HEADS, FEET AND MORE!

HEADS, FEET AND MORE! (New York Post/Washington Post/Frazer Chronicle)



They say "war is hell," and I'm sure it is, I'm just glad I never experienced it, the same as most other Americans, we thank our "lucky stars." But what about the young kid, the maybe less educated, or the guy with a loose screw, the person with a propensity for anger, violence, the person with absolutely no conscience.....the war criminal.

A war zone to these kinds of people must be kinda like a "kid with a sweet tooth in a candy shop or bakery," and hundreds of dollars at his disposal. I do know for a fact that the entrance bar has been lowered by the military as all of these wars drag on and volunteers become harder to find.

I was talking to a young guy the other day, (I consider a 25 year old man almost a baby) and he was telling me about his plans and how to get "out from under his educational burdens." He was going to join the Air Force as a nurse and with his signing bonus and the waiver of some of his school costs, he would be able to pay off all his student loans, all his other bills and walk away with several thousand in his wallet.

I am not saying that this guy is going to get into some sort of war zone and cut off noses to hang from a trophy necklace.....but you never know. I'm betting every single one of these soldiers that do this kind of "trophy display crap," to at least one person is a hero and an outstanding human being.

That feeling, "of a soldier being normal, like the rest of us," would be an incorrect opinion, because war affects everybody differently, but make no mistake, war affects every returning person. Change in a person's mental, physical and emotional health is a guaranteed result being in a combat zone.

I knew a guy almost 50 years ago, a veteran of World War II who carried a chopped off ear from some "Jap" that the guy had shot during the war. He pickled the damn thing and kept it in a little case, like a ring case and would show it to anybody and everybody.

Now that guy wasn't all there, a goodly portion of his reasoning power capacity was left on some little island or atoll near Japan, I never asked, I didn't want one of my ears in his little trophy case. Needless to say, "the guy was bonkers, crazy....and way out there. But it wasn't his fault, a war ruined the guy and as we allow our nation to make more wars; more of these half witted people are going to come back home sporting "the spoils of war."



Murder, dismemberment, rape, torture, hell we've seen it before, were seeing it now, and as long as war continues.....we'll see it again.....over and over, and over. Photos of the vanquished, subjected to posthumous humiliation, cut off body parts, hands, feet, legs, heads and other non-mentionables.

War dehumanizes, desensitizes, it breaks the spirit of strong men and can create musters of schoolboys and there is a history of trophy taking and a desecration of the enemy. Marines kill, Army soldiers kill, the Navy kills, hell even the Air Force kills.

Don't believe me, take a trip to any military installation, and check out basic training exercises and listen to the rhetoric of the drill instructors, "kill, kill, kill”. To protect a nation, to protect a thought or an ideal, to protect freedom, to protect the rights of others, all of these things are honorable.

But to protect a water-way, mineral rights, oil fields, metal regions, or coal fields; or propping up dictators because they might agree with our foreign policies is wrong. It's a waste of time, resources, and lives.

The war we are in right now is for..........I'm not sure, and I know I'm not sure enough to waste one single life on. When soldiers hold up severed legs, or hands, or heads, two things need to happen, the trophies buried and the soldiers shut away in some sort of medical unit for treatment.

Society "basically" agrees that the taking of a human body part for a war trophy is unacceptable, people in our society, (most people,) say that this kind of activity is not "who we are." Leon Panetta, Defense Secretary said as much this week, but I wonder.....are we.....trophy takers?

Do we feel like displaying feet, hands, fingers, ears, noses and heads of our vanquished? Is it the right of a warrior? Are the immediate rewards of war body parts, a good old fashioned rape and when you’re done, roaming around the village or country-side shooting little kids?

War is not a game, it’s not a romantic event and it does two things, it kills people and desensitizes. War also can release the animal in each of us. Most of us keep our demons under control and it is one of our human duties to help those battling to control theirs who sometimes lose control. Everybody can make love in varying degrees.....let’s concentrate on doing that one thing.....making love.