A CONVERSATION WITH A YOUNG SOLDIER

By Johan Boyden

     You meet all sorts of people travelling on the bus. With over 2,500 Canadian troops in Afghanistan these days, not surprisingly some passengers are soldiers.

     A few days ago, I rode the a bus with a young guy who had just quit fighting in Afghanistan, leaving his tour of duty early. I first noticed him when he kept falling sideways, drifting into sleep and collapsing into the lap of the young woman next to him. He was wearing a new leather jacket. Later, when he woke up, he told us he had just hopped off a plane from Kandahar, via London, England.

     Why did you quit the army? we asked. "I'm allergic to bullets," he said.

     Although he showed me various pieces of military and civilian ID as the conversation went on, he never told me his name - but that isn't important.

     The guy grew up in a small northern Ontario town. His father works at a steel plant, his mother at a grocery store. Now he is 22. We see a picture of himself, a young wife, and a cute little daughter in a red santa suit. In high school, he saw one of his friends get killed by a train. He said it prepared him for Afghanistan, where he saw many people die. He also said he had killed three men in a skirmish.

     He has seen children walk in front of tanks. His friend shot an eight year old Afghan child. The kid had a gun, he said. But he couldn't do that. He couldn't shoot a child. He didn't like seeing people die. That is another reason he is leaving the military.

     As he mentions the child's death, he turns around and looks at me directly. His eyes are wide open, staring out of a skinny young white face, under a short scrub of blond hair. He looks at me with a hard, lonely, aggressive intensity. The young woman asks if he will get counselling. No, but he could - until March 4th, when he officially stops being a soldier and becomes a civilian.

     I'm fine, he says. I've seen people who are a lot worse that me.

     He is not a war resister. He is against the war because he could die. When he joined the military they said he wouldn't see combat. They trained him to build devices that could listen into cell phones. It is completely legal he claims, as long as you are using their frequency for a call. He hopes to use these skills as a civilian.

     In Afghanistan he was stationed in the south, fighting Al Queda. As far as the military is concerned, 2011 is a done deal. The only question is what we'll be doing. He didn't know anything about oil pipelines, or visits from former Prime Minister Chretien to wrap-up business deals involving oil. Not as much oil in Afghanistan as in Iraq, he said.

     In Afghanistan their base smelt like dirt. It was about three miles from a village. If they put the base close to the village they would be attacked. Did you speak to the villagers? No, he said, adding that he doesn't speak Arabic (which is not widely spoken in Afghanistan, of course).

     Most of the time was spent walking with other soldiers, making sure there wasn't any trouble, guns at the ready - loaded with hollow bullets. Hollow bullets, he explained, expand on impact. He turned to the young woman and  pointed to his cheek. They don't go in leaving a little hole, they rip it all out. He moved his hand across his jaw.

     It was peace keeping, he said.

     The best part in Afghanistan was showing some people where fresh drinking water was. The worst part was shooting the three men, and when one of his buddies was killed.

     I ask him what he would say to someone considering joining the army. He laughs. I'd do this, he says, and moves his hand as if to give a hard slap on the face.

Found at: http://www.peoplesvoice.ca/articleprint14/14.%20A_CONVERSATION_WITH_A_YOUNG_SOLDIER.html