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Life Changing Moments
Biggest life changing moment ever is waking up and not having anyone
I met a marine outside of Denny's not too long ago, it was a really big awakening to the evils of the world. My buddies and I were outside leaning on a car just chilling. Then this man comes to us, the normal marine hair cut, jeans, and white dress shirt, you could totally tell he was a marine not only from his hair but from his build and how he moved. He asked to use my phone so I let him and when he was done instead of leaving he just stood there and talked to us. He had just gotten back from Iraq he told us, I was about to tell him how important what he did was and tell him thanks for fighting but then he surprised me. He told us how he saw his best friends die and that the entire war was for nothing. Tears were in his eyes as he told us "if you know anyone planning on joining the military, talk them out of it, do whatever it takes to talk them out of it, it's not fucking worth it". We could all totally tell that he was messed up from being in war and that who he once was was gone because of the loss of his innocense. I was always big into the military because of me being in ROTC but he changed my view on things. The war against Iraq was not right and peace should have been explored a lot more, war should have been the very last option because there are people like that Marine who will lose there lives and lose who they are because some politicians want another countries oil. Sometimes war is necessary there are no doubts about it, but this war was not, killing another human being should be the last thing anyone has to do. The military is not to blame and they should not be looked down upon, they are just people doing what they're told...they don't plan to attack anyone, they're just there if we have to. The government is who tells the military what to do, and our government is on a path for destruction if we keep using violence as an answer. I will always remember that Marine I met.
The following is a letter my hero Dave Matthews wrote about the war in Iraq before it started:
I hope this letter finds you all well and that in these uncertain times you find moments to be joyful. I want to speak my mind about this war with Iraq, or I will choke on my conscience. What is the motivation? Regime change? Shouldn't that be up to the people of the region and the people of Iraq? The only real threat from Saddam Hussein is to his neighbors and none of them support a U.S. invasion. Is it to stabilize the Middle-East? Wouldn't it only do the opposite by causing further death and suffering in a country that has had more than its share? Is it to weaken Al Qaeda? Saddam Hussein is a genocidal maniac but he is not Al Qaeda. He is certainly more visible though. Is he our target because he is easier to identify than the illusive terrorist network? Surely it is more likely that an attack on Iraq would only strengthen Al Qaeda by feeding Anti-American sentiment. Putting out the fire with gasoline, so to speak. It is certainly not to liberate the people of Iraq who suffer under Hussein's rule, unless we call killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqis liberation. Saddam Hussein is a barbaric murderous dictator. I wish the world were free of him. But the answer is not to bomb this great culture of Iraq out of existence to stop him. Why must the children of Iraq die by the thousands to stop a tyrant? It is not justice. And if we kill him what will we achieve? We will have taken the most unpopular leader in the Middle East and turned him into the greatest martyr radical Islam has ever had. The U.N. weapons inspectors must be allowed to do their job thoroughly and any military action should be internationally agreed upon. We must not allow our government to turn us into a rogue nation. I fear that our true motivation is about oil and our own flailing economy; about the failure to destroy Al Qaeda and about revenge. It is criminal to put our servicemen and women in harm's way and to put the lives of so many civilians on the line for the misguided frustrations of the Bush administration.
Bottom line: this war is wrong and this war is un-American.
Peacefully submitted,
Dave Matthews 2/7/2003
