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There's All Kinds Of Soldiers and Marines
by James Glaser September 29, 2010 
I have been reading about the American troops who are accused of killing innocent Afghans for sport. I wondered about that headline and couldn't figure out where the writer got that "sport" line from. Murder is murder whether you are wearing a military uniform or civilian clothes. I read some of the comments by other readers, and some of them were saying our troops are scum. Well, sad to say, some of our troops are scum, but most are not. For some reason, some Soldiers and some Marines feel that they have to kill someone in order to be, I don't know what, I guess a Soldier or Marine. I know in my Marine Corps boot camp experience my platoon, (396) at MCRD San Diego, had to say or shout the word "KILL!" at least one hundred times a day. Some days, way more than that. We were "Mean Green Killing Machines," and each of us strived to be the baddest mother- f*&#@er in the valley. That said, when I got to Vietnam, some of the guys still had that KILL! mentality in their heads, and they wanted, maybe needed to kill somebody. Well, in the combat zone, not everybody gets to kill. Many troops never even get to shoot their weapon at the enemy. But if you are a Mean Green Killing Machine, shouldn't you kill somebody? What are you going to tell the guys back home or your fellow Marines? Most guys are happy they are not out in the boonies doing patrols, setting up ambushes, or going out to rescue some other unit under siege. They see what those guys look like when they return. They see the body bags. They see the guys carried off in the medivac choppers still screaming or covered in blood just staring off, with a body filled with morphine. But, still there is that small percentage of guys who want or maybe need to kill. So, what happens if in their normal military job, they are not going to get a chance to kill the enemy? What can they do? They can take out some poor local, that in their twisted minds could be the enemy, and in Vietnam, with the Viet Cong, that was pretty easy to do. I imagine it is the same with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Any male of almost any age could be a member of the Taliban, especially if they have a beard, cause we all know the Taliban have beards, right? In every war there are men, and I guess now women, who feel they must get that "kill" under their belt before they can feel like real heroes. Some of them will suffer with guilt for the rest of their lives, but others will brag about their deed and get praised for it. America puts a lot of stock in a chest full of ribbons and medals. Those shiny pieces of polished brass can propel a veteran into political office or a good job. We teach our troops to kill, and then when they do, we say they are scum, but who is the real scum? The young man or woman who succumbs to the training that teaches them that killing is the most important thing they can do, or the people who invented that training, or the politician who takes those trained killers, and sends them into the war zone for tour after tour after tour. I have to wonder why we are surprised or shocked or disgusted that people in a combat zone run amok and start killing people? It seems like that is what we want them to do, doesn't it? |
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