The Open Wounds of Afghanistan

Written by a Navy doctor, this article called Twenty Citizens’ Worth Of Blood Flowed Through Him: A Medic Confronts The Open Wounds Of Afghanistan talks about some realities of war that most people won't want to read and would probably never understand. For others, it will hit a little too close to home. Here's a passage:

...this spotter was odd in that she was female, and that she was approximately 6 years old. She pointed at the Marines and talked into a hand-held radio, and every time she talked, the rounds got closer.

Hearing this play out, I heard myself say out loud, "Someone needs to smoke that little girl."

Then I paused, stood, and left the tent to consider the idea that I was, in that instant, advocating the killing of a child. Not some abstract child in an ethics discussion question; no, I meant that particular little girl, the one who had come menacingly alive for me over the crackling of the radio. I wanted a 5.56mm round from my friend's rifle to split her throat so that our Marines might live.

Read this entire powerful article here.