Kyle Bibby was 15 years old when Islamist terrorists on September 11. September 2001, several planes hijacked and in the towers of the World Trade Center flew. He remembers the fear that gripped him at the time, and never more was spellbound by. The fear that there would be such attacks again and again. The fear that it could meet the next Time with his family and friends. As Bibby was 17, he enlisted in the military. “That was my way to get this fear under control,” he says.
He went through officer’s candidate school in the Navy and was sent in 2010 to Afghanistan, where the US and its allies were after 9/11, indented to the Taliban to overthrow the government. But what Bibby encountered there was not what he had expected.
“We were a better COP on the beat,” recalls Veteran Kyle Bibby. Photo: PD
Although his unit was stationed in the troubled province of Helmand, was hit by heavy Fighting unscathed. The Problem, he and his comrades had, was more of another: boredom. “We have one of the best patrol officers,” he says, “and we were occupiers. We came flying in our helicopters, until armed to the teeth, and asked people whether they had in their village a school.” At the same time, as a Bibby in Afghanistan was killed by US special forces in Pakistan, Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks. September. “I was sure that our mission would soon be over. A year, then we would all be out of Afghanistan, get out.”
It was different. A lot of veterans call the mission in Afghanistan, “the Forever war”, the endless war. There are now US soldiers, to the 11. September 2001, not yet born. In any case, the war is the longest in the history of the United States.
today, On Veterans Day the soldiers who served there is thought. You and all the others who contributed even the Uniform of the armed forces. There will be Speeches, Church services and parades. In stores veterans, special discounts in Restaurants, free meals, as every 11. November. And yet it will be for many of you this is no ordinary Veterans Day. For the next day are announced in Washington, the protests of the veterans themselves. You will want to remember that the war in Afghanistan is still ongoing.
Every day 20 suicides
One of them is Dan McKnight is. He served 13 years as a soldier in the armed forces, including more than a year in Afghanistan. The use of there, pursued him even when he was already back in the state of Idaho. “I was always on alert, always had the feeling that something wasn’t right,” he says. In front of his house, the neighbor kids were waiting on the Bus to school. One Morning, saw McKnight from the window of a backpack that was in front of his house. He belonged to one of the school children that had forgotten him, but that was not McKnight in this very Moment. Suddenly, he was no longer in his head in Idaho, but back in Afghanistan – and the backpack was a booby trap on the roadside. He was in a panic. “It took hours, until I had calmed down again,” he says.
Today, McKnight leads a small organization called the Bring Our Troops Home, Bring our troops home. It was not only his desire, but the desire of many veterans. According to a survey by the Pew Institute in July, 64 percent of the veterans now that the war is not worth in Iraq. 58 percent say the same about the fight in Afghanistan. “It is our soldiers who pay the price,” says McKnight.
In the military, the principle applies: We don’t leave anyone behind. “But in truth, we have dropped back a lot to a lot of people.” He means the 7000 US soldiers who have fallen since 2001 in the so-called war on Terror. He says the tens of thousands of soldiers who are injured and traumatised returned. And he says about 20 veterans to take the every day life.
“Trump is the first President who has, in relation to these wars is the right instinct, he is our hope.”Dan McKnight, a former Afghanistan fighters
For Tuesday, the day after Veterans Day, organised by McKnight in Washington, a rally of veterans. You will pull in front of Congress to demonstrate for an end to the armed operations abroad. Also, some high-ranking former military officials-will be giving talks, including Don Bolduc, a former Brigadier General, was based 66 months in Afghanistan. Many of these people are followers of Donald Trump , also McKnight supports him. “Trump is the first President who has, in relation to these wars is the right instinct. He is our best hope that we have to stop in order to give police the world.”
trump’s promise, to want no more wars to lead, has brought him to 2016, many voters. Especially in poorer areas, which have been many victims of war to cut off the President well. But although Trump his displeasure with the U.S. operations of power in the Middle East regularly air, is his previous record in this area is thin. The “New York Times” recently that in trump’s office, 10’000 US-soldiers in Afghanistan were stationed. Today, there are 13’000, and the peace negotiations with the Taliban, which should have led to a retreat, burst. Also in the Persian Gulf, the US has expanded its military presence as a response to Iranian provocations, and an additional 14’500 soldiers deployed.
retreat – but how?
Even in Syria, where Trump made with the hasty withdrawal of troops from the North of the country the way for a Turkish attack on the Kurds will be free, will be according to the estimate of the “Times” about the same number of soldiers as before, only they are then in the oil fields on the Iraqi border. And finally, the President overruled a decision of the Congress, with a majority of both parties had demanded to end the U.S. involvement in the Yemen war. The President is a “Wildcard,” says McKnight. At least he didn’t lead the USA in a new war, against Iran.
But other veterans do not trust Trump. “He has only made empty promises,” said Perry O’brien. He served in 2003 as a medic in Afghanistan, today he is an activist for the Common Defense, an organization of 20,000 veterans who are politically to the left. Also O’brien wants an early end to the U.S. operations in the middle East. But the manner of the deduction in Syria was wrong. Trump had betrayed the Kurdish allies and the mayhem, and serve now, opponents of a U.S. withdrawal as ammunition. “It must be possible to terminate our commitment in a responsible way,” says O’brien.
Veteran Dan McKnight suffers until today from the consequences of the war. Photo: PD
In your opinion of Trump, the veteran may be divided, but their different organisations of the left and right unified in a goal: The Congress is dragging his approval, which he gave after 9/11, the armed operations, back. To do this, edit members from both parties. To the Republicans, the group Concerned Veterans for America, the family belongs to an influential network of cooking-taking care of yourself. Common Defense has brought against some of the democratic presidential candidates to commit themselves to a “reasonable and timely” end of the operations. Among them are Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Cory Booker are.
All of this is new. A few years ago would not have expressed a lot of former soldiers critical of the stakes, says the Conservative Dan McKnight. Either it was fully behind the troops – or it was regarded as unpatriotic. The was over. “Everyone can see what a mess the areas are still where we are now for so many years.” But what if the mess is after a deduction of the United States even more? Who is responsible for order and stability? For McKnight, the answer is clear. American soldiers have tried long enough to pacify the countries in which they were welcome: “want To do it now, other.”
Created: 10.11.2019, at 18:16
