I followed Tomas Young and knew his was among countless other heart wrenching stories. It is so important that we listen to and know and feel these horrific and tragic experiences in our hearts. This is the path that I have found to begin to shed our indoctrination into the "glories" and "necessities" of war and wake up to realize in our deepest heart and soul that there is another way, that war is not peace or freedom, that war is terrorism and suffering and loss, and that we Americans desperately need to transform the stories we believe in and the values we live by. May we stand in protection of life rather than the unending cycle of violence.
Peace ~ Molly
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By Mark Wilkerson, TomDispatch | Op-Ed
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| (Image: Haymarket Books) |
Memorial Day is over. You had your barbecue. Now, you can stop thinking about America's wars and the casualties from them for another year. As for me, I only wish it were so.
It's been Memorial Day for me ever since I first met Tomas Young. And in truth, it should have felt that way from the moment I hunkered down in Somalia in 1993 and the firing began. After all, we've been at war across the Greater Middle East ever since. But somehow it was Tomas who, in 2013, first brought my own experience in the US military home to me in ways I hadn't been able to do on my own.
That gravely wounded, living, breathing casualty of our second war in Iraq who wouldn't let go of life or stop thinking and critiquing America's never-ending warscape brought me so much closer to myself, so bear with me for a moment while I return to Mogadishu, the Somalian capital, and bring you -- and me -- closer to him.
Please continue this article here: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/36368-one-man-s-war-bringing-iraq-to-the-united-states
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