The author is a former Marine corps infantryman who served in Iraq and is a member of March Forward!
The war in Afghanistan, now approaching its second decade, is more horrific than ever for U.S. troops.
New data revealed in the March 4 Washington Post showed a massive increase in injured soldiers—the “signature wound” being the loss of both legs from the knee or higher-up.
In
addition to having both legs blown off, soldiers are suffering severe
injuries to the genitals and pelvic region. The report further states,
“Twice as many U.S. soldiers wounded in battle last year required limb
amputations than either of the two previous years.” As a result, three
times as many soldiers lost more than one limb and nearly three times as
many suffered severe injuries to their genitals.
The percentage
of soldiers losing one limb increased by 60 percent, and those suffering
injuries to their genitals increased by 90 percent.
It was also
reported that many of the soldiers who wake up in the hospital in
Germany are so medicated and confused from their injuries that they
“discover” their loss more than once during their stay, adding to the
severe psychological trauma associated with the wounds.
New slang: double amp, trip amp
These
wounds have become so common that there is new military slang used to
refer to fellow GIs after they’re wounded: “double amps” and “trip
amps,” referring to the number of limbs lost. The already bloody war in
Afghanistan has grown far more gruesome in the past year.
So
many troops are enduring these wounds because of the missions they are
sent on. A deployment in Afghanistan means daily patrols through
villages and farmland where the local population hates the foreign
occupation. Most of the time, the mission is to do nothing more than
walk around and wait to be blown up by a bomb in their path.
Those
troops are told that their mission—constantly occupying and patrolling
these areas—is of vital importance; they are risking life and limb for
the Pentagon’s master plan to “win” in Afghanistan. Or, maybe not. Areas
that troops are told are a top priority are later abandoned by the
Pentagon after heavy losses.
Most recently, the Pentagon ordered
a retreat from the Pech Valley. Soldiers there were told that it was a
top priority to control the valley. They did daily patrols, as ordered.
Over 100 were killed. Hundreds more were horribly wounded. Then,
Petraeus and his team of generals said, “Well, maybe this place isn’t
that important.”
Those who lost friends and limbs there will
have to wonder for the rest of their lives why they fought endlessly in
that valley, why their lives will never be the same.
The same is
true for those who served in other areas that the occupation forces
have retreated from—Korengal Valley, Wanat, Nuristan Province, and many
others.
They were ordered to occupy regions where the fight was
hopeless—where the people would refuse foreign domination, and would
fight back until the foreign troops left.
This is the situation
in the entire country. Like in the Pech and Korengal Valleys, the United
States cannot win in Afghanistan. But the generals will send young GIs
in wave after wave, simply because they do not know what else to do.
Vietnam War resistance
During
the Vietnam War, U.S. troops started seeing the futility of their
missions: the constant, pointless patrols; fighting to win “key
terrain,” then abandoning it once scores had died.
When they
realized the absurdity of the mission, entire units refused orders to go
on patrols and conduct combat operations, refusing to die and be maimed
for a failed strategy in an imperialist war.
With casualties at
the highest level yet, for both troops and civilians, in a war that
cannot be won, it is time to follow the example of those heroic troops
who refused their orders in Vietnam.
