Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Though Veterans Day Was A Couple of Weeks Ago.............

I did not come across this article until this afternoon.We should all take a moment out of our day this Thanksgiving to give thanks for those that have and are still serving our great nation. The injuries of war are not always physical and the ultimate sacrifice not always death.

War is a drug
by Charles D. Whittington, Jr
When soldiers enter the military from day one, they begin to train and are brain washed to fight and to handle situations in battle. We train and train for combat, and then when we actually go to war, it is reality and worse than what we have trained for. We suffer through different kinds of situations.

The Army never taught how to deal with our stress and addictions. War is a drug because when soldiers are in the Infantry, like me, they get used to everything, and fast. I got used to killing and after a while it became something I really had to do. Killing becomes a drug, and it is really addictive. I had a really hard time with this problem when I returned to the United States, because turning this addiction off was impossible. It is not like I have a switch I can just turn off. To this day, I still feel the addictions running through my blood and throughout my body, but now I know how to keep myself composed and keep order in myself, my mind. War does things to me that are so hard to explain to someone that does not go through everything that I went through. That’s part of the reason why I want to go back to war so badly, because of this addiction.

Over in Iraq and Afghanistan killing becomes a habit, away of life, a drug to me and to other soldiers like me who need to feel like we can survive off of it. It is something that I do not just want, but something I really need so I can feel like myself. Killing a man and looking into his eyes, I see his soul draining from his body; I am taking away his life for the harm he has caused me, my family, my country. Killing is a drug to me and has been ever since the first time I have killed someone. At first, it was weird and felt wrong, but by the time of the third and fourth killing it feels so natural. It feels like I could do this for the rest of my life and it makes me happy.

There are several addictions in war, but this one is mine. This is what I was trained to do and now I cannot get rid of it; it will be with me for the rest of my life and hurts me that I cannot go back to war and kill again, because I would love too. When I stick my blade through his stomach or his ribs or slice his throat’s a feeling that I cannot explain, but feels so good to me, and become addicted to seeing and acting out this act of hate, and violence against the rag heads that hurt our country. Terrorists will have nowhere to hide because there are hundreds of thousands of soldiers like me who feel like me and want their revenge as well.

C.J. Whittington served as an Infantry Squad Leader in Iraq fromOct2005 to June2007. Today C.J. is a combat wounded veteran who is currently a student majoring in General Studies at CCBC.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

I Would Like to Formally Apologise....

To the 4 or 5 of you that regularly come here to read whatever drivel is on my mind at any particular time. Frankly I, like most people, have been too busy these days and something has to suffer for it. So my blogging and cycling have taken a back seat to hunting and other things. Not that I haven't had numerous thoughts that were blog worthy its strictly a time thing.

Equally Yoked.....

Now this is term you may or may not be familiar with. I mostly here it used in the Christian community, in referring to marriage. The term comes from II Corinthians 6:14 "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?" 
But all too often I see some Christians taking this statement too far to the extreme. Now I am in total agreement that in marriage it is important that both parties should be on the same spiritual page but in our daily lives I am far from convinced. Granted we must be careful in how we choose those that we will spend our time with or call our friends. And children, in their innocence, are often times not the best judges of character. We must also be firm in our beliefs as to not be misdirected or lead astray. But if you are a Christian, you need look no further than to Jesus himself to see the real value in engaging and inserting yourself into the lives of those that aren't equally yoked to you. I personally have friends from one end of spectrum to the other, both believers and non-believers, and I count myself fortunate to have them all in my life. I would also hope that being my friend would have an impact on them as well.
I feel sorry for those living in their elitist bubble never stepping outside to touch the lives of those they probably should be. Constantly appreciating each other for their theological prowess and taking little time to truly practice it.