Hi all,

I found this link on CNN's main web page today. It's to a photographic study done by Dutch Photographer, Claire Felicie, who took a series of photographs of 20 soldiers between the ages of 18 and 26. The project, titled “Marked“, is a unique look at soldiers before, during, and after they served a 6-month tour in Afghanistan

http://www.bangstyle.com/2011/12/pho...s-of-soldiers/

Consider the flames we had going about the Marines urinating on a body, and the opinions about how being in that kind of a place can affect/change people, I thought this would interest a few.

Regardless of where anyone stands on the validity/justification of the wars, the politics behind them, the combatants, etc...I think it's easy to see the emotional and physical toll of being there in their faces, and to maybe just remember they're only human trying to survive in a very inhumane situation.

The old adage of "A picture speaks a thousand words" fits here

I don't really get this.
You can take a picture of me at 09h00 after a good night of sleep and one at 15h00, starting to get a bit tired, than at 01h00 after I stayed up reading crap on the EF. All within 24 hours. Would look quite similar.

Well, I do get this. So sad.

I have a friend who served in Iraq. He went with an innocent baby face and returned with this sad face of "experience".

The 1000 yard stare..

Speaking about photos, CNN has a site with photos and some personal details of the fallen soldiers. It is really sad to see these pictures when you know that all of these young people were killed in the wars...

http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/

US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are mercenaries, useful idiots or both. Oh no, they are "veterans".

Maybe take photos of half million civilian Iraqis dead due to this war. That would be a real tale and lesson to the dumb voters.

Angry enough to spit -

You are of course welcome to your own opinion but really, if you're going to say such things, I think you should give a bit more information about WHY your opinion leans that way.


I'm not even sure I'll be able to make sense but by golly, I'm going to try.

You need to wake the heck up and realize that soldiers, no matter WHERE they are from, are simply PEOPLE, as in human beings.

There are a variety of reasons why someone would join the military service and although none of them have been drafted into service since the days of Vietnam, there are many young people in the US for whom a military life is the only option.

Regardless of why they joined up, the toll on their psyche is undeniable. They go and fight because they are told to. They see themselves having to do things most of them never dreamed they'd have to do - kill people. They find themselves in situations I'd not wish on my worst enemy - seeing their friends die, seeing children dying, seeing people behaving in incomprehensible ways in order to save their own lives, all the while knowing that if they make it home, they'll be expected to go back to life as they knew it before.


Of course, the toll is much harder in many ways for people who actually have to try to make their lives within that environment. I am sorry for that, but your words make me feel like you would deny humanity to the soldiers for what they have to do and it makes me sick.

To me these soldiers are victims as well. It doesn't matter why they joined the army but the price they pay is enormous. I think most of them are damaged for life now.

I think the number of the murdered Iraqis is one and half million. I agree that showing their photos would be a good lesson too.

It is indeed a bit arrogant if not intentionally insulting to ponder the toll of war on soldiers when there's so little discussion, particularly in countries like the UK & US, about the toll of war on the actual people of Iraq or Afghanistan who have been decimated through decades of war

But, hey, it makes for nice campaign banter

Killing men, women and childern. Dropping thousand pounds bombs on villages. Burning and destroying their crops and animals is not unethical and un human.
But peeing on the corpses is deemed as wrong.
One Wonders why. I guess media makes us to like the agressors and hate the oppressed.
Peace

Did someone really say that about the American fighters,

I just feel sick from what I just read that people viewed them that way, but like it was said be vary happy that each and everyone of you have the right to Free speech .

I want to continu on with this but just think that it's not nessary to lower my self to some that might just be speaking out of spite. I am sorry that some people feel that way..

Pete
Ret united states air force

I don't think it takes a lot of spite to mention that there are millions of completely innocent victims in the two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. And it does not take a lot of spite to not understand the official reasons for the wars - the US simply is the aggressor and responsible for those hundred thousands dead. Yes, even if a terrorist group bombed New York.

I personally can absolutely feel with both the young boys who had no idea what they got themselves into as well as the civil Iraqi population. But just because I can have empathy for US soldiers does not mean I can accept them pissing on dead enemies. Or shooting journalists from their helicopter. Or torturing prisoners. Just because there is more than black and white to war does not mean that there is not still some black left...

You are right, this would be the real face of toll of war

The photos are of Dutch soldiers.

[QUOTE=Treverus;1459009]I don't think it takes a lot of spite to mention that there are millions of completely innocent victims in the two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. And it does not take a lot of spite to not understand the official reasons for the wars - the US simply is the aggressor and responsible for those hundred thousands dead. Yes, even if a terrorist group bombed New York.

QUOTE]

The word 'terrorist' is used to describe those. who, under other standpoints would be called 'freedom fighters'...

The 'terrorists' who destroyed the twin towers were from Saudi Arabia - a dastardly regime supported by the same crew who support the continuing ravaging of Palestine. Oddly enough no action was ever taken against SA - it is just the opposite.

When are we going to learn that people need help, not bombs.

All those who become soldiers know what it's all about, it's their job to kill and to die - in the main for money and/or for what others preach. Once we have understood that we don't have to 'obey' other people maybe we'll be on the way to peace. The brainwashing that takes place in Moslem countries is no different to the brainwashing in other places, at the moment this can be measured only in the matter of degree. It can change quickly - see Nazi Germany.

Admit.
The US military claims the distibution of their recruits is corresponding to the society as a whole - so for example the lower income "class" is not overrepresented.
"there are many young people in the US for whom a military life is the only option" - this could be a definition of the term "mercenary".


I've never seen any war up close. But still I know what it entails. So why deny this capability to the recruits? Maybe they didn't anticipate that it ill hurt them, too.


No, I do not deny. I am just putting things in perspective.
Plain and simpe an army of mercenaries and honest men was beguiled to cause a mayhem to a foreign nation.
Yes, I do care about the psychos a la Rambo coming back. But this peanuts compared to what they commit abroad.

All this rage about desacrating fallen enemies in the western countries show this distorted perception even more clearly - in the West life stands above all, also above sacred and honour. We've taken their lives, so who cares what happens to their bodies? But, sure don't show the tax payers and voters any rotten body or cry faul if it happens. Finally people could take to the streets if they're shocked hard enough.

Agree. Here is what they're right now:

From Wikipedia:
[QUOTE] For the last decade, the Royal Danish Army has undergone a massive transformation of structures, equipment and training methods, abandoning its traditional role of anti-invasion defence, and instead focusing on out of area operations by, among other initiatives, reducing the size of the conscripted and reserve components and increasing the active (standing army) component, changing from 60% support structure and 40% operational capability, to 60% combat operational capability and 40% support structure. When fully implemented, the Danish Army will be capable of deploying 1,500 troops permanently on three different continents continuously, or 5,000 troops for a shorter period of time, in international operations without any need for extraordinary measures such as parliamentary approval of a war funding bill. /[QUOTE]

W.T.F.

It's a thread about pictures showing the effects of war on soldiers. That's an interesting thing, and it would be nice to discuss the effects of war on soldiers. Why does it have to immediately go political? Nazi Germany? For real? U.S. bla bla? For Pete's sake.

Dutch /= Danish