WAR by Sebastian Junger Part II

Farthering my thoughts on what being in a war does to someone, I came to learn about how soldiers cope with the ongoing precense of death, loss, injury, and pain. Junger asks O'Byrne, a solider stationed in the KOP, to describe his war mentality after his first few months.

"Numb," he said. "Wasn't scared, wasn't happy, just fucking numb. Kept to myself, did what I had to do. It was a very werird, detached feeling those first few months."

"You weren't scared of dying?"

"No, I was too numb. I never let my brain go there. There were these boundaries in my brain, and I just never let myself go to that spot."

It is hard to get close to someone in war when the probability of losing that person is so high. If you love someone, their loss pains you. If you detach yourself from feeling anything towards someone, it is then much easier to cope with their death. In fact, you probably don't have to cope at all. In war, when death is so normal, soldiers can either constantly grieve over the recurring losses, try and push those feelings away, or just separate themselves from it all. The easiest way to separate themseleves from it is by doing what O'Byrne talked about. Becoming numb. Denying yourself from having any feelings at all is a kind of preventative coping method soldiers like him use.
When you take all of that into consideration, the actions of the U.S. soldier in Afghanistan who killed 16 civilians becomes understandable. Not excusable or justifiable, but understandable. Combining the adrenaline from the firefights with the absence of being able to feel for other people, that soldiers actions seem a little less surprising. I mean as a soldier, America sends him over there to kill. Not only is that his job, but it's all he can do to feel any sort of masculine power or pleasure over there where there's no women or even any sort of recreational activity. Uberfacts tweeted "Shooting a gun causes the same chemical reaction in the brain as a passionate kiss." Shooting a gun becomes more than a job to many soldiers, but addictive in the sense that it makes them feel good while living pretty bad conditions. It's important to look at not just what people do, no matter how horrible, but why they do it. If we can understand what causes it then we can stop these problems. Unfortunately today's world requires young men to make these kinds of sacrifices, become soldiers, and accept the side effects of everything that comes with it. That's why it is important to know who you are and have a strong sense of self before putting yourself in these moral bending situations. Also it's important not to judge those who do even what seems as pure evil, because there's always an explanation. I believe Junger does the American soldiers justice in his novel by showing Americans back home the side of war they don't usually see.

WAR by Sebastian Junger PART I

War is a non-fiction book about one journalist, Sebastian Junger, telling his story of when he followed a platoon based in a remote outpost in Afghanistan. His goal: to show what war is. Not what it is to those back home, but what it is to those fighting in it.
He follows Second Platoon, part of Battle Company, who arrived in Afghanistan late May of 2007. Thier base was called the Korengal Outpost, because it was in the Korengal Valley. Known as the KOP, it was thought to be one of the most dangerous outposts in all of Afghanistan. That's not the only thing that set this platoon apart. Its dangers didn't only come from the Taliban, but also from games within the platoon.
Junger writes, "In Second Platoon you got beat on your birthday...before you left....when you came back. The only way to leave Second Platoon without a beating was to get shot. No other platoons did this; the men called it 'blood in, blood out'... the violence took many forms and could break out at almost any time. After one particurlarly quiet week- no firefights, in other words- the tension got so unbearble that First Squad finally went after Weapons Squad with rocks. Men wound up bleeding and heated after these contests but never angry; the fights were a product of boredom."
I believer Junger shares this story to show what happens with the mixed effects of war and boredom. At war, soldiers spend all their time anticipating a firefight, or being in a firefight. Either way, they are constantly living under an adrenaline rush. The soldiers of Second Platoon, being stuck at an outpost in the middle of nowhere in a foreign country, on top of them living under this constant adrenaline rush, release the tension build up with violence. I mean, they're in war. Violence is their job. Without anything else to do, it makes sense they would use it recreationally as well.

GERSON INSTITUTE

Their motto: Everyone has the power and tools to heal themselves, they just need to know how.
Recently, I was in San Diego, CA and had the incredible oppurtunity to volunteer at the office of the Gerson Institute. The Gerson Institute is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing education and training in the Gerson Therapy, an alternative, non-toxic treatment for cancer and other chronic degenerative diseases. The Gerson Therapy is a natural treatment that activates the body’s extraordinary ability to heal itself through an entirely raw diet.
At Gerson, I spent an entire morning preparing lunch. Every hour or so I would get handed a fresh juice. It was a great experiance all around. One specific moment, however, I will remember forever. In the kitchen I was joined by this woman who brought all this positive energy into the kitchen by energetically singing along to the soulful music playing on the radio. At the end of my time in the kitchen Eric, my mentor, asked me how old I thought she was. I guessed about 40 years old. She was 67 and has had cancer for six years. She has not used any sort of chemotherapy or western medication, but does the Gerson Therapy. The cancer has not spread and she is a healthy woman with tons of energy. I knew eating raw will make someone look younger, but I was amazed by its effects on this woman with cancer. I eat extremely healthy and I try and eat mostly raw, but this moment reminded me the power food alone has on someone and has driven me to want to become as close to 100 percent raw as possible.

My message to everyone else out there is that while everyone wants to be younger, thinner, as well as the best academically and athletically, what you eat alone can affect all of that. Logically it makes sense what goes into the body will directly affect how it functions. If absolutely no poison, artificial chemicals, pesticides, carcinogens, or anything else unhealthy enters the body, and an immense amount of nutrients is put into the body, one has to wonder what positive effects this can have on the body’s ability to function. Many environmentalists also admit it is better for the environment as well.
As far as all of the health problem in today's society brought on by bad eating habits, the reverse of that should be good eating habits. Not medicine. The medicine that drug companies provide to solve some of these problems come with hazardous and sometimes life threatening side effects. There has to be a natural way to get rid of illness without bringing on another one. The drug company corporations care more about making money than the common good of the people. They have successfully lobbied congress to make the use of food as medicine illegal in America. That is why researching this topic and proving eating healthy alone can make a difference is essential to the progress of human health. The Gerson Insitute is working to change this, and unfortunately they have to practice in Mexico and Hungry because their work is illegal in the United States. This is wrong in itself.

AFGHANS STILL FURIOUS ABOUT ACCIDENTAL QUR'AN BURNING

As of this post, six Americans have been killed in an Afghan response to what they see as the U.S. burning of their Islamic holy books. As soon as Afghans heard two copies of the Qur'an were burned by American soldiers, they broke out into crazy riots around U.S. bases. According to a March 1st article from CBS News, shooters include both Afghan men in army attire as well as one in civilian clothing ("Afghan Gunmen Kill 2 U.S. Troops", 2012). Of course if these protesters weren't so radically insane and took a second to understand and evaluate the situation, they might realize their reaction is absurd and only makes them look savage to the rest of the world. The U.S. did not burn the Qur'ans to make a political statement against the religion of Islam. The copies the U.S. had were being investigated for having hidden notes in it by terrorist groups. The U.S. has issued many apologies and only got rid of the Qur'ans to prevent anyone from using any of the potentially dangerous notes inside those particular copies.
I'm not sure how these Afghans find a moral equivalent to accidentally burning a Qur'an for security's sake, with killing real people. If they hate the American soldiers so much our soldiers can leave and tell the Taliban to come back and oppress the Afghans again. The most ironic part is that in their Qur'an, the holy book they are making this whole big deal about, it states it is against Islamic law to kill innocent people.

I understand these actions are those of some extremists and this post is not a view or stereotype of all Afghans, just the individual people (extremists) that have been rioting and shooting at the American soldiers.