A Not So Happy Thanksgiving

"I remember another time when someone was driving by and the man in the vehicle had done nothing, but the Bradley shot him anyway. I can still hear the man screaming and yelling as the care was burning. I hate to say this but we had not eaten and were all hungry...it smelled like barbecue. After a while, we went over to the vehicle and the only thing left of the man were his legs, most of his body had been burned. The next morning we saw dogs eating his legs, that's the only thing that was left. I will never forget this...seeing the dogs eating his legs."

"Hello Mr. Dallas." I stopped and turned around. Standing before me with an outstretched hand was a tall slender man. It was an awkward moment, since we both somehow knew I should have recognized him. "Do you remember me?" he asked. By now he realized the answer was no. As I reached out and firmly shook his hand, a long hand shake, that is, I quickly struggled for some words to excuse my lack of memory. "Remember several years ago," he continued, "when you wrote an article about me...just before Thanksgiving. I was on leave from Iraq...remember my daughter was struck by a car and was in serious condition."

I finally gathered my thoughts and remembered the article entitled: Happy Misgiving Day! I sat down with him and his family in 2006 just before Thanksgiving. Three years into the U.S.-led war against Iraq, Juan was on his third deployment. All of them had some serious misgivings about the direction of the war and the occupation in Iraq. I now recalled how Juan grew up in a small city and had always been fascinated with guns and dreamed of a possible military career. At first Juan had considered the Navy, since he had heard it would afford him to go different places and learn many interesting and new things. But because of frequent visits by Army recruiters in High School, Juan later decided to join the Army.

After graduating from high school, though, Juan disregarded the military. He married and started working at the local Walmart. He soon discovered that $5.35 an hour ($400 every two weeks) was not enough for his family. When their baby girl became ill, Juan was told that he would have to work one year to be eligible for any health benefits. He recalled how Army recruiters had once told him that in the Infantry, he could "mess with and fire some great weapons, like the Javelins, Missile Clues, and M-16's." He remembered how they told him the military had great benefits. Mainly for his daughter's sake, he decided to join.

During his initial deployment in 2003, Juan was in one of the first Armored Divisions that reached Baghdad. He remembered one incident while driving through Baghdad, and how his Bradley Fighting Vehicle suddenly made a sharp turn. He saw what appeared to be a market but had been bombed and leveled. People were running and yelling on both sides of the street too. After destroying an Iraqi enemy vehicle, his squad disembarked and tried to establish a secure perimeter. According to Juan, "It was mass confusion...all you could see was smoke, fire, people running, you didn't know who was who. A lot of people were killed that day."

On another occasion, Juan's unit took an alternate route through a marshland. When a tank slid-off into a canal, they had to dismount and pull security all night. In the morning, "all hell broke loose" according to Juan They were under fire from everywhere and were pinned down by insurgents. Their unit called for air support. Apache Attack Helicopters destroyed and obliterated everything...homes, buildings, sheds, even the trees. When they finally reached Baghdad, Juan's platoon had been assigned to protect an over-pass bridge. Since leaflets had been dropped warning all Iraqis to abide by a curfew, orders were given that any Iraqi breaking the curfew was considered an "enemy combatant."

Juan remembered vehicles coming from all directions and how they were all considered enemy insurgent vehicles. His platoon shot and destroyed so many vehicles that they lost count. He explicitly recalled how one truck filled with people was shot with a tank round, and how it went about "five feet into the air before it burned and crashed." Another time he and several soldiers had walked over to a destroyed vehicle. They saw a dead guy that had been there for several days. He was bloated, his eyes opened and glazed, and his hands still stuck to the steering wheel.

They thought about disposing of the body, so one soldier found a stick and tried to pry the man's hands off of the steering wheel, but they wouldn't budge. They then poked the stick into the dead body and noticed how it would puncture the flesh and penetrate deep into the corpse. A kind of liquid puss oozed out. They decided to leave the man in the vehicle. Once the overpass was secured, Juan's platoon started to patrol the alleys. He estimated that about twenty percent of buildings and homes had been destroyed in the area. His unit took many mortar rounds and RPG's and suffered several casualties.

