I'm continuing to receive feedback (positive and negative) about the video, but of course I'd be interested to read more in the comments section or by email at warisimmoral@gmail.com. On the encouraging side, a classmate from high school, whom I hadn't spoken with since graduation, saw the clip on my Facebook page, checked out my website, and then took the time to write. She shared how she joined the military right out of high school and ended up feeling both disappointed with her experience and embarrassed that she had enlisted. Overall, she thought the interview was really cool and that it was great what I was doing.
I appreciated knowing that my efforts had a significant enough impact on someone I haven't seen in 8 years that she took the time to write. Least to say, I absolutely assured her of how much I resonated with her feelings, in addition to thanking her for such an encouraging note.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, another person who was also in GTMO claimed that I'm "fabricating the truth to (my) own benefit," by "spreading lies" about what I saw. He said that he was there too, and he knows that "these dillweeds are being treated just fine."
Some of you reading the above lines might be utterly perplexed as to how he could say this, and if so, I encourage you to read my article, Behind the Wire: An Insider's Perspective on Gitmo. It provides an overview of how my understanding about GTMO changed in the aftermath of my own time there. Essentially, I can personally relate to the hatred and feelings of injustice that the above detractor expressed because they were my initial feelings as well. The difference is that much of my understanding has changed since that deployment. I tried to communicate some of the ideas that prompted my own transformation, and what follows is a substantial portion of my email response to this person.
In my interview I neither spread lies nor exaggerated anything. I was absolutely disturbed by what I saw and experienced in GTMO, but I didn't immediately understand the evil nature of the acts I helped support. As you apparently feel now, I first reacted with hatred for the men imprisoned there and scorn for the way I had to "cater to their needs."
I think the best way I can address this is to ask if you would you so boldly claim that what goes on in GTMO is fair treatment if you were the one down there in a cage? Would you honestly say that you were being treated well if you were locked up in that same fashion? If you were caged someplace where none of your family or friends could come visit you, and you had no idea of whether or not you would even stand trial or have any opportunity to publicly defend yourself, would you be saying that all the people that were involved with keeping you confined in that manner were "taking care" of you?
If you were completely unarmed and had 5+ guys in riot gear forcefully restrain you within your cell simply because you didn't give back your styrofoam meal container when asked, would you say that was being treated well? Would you say you were being mistreated if you decided not to eat, and thus were forcefully strapped into a chair and fed through a tube that was put down your throat?
I didn't understand these dynamics all immediately, and for better or worse, it's taken me more than a year to come to my current understanding of what I experienced in GTMO. Believe me when I say that I'm not just saying stuff or making it up for the purpose of getting out of the military. My understanding has fundamentally changed since I first came home.
I see now that it's absolutely not catering to those people's needs if they're being housed in cages against their will. I couldn't rightly say that I was taking care of you if I locked you in a closet and then shoved food and water through a hole in the door. Even if I provided you the world's best medical treatment, but still kept you in a cage, it wouldn't be doing you a service if all you wanted to do was leave.
One point that you made was that the people down there were horrible baby-killer types. A second point you made was that the US is working to try and return them to places they won't be killed. This doesn't make any sense. If the people who had been, and are, at GTMO are really the sub-human animalistic killers that you make them out to be, then why would any of them have been released?
The fact is that the majority of those who have been confined in GTMO have already been released from there because they were innocent. Innocent people being locked up is mistreatment, even if they're later released. Secondly, if there are any people who are as horrible as you make out, then it would be easy to use reason and evidence to prove to the world that these men are justly confined.
People should not be indefinitely held against their will for supposed crimes for which they've never been convicted. However, this is exactly what Barack Obama has said needs to happen with some of the people confined in Guantanamo Bay (http://www.reason.com/news/show/134775.html). If they are guilty, prove it. If they are innocent (as most of them undoubtedly were given the fact that the majority of those who were ever there have already been released) then those in the United States military and those giving them orders ("President"/"Congress") have committed horrible acts of evil.
Overall, the result of the video is that I'm continuing to hear from a number of other present and former members of the military. With that in mind, I'm asking you to forward this video to anybody who you know that's ever been in the "Armed Forces." Another option would be to post a link on your own Facebook page. While I definitely wouldn't guarantee that others will agree with what I have to say, I highly doubt they'll be bored by it.
P.S. If you're curious to find out more about Pete and the rest of the crew of the Motorhome Diaries, check out their website via their linked name, or read my previous mid-week blog (Meet My Interviewer).
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My participation in the Complete Liberty Podcast looks to be continuing for the foreseeable future, so I leave it to you gentle reader to subscribe at either the iTunes Store or to check out the hosting site: http://completeliberty.libsyn.com/ . If you're looking for other listening specifically about war, I have one podcast of my own dedicated to this topic at http://warisimmoral.com/podcast
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