YourHondaSux said:
Dude, my family is currently stationed at fort bragg. Hell my father, stepfather, both grandfathers, 3 uncles, my mother, 2 aunts and all of my cousins that are of age have served in the military and all of them were at Bragg or Pope at one point or another. My brother and I are the only males not to serve, and thats because we are in college. Hell I was born in fayetteville too so yeah I know all about it. My stepfather has been to Iraq and is currently on call to leave for NO. And yeah Sadaam was a tyrant and did not make living in Iraq easy, but atleast they had some of the basic necessities of life. And im sure it was possible to live in Iraq without stepping on someone's toes and getting your ass killed by sadaam. So give me a fucking break dude, when he was in power they only had electricity about 18-20hrs a day, now they have it for about 10 in some areas and then its not even a constant 10 its fucking sparatic, they have no running water (which means no toilets), and how many innocent men women and children do you think have been "accidentally killed" during the conflict. And yeah even when they had to worry about getting killed by sadaam, do you really think they have it easier now. Atleast then they only had his ass to worry about. Now they have to worry about our soldiers, their soldiers, terrorists, and hope to God every night that some misguided missle doesnt land in their lap. Count all the deaths of both soldiers and civi's and the number of people sadaam killed during his rule, the death toll caused by the war would be worse. Hell almost 800 civi's died a few wks ago because of a freaking rumor, how often did you hear of terrorist's willing to blow up innocent muslims on their way to a church before the conflict? All that shit adds up dude. And yeah its now starting to get better over there, but shit they have been living in fear for two yrs. Do you know what its like to live in fear? So yes I stand by my statement that the way of life in Iraq has deteriorated. Besides that, the original reason for going into Iraq was not because Sadaam was an asshole, if that were the case we would have invaded the country years ago, Bush never gave a shit about the citizens of iraq. It was because of supposed weapons, which were never fucking found. So you tell me, who is benifiting from the war right now? Not me, not you, the only ones benifiting are the damn weapons dealers contracted out by the US, and hell even then all our money is going to one company.
And in regards to your comment about my culture shock, maybe your not up to date on medical research, but researchers have found, in the 1960's, that there is a mind-body link. Which means when your are highly stressed, depressed, etc it can affect your physical well being. So imagine how an 11yr old copes with getting in a van from the airport and on your way to your new home you see all the buildings around you destroyed/deteriorating, people whoring themselves out (including men in dresses), women covering their face, people surrounding you and begging you for money everytime they saw you etc, etc, etc. We also happened to arrive during one of their religious celebrations, where it was normal for people to behead sheep and hang their carcase up in front of their houses. I bet you cant even fathom what its like to live in a 3rd world country. We also had to be aware of our surroundings at all times, I cant even count how many times we heard about americans just out in public doing their own thing falling victim to a hate crime. Thats a lot of shit for an 11yr old to deal with, they were so technologically disadvantaged when compared to the US its not funny. Hell I had my braces on my teeth for almost 7 yrs, and why, because none of the damn dentists in the area knew the proper procedures to care for my teeth. My braces basically sat on my teeth for 3.5yrs with nothing done to them. And lets remember of course there was no base, so there was never a complete feeling of saftey and being secure no matter where you where. That shit is a lot for a grown man to deal with, and at the time I was a child. Now imagine yourself at your nice comfortable home in the US and being told all of this was going to take place, all the things you would see, all the things to be wary of. You would probably, like me, be in disbelief and then imagine all of those things unfolding right in front of your eyes.
Edit: now that Im thinking about it, when I lived there I used to have people jump me and take my money all the time, and I mean grown ass men. Thats when I started carrying a blade and have done so ever since. Once I cut one of them and ran like hell I had no more problems.
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