Welcome America, to the Second Vietnam

May 23, 2008 by Holly in Iraq war  

war crimes Coverage on the Iraq war has been constant, however, with recent media hitting about war crimes and the bullshit that this country’s administration is pulling against their own troops is honestly astounding and infuriating me to no end.

I have been comparing the war in Iraq to Vietnam for a few years now and not only do I and so many other Americans see what this war really is, but even the Iraqis are speaking out and saying that yes, this war is absolutely nothing but a second Vietnam. In a photograph taken by Kristofer Goldsmith, an American soldier deployed in 2005 and stationed in Sadr City, a school with graffiti covering it read “Welcome America to the second Vietnam.”

Although the media has only been covering it recently, suicide amongst war veterans is at an all time high, affecting a great portion of vets. Those who do not fall victim to suicide, come home with severe mental disorders that the government simply doesn’t give a damn about and will not give the people who risked their lives for an incredibly unjust and illegal war the help that they not only need, but deserve. The number of cases of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) amongst Iraq war veterans is astronomical! In an e-mail dated March 20 out of an office of the Department of Veterans Affairs, a VA employee wrote: “Given that we are having more and more compensation-seeking veterans, I’d like to suggest that we refrain from giving a diagnosis of PTSD straight out. Consider a diagnosis of Adjustment Disorder, R/O PTSD.”

Are you fucking kidding me? Of course veterans are seeking compensation! They did what they were told to do, went to a country that they are being told they are helping and making the country and the citizens who live there incredibly more worse off than they already were! They are killing innocent civilians, they are torturing and using scare tactics against people that they were told they were freeing. Given what the Iraq war consists of and what these troops are being told to do, every single one of them should be coming back with PTSD; it absolutely blows me away if one soldier comes back and is just fine and dandy and can go on with their lives. These people deserve compensation from the people who lied to them, but instead of the government actually doing what they say they will, they are telling psychiatrists not to properly diagnose them so they can cut back on compensation costs. A diagnosis of Adjustment Disorder is insulting, especially since with that diagnosis, the veteran is told that their present condition lasts for approximately six months when PTSD can last for several years and in some cases, may never go away.

A war with a motive called Operation Iraqi Freedom, the government has obviously been quite crafty when lying to the entire world and stealing an obscene amount of money from taxpayers. What’s really going on in this war? Well…

The reason so many people, young people specifically, are being roped into joining the military in the first place is the promise of college tuition money. While the government keeps promising and giving these people the hope of some day going to school and getting a career, they are also taking those hopes away the second they can.

If a soldier tries to kill themselves after their first “tour” of the war and are discharged from the military, they are no longer eligible for the money that got them to sign their name on the dotted line to begin with, which is total bullshit.

This war needs to end and it needs to end soon, the US is simply ripping Iraq apart. If it does not, it will make it onto our soil anyway. The torture, living conditions and massacring of people that did nothing needs to stop.

At least some US troops have their heads and hearts in the right place. Sgt. Matthis Chiroux said this:

“In February, I received a letter from the Army ordering my return to active duty, for the purpose of mobilization for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Thanks in great part to the truths of war being fearlessly spoken by my fellow IVAW members, I stand before you today with the strength, clarity and resolve to declare to the military and the world that this soldier will not be deploying to Iraq.”

“This occupation is unconstitutional and illegal, and I hereby lawfully refuse to participate, as I will surely be a party to war crimes. Furthermore, deployment in support of illegal war violates all of my core values as a human being, but in keeping with those values, I choose to remain in the United States to defend myself from charges brought by the Army if they so wish to pursue them. I refuse to participate in the occupation of Iraq.”

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  • josieh leming
    These soldiers and their stories represent the best way to get the truth out. And the truth is that this war is about resources. Oil.
  • Richard Fishenden
    What we fail to understand is there is a built-in justice that permeates the universe. A spiritual law that says, what goes around comes around. The more pain and misery the US doles out, the more it will receive in return. And we as citizens, because we refuse to hold our govt' accountable for its diabolical actions, will be held just as guilty, if not more, as if we ourselves did the actual acts. By refusing to stop our wicked govt', we become guilty by association. Because the US is no longer by and for the people, in it's corrupting power it has instead become against all people and only serves the interest of the NWO elite, who are only a group of misguided, meglomanical psychopaths hell bent on destruction of everything and anything that represents goodness and decency and life.
  • Hard to believe how this could go on for so long. We can only hope there is a serious balancing period where the US is able to redeem itself on the world stage.

    Unfortunately, and stereotypically, it often reflects on individual people. Up here in Canada, many people believe that a large percentage of the US population is ignorant, conservative, antiquated and aggressive.
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