First-hand witness: Iraq Veteran Against the War and for Rethinking it

Rick Reyes served when the U.S. went into Afghanistan and Iraq. The son of immigrant parents, he grew up in East L.A. and wanted to enlist in order to make his family and country proud.

But he was disheartened following his experiences in the 2001 and 2003 wars:

After receiving an order, we would ransack homes, destroying windows and doors, chairs and tables, families and lives--detaining and arresting anyone who seemed suspicious. The problem, of course, was that it was impossible to distinguish militant Taliban members or Al Qaeda from innocent civilians. Everyone became a suspect.

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Another time, my squad and I detained, beat and nearly killed a man, only to realize he was merely trying to deliver milk to his children. These raids compelled me to tell Congress we have been chasing ghosts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

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But how effective is such military might against extremists who blend in with innocent civilians and fight guerrilla warfare? Moreover, how effective can it be when we leave civilians little alternative but to support extremists?

Read the entire article and his plea to ask Congress to rethink the strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan in The Nation.

Reyes' article reminded me of Three Cups of Tea. Mortenson initially supported the War in Afghanistan but later became disillusioned with it. Witnessing the eyes of innocent children orphaned, injured, or displaced by U.S. missiles, he wondered whether Washington would continue if they saw what he was seeing on the ground.

Although the U.S. government was right in going after Osama bin Laden, they also inadvertently created a generation of people who would also hate America. Mortenson found that creating schools that would offer a balanced (and culturally sensitive) education is more effective than guns in fighting terrorism. (See "Another Way to Stop Terrorism," a 2006 Parade article spotlighting Mortenson's work. The article garned mass attention and support for Mortenson and the Central Asia Institute which planted more schools, vocation centers, and water works projects in Pakistan and in Afghanistan for children.)