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U.S. Soldiers' Perspectives on Iraq Elections
"Sometimes violence is the price you have to pay, to move forward, to be progressive, to change things."
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By Kevin Walters and Nicole Goodwin
It's not just Iraqis who have a stake in the outcomes of the election this weekend. People in many other countries will be watching with special interest, including American troops who have completed their tours in Iraq…Youth Radio has been talking to many young soldiers as they've come home. Here are two. They will be paying close attention to the news on Sunday.
KEVING
My name is Kevin Walters, I'm 24 I joined the miltiary when I was 20. I've been back for 9 months. I was 82nd Airborne Infantry, so we did all the patrolling in town.
NICOLE
My name is Nicole Goodwin. I'm 24 years old, I'm a single mother and I joined the military when I was 20 years old.
KEVING
The elections are the biggest thing on my mind right now obviously, they are with about everyone. The overall good of the situation is that they're starting a democratic process.
NICOLE
Democracy is not an easy thing to promote to anyone. For these people basically they did not choose a man for them to elect for President, America chose a man for them to elect for President.
KEVING
I hope the elections go well, since supposedly that was the whole reason we were over there. But I expect a lot of violence, and I think anyone saying there won't be is probably pretty foolish. Sometimes violence is the price you have to pay, to move forward, to be progressive, to change things. We have a stake in the world and sometimes it takes armies to protect your interest, it takes armies to protect people.
NICOLE
It's really a false sense of hope that Americans want to see, so their troops can come home, not realizing that the troops are going to need more than these elections to bring them back.
KEVING
But when I was in Fallujah I would never think about the ideals of Democracy and why we were really over there helping these people. There would be snide remarks from one guy to another saying things like "What the hell are we over here for anyways, with all these people shooting over at us?" Or, "If they'd just quit this crap, we could actually start helping them." The ideals of democracy have no place on a battlefield.
NICOLE
When I was in Iraq, I didn't really have a chance to interact with a lot of the Iraqis. But there was this one translator I did meet, he was a translator for our unit. He seemed to be a soft-spoken intellectual man. He was a microbiologist, he told me. But he just felt lost. All that degree, and all that education, and all that hard work, was just sinking. We just both wanted to be anywhere but where we were, at that time. And I really don't know if the elections are going to help him find his way out and better himself, as much as he wanted to, as much as maybe I want him to.
KEVING
I find myself thinking about a man we had accidentally caught one night. He had had his tongue cut out by Saddam. After we found out that we shouldn't have brought him to the base with us, we had him outside the detention area, I was a few feet away, and I noticed he was doing little magic tricks for everyone to entertain them. So I'll be thinking of him on election day. Cause hopefully he'll get out and vote.
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