for writing this letter.

Peace.

Thank you to the author.

I too thank-you. It also made me think of Robert Bale and I have cried for him as well. I pray for you as I do for Sgt Bale.
Amen

You offer your thanks to a veteran who immediately casts your thanks aside and demands instead your pity for his anguish. He insists that you are simpleminded for having offered it, and demands as proof of your ability to think higher thoughts your social activism on behalf of his chosen causes. In this case, he does so before you even offer your thanks.

The piece was brilliantly written to set up any dissenter as either misguided, clueless or a lunatic. I also appreciate the cleverness with which the author states that it's his own opinion and then asserts that many if not most combat veterans would agree with him. These are remarkably manipulative, traps set to ensnare any who would contend with him, his own paragraphs proof against disagreement. Well, I am a three-tour veteran (third tour in progress) of Afghanistan, and I respectfully disagree.

That is the line which I expect will get this comment moderated out. I have never posted in this venue, however, so we will test the waters for depth and tolerance of opposing ideas.

I am a soldier and a combat veteran. I am an Infantryman and a combat advisor to indigenous forces. I have seen devastating carnage and held death in my hands. My heart has broken as I looked into the dead eyes of a 19 year old soldier who had been killed. I understand in detail what the words, "torn asunder," mean. The author is right about one thing; it is political. It is a political violence, but not driven by the same fearful cabal that the author dreads. It is political violence, which Clausewitz described as war, because two (or more) groups of people became willing to kill for what they want politically. That young man whom I held in my hands did not die because he was thrown into a meat grinder by a military-industrial complex. He died because he took a stand for something that he felt strongly enough to kill for, and when you become willing to kill, you must understand that others will be willing to attempt to kill you for what they want. No one side leaves unscathed.

He wanted peace in his country, but not at the expense of what liberty could be claimed in this land. I know this from my personal conversations with him in the months preceding his death. He could not tolerate the idea of being dominated by armed zealots any further, and he was willing to take his chances in the pursuit of something better. He was not willing to be a victim to the whims of men who were willing to use violence to dominate him daily.

The author sounds like a victim. He sounds like a man who was bullied by his experience and still weeps for his own wounds. He sounds like a man who blames others for those experiences. He demands recognition of his victimhood in the stead of any thanks for his service. This is a PhD, a man who carries a title that indicates that he is capable of complex thought. More complex is the actual understanding of places like Afghanistan which are amazingly faceted. This is where the mind of a PhD should find challenge, not bewilderment and an instinctive reliance on mythic super-national answers. The author relies on an argument of individual powerlessness and lack of choice. He finds himself pitiable and therefore argues that all who have served are pitiable as well.

Do not pity me. If you cannot understand me, you may revile me if your mind requires it for you to find peace, but most of all do not pity me. I chose to take this action. I choose to be here, to take this stand, to live my values and to not be powerless. I have choice. I am not a victim.

I don't require your thanks, but if you give it, I will honor it with accepting it humbly; not refusing it and demanding your pity instead. I will not demand that you see my point of view or perform works to support my individual agenda to prove that you do, in fact, understand. I will assume that you are an adult who is capable of thought, not someone who is so boggled that in your incomprehension all you can do is thank me.

I am here because I can see a larger picture that requires a lot of individual effort, and is motivated by a desire for the common good. I am here because I do have certain beliefs in what is worth risking my life, and if necessary, killing for. Values that rise above the natural human desire for safety and the natural human repugnance for the killing of other humans may be strange to some, but I live in that world. Though it is incomprehensible to most readers who visit this venue, I can live with myself in this world, but cannot live with the concept of holding nothing so dear as to be willing to stand against all force that would come against these values, these ideals, this complex knowledge of the nature of what politically-motivated violence in the hands of a few with no one to stand against them can do to a country such as Afghanistan.

The author has asked me for four things; my pity, to join him in his piteous party of victimhood as a veteran myself, my anger against that which he perceives to have victimized him, and my effort to further his personal beliefs. He asks me to honor his efforts over 45 years to instill a sense that nothing is worth standing in the path of the torrent in hopes of changing its path instead of honoring his service and sacrifice which was apparently unwillingly or unknowingly given/taken as a victim/Marine. He has one; my pity... but not for the same reason he desires it.

Thank you for your reply. I do not seek to invalidate the author's points. I seek to state my own observations and opinions in regards to the piece posted and the topic in general. I acknowledge that we may not see eye-to-eye. I also make no attempt to address the issue of Iraq, but instead my own experiences in Afghanistan. While you do appear to address this, as it is a war that we have engaged in during the past ten years, as unjust, on that issue I would beg to differ with you. I sincerely believe in the overall aim of my deployments to Afghanistan. While I have significant criticisms of our approach both governmentally and and militarily... there is much here that we could have done much better... the overall goal was good and just. It was also aimed at making the world a safer place for my children.

I have worked with many Afghans. I have spoken with many more, right down to the village level in contested districts and stable ones. I have heard the dreams of Afghans. I am also part of the only armed force in the history of Afghanistan which has come to this country for the sake of Afghanistan and with no ulterior motive of empire or securing a route of passage to a place beyond Afghanistan. You have been told. I have seen and done. I'm not saying that you are in any way not a reasonable person, nor am I invalidating you. I am saying that the quality of the information available to you and that available to me cannot be compared. On this I cannot be swayed.

In all of this, you have had choice. You can vote. You can comment freely without fear of retribution. You can enlist and contribute, or you can stay at home and take care of your own business. You have exercised your choices, and I have exercised mine, and we actually need not see eye to eye. Take what good you can from what I've shared and leave what you cannot bear. Thanks for reading, and thanks for your very civil comment.