"You're 18 years old and you're wearing somebody's brains around on your shirt because they got their head blown off right next to you..."

"...and that's not supposed to affect you. I've never understood that. What would scare me, is if we were to send a group of 18 year olds 12, 000 miles away , and subject them to, a year of that obsenity, and have them not be affected. That's what would frighten me."
-Solider soundbyte in Paul Hardcastle's 19

Lengthy, moving story here on how female soldiers are experiencing the Iraq war, from the New York Times. Many of them are suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and other serious mental health issues. It'll make you sick to your stomach, it'll chill your blood, it'll make you want to cry.

Or maybe that was just me.

Objectively speaking, the fact that we, as a nation, put anybody through this, man or woman, for no good reason...

Almost solely, I believe, because Karl Rove thought it would be a good way to consolidate the Republicans' power...I'm tired of feeling like it's naive to ask: Why isn't every man and woman responsible for that abomination on trial right now? That ought to be at the least an impeachable offense.

Not for the first time, I find myself recognizing in myself and identifying with many symptoms described. I have issues with perpetrators who don't take responsibility.

But...this whole thing is so big and so out of control. And the people making the decisions have so little if any idea what they're doing, or what they've done.

Thanks to Jessica at Feministing for posting the link.