Time of the Octopus: Based on the true story of whistleblower Edward Snowden by Anatoly Kucherena

Author:Anatoly Kucherena [Kucherena, Anatoly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Glagoslav Publications

In the following pictures, I saw appalling things. Marines smashed into the women, my marines. I could not be mistaken. I had served two months and could not confuse regimentals and details of equipment. Clad in camouflage armor, the marines beat the protesters with rifle butts, bludgeons, fists and boots – protestors who were mostly old women, old enough to be the soldiers’ Moms.

I looked at the pictures, I looked at the blood-stained women’s faces distorted by pain and anger. I looked at the guys from our platoon laughing, dragging a grey-haired old woman through the dirt by the hair, at the bludgeons raised in the air, at the women tangled in hems of black dresses, trying to protect themselves with thin hands from the blows…

Several minutes later I removed my account from the forum and closed the computer. Chaos danced in my head, and my thoughts were tossed like autumn leaves on the wind. Gradually the realization came: we did something wrong. And maybe to some this realization came earlier – it wasn’t for nothing that there were so many opponents of war around the world. Not supporters of Hussein, as I began to understand now, but opponents of war because war is terrible, it is death and pain. It is ruin. It is diseases. It is hunger. And again death.

Yes, Iraq, probably, was a totalitarian state, aggressive and dangerous to the whole world. Probably... but I am not sure of anything at all. And... again, probably... the people of Iraq lived in servitude, under the heel of a cruel dictator, in perpetual fear, and everyone, including the most high-ranking officials, was afraid for their lives daily. How else do you explain that many Iraqi statesmen came over to our side as soon as the opportunity was presented? Or is it the truth that a donkey loaded with gold is the best battering ram against the castle gate?

Anyway, when we brought democracy to Iraq, it had to become an important, even a great event, for all Iraqis.

But it turned out that Iraqis thought differently. Perhaps, they would have been happier with some other form of help, but not bombings and retaliatory raids. But the main thing was not even that.

To establish democracy, we agreed that for some time we would forget about it. Yes, yes, it was a very dangerous paradox: to establish democracy you forget about democracy! And if there is no democracy, everything is possible: killing, raping, urinating on prisoners, dragging old women by the hair…

And suddenly I was delighted that I had broken those fucking legs. And that in a semi-conscious state I had signed those papers palmed off on me by the chaplain. I was delighted because if not for the accident and the hospital, I would now be there, in Baghdad, Basra or El-Nadzhaf, and I would be shooting at children and thrashing old women with a bludgeon.

My broken legs preserved my honour and delivered a wake-up call to my brain – that’s what I understood in the hospital.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.