It was the same thing in Afghanistan. The horrible things they did to those Soviet pilots. I ran and hid while all that was going on—so I was a better person? How? The guy who slowly pushed the tip of a red-hot dagger into the eye balls of a pilot was a guy I fought side by side with. How many times had I killed someone who might otherwise have killed him? I saved his life so he could go do what he did. How do I claim innocence? When we ambushed a supply truck and I carried groceries back to camp, and helped feed this guy, when I fought his enemies, when I helped create a diversion for the choppers to draw them into the trap that brought them down, I was playing a role in what they did next.
I didn’t have what it took to rip their ears off with my bare hands, but I fed the guy who did. I
