First Person: Operation Iraqi Freedom Made Me See Other Evils of War

As we near the 10-year anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq, Yahoo News asked U.S. servicemen and women who served to share their perspectives and discuss how it changed them. Here's one story.

FIRST PERSON | I deployed as a 21-year-old Marine Lance Corporal (E3) to the western Al Anbar province of Iraq in March 2008 until October 2008 with Co. D, 4^th LAR BN, attached to 2^nd LAR BN.

Our company was stationed in Quantico, Va., very close to my hometown of Stafford. When we deployed, our battalion was stationed at Camp Korean Village, but my company spent most of our time in a little known train station near a small town called Akashat. Our day-to-day business consisted of security and presence patrols in Akashat and long range reconnaissance patrols, or LARPs, of the desert and neighboring valleys, villages, and abandoned Iraqi military establishments. We were looking for oil smugglers, drug smugglers, and other "undesirables," including "terrorists."

Did you serve in Iraq? Interested in sharing your story? Learn more here.

I wouldn't say I enjoyed my work. Hell, at times, I jokingly contemplated the idea of wandering off into the desert, heading west until I came to France, and hopping a ride back to the States; of course, I wasn't serious but it entertained me to imagine it.

Instead, I strove to believe in my work, thinking that what we were doing was assisting the legitimate government of Iraq in establishing itself. Also, I was fighting for freedom and democracy abroad -- a righteous endeavor. Though I was an infantryman, I never saw combat, and I once considered that a curse; I now know that it was a blessing.

Before I deployed, I was studying history at Christopher Newport University in Newport News. When I returned to college from Iraq, I knew I was different. Knowing how I had changed, and to return back and see my previous environment and friends unchanged, was a major culture shock. Yet, that change in my attitude was only a first phase. I still had one final phase to complete.

Trying to reconcile what I had done and not done in Iraq with what I firmly believed in, what my morals were, I had to come to the realization that what I had done in Iraq was wrong. Indeed, what we as a nation, government and military had done was wrong. Things I had done and wanted to do went against everything I believed in before my deployment and after. I speak of ransacking homes, physically searching people and their vehicles, and threatening them with death. I could never do any of this without provocation or in absence of self-defense; yet, I did it. And I saw no problem with it while I was doing it. And that, to me and many others, is the path to evil. To defend your life, family, and property should be hailed as the only legitimate form of violence. But to assault, insult, wound, and kill others under the guise of defense makes us no different than the enemies we make or conjure up. And, unfortunately, many have died for these false pretenses.

And my blessing? I never saw combat, so I never killed anyone. I have no blood on my hands. Truly a blessing.

This December will mark the end of my 8-year contract with the Marine Corps, and I will not be re-enlisting. Does this mean I am trashing the Marine Corps? Absolutely not. It only means that I no longer wish to be a part of it anymore. I have a wife, a son, and another boy on the way. I have a job in security, a growing industry. I have chosen to make my home in Virginia. Returning to what I said earlier, I have no reason to fight, hurt, or otherwise assault anyone since, despite what others would have us believe, my family and home are not in danger.

My life is incredibly different now. After having being educated in what our foreign policy is really all about, I willingly gave up my previous dreams of a military career, electing now to live and let live.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/first-person-operation-iraqi-freedom-made-see-other-233100358.html

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