The Lives That Begin and End at Age 21

This week, there are two compelling reasons for me to write this post.

As an Iraq War veteran, watching Charles Ferguson's documentary, No End in Sight, left me frustrated at those such as Donald Rumsfeld whose arrogance cost American and Iraqi lives. As an officer in the College Democrats of America, the GAO's report stating that Iraq has hardly made any political progress left me again questioning a flawed and failing policy.

When I joined the Marine Reserves in 2002, I did not expect to be deployed to a war I disagree with; but it was my duty and honor to serve alongside my fellow Marines in Iraq last year. From my experiences in the Marines and the College Democrats, I must say that the past two years have given me a whirlwind of an education. It is and will always be my duty to serve at the pleasure of the commander-in-chief, despite my personal opinion. But it is also my duty as an American to learn how our policies reflect on the ground, and whether we are making headway. After spending a deployment patrolling the streets of Fallujah, I learned a great deal. I learned a great deal every time I watched a Humvee get blown up by an IED. I learned a great deal every time I saw Iraqis identify themselves as Sunnis and Shi'ites, not Iraqis. I learned a great deal every time children raised their hands and asked for water, not candy.

It was those experiences that guided me to where I stand on the war today. When I was on post with many of the Iraqi Army soldiers, I noticed they had propaganda on the inner linings of their uniforms promoting Moqtada al-Sadr and the Mahdi Army. One of the men we worked with asked me why the Marines were hunting al-Sadr and was trying to explain why al-Sadr was such a great person. I also spent a good deal of time with the Iraqi police and had to guard their police station from attacks since they would not show up for work when they felt danger. However, what's more disturbing is that the Iraqi army is mostly Shi'ite, while the police are mostly Sunni. As a result, we had to prevent and break up fights between the army and police at jointly run checkpoints.

It takes moments like these for any soldier serving in a dangerous, hostile foreign land to ask themselves the true purpose of the mission. Iraq's sectarian divides are so thoroughly ingrained that even those who fight in the name of Iraq do not claim allegiance to a central government, but to local religious leaders. When the incompetence and disorganization of al-Maliki's government is so obvious after over four years, it is easy to see why so many are turning to local radical leaders for protection, revenge and basic needs.

Amid the chaos, the sectarian divisions, the lack in basic necessities and hostility towards American forces, I wondered why our nation's finest youth are being sent to fight this war. The young people I've met serving our country are of the highest honor. With the average casualty age in Iraq at 21, the price they pay for this war so stubbornly mismanaged can only be described as tragic.

As I return to Bowdoin College to finish my senior year, I look at the faces of the young people who at age 21 are picking their majors in college -- deciding how they want to begin their adult lives and make a difference in the world. I look at their excitement and their love towards life, and I think about the ones, at the same age, whose lives are ending in a foreign land thousands of miles away.

I don't think I can ever put to words the toll of that tragic contrast. But it's time we honor those who passed by bringing those still there home.

Comments

[kjboy27]

You are obviously an intelligent young man and what you write is truly meaningful and truthful. In order to learn a bit more about how the "powers that be" manipulate the actions of the populace and, in doing so, destroy our nation, you might like to read Major General Smedley D. Butler's, USMC [Retired], book, "War Is A Racket". Very enlightening book:
http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm

[mamacat]

I'd like to relate my remembrances on how servicepeople were treated during the Vietnam War.

It was awful. It was unimaginably awful, unless you experienced it for yourself.

I got the feeling that just about the only people who would even talk to us were people too young to know what was going on, or people old enough to remember WWII. Perhaps because of the atrocities being committed in Vietnam in the name of saving them from communism, we were often seen as baby-killers and monsters. Unfortuneately a large percentage of soldiers in combat conditions, especially when living in enemy territory, are unable to refrain from torturing and murdering people they see as the enemy. The number of atrocities reported by the press was probably less than 1% of what actually occurred. That is why we should never engage in wars of aggression, disguised as a war to save the enemy from themselves. It is unforgiveably cruel to both the enemy and to our own soldiers.

