European Tribune - Community, Politics & Progress.

Hidden Legacy- LQD -too good to improve

by geezer in Paris
Sat Jan 19th, 2008 at 04:31:59 AM EST

Late one night in the summer of 2005, Matthew Sepi, 20, an Iraq combat veteran, headed out to a convenience store in the seedy Las Vegas neighborhood where he had settled after leaving the U.S. Army.

By day, the area, littered with malt liquor cans, looks depressed but not menacing. By night, it becomes, in the words of a local homicide detective, "like Falluja."

Sepi did not like to venture outside too late. But, plagued by nightmares about an Iraqi civilian killed by his unit, he said he often needed alcohol to fall asleep. And so it was that night, when, seized by a gut feeling of lurking danger, he slid a trench coat over his slight frame - and tucked an assault rifle inside it.

Too grim for you? Then move on. That would be the fond wish of the current U. S. administration, who has gone to incredible lengths to bury these kinds of stories,-- before life buries their participants.

Diary rescue by Migeru

International Herald Tribune: Iraq veterans leave a trail of death and heartbreak in U.S. (January 13, 2008)

As Sepi started home, two gang members, both large and both armed, stepped out of the darkness. Sepi later said that he spied the butt of a gun, heard a boom, saw a flash and "just snapped."
In the end, one gang member lay dead, bleeding on the pavement. The other was wounded. And Sepi fled, "breaking contact" with the enemy, as he described it. With his rifle raised, he crept home, loaded 180 rounds of ammunition into his car and drove until police lights flashed behind him.
"Who did I take fire from?" he asked. The diminutive young man said he had been ambushed and then instinctively "engaged the targets."
He shook. He also cried.
"I felt very bad for him," Andersen said.
Nonetheless, Sepi was booked, and a local newspaper soon reported: "Iraq veteran arrested in killing."
Town by town across the United States, headlines have been telling similar stories. Lakewood, Washington: "Family Blames Iraq After Son Kills Wife." Pierre, South Dakota: "Soldier Charged With Murder Testifies About Postwar Stress." Colorado Springs: "Iraq War Vets Suspected in Two Slayings, Crime Ring."

We in the US are creating a massive disaster in the form of broken young people who will haunt our world.
No one that I know wishes to imagine just what it might be like to go on patrol in Fallujah or Baghdad--

--that old queasy gripe in the stomach, the incipient diarreah that one never admits, the sweaty armpits and shaking hands that too must be concealed, plastered over with savage jokes and too many cigarettes, and the gradual death by torture of feeling and hope--

The IHT rarely goes out on a limb, but this is so good, and so well written that perhaps it just overwhelmed the editor's sense of job security. In any case, read it, and shovel a scoop of dirt on Bush's grave, for here is his real legacy--a gift to the world that he doesn't want you to look at.

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Hidden Legacy- LQD -too good to improve | 19 comments (19 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Hidden Legacy- LQD -too good to improve (4.00 / 3)

Since when has a country that offers a shit education system to ensure that a large proportion of the population have few choices but to join the military given a shit about those who are casualties of the system ? That or go to prison, especially if they're balck. either way it's "Chew 'em up, spit 'em out, let 'em die".

Your political classes like it that way. They have made their pile, the system works cos it worked for them and they have no intention of ever changing it. Heck, even the Dems who'll win are the only insider no-change candidates in the pack.

It's brutal by design. Want to change it ? You're gonna have to do better than elect bought-and-paid-for quislings like Obama or Clinotn.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Sun Jan 13th, 2008 at 01:33:55 PM EST

Re: Hidden Legacy- LQD -too good to improve (4.00 / 3)

I wish there was a shred of a counter argument.

I left thirty years ago, because a lot of what you say was easily visible even then. When it became obvious that nothing I said or did, or the charade of American democracy was capable of fixing it, I hoped one day to not have to be "responsible". Yet I still find in my heart a moral obligation to accept your accusation.

"your"

Useful talking follows experience, the more experience the better. Talking that precedes experience is known as bullshit.

by geezer in Paris (risico at wanadoo(flypoop)fr) on Mon Jan 14th, 2008 at 02:38:28 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Glad you moved (4.00 / 3)

If nothing else, your survival chances are better.

But no matter where you are in the world, the strategic requirements (of morality) are the same.

It is only the tactical requirements that differ.

Good luck to us all.

by Gaianne on Wed Jan 16th, 2008 at 12:20:21 AM EST
[ Parent ]

I first saw this story by following a link (4.00 / 5)

to a New York Times article.

