November 20, 2012
America has been at war for over a decade, with millions of soldiers having seen death and dying up close in Afghanistan and Iraq. But most Americans — watching comfortably on their TVs and computers, witness to statistics, speeches, and “expert” rhetoric — don’t get what’s really going on there. In this encore broadcast, Bill talks to Karl Marlantes — a highly-decorated Vietnam veteran, Rhodes Scholar, author, and PTSD survivor — about what we on the insulated outside need to understand about the minds and hearts of our modern warriors. Marlantes shares with Bill intimate stories about how his battlefield experiences both shaped and nearly destroyed him, even after returning to civilian life.
“’Thou shalt not kill’ is a tenet you just do not violate, and so all your young life, that’s drilled into your head. And then suddenly, you’re 18 or 19 and they’re saying, ‘Go get ‘em and kill for your country.’ And then you come back and it’s like, ‘Well, thou shalt not kill’ again. Believe me, that’s a difficult thing to deal with,” Marlantes tells Bill. “You take a young man and put him in the role of God, where he is asked to take a life — that’s something no 19-year-old is able to handle.”
Editor’s Update:
During this conversation, Bill and Marlantes discuss the case of Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, a U.S. soldier accused of murdering Afghan civilians on March 11, 2012. Since this show was taped, a pretrial hearing into Bales’ alleged crimes concluded on November 13 at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington. The Army charged that Bales should receive the death penalty for killing 16 Afghan civilians. His defense attorney argued there were remaining questions about the crime, and issues involving Bales’ mental and physical state. Senior officials in the Army will make the final decision whether to proceed to a court-martial trial, though no timeline has been provided for when that decision will be reached.
TOPICS: Veterans & WarKarl Marlantes on the Mindset of a Modern Warrior
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