An Unknown Soldier Wonders
By James T. Moore (03/22/07)
"We just got the word on the latest number: 3,131 of us guys fighting in Iraq have been killed. I got kind of a pain in my gut when I heard about it. I hate to say this, but I can't get it off my mind. I keep thinking, am I going to be 3,132? Or will it be Pete in front of me? Or Hank, standing by that fence?
“But you really do think of things like that when you walk down these hot dusty roads in Tikrit. You never know when some Iraqi kid is going to come over nice and friendly, and then toss a grenade at you. It’s like that here every day and every night. You just never know where or when you’ll get zapped.
“Like those guys that got it in Taji when a monster bomb went off under a Bradley sitting in a cane field north of Baghdad and blew up three more of our guys. ‘Course not all of those 1300 men that got killed died in hot action; some died in “non-combat” zones, but, sh*t, that’s no consolation. They’re just as dead as the others.
“And get this, some wise-a*s brigadier general in Washington said that he don’t think the troops have any doubt about their mission. He says the country is behind us and the military brass is behind us. Yeah, thanks a lot. Everybody’s behind us, but nobody’s in front of us but the Iraqis. Then this general says, no casualty figure is going to cause us to lose our will or our focus. What a crock! If this one-star idiot ever gets out of his armchair long enough to join us guys doing the fighting, he might change his tune.
" My name? I can’t give that out to you, or my outfit, or exactly where we go from time to time. Wartime security, or something. I wouldn’t want you to know who I am or exactly where we are anyway. Just think of me as a soldier who’s more scared of being the next one to get hit. I guess it’s just a psycho kind of thing that I can’t shake.
“But what the hell, it’s only relative, ain’t it? That’s what I keep telling myself anyway. I guess the guys who fought in Korea where they lost over 30,000 men; or in Vietnam where 58,000 guys got it, felt the same way I do, like, is MY number up next? Or, what the hell, like the guys in World War II who crossed themselves and prayed that they’d get home one of these days, even if an arm or leg was missing--- but 290,000 of them never did get home.
“I suppose you’d like to know what I REALLY think about being over here in this damn war. Well frankly, it’s a rat hole of a place. Besides, I thought we were coming in here to get rid of that bastard Saddam Hussein, but now that we got rid of him, what the hell are we still doing over here going on five years. Yeah, I know, we’re trying to bring democracy to these poor people. That’s a friggin’ laugh. They wouldn’t know what democracy is if it was on a plate in front of them. Sure, maybe they heard about it. This bunch over here aren’t stupid, but they got their own culture and way of doing things. So I can’t figure out why we’re trying to push “America’s way” down their throats.
“And another thing I thought about while I was dodging a couple of rounds. Was this whole damn war even necessary? I got a gal back home and we’re getting married, if and when I get back, and, boy, I hated to leave her. Oh, sure, I would go to war if our country was in real danger. Any patriotic American would. But shit, this war has nothing to do with the security of America. If we had kept our butts home instead of screwing around with people in foreign countries we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in. And I wouldn’t be making myself a target for no good reason.
“A lot of guys are saying that the reason we’re over here is because it’s the start of our global takeover, you know, like American empire, or whatever the hell they call it. Well, I gotta tell you something, most of the guys want no part of that, and neither do I. We don’t exactly understand it, so when we see guys getting killed over here because of it, we say, screw that empire business.
“I’m telling you right now, I’m as patriotic as the next man, but I’m a son of a bitch if I’m going to leave home and maybe lose my life just because Bush says it’s the right thing to do. I guess those characters in Washington can say stuff like that; hell, it’s not THEIR asses being shot at.
“Sorry if what I’m saying disappoints or offends anybody but that’s the mood I’m in since hearing about those 1,131guys over here who are dead because the big shots in this administration decided to Americanize the whole damn planet.
“Well, that’s all I’ve got to say about this killing in Iraq and those three thousand good men who aren’t coming home to their families. I don’t like it. I think it’s wrong. I think we made a big mistake in coming here in the first place, and I’m anxious to get out of this mess in one piece and get home to my gal.
Unless, God forbid, some Iraqi kid comes over to me with a banana in one hand and a “pineapple” in the other, and my number comes up.”
James T. Moore
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