Iraq

I’ve heard so many stories of soldiers coming back from war with permanent problems because of it. I’m not only talking physical but mental as well and I don’t understand why they aren’t being taking care of. People obviously know that there is a problem or these stories wouldn’t exist but no one is doing anything about it. One story I remember specifically was about a soldier who had a cancerous birth mark that was looked at when he first had his physical to enter the military and suspected to be potential melanoma but it was kept out of his records and never made known to the soldier himself. Doesn’t the soldier at least deserve to know that he could have cancer? Once someone enlists, they are treated differently than others, usually with respect. They shouldn’t be treated different in the way that they lose some of their rights. In this story, the man had seen multiple doctors all of which said the same thing that it could be harmful but never told him or set up any follow up examinations to check on his progress to see if it was developing. What disturbed me the most is that if they had done something about it when they first recognized the risk; they would have been able to save his life. When he was finally home again (he was released due to his “illness”) he didn’t look anything like himself. He lost a lot of weight and his hair. He used to be muscular and handsome and you would never guess that it was the same person if you looked at the images.

I feel like the issues of why we are in war aren’t as important as the outcome. Are we really accomplishing our goal? And, if not, what are we still doing there? I don’t think people realize the effects of war, myself included. I feel like there is a lot more going on than what we actually know about because we aren’t over there experiencing it ourselves. Even hearing stories of what’s going on doesn’t suffice in my mind because things are left out and we can’t really understand it. I think people try to keep some stories hidden so that people won’t be against the war. It’s also the individuals’ fault because they aren’t taking the time to learn about the war and listen to the stories that are being told. I don’t know why we are in Iraq anymore. I also don’t know why there soldiers coming back with problems that aren’t being dealt with. I think that there is a lot I don’t know but I think that is true for a good portion of people in the U.S. I don’t really have any solutions at this point either because I don’t think that there’s really one thing we can do to change things. I think that it will take a series of events to improve the understanding of war in general and deal with the flaws in our system.