Disillusioned with the U.S. military

Every time I turn on the news, I find myself forced to watch some of the saddest and most unnecessary tragedies and “accidents” I’ve had to witness in my few 18 years of life. News stations barely ever talk about natural disasters killing innocent people anymore. Unfortunately it tends to always be something that somebody in our military has done to cause grief and pain to people in countries that we currently occupy, primarily Afghanistan.

I understand why people may take offense to me criticizing the military. It may strike some as unpatriotic or disloyal to our nation, but quite frankly that’s not the case. Yes, the Taliban used to rule Afghanistan. Yes, that’s where Osama bin Laden used to live. But those are no longer the case. Many changes have come about in the last ten years although one thing hasn’t changed: American soldiers still roam the streets of Afghanistan, killing civilians and sometimes rebels.  But these last few months, we have done little but unnecessarily harm the people of that country.

We’ve occupied Afghanistan for over a decade, and I’m supposed to believe that in all those years we never learned about their customs or religion? That NATO officials were unaware of the disrespect they were committing when they burned those Qu’rans? I understand that there may have been a reason as to why the holy books had been confiscated, but to burn them in front of the people who worship that religion is just uncalled for. And somehow we still ask ourselves why countries and people from all over the world hate our country.

What about the soldiers who took a photo posing next to a Nazi symbol? The government issued an apology, but I didn’t find any comfort in a public comment made as a PR move. Had the military officials issued a sincere apology maybe I wouldn’t be typing this sentence. After those two events I began to lose faith in what our military stood for. All my life I had been told that we fought for freedom and justice. Where’s the justice in any of the last two situations? Where is this fight for freedom? Burning the Qu’rans, in my opinion, was a statement that was meant to let the Afghans know that we were above them. What we basically told them was that we could totally disrespect their religion because we are American and they are Afghan.

Is that the same message of equality that we have been taught all throughout our lives? Or is equality something that only applies when we want to go into another country for resources?

I’m not saying that I encourage or understand the killing of American soldiers in anyway whatsoever. I don’t condone the actions that Afghan rebels have committed but I only pose one question: When an American walks into a village and kills 17 civilians, nine of them being children, is it totally wrong to use violence against us? Treat others the way you want to be treated, right?

We have such an uproar whenever we see people in other countries burning our flag, but when we burn holy books that are sacred to another culture, are we right to believe they have to just accept it? I’m not so sure. When we kill 17 innocent civilians, are we right to demand justice when one of our soldiers is shot down? If we take pictures that show us happily standing by Nazi symbols, is the world wrong for comparing us to them?

I think it’s time for a change of culture starting from the head of our military and trickling down to the bottom and most basic forces. It’s time for us to become a country with a military that promotes peace throughout the world, not violence and destruction.