Not that I am a great believer in the NYT. But the story does have the "look and feel" of actual PTSD, so the essence is correct.

Now this could have been anticipated by anyone who paid attention to Vietnam. It is not new news: It is same old. And PTSD casualties from the Iraq war itself is not new either. I don't mean this is a bad article. It is a good article. But now, only now, four and a half years in, the NYT is printing something like this. So what is going on here?

We are getting a new narrative.

by Gaianne on Wed Jan 16th, 2008 at 12:15:19 AM EST

Re: I first saw this story by following a link (none / 1)

I would like to think that the Grey Lady's editors are leading the charge for truth and accountability. But it's more likely that the reporters are pushing, knowing from the get-go that the entire Iraq fiasco was doomed, and the editors are slowing waking up.

This, from page 2 of the linked article:

military health care officials are seeing a spectrum of psychological issues, with an estimated half of the returning National Guard members, 38 percent of soldiers and 31 percent of marines reporting mental health problems, according to a Pentagon task force.

Those percentages are staggeringly high, and probably reflect only a fraction of the actual cases. Talk about sowing dragons' teeth . . .

by Mnemosyne on Sat Jan 19th, 2008 at 11:06:37 PM EST
[ Parent ]

This is ever a legacy of war ... (none / 0)

... the "wild west" was in part so wild because of PTSD and the veterans of the US Civil War ... the dark pall of victory hung heavy over post-WWI Britain ... and who will ever know how many of the Conquistadores were driven to the New World because they were unable to finish with the Reconquista, even though the Reconquista was finished with them?

So, here I am in Ravenna. Where exactly was the Rubicon, again?

by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Sun Jan 13th, 2008 at 06:35:47 PM EST

Re: This is ever a legacy of war ... (none / 0)

So what are you saying?

"War is hell, but it's nothing new. Too bad."

Is this your point?

With the exception of perhaps the Civil War, your comparisons seem to me to be superficial and historically inaccurate.

The wild west was a rush to cop the land left vacant by the genocidal slaughter of it's previous owners. Perhaps in that respect, there is some overlap.
But real riches were a potential reward.

The Spanish crown's conquistadors were volunteers, and stood a good chance of retiring very rich. They had a "Senor"- a sponsor back home who would see that their family would want for nothing while they were busy slaughtering the subhuman Aztec. They brought with them a bag of ecclesiastical, dehumanizing trash for ethical guidance, and were, with a couple notable exceptions like Diego Duran and Bernadino de Sahagun, quite happy with "convert or die, wetback". Lots of accounts to read. I'm sure the bugs were bad, and the food probably sucked.

Without doubt, all of the events you point out created their tragic casualties among the surviving conquerors.
The point of the article, and of my diary, is that our guys are invisible, and will die invisible, except in fluky situations where their demise is spectacular enough to draw the press.

What was this young man's reward?

Sorry. Got carried away.

Useful talking follows experience, the more experience the better. Talking that precedes experience is known as bullshit.

by geezer in Paris (risico at wanadoo(flypoop)fr) on Mon Jan 14th, 2008 at 03:43:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]

But compare the US Wild West ... (none / 1)

... with the conquest of the Austalian frontier:

The wild west was a rush to cop the land left vacant by the genocidal slaughter of it's previous owners. Perhaps in that respect, there is some overlap.
But real riches were a potential reward.

The Australian land grab had all of those features. However, it had far fewer of the traumatised veterans of war that have been romanticised as putting the "Wild" in the Wild West.

I do find it ironic that the only way you can feel that this war is a vicious, brutal thing doing serious damage to the soldiers who fight it is to argue that it is thereby unique.

War is always a vicious brutal thing that does serious damage to the soldiers who fight it. The intensity and duration that help determine how many end up how badly damaged are matters of degree ... it is always a meat grinder, and the people that pursue it for their political or other ambitions are always brutal butchers.

So, here I am in Ravenna. Where exactly was the Rubicon, again?

by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Mon Jan 14th, 2008 at 06:24:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: But compare the US Wild West ... (none / 1)

I agree with everything you've said so far, but just out of interest, I will mention that I once read an Australian academic make the argument in the Australian press that in fact the US and Australian frontiers had similar levels of violence - in fact that Australia was a more violent place than the so-called 'Wild West' (i.e. the stress was on the West being not so wild as is usually supposed.)

