Après la geurre


Another letter to Captain Ian Fishback, via Andrew:
My proudest moment as an American came in Munich in 1992, when an old man waved my car down on a deserted street on a rainy Sunday morning. He pointed at my license and asked if I was an American soldier, then proceeded to tell me that he had been in the Italian army in WWII. Captured during the war, he was went to a US-based EPW camp.
I'll never forget his praise: "The Americans treated us so well, and the food! I eat better in American than with Italian army. You treat us so well, we were your prisoner but we were safe in the camp. I always love America."
Fifty years after the war, we had won the enemy's heart. I fear that fifty years after this war, we'll still be fighting people who weren't originally our enemies because of what we did to their countrymen in Abu Ghraib and a dozen other places.
Thank you for standing up to right this wrong. You have validated my belief in our junior officers and your actions reflect the moral courage that we should all aspire to as members of the Long Gray Line.
If we are fighting this war to bring peace and freedom to the mideast, then consideration must be given to how we will be perceived after the guns have fallen silent. Memories of torture have no place in such a future.
5.10.05 14:06
 


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