Closer to the Carnage: A Navy Sailors Opinion on the War

The reason there is so much distrust in government these days is likely because we are lied to all of the time, and not because people enjoy a good conspiracy theory, as the CIA would love for you to believe. So it might come as a surprise to some of you that most Ron Paul supporters are ex-military personel. Considering Ron Paul stands for abolishing almost everything that our military is involved with, I think that the veteran support for Paul makes a big statement. My father played in a rock 'n roll band in his younger days, and like so many others, he wrote songs about Vietnam, and what a tragic waste the war was. I remember my high-school history teacher telling my class that the Iraq/Afgan war is just a repeat of Vietnam. At first this sounded absurd to me; perhaps because my parents were also big Republicans, my grandfather was a WWII hero and decorated Naval commander, and I was simply young and naive enough to believe that we we're actually fighting for our freedom over there. But my teachers' words rang deep in my mind, and as I drew similarities between this war and Vietnam, I started searching for truth.

I recently had the opportunity to talk to an old friend who has been serving in the U.S. Navy for years. I thought it would be insightful to talk to someone that is close to the carnage, and has first-hand experiences that could help us understand just what the hell our government has been doing in the Middle-East this past decade. Surely, if there actually is a threat to the United States over there, our military members would know all about it. It's worth noting that his opinions are absolutely consistant with every other soldier/veteran I've spoken with about this. So I asked him this question:

Me: 

“You know, I've never seen a real, live terrorist in my life, and I believe that 9/11 was an inside job and false flag operation designed to justify starting the so called “war on terrorism”. I respect what you do, but I gotta ask you, I am correct in assuming that this war is a for-profit war started because our government wanted their oil & other natural resources?”

Anonymous Navy Sailor:

"The facts as I understand them, are that there is no link between Osama Bin Laden and Iraq, nor were there any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. This was clear to almost everyone in the Government and CIA long before we invaded them. I also know that there is a stupid amount of heroin coming in [to the United States] from Afghanistan now, and this was not the case prior to our occupation of the country. When our stay was extended for the second time on my 2012 deployment, a three-star Admiral came on board to speak to us. He said that since he was keeping us out there for such a long time that he would answer our questions about why we were there. He said "Oil. We are here for oil.” 

 

However, a successful lie must be partially true. To be believable, there must be some fact. There is terrorism [in the middle east] and a lot of them do hate America. I don't know all the reasons for that, but I do know they have a few. For example, there have been a lot of Korean and Japanese women raped by American soldiers. There could be a million reasons other than 'because Allah told me to', or for the 77 virgins or some other ignorant bullshit. So of course there are extremist Muslim groups over there. When i was in turkey a few of the girls on my ship had black bags put over there heads and were kidnapped. It didn't last long. they were recovered the offenders were arrested. Then there was rioting and protesting and the men were released.

I've done a lot of research into 9/11, and it doesn't really add up. Theres a lot of shit that doesn't make any sense, like complete absence of any evidence of a plane in certain situations, or the fact that when the buildings collapsed they did so at a perfect 180 degree angle [demolition style], or that there are photographs and first hand reports of explosions at the base of the towers. Then there's the fact that we spent God only knows how much money apparently chasing one man around the world? Who we find and kill immediately without asking any questions [or evidence, or trial]? Then for some reason we dumped his body at sea before anyone could even see him. I've drawn the conclusion that who fucking knows. I sure as fuck don't.

I'm not in the Navy because I'm a patriot. I picked a branch where i wouldn't have to carry a gun or kill anyone; the medical field. They are paying for me to fix people and stitch people up and prescribe antibiotics for people who get infections. Best of all, they're paying for my college. I'm about to transfer to shore duty where i won't have to deploy anymore. I'll also get more free college, and they will pay me another $1400 a month for an apartment or house, plus $360 more a month for food, on top of my pay check. After my benefits run out in three years, I'm going to get out. My post 9/11 G.I. bill will pay for yet another three years of college and housing, at which point ill have a masters degree as a physicians assistant.

Its hard to say if i believe in what I'm doing. On one hand, fuck no-- this is retarded. I'm on a something-trillion dollar aircraft carrier with a $300 million monthly budget sailing around the Pacific in circles. We fly our jets and helicopters every single day, and we have four destroyers and a submarine with us at all times, and were not actually doing anything. On the other hand, despite the entire operation being a big, scummy waste of resources and money, I just don't know what we would do without all this. If we did away with all our [military industry] shit it wouldn't end well. We're not the only shark in the world either. The only real reason for us to be here is to keep other countries from attacking us or our allies. For instance, Taiwan, which is right off the coast of China, had a civil war. Now they're independent, but the only reason China doesn't take a big breath of air, blow it at them, kill everyone, and take it back, is because we're here and we said 'please don't do that'. In reality we probably wouldn't do shit, like when Russia marches into other counties fucks them up and says “You're mine now” all we do is say "Hey! Your not supposed to do that!

If you really want to know, the middle east is basically garbage. There is no real enemy there that could do any serious damage to our country. Even if 9/11 was real [as opposed to an inside job], sure it was a big deal, but in comparison to other wars, or even minor conflicts, its relatively insignificant. Then again, there is China and Russia to consider. I'll probably never know the truth about any of this, and I accept that. But my experiences have caused me to develop an inherent distrust of everything in the world. The damage beyond repair.

Consider what's happened to ancient Egypt or Greece, Annapolis, France, or England. It's only getting worse, and I'd hardly even consider them countries anymore. Yeah, there's still America, but then again, America is now run by [and for] corporations. They are the real government, and they don't give a fuck about borders. I don't trust any of it, I don't think it can be fixed. Maybe one day I'll move to Costa Rica and live in the mountains. Thats my rant, sorry if its all over the place, I'm at the end of a 12 hour shift."

[Edited for clarification & readability.]