Execute or Quit

One of my attorneys at work today, told me about a story that was in the L.A. Times aka Liberal All The Times. The story was about the "Marlboro Man." No, not the one who died of lung cancer and was plastered on every cigarette billboard in any given city. No, this new icon was the marine, whose picture was taken with a cigarette in his mouth. When the picture was first seen, folks took it two ways, and deciding on your position of the war. A picture of a young marine, with camoflage paint on his face and a cigarette in his mouth, right after a short battle would have you reaching for one of your favorite WWII movies.

So what was the reason for having this young man, who became a overnight military icon, to be featured in the front of the paper. Forgive me, but anything that the times puts in the front page and having to do with the military raises two red flags and a couple of balloons. I get suspicious, because this paper is not glossed by me as Liberal All the Times, for nothing. It's losing its circulation and the main reason for that is because the paper, like the NY Times and the Washington Post are known for being...liberal. And thus the story, was made for liberals who are against the war and now the young former marine, whose face was a military icon, is now the face of soldiers and marines who are sufferers of Post Traumatic Stress. The marine on the attached story is back at home in Kentucky and collecting military pay for his mental injuries.

Now before you hit the story and read about this young man, let me give you my take. One, I do believe that each and every man or woman who has witnessed death and have seen the effects of mortar rounds, machine gun fire and bodies burned in their cars or dismembered bodies, need to talk to someone. I know, because I seen it. I witnessed it and seen Iraqi soldiers who were forced to stay in their defensive position, get mortally wounded and die. I've seen some of them die, while holding pictures of their wife and children. So I feel what this young man is feeling, I understand and know exactly where he is coming from. And I'm not alone in seeing death nor am I alone in seeing someone suffer from PTSD. You're witnessing the mental breakdown of a person who you thought was strong like an oak. I don't know what's worse. I guess the best way to explain it is this way:

When I was kid, growing up in Long Beach, we used to play a bunch of sports, depending on the season. During football season, we played football and during basketball season, we played basketball and so on. When we played, we used to play other streets, and since we all attended the same schools we pretty much knew everyone and instead of having the reputation of being a street with a bunch of thugs...We took honor in having the reputation of being the street, who had the best game...Our street was known for being ballers...in football, basketball and baseball. Now I'm not going to say we never lost, but we won more than we lost. We had a diverse team, we had Mexicans, we had whites and blacks and all we wanted to do was represent our street. One of our players was named Bryan. He was tall, skinny and had good hands. You can throw the ball to Bryan and hell just count it as a touchdown. We played touch football in the street and Bryan would dive on the asphalt to make a spectacular grab, and was elusive in making Barry Sanders like moves. Like all things, we got older and started attending high school, and some of us took our competiveness to high school sports and so did Bryan. As a matter of fact, some of us had the reputation of being good players, before we got to high school and the coaches could not wait to get us in. Deep down inside, I think Bryan could not wait to get on a high school football field on Friday nights, and he would have, but something happened.

Something happened to Bryan that shook him up, froze him and the tall leaping boy was never the same. Like our marine, something happened to him, that changed his life and for Bryan, I knew what happened. You see, Bryan was a star playing street football. You couldn't rattle him, talking smack...But you damn sure could, if he saw you knock the mess out of someone on the field. He couldn't take seeing someone like me, hit somebody so hard that the ooo's and ahhh's sounds from the stands drowned out the owww sound from receivers who dared venture into my area of operation. In essence, what Bryan saw and experienced made him quit. He couldn't get the last hit he either received or saw out of his mind. Thus, Bryan never dived for a pass and he pulled up in the middle or quit on his route, when he knew for sure that if he caught the pass for a first down, he alone was going to pay for it. Bryan chose to quit and not execute. Every since then, noone wanted to hear about how much game Bryan had. He became the focus of ridicule and eventually bullied by peers, who he thought were his friends. And this is what happened to this young marine, a superstar at home who joined the marines. This young man hollered and screamed with his fellow marines. Trained and trained for this very situation. This young man was probably a expert in firing his weapon (M-16A2), but the very first time of being under fire, and rightfully afraid, this young man instinctively executed to survive...but quit in his mind.

I was going to criticize him for his stance on the war and then turning around to help recruit people to join and eventually go to war themselves. It didn't make sense to criticize the war and then assist in sending someone else to go. I was going to criticize him for using his condition as a reason for some of his breakdowns....I was, but then I thought about Bryan.


Article: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-marlboro19may19,1,939700.story?page=1&track=crosspromo&coll=la-headlines-nation