Juan's second deployment had landed him in Sadr City. He distinctly remembered three major firefights with Iraqi insurgents. One morning after his platoon talked to an Iraqi doctor who was suspected of taking medical equipment, medicines, and other supplies, when they returned to their base they came under fire. Even though they were never able to locate the shooters, they arrested many men in the area and were take away by military police. On another occasion, six mortars hit their base. They returned fire destroying a pick-up with three men inside.

The third firefight happened after they had been on patrol for more than fourteen hours and were exhausted. Their forward observatory post was mortared. When they rushed to investigate, they observed a BMW leaving the scene. They fired at and chased down the vehicle, running it off the road. All of the occupants were arrested and treated. Juan had described Sadr City as "very messed-up." There was no water, sewage, or electricity, and trash was everywhere. He remembers children going through piles of garbage while dogs were eating corpses littering the streets. Many buildings and houses had been bombed.

In 2006, Juan was into his third deployment. He had many misgivings about the war and U.S. military occupation. Juan believed, "We should not be there. There is nothing in Iraq, just a lot of killing." I remembered how he looked at me, serious, reflective-like, and said, "We were supposed to go there because Saddam had WMD's. I have not seen any, we did not find any." He then added, "The war is much different now from back then...now it is confusing. I mean fighting in an urban area...vehicles and people are everywhere. In the military you always rehearse for a plan of action, but in Iraq it never works out the way you want...the way you expect. Something always seems to go wrong."

Four years had passed. Perhaps it was just me, but I noticed how mature and much older Juan looked, specifically how he had aged. I was frank with him and told him I would not have recognized him, but that it was good to see him and I had often wondered how he was doing. I then asked if he wanted his photos back that he had given me, photos that I had occasionally looked at over the last four years. Having ignored the question about the photos, Juan replied that war had a way of changing a person, of making one look older than what they really are supposed to be.

Juan told me too about how the numerous deployments became too difficult for his wife, and how she divorced him and remarried. However, he still visits his daughter. After his fourth deployment in 2008, Juan spent some time training with the Federal Emergency Management Administration. He decided not to reenlist in the Army. He mentioned how he has had a difficult time reintegrating back into mainstream society, and that it seems no one really cares about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Juan admitted that he carries the Iraq war with him, especially the feelings, sounds, images, and smells, that never seem to leave. He is deeply troubled and disturbed by some of the things that happened.

Unable to find steady employment, he moved back home with his parents. Juan sometimes thinks of himself as a "living casualty." His deployments and the time he spent in Iraq were also difficult for his parents and younger brother. He related an incident in which his father refused to fly an American flag on Flag Day. His father, like Juan, no longer supported or believed in the war. When a neighbor accused him of not being patriotic, a fight broke out. Police had to be called to the scene. For now, Juan's younger brother seems angry at the world and resents what the war has done to Juan. Juan said that his mother, who initially opposed the war, still cries.

In writing this article, I went back and read Happy Misgiving Day! I noticed Juan stated that during his third deployment, generals rarely ventured out of their quarters. Because of this, Juan believed there was a difference of perception on how the regular troops viewed the war versus the generals and politicians in America. As of today, there have been 4,427 U.S. military deaths and 32,900 U.S. military wounded in Iraq. Estimates of Iraqi deaths are between 135,000 and possibly over 1,000,000,000. And then, there are the "living casualties," like Juan. For some, it will be a not so Happy Thanksgiving.

At the same time, this could be the reason why President Abraham Lincoln issued the 1863 Thanksgiving Day Proclamation that reads: "I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea, and those who are sojourning in foreign lands...they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers, in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union."

The only difference is, of course, where the U.S. Civil War was not unavoidable, the U.S.-led Iraq War was.

Source: http://article.wn.com/view/2010/11/25/A_Not_So_Happy_Thanksgiving/?section=TopStoriesWorldwide&template=worldnews/index.txt