Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Veri soldati

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/20337/
A Soldier Speaks: Robert Sarra
By Lakshmi Chaudhry, AlterNet. Posted October 29, 2004.
When Rob Sarra headed out to Iraq in January, 2003 as an infantry sergeant,
he had no illusions about the darker side of combat. But the 31-year old was
eager to do his duty to his country and to the United States Marine
Corps.But one incident would change almost everything this soldier believed
in for the most of his life. It was the day he opened fire on an unarmed
Iraqi woman. When he saw the white flag in hands of a dead woman that he'd
mistaken for a suicide bomber, Rob began to question the war, and his role
as one of its foot soldiers. And though he remained devoted to the Marine
Corps, he never felt quite the same again about his presence in Iraq.Rob
returned home in June, 2003, and quit the military soon after. Still
suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, his entry into civilian life
was marked by alcoholism and later therapy. Rob finally made peace with his
war experience by taking on the mantle of an anti-war activist - an unlikely
vocation for someone who - as he told the students in Texas - had always
seen protesters as hippies who had "no right to protest and just hated the
military." He is now the co-founder of Iraq Veterans Against the War
(
http://www.ivaw.net/
), the only anti-war organization comprised entirely of
soldiers who served in Iraq. Rob spoke to AlterNet about his road from
soldier to activist from his apartment in Chicago.
Is there one memory from the war that still stays with you?
Yeah, there are a bunch, actually. The day we were getting ready to cross
the border, I'll never forget that. My whole battalion was gathered around
our commander. We were out in the middle of the Kuwaiti desert. I remember
looking around at the faces of all the guys, and all of sudden, we all knew:
this was it. This was the real deal. Our battalion chaplain was anointing
everyone with oil. It was a very emotional time.
The next one is moving up towards Baghdad, going through the city of Al
Nassiriyah. That was really our first taste of warfare. Seeing the dead
Iraqis and destroyed vehicles . Getting shot at for the first time. I look
back on it and wonder if I was really there. It's just a very surreal thing.
The incident with the woman still stays with me - though I try to keep it at
the back of my mind.
I was sitting on top of an armored vehicle about 200 yards away. A woman
starts walking out of this town towards a second armored vehicle with a
bunch of Marines on it. They were waving their arms and telling her to stop,
but she kept moving towards them. She was dressed in all-black, completely
covered, wearing a burqa. And she had a bag under one arm.
My thought process at the time was that either she was going to walk up to
this vehicle and explode - and kill a bunch of Marines. Or I can take shot
at her and stop it from happening. We'd had reports of suicide bombers in
the area. So I raised my rifle and fired two shots. As the second shot went
off, the Marines in the other vehicle opened up on her, with everything from
M-16s to 40 millimeter grenades.
But as she hit the ground, she pulled a white flag out her bag.
At that point, I was just devastated. I threw my weapon down on the deck of
the vehicle and started crying. I just couldn't understand why she hadn't
stopped or why it had happened.
That just stayed with me. I think it changed the course of the war for me.
When you look back, how has this war changed you?
I think it's opened my eyes. I think it really reinforced my feelings on
what these guys [soldiers] sacrifice, and what they are sacrificing now. And
what an honorable job it is.
It opened my eyes to political things. It got me looking into myself and
looking at the world and the decisions that our politicians make as pretty
serious things. I wasn't a very political person before this.
So now I'm part of Iraq Veterans Against the War - something that two years
ago I never thought I would be doing. I'm speaking out against the war, and
speaking very publicly. I'm going to schools and colleges. I'm also speaking
out at protests. So it's just been a very big change for me.
What I've been doing, though, is to stay non-partisan. I've been doing that
because people have got to remember that this isn't something political.
There are both Democrats and Republicans with kids over there fighting. If
you say, "If you're Republican, you're for the war. And if you're Democrat,
you're against the war," it just doesn't make sense.
For the guys over there, politics isn't a factor to them. It's about
fighting for that guy next to you and getting home in one piece and getting
back to your family.
What are your hopes and fears now that you look at the future?
I hope that this war is going to end sometime soon. That we can bring all
these guys home and Iraq will be stable. That we didn't just go in there and
stir up a huge hornet's nest.
My biggest fear is that our country is going to go on doing these
pre-emptive strikes against others - places like Iran and North Korea. That
we're going to jump into another war without finishing this one.
I'm also afraid of a military strike back here in the United States. I
really don't think we're safer because we invaded Iraq. Personally, I'm just
hoping to be able to make a difference. I think already have - a little bit.
I've opened people's eyes to what warfare is all about.
If you had five minutes with the president - whomever it may be on Nov. 3,
George Bush or John Kerry - what would you say to him?
I would ask him what his plan is to get us out of Iraq. What the next step
is. And I would like to drive home to whomever is elected that the next time
we go to war, it should be for a very good reason. It should be as a last
resort because there's been a lot of suffering on both sides. Many, many,
many young men and women are going to be coming home that have experienced
the worst in life.

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