Sites Holmquist trys, and often fails, to go no more than a couple of days without visiting (some of which Holmquist regularly swipes links from without attribution)
When his turn came to speak at the community dialogue on the Iraq War, Staff Sgt. Jimmy Massey of the United States Marines Corps chewed his gum slowly and slowly scanned the 150 people in the audience.
What he was about to say required deliberation.
"We shot a man with his hands up," he said, "We even shot women and children."
Massey was one of three Iraq War veterans to speak yesterday at a forum sponsored by the Veterans Education Project and the American Friends Service Committee...
Massey told the audience of his disillusionment with the war... the 12-year veteran from North Carolina said he was fully prepared to kill or be killed. But that was before the war.
Today he said he takes five different anti-depressant and anti-anxiety pills to help him deal with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Firing on civilians and securing oil fields was not the duty he signed up for, he said...
He started asking questions and was reassigned to combat duty.
"I'm in the desert, I'm gung-ho, ready to kill," he said, putting "your tax dollars to work. Unfortunately, your tax dollars went into a lot of civilians. I was there. I pulled the trigger.
"My main purpose in life, for 12 years, was to meet the enemy on the battlefield and destroy him," he said. "When I left to go to Iraq I didn't care whether or not I died. If you die in combat, that's an honor."
There were days when he thought to himself, "Today is a good day to die," said Massey, who received an honorable discharge.
Nothing more needs to be said right now. posted by micah holmquist at 7/28/2004 11:51:00 AM
