08 May 2005
Iraq haunts middle America
Another excellent documentary by PBS titled "The Soldier's Heart" can be seen online at the PBS website. This time, it focusses on the post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) suffered by troops returning from Iraq.
It is an interesting downstream effect of the war about which nobody in the White House wants to know. After all, the troops are in the end, simply instruments of a morally flawed neo-con policy. The good consequence of the troops suffering from PTSD is that it will bring home to middle America, the realities of not making war the option of last resort in solving problems.
The opening segment of this documentary has a former Marine sergeant recounting how he and his men killed an Iraqi woman going about her business. He says she was ordered to stop but failed to comply and so she was, to use his words, "torn to pieces" by the combined barrage of some 15 high powered assault weapons.
Before blaming the woman for her own terrible death, stop to think for a moment what could have been in her mind.
She's being yelled at by foreign soldiers in a language she does not understand. They are gesturing wildly at her but she's not sure whether they want her to stop or approach. Their gestures confuse her because they are not ones with which she's familiar in her country. She fears if she stops she might be thought not to be complying with orders she doesn't understand. On the other hand, if she walks slowly towards them, and makes no sudden moves, then maybe that's the safest thing to do.
Unfortunately for her, it is precisely her continued approach that causes the soldiers to open fire on her. That they do and after they tear her to pieces with their bullets, what do they find? A small white flag clutched in her hand. This must be winning hearts and minds in Iraq!
Imagine if you will, Chinese soldiers in the streets of some dusty town in Texas. Yelling in Mandarin to your mother, sister, wife, daughter or girlfriend to stop and raise her arms. Except that since your loved one doesn't understand Mandarin, she fails to comply. She is then torn to pieces by the combined barrage of 15 assault rifles.
It's fair to guess not too many relatives will walk away from exacting revenge, will they? Hell, if your loved one was butchered like that, wouldn't you want to return the favour too?
It is an interesting downstream effect of the war about which nobody in the White House wants to know. After all, the troops are in the end, simply instruments of a morally flawed neo-con policy. The good consequence of the troops suffering from PTSD is that it will bring home to middle America, the realities of not making war the option of last resort in solving problems.
The opening segment of this documentary has a former Marine sergeant recounting how he and his men killed an Iraqi woman going about her business. He says she was ordered to stop but failed to comply and so she was, to use his words, "torn to pieces" by the combined barrage of some 15 high powered assault weapons.
Before blaming the woman for her own terrible death, stop to think for a moment what could have been in her mind.
She's being yelled at by foreign soldiers in a language she does not understand. They are gesturing wildly at her but she's not sure whether they want her to stop or approach. Their gestures confuse her because they are not ones with which she's familiar in her country. She fears if she stops she might be thought not to be complying with orders she doesn't understand. On the other hand, if she walks slowly towards them, and makes no sudden moves, then maybe that's the safest thing to do.
Unfortunately for her, it is precisely her continued approach that causes the soldiers to open fire on her. That they do and after they tear her to pieces with their bullets, what do they find? A small white flag clutched in her hand. This must be winning hearts and minds in Iraq!
Imagine if you will, Chinese soldiers in the streets of some dusty town in Texas. Yelling in Mandarin to your mother, sister, wife, daughter or girlfriend to stop and raise her arms. Except that since your loved one doesn't understand Mandarin, she fails to comply. She is then torn to pieces by the combined barrage of 15 assault rifles.
It's fair to guess not too many relatives will walk away from exacting revenge, will they? Hell, if your loved one was butchered like that, wouldn't you want to return the favour too?