There are so many veterans of Vietnam with psychological problems, even today I cannot think about them without tears coming to my eyes. People in combat have to be excused for making honest mistakes. From there, it is a not too large a step to treating enemy civilians with callous disregard for their safety, or to murdering captured enemy. It often happened in Vietnam, and it looks like it has happened in Iraq, despite the efforts of the administration to put a completely different spin on events.

The reason I started writing this is because of statements that it was somehow the left who treated servicepeople with disrespect. Maybe the stories of liberals spitting on veterans was true somewhere, but in my experience politics had nothing to do with the way the average person felt about the war. That so many people turned their backs on servicepeople was unbelievably painful, and is why I have a yellow ribbon on my car, right next to my Impeach Bush sticker.

[FOXYLADY]

GOD BLESS!! It is good to hear someone who has been there speak about the lives of our loved ones lost in this lost cause....this travesty of a war started with lies and machinations. GOD HELP US IF THIS PERSON, BUSH, DECLARES A WAR ON IRAN...CAN'T SOMEONE STOP THE SOB???

[CarmanK]

Thank you for your truth about Iraq. The calls for "bringing" the troops home have been muffled by recent Ads on TV. Focused on the pain and sacrifices made by wounded Vets and their families,they are painful to watch and hard to ignore. But then, as a mother of two veterans who saw combat, I want all our young men and women home. The price for "Iraqi Freedom" is too high in lives and fortune.

[GawdFraud]

Here"s the perspective of yet another generation, those who fought in WWII. My father, my 2 brothers and I, the whole cadre of cousins of eligible age (more than a dozen), and my sister"s husband, served in just about all of the armed services. Interestingly enough, only two cousins were drafted, all others, including my father who was in his forties at the time, were volunteers. Two cousins did not return, one from the army in Europe, one a Pacific Marine, several were wounded. Once the war ended, we all went back to work or to school and got on with our lives with the exception of a couple cousins who felt that the country owed them a living and tried to sponge off their experience for the rest of their lives. Even though I know of the mind numbing horrors of war, the heart pounding fear, the still remembered stink, the physical and mental fatigue, I got on with my life, attended college at my own expense feeling that the world owed me nothing.
I later became a college prof and was well aware during the Vietnam fiasco of the intense level of animosity most Americans directed toward it. It was trying time for me personally because many of my younger colleagues were rabidly anti-war and could not differentiate between my support for our servicemen and my lack of support for the war. I was sickened when one of my best premed students ever, left in his junior year to serve and eventually worked as a medic with a pacification team. He was killed by a grenade dropped in his lap while delivering worm medicine for children in the village where he died. Such a needless waste was devastating.
As a result, I hate war, and especially this pointless Iraqi war. My only hope for the future is that some day, youngsters like Alex will ascend to a level of political power where they will control the process. I know I won"t live long enough to see that but I hope my teenage grandsons will.

[Noel]

As the mother of an officer in the U.S. Air Force who recently returned from a year in Afghanistan - and who will be redeployed there or to Iraq shortly - I commend Alex Cornell du Houx for his insightful essay. My son is doing his duty and does not complain, though he lets us know how undersupplied and manned his mission was. He supports the mission in Afghanistan, grieves for the men and women who have been lost, and deplores our misguided foray into Iraq. Keep up the good work, Alex.

[Taan]

When will impressionable young men finally wise up to the siren call from old men whose visions of conquest and glory can only be realized with the life blood of their progeny?

