It's an awful thing, but I'm not really in much of a position to judge and I doubt that very many of you are either.
These men are mentally conditioned into a certain mind set... one I doubt you can comprehend unless you've been in it.
I have mates who've been over in Afghan and Iraq, when they come back it takes weeks for them to adjust... you can see it when you go out with them into a club or a bar... everything is a possible threat to them. Completely on edge.
Shit... I've heard their storys... when they've been out on patrol, you're in a convoy and you don't know if the woman in a Burkah crossing the road infront of you with what appears to be a pram is doing just that - or whether she's taking her time to halt the convoy so that the houses you're driving past full of people who hate you can fire RPG you. Every time the convoy stops must be sickening
You don't know if a guy is just dialing a number on his mobile phone or if he's arming an IED planted in the spot you're about to walk over.
The suicide bombers used to just try and walk up to check points and get as close as possible before detonating, the warnings and distance tolerance have gotten so low that now they just strap up on a bike and whack the accelarator... my mates lucky a guy managed to hit the front tyre when he was at a checkpoint... only way to stop the bike without blowing the fucker up and setting off the bomb.
Until I've had to face down somebody who doesn't understand me walking towards me... not knowing whether I'm about to gun down an innocent man who doesn't know he's not meant to be here or whether he wants to blow my face off I'm not going to nor could I judge any of the soldiers over there.
Not only are the conditioned to act and think in a certain way, ignoring or eliminating other thought processes but I imagine it doesn't take long being exposed to that sort of enviroment to completely transform inside of your head.
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