Agricola and Shrek on the back of 9/11

Operation Agricola, Kosovo - 1999

The trip to Pristina was made on the back of a truck. I sat, or rather lay on the bundles and bundles of tents that would make up the Headquarters. Behind me the clouds turned a dark grey, like they were harbouring something they’d seen the past year. The bombing of this place paid a heavy price on the people living here: constant turmoil and disruption.

Thumbs up for liberation.covered in flowers. They shouted NATO, but it sounded more like NAH-TOE. They gave the big Vs for victory. Typical for usurpers to expect this sort of reaction after a liberation. That wouldn’t last long, and it didn’t.

We gradually began to hear of the casualties in Pristina. I helped out in the Int Cell while static, the other HQ was in motion – that’s how we do it. We leapfrog forward. The first report was of a Serbian Policeman. He was drunk and decided to brandish a pistol at the Parachute Regiment who were one of the first Regiments there. He was killed. The second killing of a man whose torso was out of the sunroof of a car. He was wielding what looked like an Uzi and he’d been riddled with bullets – from the Paras. It looked like murder from the outset, but to be in that godforsaken city during this time...

The media have a lot to answer for and control the way people see the world. People don’t formulate ideas, they are usually formulated from other opinions. What they read; the angle, the weight and strength of the words used will reveal the newspaper’s allegiance. I remember being used as crowd control during a fire in Pristina – there were a lot of fires. Since we didn’t have the proper equipment and training, it was mayhem. People were walking past us to get to the smoking apartment block. There was a boy in the top floor, but the rubbish in the cellar had been set alight. No flames, just a little smoke coming from the cellar. Nothing the Fire Service couldn’t deal with. I saw a man being interviewed. He was the father of the child. As soon as the camera was turned on him, he began to cry. I commented that the father was putting it on for publicity. The US reporter heard this and the camera swivelled round to me. This was the first time I’d been under a camera and put on the spot. “What was that? You think he’s joking? Can you tell me?” The only thing I could come up with was what we were taught – no comment. The reporter silently swore and continued on with his ‘interview’. Wow. The power of the press. I still think that the guy was putting it on. That’s my perception. My view, my angle. I see things in my eyes only and my opinions are formulated by what I perceive. For many back at home this would be through the media – what the media want to show you. What I saw was probably marred by my already present bias and past experience – I wouldn’t or couldn’t give a true account had it not been me experiencing the trauma of seeing my son in that building. I was young and a bit foolish, there’s my x,y and z factor that would affect my perceptions. Even recall doesn’t bring back what truly happened, sometimes there are things that go to the grave with us alone.

Op Enduring Freedom, Afghanistan, 2001 and Exercise Saif Sareea, Oman, 2001

Highly charged situations have called for the necessity for nations to breach their own policies. Take for instance the US after the twin towers were destroyed. People were dragged into a concentration camp and tortured by the US on an island ran by a communist government. I’m not criticising it, but it was a highly charged situation. Emotions ran high and it felt like the right thing to do according to the US administration at the time. I call it a knee jerk reaction. I was on exercise in Oman during this time and remember the bombers landing at Thumbrait airports in the Arabian desert. The SAS and the SBS were removed from the Exercise Saif Sarrea 2001 ORBAT (ORder of BATtle - this is our troop roster) and sent on their way east probably. It was only then that the name Osama Bin Laden became apparent to me just after we landed. (Yes, I was watching Shrek the movie in a jet at 35,000 feet as a lot of people jumped from or burnt in those towers). So, Osama, this guy in a beard – look out for him, the Intelligence Corps Captain told the crowd of confused soldiers in the terminal. He said that the US had been attacked and I remember a couple of guys watching footage on a TV and wondering whether it was a fake. Within a week there were a lot of shit going east to Afghanistan.

Moral high grounds shift like the rising tide of American foreign policy. You cannot take the moral high ground on stuff you’ve breached yourself. The use of noise to torture people in Guantanamo Bay Concentration Camp is one example. People snatched from places, some who’ve no evidence that links them to terrorism. What a disaster and to top it all off, Iraq is invaded in 2003.