You can hardly believe the last few months have been real. The town where you grew up looks like a war zone. Because it is one. Your own government requested assistance from foreign militaries, and now soldiers speaking a foreign language are patrolling your neighborhood. Some of them seem friendly enough, even if communication is difficult. But some of them seem like they’re looking for a fight, or on a power trip.
The television says that the situation is an emergency, which is why the notion of “innocent until proven guilty” is gone. So is the concept of due process, or any right to privacy. Desperate times call for desperate measures, they say. It’s all for your safety, they say.
Seeing a tank or armored car rolling down your street, bearing the flag of some foreign nation, has become commonplace. How could this have happened? They say they are there to protect you, but they make you just as uneasy as the terrorists they claim to be protecting you from. You try to mind your business and lay low, but their random stops, their roadblocks, the interrogations and searches, they happen without warning. So you just try to get by, day after day, hoping it will end soon.
Then one day you see with your own eyes what you’ve only heard rumors about before. After hearing yelling and screaming you look out your window to see your neighbors standing in the road—the street you grew up on, where you played as a child—and they are surrounded by half a dozen armed soldiers. The soldiers are yelling and pointing rifles in your neighbor’s faces. The father seems to be pleading with them, but you can’t quite make out the words. His wife and their two children are also on their knees, tears in their eyes. You don’t know what is going on, but you’ve known your neighbors for years, and know them to be good people.
You watch in horror as one of the soldiers lifts a boot and slams it into the father’s chest, sending him falling backwards. Two of the soldiers are glancing around, as if to see if anyone is watching. You lower yourself in the window as much as you can while still being able to see. A soldier grabs the arm of the teenage daughter and starts dragging her towards their armored car as she screams. The other soldiers aim rifles at the father, mother and son, yelling for them to go back into their house. From their mannerisms and expressions, you know what the soldiers’ intentions are. Two of the soldiers are laughing as the girl grabs the vehicle door, desperately trying not to be forced inside.
This can’t be happening. You were trying to lay low, to avoid trouble. Isn’t that what everyone said? “Mind your business, do as you’re told, and everything will be okay.” But it’s not okay. This is very not okay. You are more scared than you have ever been in your life. But you suddenly realize that, although staying alive is important, so is being able to live with yourself. You rush to the closet and throw aside the coats and boxes to reveal the rifle you’ve been hiding there, just in case.
Just in case what? Just in case … THIS.
Running back to the window you chamber a round. You know there are 29 more in the magazine. If you aim carefully, that will be enough. You hesitate for just a moment. You see the girl’s grip on the door finally fail, and a soldier throws her inside, yelling obscenities at her and slamming the door shut.
No. You can’t allow this to happen. Not in your country. Not in your home town. Not on your street. Not in front of your house. Not to the people you know, not to your neighbors. You know there is no going back. Once you commit, your whole life changes, forever. On the off chance that you live to see tomorrow, nothing will ever be the same. But for this, it’s worth it.
The soldier who had pushed the girl inside turns towards you, a sickening grin on his face. Two more are laughing, while several others look uneasy and unsure. But they already made their choice. They chose sides. They did nothing to stop this. Their inaction has made them accomplices to evil. They can claim innocence no longer.
A soldier opens the driver’s side door. It’s now or never. Whatever will be will be, but you will not allow this without a fight. Righteous zeal and instinct take over. The crack of your rifle is deafening. Your first shot goes right through the helmet of the driver, killing him instantly. You are very aware that the girl is in the back of the car, so you take each shot with great care, and just hope any ricochets spare her. After the first shot, the other soldiers are startled, and it takes them a moment to regain their composure, giving you enough time to land two good body shots on two others.
The next several minutes are a blur. You are aware of bullets going through the walls around you, but you stand firm. You fire only when you have a clear target. Today, luck is on your side. When all is quiet, your magazine is empty, but you’re too in shock to reload. You wait, and listen. There is no sound coming from outside. Wait … one sound. A soft sound. The sound of crying.
The girl. She’s alive.
Forgetting tactics and caution, you run outside, knowing that other soldiers may show up at any moment. You run to the vehicle and open the door. There is terror in the girl’s eyes, but she appears unharmed. She recognizes you and you coax her out of the vehicle. As you help her out, you turn to see her family, watching from their yard. The girl runs to her mother. You yell for them to leave, immediately, and to never come back. You know you must do the same.