[gogocat]

MARCH ON WASHINGTON SEPT.15

WWW.SEPT15.ORG

[gogocat]

MARCH ON WASHINGTON D.C. SEPT.15

MARCH ON WASHINGTON D.C. SEPT.15

WWW.SEPT.15.ORG

WWW.ANSWERCOALITION.ORG

VERERANS FOR PEACE

CODEPINK

FAMILIES FOR PEACE

MILITARY MOTHERS FOR PEACE

People! This is your chance to join thousands & thousands of fellow Americans from all walks of life to show this Criminal Administration: Bu$h & Co., that WE THE PEOPLE, want to TAKE BACK OUR GOV'T, OUR RESPECT, OUR CONSTITUTION!

[WoodyCPM]

Alex,
Hats off to you. Thank you for your courage and your commitment and your service. Thank you also for speaking out on the war as you see it. Your voice is invaluable in getting to the truth so that an informed citizenry, in one of the greatest Republics in human history, can hold its leaders accountable.

[josieb]

Nothing like being in a war to understand why we should outlaw them forever. There must be other options besides more killing. Thanks for your service.

[ChinaCat]

Thank you for a post that was beautifully written...

You are a true patriot Alex and bless you for speaking the truth. Please keep on writing, I will keep on reading.

SUPPORT OUR TROOPS... Bring Them Home NOW!

[Purple Girl]

I CAN NOT EXPRESS THE GUILTY I FEEL FOR THIS CATASTROPHE TO HAVE FALLEN ON THE SHOULDERS OF ALL OUR CHILDREN.
I never supported this administration. But by not demanding even a re-count in 2000 we let this happen. As a life long Dem I am responsible for voting in the cowards who fail to save you even now. I am no loger a Dem. Many of us are trying the only way we can- limited by our governmental captors- we are out here SCREAMING_BRING OUR CHILDREN HOME NOW!!!!!!!
The Iraqi invasion had nothing to do with any of this adminsitration claims- many of us knew that in '03. We have been political castrated- but I think we can still get a hard on. Apparently there are ways to remove an adminstration without Congress (peacefully) we need to be more proactive. Our 'leaders' are impotent.

Thank you for your continued PATRIOTISM .

[deke33]

It is still a conundrum to me that we send recently recruited military men, many still wet behind the ears, after less than a year of training to fight and die in Iraq and yet are still told that after more than 4 ears of militarily training Iraqis they still are nor prepared to pick up the gauntlet. Where is their patriotism?

[mamacat]

At this point in time the average Iraqi, and the overwhelming majority of all Iraqis, are anti-American. This anti-Americanism is spun as a lack of patriotism, or an inability to defend themselves.

My generation had to deal with the Vietnam War. There are so many similarities between that war and Bush's War that it boggles the mind. Bush was able to avoid going to the Vietnam War by getting into the National Gaurd. For those of you too young to know, only the well connected were able to secure a place in the National Gaurd. Bush comes from a very Rich and Powerful family, and was able to get into the National Gaurd. Maybe he was just lucky? Yeah, right. Of the hundreds of young men I knew facing the draft, not a single one was able to get into the National Gaurd. But then, I did not know any rich or connected young men.

The Vietnamese also had learned to hate us. The majority wanted us to get out of their country. That does not mean that the Viet Cong (South Vietnamese) or the NVA (North Vietnamese) were good people. It just means that they wanted us out of their country. Perhaps if we had been fighting alongside them against a DIFFERENT foreign invader, they would have treated us as allies. I know, our leaders say we are liberating them, but the problem is that they now want us to leave, periond, end of discussion.
I know Vietnamese who left Vietnam after the fall of Saigon. Some of them are wonderful people. Like the modern-day boat people coming from China, many of them are good people, and endured terrible hardships to come to this country. That does not make the Vietnam War a good war, or a wise war. There are no good wars, only wars that need to be fought. The Vietnam War, and Bush's War, are not wars that needed/need to be fought in the interests of either the United States or in the interests of the peoples living in those countries.

[mamacat]

Welcome home, bless you.

Remember, you, as I , swore to uphold the constitution, not the dumb-ass commander-in-chief. THE CONSTITUTION.

Remember that, and don't be blinded by loyalty to Mr. Bullshit.