From A Battlefield

To those at home,

I would tell you not to worry if I didn't already know that my request would be in vain. Recently, my battalion has been posted on guard duty around a medical outpost located in the Green Zone of Baghdad, so you can at least try to rest at ease knowing that I'm in the safest area in Iraq. I thought that seeing all the death and suffering around me would numb me to the pain of seeing another human being suffer, but I was happy to see that I was wrong. About a month ago, as I sat at my post, I saw a helicopter fly in to unload some poor soldier who had been hit by some shrapnel from a roadside bomb and just looking at the poor fellow I knew that even if he made it through by some miracle, he wouldn't be the same. I don't want to recall the gruesome details, but it will suffice to say he will never walk on his two legs again. Saddened by this scene, I was determined to go visit the guy once he started to feel better - something that happened just yesterday. At first, he just lay in his bed listening to me just talk about whatever came to my mind. I talked about my close encounters, about all of you back home, about basketball and football and after about an hour or so, he started to tell me about his time back in the USA. He hasn't talked to me about his extensive injuries but we have bonded on talks about sports and general banter. Anyways, I just wanted to let you know that I'm doing well and that I'm looking forward to next month when I get to come back home.

Love all of you,
Soldier X

A Soldiers Words

Yesterday, I found an interview with an injured soldier, Sergeant Will, who has decided to reenlist into the army. He crushed his leg while serving his country because as he puts it " [he] was in the wrong place at the wrong time." As I continued to read his interview, it was these kinds of responses that surprised me. Earlier this year, I watched a documentary about injured soldier and their homecomings and a majority of them were, rightfully, bitter. Sergeant Will, on the other hand, appeared to be joking with his interviewer. Witty answers like, " For the people who don't know these names look them up in a history book" in regards to his family's military background, and "To me, I do find it cute. I wish I made as much as a mercenary" in regards to remark that our soldier are acting as mercenaries suggest that he has moved on from the emotional turmoil of his injury. Or maybe not. It has been always said that laughter is the best medicine so perhaps that is why Sgt. Will has taken a more joyous approach to this interview.

After reading his chat with Mr. Spree, I felt there were still some unanswered questions. Had I been given a chance to ask some questions, I would've asked Sgt. Will how the injury had affected him both in Iraq and here in the US. Also, I would inquired about how others in his combat battalion fared during his accident. Finally, I was ask about how he views the Iraqi's.


You can find the full interview at Wake Up America.

Darfur: Seeing Destruction in a New Light Thanks to the Internet

For the last few years, we have all heard about the tragedy that is Darfur. For those of you in the dark about this genocide, since 2003 the Sudanese military has been hunting down and killing nomadic tribes. The unfortunate beginnings of this conflict lie in problems of overpopulation combined with long droughts and deforestation. Since this genocide has started, largely unnoticed by the global population as a whole, we have come together to combat the terrible events following the tsunami, send aid to help in the Chili earthquakes, and of course, the rebuilding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katherina. In effort to bring awareness to this problem, Google along with the Holocaust Memorial Museum, have placed small red marks on the map of Darfur, as seen by the Google Earth satellite, wherever a village has been destroyed. Just looking at the map, see right, we are able to see the conflagration of destruction that the Sudanese people are enduring. If that isn't enough to grab your attention, by clicking on the aforementioned red marks, you can see vivid pictures of starving children who cry for the lives that have been lost. If we don't take note soon these images of sorrow will forever remain in Darfur.

War: A Failure to Communicate

Before I talk about this post, I want to explain why I chose to write about what I’m about to write about. Ever since my post about the American Civil war, the concept of a war has bothered me as I couldn’t fathom why or how war was even possible. Then, a couple of days ago, I heard a dorm-mate playing the Guns and Roses song, Civil War, and I felt like that song and the associated music video expressed my feelings very well.

Click to see a non official Guns and Roses video on "Civil War" and its lyrics.

First of all, I would like to look at the fan made video for this song which did a good job of capturing the confusing nature of civil wars. In this video, around 3:56, shows the chaos that is war. A man stumbles and the next thing he knows another soldier tries to skewer him. This gruesome scene, however, appears extremely sad when one notices the mournful, yet blank faces of the soldiers. This sadness, this disorder is compounded through the lyrics. The very first line describes the problem that causes war – miscommunication. Then the chorus speaks volumes about the persistent yet unnecessary state of combat by through the simple repetition of the word “look” and the rhyming of the words “fighting, crying, and dying” makes the song and its message particularly memorable. Finally, the song ends with the wonderfully witty question (in particular about civil wars) “Whaz so civil 'bout war anyway?”

Biology of War

The renowned bio-chemist Sir Gorge Porter noted “I have no doubt that we will be successful in harnessing the sun's energy.... If sunbeams were weapons of war, we would have had solar energy centuries ago.” While this quote is highly acerbic, it by no means hides the fact that war acts as a catalyst for humans. Just as various enzymes help a certain chemical reaction to occur efficiently in the body, war helps speed up human ingenuity. Many of our finest inventions like nuclear power, the Global Positioning System, ABS, satellite communications, and so on were mere byproducts of wartime research. But why? Does the additional funding for scientific research explain this increase in productivity? No. Just as enzymes are coded into our genetic data, this effect of war is encoded in our will to survive. Evolutionarily speaking, individuals perform tasks in a more expedient manner when their live is on the line. It is this basic instinct to survive, which is threatened by war that helps humans push their minds to the limit to help their country.