Regaining my Humanity.PEACE

STOP THE WARS News about the IVAW
Regaining My Humanity
By Camilo Mejia February 15th, 2005
I was deployed to Iraq in April 2003 and returned home for a two-week leave in October. Going home gave me the opportunity to put my thoughts in order and to listen to what my conscience had to say. People would ask me about my war experiences and answering them took me back to all the horrors - the firefights, the ambushes, the time I saw a young Iraqi dragged by his shoulders through a pool of his own blood or an innocent man was decapitated by our machine gun fire. The time I saw a soldier broken down inside because he killed a child, or an old man on his knees, crying with his arms raised to the sky, perhaps asking God why we had taken the lifeless body of his son.
I thought of the suffering of a people whose country was in ruins and who were further humiliated by the raids, patrols and curfews of an occupying army.
I am confined to a prison but I feel, today more than ever, connected to all humanity. Behind these bars I sit a free man because I listened to a higher power, the voice of my conscience.
And I realized that none of the reasons we were told about why we were in Iraq turned out to be true. There were no weapons of mass destruction. There was no link between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. We weren't helping the Iraqi people and the Iraqi people didn't want us there. We weren't preventing terrorism or making Americans safer. I couldn't find a single good reason for having been there, for having shot at people and been shot at.
Coming home gave me the clarity to see the line between military duty and moral obligation. I realized that I was part of a war that I believed was immoral and criminal, a war of aggression, a war of imperial domination. I realized that acting upon my principles became incompatible with my role in the military, and I decided that I could not return to Iraq.
By putting my weapon down, I chose to reassert myself as a human being. I have not deserted the military or been disloyal to the men and women of the military. I have not been disloyal to a country. I have only been loyal to my principles.

When I turned myself in, with all my fears and doubts, I did it not only for myself. I did it for the people of Iraq, even for those who fired upon me - they were just on the other side of a battleground where war itself was the only enemy. I did it for the Iraqi children, who are victims of mines and depleted uranium. I did it for the thousands of unknown civilians killed in war. My time in prison is a small price compared to the price Iraqis and Americans have paid with their lives. Mine is a small price compared to the price Humanity has paid for war.
Many have called me a coward; others have called me a hero. I believe I can be found somewhere in the middle. To those who have called me a hero, I say that I don't believe in heroes, but I believe that ordinary people can do extraordinary things.
For more info on Camilo Mejia, go to (www.freecamilo.org) web site http://www.ivaw.org/

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News & Politics

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• WAR
• PEACE
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• LIES
• BELDA67

[robinofleiceste]

whats the tune anyone?

[belda67]

Soundtrack of THE LAST OF THE MOHICAN (1992)music by Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman, and a song by Clannad.

The film won an Academy Award for Sound.

[robinofleiceste]

thats the one! thanks man, yeah i love clannad knew i'd heard this before, wow what a prompt informative reply cheers!

[belda67]

You are most welcome :)PEACE

[belda67]

...And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal. —John F. Kennedy

[Madalina1985]

tHANK yOU, BELDA67, YOU'RE VIDEOS ARE GREAT!!!!

[11thTangent]

He refused to pardon a handicapped guy when he was governer yet now libby goes free. I can't wait to see this asshole h/over fast!

[mojahdo]

Iam muslim we will take the west inshaa allah your army cant to cuntin in this way becuse this way for the hero like osama bin laden and the mjahiden

[Elders0fZion]

".........Iraqi terrorist"

Lame brain, wake up. It's their home. You don't have any business being there. Not for the bullshit your nitwit dumbass of an ex-president said anyway.

[catalinux007leiro]

haha, you dumb soldier

[panzerdragoonSS]

your brainwashed as fuck man. the iraqis are just fighting for their freedom. what would you do if a foreign country was occupying the US. would you just lay down and let them do their patrols through the streets? searching your house? enforcing a curfew? killing Americans? would you stand for that? i hope not. i think your the pussy. a brainwashed pussy whos not strong enough to break free of your programing.

[CDBigShow]

your a moron.

[CDBigShow]

my drill instructors said bastards like you are reasons why our military is still weak. Your probably a soldier. -_-" Why did you sign up if your a pussy? I got injured and discharged, but I'd give anything to put a hole right between the eyes of an Iraqi terrorist. Why don't you actually regain your humanity from the liberal bullshit you have been poisoned with.

[CDBigShow]

Oh go fuck yourself!

[Iwishyouallwell]

agree.

fighting for the devil does not turns you into a angel

What do we, the people, want? Demand it!

We are also responsible!

[Iwishyouallwell]

i agree, but why dont you look at the death irakis and death afghans?

Dear lord, what have we, the whites, done?

Against our brothers and sisters, brothers in origin but not in religion?

Why???

Well, study sociology, filosofy, psychology and the bible.

Don't wait for somebody else to take action against wars but start yourself. not with violence, but by your words.

It is also your world, we the people must do anything we can to stop violent and evil governments.

[BL44Trofl]

redneck.