Somehow you survived. Whatever happens now, it was worth it. You did what was right. And this time, the good guys won.
The bad news is, you are now labelled by the United States government as an insurgent, an enemy combatant, and a terrorist. Because your home town is in Iraq, and the foreign soldiers were Americans. From this point on, the U.S. war machine will do whatever it can to hunt you down and kill you. If somehow you are captured alive, you will be tortured and interrogated. You can tell the truth, but it will do you no good. At best, you will be imprisoned indefinitely without charges or trial. At worst, you will be murdered outright. Because you had the gall to try to defend against the most powerful gang of thugs on the planet: the United States military.
If you think things like this aren’t happening—if you think that “the troops” are always the good guys—then you are being willfully dense. A thug and a murderer wearing an American flag is still a thug and a murderer. A decent human being—American or otherwise—doesn’t cheer for thugs and murderers; he doesn’t cheer for the aggressor; he cheers for those defending against the aggressors, even if the defenders have been labelled as “terrorists” and “insurgents” by politicians and flag-waving idiots.
And if you don’t even dare to consider the possibility that sometimes U.S. soldiers do things for which they should be shot, then you are a coward and a fool.
Larken, as a former US combat "Thug", I could do nothing but cry while reading this in pieces. Thats the only way i could get through this article. Even though I myself never engaged in such evil, or even witnessed it by other soldiers, i know that such things have happened.
All I could picture is myself defending that girl as though it was my own daughter. I am very thankful that I woke up to the crimes of my former bosses several years ago and now i fight to spread truth and freedom, same as you. By the way, we are facebook friends, and I read all of your posts. Thank you!
I say this often, but it's never enough: Whenever someone has been through the indoctrination routine that members of the military are put through, and STILL manages to end up moral and rational, that hugely impressed me. Thank you for being strong enough that your humanity over-ruled the authoritarian bullshit.
You have me in tears for the first time while reading SteemIt......and it was the damn comments section at that. I cannot express what these words mean to me, but thank you.
Thank you, Larken, for being a bastion of light and common sense in an insane world!
One of my favorite scenes:
This video clip is all propaganda by the left. Sure, we have our issues but the left likes to say how horrible of a Country we are. I think we are in the middle.
WATCH THE FOLLOWING VIDEO
http://louderwithcrowder.com/the-newsroom-rebuttal-america-is-not-the-greatest-country-in-the-world/#.V7__ju8pASZ
If you are American you will want to stop this clip before it is done, but please ignore the immeasurable urge to avoid/ignore/delete/close/forget and watch it from start to finish. Then answer that question yourself.
Great show, its first season was amazing.
Just because I was born and live in America doesn't mean I am blind and stupid. The statistics stand whether I delete this clip or even if I never saw it. It has nothing to do with anything I say, do or believe.
Thank you for posting it. I really enjoyed it, but probably for unexpected reasons. It was hard for me to hear all the negatives he talked about. Not because they were true (they are), but I try really hard to stay positive. The way he finished by talking about what this country used to mean to people was positive to me. I was worried other Americans like me would stop it before it got to the part that could give hope.
I don't totally understand your reply. I'm not sure but it seems my words may have offended you? If so I'm sorry and totally not my intent.
No, I'm sorry. I thought you were telling me to take the video down. I apologize for jumping to conclusions. I actually cried when he was talking about how decent people used to be to each other. It's so sad. People prioritize the wrong things.
...and that, my friends, is how we create terrorists. Over and over and over......
I remember a story that @adamkokesh told about 2 men trying to leave fallujah. The men were not allowed to flee, only women and children. The men had several thousand dollars with them. They were harassed and eventually forced to go back into the city. Adam figured that if the men had no prior intention of using the money against the american soldiers, it would probably be used against the soldiers now.
And if you don’t even dare to consider the possibility that sometimes U.S. POLICE do things for which they should be shot, then you are a coward and a fool.
Amen.
Not sometimes...... 😳
All intelligent, coherent comments on a blog site. I'm not sure what's going on.
Welcome to Steemit. :)
It's one of the few places on the Internet where it pays to read the comments.
