The Pain Deep Inside

NYT ^ | 8/8/05 | Bob Herbert

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Specialist Craig Peter Olander Jr. has the look of a mischievous kid, except that his eyes sometimes telegraph that they've seen too much. And there's a weariness that tends to slip into his voice that seems unusual for someone just 21 years old. Killing can do that to a person.

Specialist Olander was a teenager from Waynesburg, Ohio, population 1,000, when he joined the Army in 2003. "It was very appealing," he said. "The benefits. College. And it was something I'd always wanted to do since I was a small boy - be in the Army."

He had mixed feelings about going to Iraq, but he wasn't particularly upset. He didn't dwell on the possibility of getting killed or wounded. And he gave no thought at all to the spiritual or psychological toll that combat can take. "I was very confident in my training and I was very religious," he said. "I'd always read Bible stories as a child and I believed the Lord would look over me and his will would be done."

He went to Iraq in early 2004 and quickly learned that nothing - not his military training, not the Bible, nothing - had adequately prepared him for the experience. By the time he returned several months later, he said, the trauma he had encountered in Iraq had reached deep inside him. There was both fear and the hint of a plea in his voice as he told me, with surprising candor, that he believed the things he'd had to do in Iraq might jeopardize the salvation of his soul.

"Our base was Camp Victory in Baghdad," he said. "We did raids, convoys, security, patrols - numerous, numerous things."

The first time he was wounded was in the spring. He suffered a severe concussion and a......

[TheCrusader]

..."he told me, with surprising candor, that he believed the things he'd had to do in Iraq might jeopardize the salvation of his soul."

And we all know how deeply the NY Times cares about the salvation of souls.

[jocon307]

These leftists really want the Islamofacists to easily be able to kill us all. I wonder why they feel that way.

[Jeff Gordon]

War is hell.

The New York Times hell.

[advance_copy]

I wonder why they feel that way.

Because they hate what America stands for. They've never gotten over their loss during the Cold War, they lament the failure of Marxism and blame it on American "capitalist imperialism". They think we are "spoiled" by our prosperity and that we are ruining their grand collective. It's a religious thing for them.

[velocityguy]

NYT nutheads need to be sent to Middle East permanently. NYT is becoming more and more pro-terrorist and anti-Bush as each day passes.

[WorkingClassFilth]

War is hell.

The New York Times should go there.