Americans are volunteering to fight the Islamic State

[Indus]

This story was on PBS: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/americans-volunteering-fight-islamic-state/

MARCIA BIGGS: American boots are back on the ground in Iraq. This time, they’re volunteers, U.S. military veterans on the front lines against the Islamic State, and among them, one woman; 25-year-old Samantha Johnston was a private in the Army for two years before, she left to be a stay-at-home mom to her three children.

When the Islamic State dominating the news last year, she says she sat in her North Carolina home, watching videos of their atrocities and felt compelled to join the fight.

SAMANTHA JOHNSTON, American volunteer: Something inside of me just snapped, and I couldn’t allow myself to sit down and do nothing, when all of these children here are in trouble, and I and me and my family are just living happily in America.

MARCIA BIGGS: Johnston faces a firestorm of controversy over leaving behind her 5-year-old and her 3-year-old twins to volunteer in a war on the other side of the world, where we’re told I.S. fighters have put a $300,000 price on her head.

SAMANTHA JOHNSTON: I see these refugee children. I see just the normal poor children here, and I think of my children. And my children are happy. They’re safe. They’re fed. They have more than they need. And they’re OK.

MARCIA BIGGS: You said, “My kids have everything they need,” but they don’t have their mom.

SAMANTHA JOHNSTON: They don’t, but I will spend the rest of my life making that up to them.

MARCIA BIGGS: You cried all the way to the airport?

SAMANTHA JOHNSTON: I don’t want to think about it. That was the hardest day of my life. I will never leave them again when I come back, never.

Every day is a battle not to come back. Every day, I — I look at prices to fly back. But I have a — I have a goal here, and I can’t just give up.

JUSTIN SMITH, American volunteer: I’m having a great time out here. I feel more comfortable here than I ever felt in America.

MARCIA BIGGS: After serving in Iraq, Justin Smith says he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. Several attempts at treatment failed, and he finally sold everything he owned to buy a one-way ticket back. He says Iraq seems like paradise compared to the hell of staying in the U.S.

JUSTIN SMITH: In the States, there is too much idle time, too much time just doing nothing or sitting around and drinking, or anything like that. It’s better here. Like I have said countless times, I get to do my job. I love my job.

MARCIA BIGGS: Many of the volunteers we met are military veterans, like 29-year-old Jeremy Woodard, who spent years fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, but struggled back home.

JEREMY WOODARD: It was hard to get a job. You barely can get a job at McDonald’s flipping a burger. They look at you, they see your resume for serving in the U.S. Army honorably, but they look at you like you’re a hazard, you know, you’re going to hurt somebody.

Very torn on how I feel about this..

 

[Spungo]

Did you just post an article in comic sans? There is a special place in hell for people like you.

It was hard to get a job. You barely can get a job at McDonald’s flipping a burger. They look at you, they see your resume for serving in the U.S. Army honorably, but they look at you like you’re a hazard, you know, you’re going to hurt somebody.

Oh the irony. The company that sells crap quality food that contributes to an obesity epidemic that kills millions of people is worried that someone might get hurt.

 

[Indus]

I was more taken by how the PTSD suffering vet felt more "safe" and at home fighting ISIS than at home.

Why would he feel that way? A bit of nostalgia? Another symptom of PTSD?

 

[Spungo]

I see all this potential, and I see it squandered. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables – slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives.
-Tyler Durden

When you're killing ISIS people, your life has value. When you're flipping burgers in the US, it's difficult not to think that the world wouldn't care if you died tomorrow.

 

[Ns1]

I was more taken by how the PTSD suffering vet felt more "safe" and at home fighting ISIS than at home.

Why would he feel that way? A bit of nostalgia? Another symptom of PTSD?

Seems like that mindset was personified in American Sniper.

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

I was more taken by how the PTSD suffering vet felt more "safe" and at home fighting ISIS than at home.

Why would he feel that way? A bit of nostalgia? Another symptom of PTSD?

Might be that during her time in Iraq she got to know the civilian population a bit and knows they're suffering. And once you learn to sympathize with someone it's hard to just turn your head and look away when you know they're being tortured, raped and murdered. At least if you are a human being, and not part of a select group of right-wing P&N members.

 

[TheSlamma]

Seems like that mindset was personified in American Sniper.

Long before that First Blood covers it (book or the movie)

we have no idea how to treat our vets here.