Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: "Ammazzate donne e bambini!"

Memorie dalla (dimenticata) guerra afghana. Shalom.
Namib
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http://www.theithacajournal.com/news/stories/20020525/topstories/380284.html
Saturday, May 25, 2002
Fresh memories of war
Soldiers prepare for their second mission at the Bagram military base in
East Afghanistan.
By KANDEA MOSLEY
Journal Staff
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ITHACA -- The stench of decaying flesh hung heavy in the air as soldiers
passed blown-up bunkers and caves.
As they moved down an L-shaped corridor, the stiffened limbs of a Taliban
soldier jutted from beneath piles of rock and dust in the sweltering
afternoon air.
Ripped-up pages from the Koran, and booklets describing ways to kill
Americans, littered the tree-lined valley that had been bombarded by U.S.
air strikes before their arrival.
These recollections, marking the intensity of every hour of every day felt
in combat, typify the memories that resurface for veterans of World War II,
Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War and other military combat this Memorial Day
weekend.
For Army Private Matt Guckenheimer, who recently returned home to Tompkins
County after two missions in Eastern Afghanistan, processing these memories
and readjusting to American life has just begun.
Guckenheimer, who helped clear the L-shaped valley near the border of
Pakistan whose twists and turns are burned into his memory, explained the
nature of his company's mission. In doing so, he spoke candidly about the
reality of war.
In an April interview with The Ithaca Journal at his family's Cayuga Heights
home, Guckenheimer, 22, shared his experiences during Operation Anaconda. He
was sent on March 6 in a company of more than 100 soldiers to participate in
the largest U.S.-led ground engagement in Eastern Afghanistan.
"We were told there were no friendly forces," said Guckenheimer, an
assistant gunner with the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum. "If there was
anybody there, they were the enemy. We were told specifically that if there
were women and children to kill them."
Taliban al-Qaida soldiers had already been given about two weeks to
surrender when U.S. soldiers were ordered to demolish their last strongholds
and finish the operation, he said.
Guckenheimer said he loved learning about tanks and guns and watching battle
scenes on TV when he was young.
As a teen-ager, he said, his desire to prepare himself to confront the
challenges of war intensified despite his family's disapproval. After
attending Ithaca High School his freshman year, he transferred to a boarding
school in Bath, Maine.
His parents, Meredith Kusch and John Guckenheimer, attended Oberlin College
in Ohio and the University of California at Berkeley during the Vietnam era.
They used to joke that they would disown him if he ever joined the military,
he said.
"They're just about the most passive people you could want," he said with a
smile. "I just ended up not being that way."
Guckenheimer said he believed his parents had been indoctrinated with a
skewed view of the Vietnam War that led them to undervalue war's place in
defending the United States. But he said he has noticed a shift in their
outlook since Sept. 11.
John Guckenheimer agreed, to an extent, with his son's assessment.
"I think it was necessary for the U.S. to respond militarily to the events
of Sept. 11, but I don't feel completely comfortable with the way the war in
Afghanistan is being conducted," he said.
He thinks that the United States is settling into a long and entrenched war
in the region, and might repeat the mistakes the Russians made there.
As a Cornell math professor, he said, he has worked with members of the
armed forces and has held them in high regard. Regarding the U.S. military
as an institution, and his and his wife's opinion of it, he said, "I don't
know that our attitudes in general have changed since Matt joined."
Matt Guckenheimer said his first combat experience in Afghanistan was
enough.
"I know that I can get through it, so the challenge is gone," Guckenheimer
said. "I don't think wanting to put yourself in that position is really
healthy to begin with."
Because of the effectiveness of earlier U.S. military operations in
Afghanistan, the number of Taliban soldiers killed during Guckenheimer's
missions was minimal, he said. He knew of only about 10 enemy fighters who
were killed, he said.
"Most of it (the difficulty of the missions) wasn't as much the enemy as it
was the elements," he said.
Adjusting to the high altitude and low oxygen levels of the region was a
struggle. Layers of Gortex and fleece couldn't shield them from the cold
nights. They would wake up to find their canteens covered in ice, he said.
When he returned to the United States after spending a month either on
missions or at the Bagram military base, Guckenheimer said, he remembered
how alienated Americans are from each other. After living in a Third World
country, where people he didn't know would smile or say hello to him on the
streets, it was jarring to return home, where contact among strangers is
mostly shunned.
"These people who lived through life, they seemed to be more grounded," he
said. Coming home was like walking back into a "clueless" society where
over-consumption is commonly regarded as the route to happiness, he said.
He said although he only interacted with Afghan men, those he spoke to
looked forward to women re-entering public life. On the whole, he said,
residents of the towns attached to the Bagram base had been able to achieve
a measure of happiness despite living amid constant war.
Guckenheimer returned to Fort Drum on April 24. He said he looked forward to
their next assignment and would like to serve in Sinai, Egypt.

enough.
Per cui ogni scusa per non passare per vigliacco e' buona.
-Stefano