I've had my Facebook comments disappear before my eyes multiple times in a row, and PMed the admin of the page about it, and he had to post my comments. The same kind of thing has happened to friends of mine, too. It looks like the sane people are censored.
Yep, most of my 200+ friends do not see any of my posts and when I comment they have just disappeared. There is a definite narrative being pushed (also ignored) and is a big reason why STEEM interests me so much.
I say, let's fund a campaign to educate american soldiers. Most of them genuinely think they are protecting their country by killing people abroad, many have come to the realization that they are not and have resigned, we need to reach out to these people.
Yes, we do, and it's already happening. I know quite a few former Marines who are now voluntaryists. Even though it's kind of a hippyish saying, it still is true: "What if they had a war and no one showed up?"
Every day, I'm thankful that I'm no longer in the military. If I were, I'd be in the brig for sure for refusing to obey illegal orders.
I heard Stewart Rhodes of the Oath Keepers say in an interview (It might have been Sheepdog vs Sheepdog, but I'm not sure.) that if the US where to collapse into civil war that the Marines would likely flip as a unite and fight the Feds.
What do you have in mind? I would like to help.
Do you know how to hack into systems? If we could get addresses of every soldiers currently serving we could send them a life changing letter , you know the kind of letter that will make them burst into tears.
I'm sure that goes on to this day... It's just sad.
This was heartwrenching and sickening and brilliantly written and unfortunately very true. Thank you for your bravery. It is an unpopular reality of war that too many seem to ignore with their "support the troops" bumper stickers.
If someone wants to "support the troops", they should be campaigning to get them back home safely, not supporting warmongers.
I once knew a Bosnian refugee who had fled Yugoslavia with his family during the crisis of 1995. He told me stories about two Canadian peacekeepers that I've never forgotten. Evil has no nationality.
Rule by force is the problem.
The way you played upon "right wing" fears, the assumption that it was a hypothetical situation in America, then pointing that this is a real thing happening all around the world, was quite brilliant.
I can already predict the people that will say that's painting with a broad brush, that not all soldiers are like that.
If the soldiers cared enough to think for themselves about their actions rather than submitting to group think, they wouldn't participate in foreign occupation in the first place.
One thing nice about using a story like this is that "They aren't ALL like that!" isn't a rebuttal (since I didn't say or imply that they are all like that). To complain, someone would have to argue, "NONE of them are like that!" And we all know that isn't true.
Everybody needs to hear this.
thank you for writing that .
shame shame shame .....had to be said . Awesome article !
The foolish belief that "might is right", and the death of any empathy for our fellow humans is very well captured in your writing here.
I think it goes even deeper than "might is right". Every country teaches children that THEIR country is the BEST, and that THEIR country has the MORAL HIGH GROUND...leading to adults waiving flags and blindly following any action by THEIR governments.
Brilliant..You have summed it up beautifully.
I can imagine how difficult that can be for a person to survive in these kind of scenarios. Nice post
Captivating story, very well written!
Great, vivid, emotion packed article Larken.
Almost brought a tear. Everyone needs to read this.
I fucking cried.
I love you so much for writing this. I just hope US Military doesn't kidnap you and send you to Guantanamo or smt for publishing this.
Fuck. That was depressing. But it was a healthy dose of much needed truth, so thank you.
I wish I had the resources to make this into a short film....
Larken I have to say, this is the best thing I have ever read from you. Just amazing in every way.
The disintegration of America in my lifetime has been appalling. At one time Americans could travel fearlessly and be greeted with friendship almost everywhere they went. Now it's the opposite.
I suppose we the people are as much to blame for choosing the leaders who have done these things as the leaders themselves. And looking around at the world it seems like Americans are the slowest waking up.
It would be easy to go on and on, but I'll keep it brief, the point is made.
IMHO "much to blame for choosing the leaders" is a myth. Where is there any proof we (the people of America) chose our leaders?
@larkenrose - Thank you for crafting this beautifully-written story. I will share it it in the hope that your point will reach those who need to hear it the most (although I expect that 'unfriendings' are likely amongst those not already in the metaphorical choir ) <3
How do I upvote, cant figure it out
Problem reaction solution
Gripping stuff, Larken. I'd like to see more of these posts.
This is very well-written, you had me captivated by your story all the way through. Looking forward to your stories in my feed from now on :)
Thank you for sharing this @larkenrose!