As previously stated, I did 3 tours as an infantryman in Iraq. I invaded on March 21, 2003, went all the way to Baghdad, then headed down to Karbala for stability operations for five months. Things were different then. Karbala was a safe place in which we supported the local businesses with our money, and were welcomed for our ability to maintain order. Five months after we got home we went back, this time to Husaybah. It was like a whole different world than the Iraq I had left.
Husaybah was a nightmare. It was a place where human life lost all meaning for most people; American, Iraqi, or otherwise. The only life worth saving was your own. It became clear to me about midway through this deployment that the U.S. was not winning in Iraq, and that winning would quickly become impossible if things stayed on their present course. A year after we got back from Husaybah, I extended my contract to redeploy to Ramadi with my unit, after which I left active duty on July 9, 2006.
While deployed to Ramadi, I fought in a war that was already lost. I found that no amount of medical supplies delivered in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to hospitals, and no amount of soccer balls handed to little kids could change the fact that the insurgency enjoyed the sympathy of almost 100% of the population. For every Iraqi the U.S. helps, thousands more are wrongly killed or maimed.
During my tenure in the military, I wished to seek help for PTSD, but was discouraged from doing so since the treatment of a Marine for PTSD would acknowledge that there were negative consequences to the war in Iraq. I attended counseling sessions at a VA hospital, where there are not enough counselors to treat moderate and minor cases of PTSD. These cases are being thrust aside for the sake of treating severe ones. The hospital attempted to discontinue my treatment to make room for others with worse problems; I had to write my congressman before the VA agreed to continue my treatment until I am well. I eventually left the VA for private counseling via a program called The Soldiers Project that provides free counseling for veterans in Southern California. I'm going to school now, with plans to specialize in modern conflict. I currently attend Columbia University pursuing a bachelors in one of the social sciences, to be followed by a masters in International Security Policy.