War Is Hell ( ...Or So I've Read )

Nothing pisses me off like some half-assed soldier wannabe who's shocked and awed when he realizes that not only do people shoot at each other in war zones, but that sometimes people get hit.

"My life has not been about being safe," says actor-turned-Marine-turned-activist Sean Huze. "As long as we on the left are talking about anything other than Iraq, the right is winning."

That's because we are right. This guy came to L.A. from Louisiana, became an actor with an agent in early 2001. On September 12, 2001, he went into the local Marine recruiting station after returning from an all-night poker binge on Sept. 11 and learning about the attacks.

"Like probably most Americans, I experienced the entire range of emotions: despair, fear, powerlessness, rage."

A month later, he went to basic training and went through cities like Nasriyah, Kut, Baghdad, and Tikrit, seeing fighting firsthand.

"When you're in combat,"... OK, let's stop right there. He's trying to sound like a seasoned veteran. Other than his grandfather in WWII and his father in the Army from '68 to '74, he's had no association with the armed forces. But, he continues: "all you have time to think about is getting home and making sure that the man to your left, to your right, they get home too. You don't think about the dead child you see, or the dead man and wonder if he had children of his own."

No, jackass, you don't. If you do, you don't belong in the Forces to begin with. Think if regular cops were that emotional. Shit wouldn't get done. Cops are there to do a job: protect us from the real assholes of the world. The troops are there to perform a similar service: protect us from the MAJOR assholes of the world.

While in Nasriyah, Huze was injured and was sent back to Camp Lejeune. There, he heard President Bush's now-famous challenge to the Iraqi insurgets: "Bring them on." "I was outraged. It started me thinking critically about the war for the first time."

Let's stop there again. Outraged? President Bush made that statement because HE BELIEVES IN OUR TROOP'S ABILITY TO DESTROY THE TERRORISTS. I'm not fucking calling them "insurgents." That's a pussy media phrase. He knows what are boys are capable of. And thinking critically? Let him explain:

He began surfing the internet, and a new anger built. "Being in Iraq didn't mean that suddenly I understood policy. But, as I watched the justifications for the invasion dissipate, no weapons of mass destructions, no ties to Al Qaeda..." Huze interrupts himself. "Well, Iraq's got ties to Al Qaeda now (emphasis added)."

We've been over this, so I won't repeat. But Iraq's ALWAYS had ties to Al Qaeda. And why do we have to justify removing a madman who killed over 300,000 people?

The rationale for going to war was not, he says, "the rationale that the administration gave to the American people. To realize it wasn't true left me empty, with nothing but a lot of pain."

Like a bottle of drain cleaner. It'll clean you out... but leave you hollow inside. 12 years, 14 resolutions, he's used weapons before... THAT was the rationale.

Gradually, Huze began sharing his pain. His acting coach --

Fuck this, I'm stopping right there. Acting coach? I hate seeing these little imitation soldiers get all weepy because war wasn't holding sticks and saying "Bang Bang". That's why REAL soldiers do what they do.

Because they can.