Iraq Wrecked Me for Nothing—Reflections On A Mission Gone Bad

Iraq wrecked me, even though I somehow didn’t expect it to. I was foolish to think that traveling to the other side of the world and spending a year seeing death and poverty, bearing witness to a war, learning how to be mortared at night and deciding it didn’t matter that I might die before breakfast, wasn’t going to change me. Of the military units I was embedded in, three soldiers did not come home; all died at their own hands. Around us, Iraqis blew themselves up alongside children. Everyone was a potential killer and a potential target. I did this at age 49, on antidepressants and with a good family waiting back home. I cannot imagine what it would have done to 18-year-old me. And I had it easier than most, and much easier than many.

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/iraq-wrecked-me-for-nothing/?fbclid=IwAR2yiXyxvEvL9iyRSVPXj19IJCWSMYDV9Y-bQqrd7vdMMuaLsR7KK6A8gcs