“I hate all of those fucking Iraqis. They are either insurgents, breeders of insurgents, or will grow up to be insurgents. I want every fucking one of them dead.”

This is from a kid with a truly priviledged backgroud: his father is a circuit judge; his mother is the first female president of the yacht club. Emboldened by the patriotic fervor with which he was welcomed home, he recounted every horror he could remember with enough gusto to make even the most hawkish of my school’s faculty uneasy. Because he knew of my own service he came to me to brag of the doors he had kicked in, the bodies of the dead he had blown to smithereens (combat engineer), and the trophies he had smuggled back to the states (prayer books, id cards, watches, etc.).

This is a kid completely fucked in the head. He is worse off mentally than if he had spend 2 years in the joint–totally lost. He won’t go back to VMI where he enlisted in the Reserve either. He has a taste for it.

Even S.E.A.L.S. used to be taught what it means to be an American.

We’re a lost cause.