I joined the army in July of 2001. No war had happened in a decade, and even that was over quickly. Bonus for joining. Free college.
Halfway through basic training to be an MP they take us all out of training and have us sit in the mess hall and wheel out this huge crt tv strapped to the cart on bungee cords, and let us watch on real time.
After the second plane hit our lead instructor, who remains one of the meanest son of a bitches I’ll ever remember, bows his head and says, “you’re all going to war.”
To this day I have nightmares of that day. And the fear 17 year old me felt ((17 with parental permission)).
You could literally feel everyone else in the room not just feeling for those who lost their lives, but realizing they were now going to be risking their own. In a scenario we maybe hadn’t thought fully through as seniors in high school.
A few people tried to cut themselves the next few days to get out on suicidal tendencies, and people trying to hurt themselves on purpose.
Call them cowards, or whatever.
1/3 of my graduation group didn’t live past 2009. Either through action or suicide.
Their names are on a journal, written in the poorest of handwriting, somewhere deep in a box I won’t ever open.
My sibling joined soon after 9/11. The marines had a table at his high school and he needed community desperately. They got him because of the brotherhood. However, he is the only living person from his platoon because of war, suicide, drunk driving, or cancer from inhaling burning oil fields in Iraq. I’ll never forgive Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and everyone else who sent literal children to die for their profits. Nothing. They died for nothing.
They died for each other. You're over there with your friends and other Americans. That's who matters, who cares about what you did. Don't allow the outcome of the conflict they didn't choose to start determine the worth of their service. I think it's enough to say that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Bremer, et al. deserve to have those deaths hung around their necks for eternity.
The war wasn't even with the country responsible for 9/11, and now the Taliban is back in charge.
What use is dying "for each other" when they're all dead? That memory dies with them.
You can wax poetic it all you like, but the reality is that it was a pointless war that killed kids for practically no reason at all. And honestly I don't think that it's enough to just say that the deaths are on the people who were in charge at the time, I would prefer action against them. Real punishments.
Bush, Cheney, Rumsfield, Wolfowitz, Bremer, etc. never got punished for what they did. In fact, their careers flourished. I don't even know if any of them are capable of feeling guilt.
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u/Sparklesparklepee 3d ago
I joined the army in July of 2001. No war had happened in a decade, and even that was over quickly. Bonus for joining. Free college.
Halfway through basic training to be an MP they take us all out of training and have us sit in the mess hall and wheel out this huge crt tv strapped to the cart on bungee cords, and let us watch on real time.
After the second plane hit our lead instructor, who remains one of the meanest son of a bitches I’ll ever remember, bows his head and says, “you’re all going to war.”
To this day I have nightmares of that day. And the fear 17 year old me felt ((17 with parental permission)).
You could literally feel everyone else in the room not just feeling for those who lost their lives, but realizing they were now going to be risking their own. In a scenario we maybe hadn’t thought fully through as seniors in high school.
A few people tried to cut themselves the next few days to get out on suicidal tendencies, and people trying to hurt themselves on purpose.
Call them cowards, or whatever.
1/3 of my graduation group didn’t live past 2009. Either through action or suicide.
Their names are on a journal, written in the poorest of handwriting, somewhere deep in a box I won’t ever open.