Please let me know what you think.
Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.
I was in eighth grade when the Twin Towers fell. I was young, and therefore unable to properly digest and analyze the life-changing occasion that I had experienced. The only real memory I have of that day was when I came home from school, and joined my family around the living-room television. Tuned to ABC, I saw Peter Jennings say a sentence that forever will stay with me: “The Defense Department is working to find the SOBs that did this.”
When I was sitting on that couch, watching the replays over and over, I didn’t really understand what Peter meant. And I don’t think I really did until recently, when I went ‘outside the wire’ for the first time, here in Afghanistan. I saw, with my own eyes, what the media outlets and the military never could show me. Sure, I’ve seen the poor villagers on the news. I knew that Afghanistan was impoverished. But to have young children pulling on your arm, and with the widest eyes, beg for water because the Taliban sealed their village’s well for cooperating with America, I began to understand what Peter meant.
I joined the Army specifically to go to Afghanistan. I wanted adventure. I wanted experience. I wanted to grow up. I wanted to know what was really going on. When I got here, I discovered that all I really wanted to do was help.
I am a combat photojournalist for the Vermont Army National Guard. My primary job is to go on missions with various units doing various roles and tell their story. One day, I might be on a Blackhawk helicopter, delivering .50 caliber machine guns to a base in the middle of the mountains. The next day, I might be with an Agricultural Development Team, teaching Afghans how to grow soybeans instead of poppies. You know what they say: “If you love your job, you never spend a day of your life working.”
It’s true, I love my job, but I doubt myself. Is what I’m doing giving positive change to the situation in these villages? Will my pictures touch the heart of someone enough to give relief to these children who only want water and shoes? I guess I’m not seeing the big picture. Big Army is a huge machine, and it takes a long time for this machine to start moving. I’m sure wells will be dug, and other humanitarian aid will be given. Maybe Afghanistan will become a stable country.
I truly believe in the work we are trying to do here. The unpopularity of this war is hindering our progress. There’s constant talk of leaving this country in the hands of the Afghans. “Bring the boys home,” they say. I totally understand where these people are coming from. What mother wants her son to risk his life to stabilize a country a world away?
For someone who sees these kids from a world away, let me say this; if we are not going to help these people, who will? I’m not one for revenge. Yes, what happened on September 11 is a horrific and heinous act. But is it man’s job to exact justice? Or is it man’s job to lend a hand and actually give these villagers hope? I consider our occupation in Afghanistan a humanitarian mission, and I think it should be looked at and treated as such. Darfur received so much coverage and exposure for the crimes against humanity being committed there. The same type of thing is happening in Afghanistan. We are already here. We need to fix these problems, even if they are not our problems. They are problems of children, and that fact should have no political agenda.
