe this. I got done and nobody said a wo=
rd. No applause. Nothing. Then this skinny old fart shaped like a cold chis=
el gets up and says he=92s a retired colonel, and he thinks we should keep =
on pounding those little yellow bastards until they do what we say or we ki=
ll =91em all, and he tells me I can=92t be a real veteran because a real ve=
teran wouldn=92t go around badmouthing the good old U.S. of A., and the who=
le place erupts in thunderous applause.=94</P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>Welcome home, soldier. Now shut up.</P>
<P>Today Georgia Stillwell is a mother of a 21-year-old Iraqi war veteran. =
Her son is now homeless, unemployed, and despondent. Early one morning he d=
rove his car over an embankment. She says that her son is a mere physical s=
hell of himself. =93My son=92s spirit and soul must still be wandering the =
streets of Iraq.=94 It is not simply what happened in Iraq, but how veteran=
s are treated at home when they seek to unburden their souls, that reinforc=
es post-traumatic stress. On the night he drove the car off the road, he wa=
s crying, talking about the war. =93His friends tell me he talks about the =
war. They describe it as =91crazy talk.=92 He wants the blood of the Iraqis=
 he killed off his hands.=94</P>
<P>=93Each generation,=94 writes Chris Hedges, =93discovers its own disillu=
sionment, often at a terrible price. And the war in Iraq has begun to produ=
ce legions of the lost and the damned.=94 For our morally courageous vetera=
ns =97 for all of us, really, who seek forgiveness =97 only the truth can h=
eal.</P>
<P><EM>BlackCommentator.com Guest Commentator, Paul Rockwell, is a writer l=
iving in the Bay Area. He is also a columnist for <A href=3D"http://www.inm=
otionmagazine.com/" target=3D_blank>In Motion Magazine</A>. Click <A href=
=3D"http://www.blackcommentator.com/contact_forms/paul_rockwell/gbcf_form.p=
hp" target=3D_blank>here</A> to reach Mr. Rockwell.</EM></P>
<P align=3Dcenter>Copyright =A92002-2008 <A href=3D"http://www.BlackComment=
ator.com">www.<STRONG><FONT color=3D#407f00>BlackCommentator</FONT></STRONG=
>.com</A> </P><BR><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Love and Light, wm and lynn McLean (a.k.a "dirt and trudge")</DIV>
<DIV>the Blueberry Peace Farm, Magee, MS, U.S.A.,&nbsp;EARTH&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3D2>
<DIV></FONT><A href=3D"http://blog.360.yahoo.com/dirtandsludge" target=3D_b=
lank rel=3Dnofollow>http://blog.360.yahoo.com/dirtandsludge</A>&nbsp; our "=
flog" (Farm Log)</DIV>
<DIV><A href=3D"http://members.aye.net/~hippie/real.htm" target=3D_blank re=
l=3Dnofollow>http://members.aye.net/~hippie/real.htm</A></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><A href=3D"http://legitgov.com/" target=3D_blank rel=3Dnofollow>http:/=
/legitgov.com/</A></DIV>
<DIV>CITIZENS FOR LEGITIMATE GOVERNMENT</DIV>
<DIV><IMG id=3DfullSizedImage alt=3D"StPeterburgCollegeCampusGreens.jpg pic=
ture by cpeacesigns" src=3D"http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g35/cpeacesig=
ns/StPeterburgCollegeCampusGreens.jpg?t=3D1202434771"></DIV></DIV></DIV></t=
d></tr></table><br>=0A=0A      
--0-352548272-1216822536=:99041--