I believe there are public records detailing the appearance of bushrangers even into the early years of the 20th century, but I'm not sure about that.

by wing26 on Tue Jan 15th, 2008 at 04:24:18 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: But compare the US Wild West ... (none / 0)

it had far fewer of the traumatized veterans of war that have been romanticised as putting the "Wild" in the Wild West.

This's what I mean. How can you seriously compare people voluntarily settling on land freed for distribution to them by the slaughter of it's previous inhabitants with the young man in this account? It's a complex issue, yes-- were the settlers driven to such theft by greed and racism? Then they are more accurately compared to the oil companies as players, because they wanted the land/oil. Or were they escaping an intolerable situation in the East? Responding to massive propaganda and subsidies intended to lure them into populating an area that was recently (almost) conquered? Following a personal dream? A combination, likely.

Why was he there? Read Helen's comment above. She nails it.

What was his reward?

I do find it ironic that the only way you can feel that this war is a vicious, brutal thing doing serious damage to the soldiers who fight it is to argue that it is thereby unique.

I made no such statement, directly or by implication, nor do I hold that view. The point of the diary was not about the evils of war, (a point in no need of debate) but about the invisible nature of it's victims- the victims on both sides. This time, in particular. My comment points out the great differences between the warriors you site and this young man.

NOW is unique in the fact that the victims on both sides have been largely disappeared, and very few people give a damn. In fact---it's a lot more "comfortable" that way. The genocide of the heathen redskin was a "necessary" event in our "Winning of the West". Howard Zinn is one of the few to try to tell it from the real victim's perspective.

"A People's History of the United States".

Useful talking follows experience, the more experience the better. Talking that precedes experience is known as bullshit.

by geezer in Paris (risico at wanadoo(flypoop)fr) on Wed Jan 16th, 2008 at 06:26:48 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: This is ever a legacy of war ... (none / 1)

The comparison with French soldiers who had fought in Algeria is, in my opinion, more relevant. As for the American veterans, they were ignored after they returned from the war.It was discovered only decades after the end of the war that a huge number of them had been suffering of PTSD, although there was no name for it in French until recently. In fact, many of them were still suffering after thirty years and are probably still suffering.

As far as I know, there is no record of a significant number of crimes committed by Algeria veterans (it would require some research).

"Ne te courbe que pour aimer..." René Char

by Melanchthon on Sat Jan 19th, 2008 at 06:35:25 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: This is ever a legacy of war ... (4.00 / 2)

It possibly has an influence on the level of anti-Arab prejudice in France, though. Guess which generation voted massively for Sarkozy?

The concept that socialisation has to be linked to business relationships is a great victory for business relationships, not for socialisation...

by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Sat Jan 19th, 2008 at 08:58:05 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Hidden Legacy- LQD (none / 0)

It is so sad.. I am speechless.

A pleasure

I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact. Levi-Strauss, Claude

by kcurie on Mon Jan 14th, 2008 at 06:35:41 AM EST

Re: Hidden Legacy- LQD (none / 1)

Me too.
That's why I wrote so little--there was nothing more to say.

Useful talking follows experience, the more experience the better. Talking that precedes experience is known as bullshit.

by geezer in Paris (risico at wanadoo(flypoop)fr) on Mon Jan 14th, 2008 at 02:28:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Hidden Legacy- LQD -too good to improve (none / 0)

[ET Moderation Technology™] Corrected lazy linking and moved link below the fold.

We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sat Jan 19th, 2008 at 04:32:35 AM EST

Re: Hidden Legacy- LQD -too good to improve (none / 1)

Unless this was reprinted from the NYT, it is not surprising that this article appeared in the IHT. It's more likely to be read outside the US than within it.

We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sat Jan 19th, 2008 at 04:36:07 AM EST

Re: Hidden Legacy- LQD -too good to improve (none / 1)

Well, actually, as Gaianne points out in a top-level comment, it is reprinted from the NYT: Across America, Deadly Echoes of Foreign Battles (By DEBORAH SONTAG and LIZETTE ALVAREZ on January 13, 2008)

We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sat Jan 19th, 2008 at 09:58:33 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Hidden Legacy- LQD -too good to improve (none / 0)

how does this violence compare with the demographic of others not in the military; i believe it is substantially less; you are a credulous lot

by tomcunn (tomcunn@execpc.com) on Sat Jan 19th, 2008 at 09:39:46 PM EST

Re: Hidden Legacy- LQD -too good to improve (none / 1)

Yes, how does it?

We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sat Jan 26th, 2008 at 11:57:33 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Hidden Legacy- LQD -too good to improve | 19 comments (19 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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