I'm going to ask and try to answer, in some ways, kind of an uncomfortable question. Both civilians, obviously, and soldiers suffer in war; I don't think any civilian has ever missed the war that they were subjected to. I've been covering wars for almost 20 years, and one of the remarkable things for me is how many soldiers find themselves missing it. How is it someone can go through the worst experience imaginable, and come home, back to their home, and their family, their country, and miss the war? How does that work? What does it mean? We have to answer that question, because if we don't, it'll be impossible to bring soldiers back to a place in society where they belong, and I think it'll also be impossible to stop war, if we don't understand how that mechanism works.
Postaviću i pokušaću da odgovorim na, na neki način, prilično neprijatno pitanje. I civili, naravno, i vojnici ispaštaju u ratu. Ne mislim da je ijednom civilu ikada nedostajao rat, rat kom je bio izložen. Bavim se ratovima skoro 20 godina i meni je neverovatno koliko vojnika shvati da im nedostaje rat. Kako to da neko može da prođe kroz nezamislivo loše iskustvo i vrati se kući, nazad svojoj kući i svojoj porodici, svojoj zemlji i da mu nedostaje rat? Šta je svrha toga? Šta to znači? Moramo da odgovorimo na to pitanje, jer ako ne odgovorimo, biće nemoguće vojnicima vratiti mesto u društvu gde pripadaju i mislim da će biti nemoguće zaustaviti rat, ukoliko ne shvatimo kako taj mehanizam funkcioniše.
The problem is that war does not have a simple, neat truth, one simple, neat truth.
Problem je što rat nema prostu, prikladnu istinu, jednu prostu, prikladnu istinu.
Any sane person hates war, hates the idea of war, wouldn't want to have anything to do with it, doesn't want to be near it, doesn't want to know about it. That's a sane response to war. But if I asked all of you in this room, who here has paid money to go to a cinema and be entertained by a Hollywood war movie, most of you would probably raise your hands. That's what's so complicated about war. And trust me, if a room full of peace-loving people finds something compelling about war, so do 20-year-old soldiers who have been trained in it, I promise you. That's the thing that has to be understood.
Svako normalan mrzi rat, mrzi samu predstavu o ratu, ne želi da ima bilo šta s tim, ne želi da bude blizu njega, ne želi da zna za njega. To je razuman odgovor na rat. No ukoliko bih pitao sve vas u ovoj prostoriji ko je od vas platio da ode u bioskop da ga zabavlja holivudski ratni film, verovatno bi većina vas podigla ruke. Eto zašto je rat toliko komplikovan. I, verujte mi, ako puna soba ljubitelja mira pronalazi nešto privlačno u ratu, tako je i s dvadesetogodišnjim vojnicima koji su trenirani za njega, ovo vam garantujem. To je ono što bi trebalo razumeti.
I've covered war for about 20 years, as I said, but my most intense experiences in combat were with American soldiers in Afghanistan. I've been in Africa, the Middle East, Afghanistan in the '90s, but it was with American soldiers in 2007, 2008, that I was confronted with very intense combat. I was in a small valley called the Korengal Valley in eastern Afghanistan. It was six miles long. There were 150 men of Battle Company in that valley, and for a while, while I was there, almost 20 percent of all the combat in all of Afghanistan was happening in those six miles. A hundred and fifty men were absorbing almost a fifth of the combat for all of NATO forces in the country, for a couple months. It was very intense. I spent most of my time at a small outpost called Restrepo. It was named after the platoon medic that had been killed about two months into the deployment. It was a few plywood B-huts clinging to a side of a ridge, and sandbags, bunkers, gun positions, and there were 20 men up there of Second Platoon, Battle Company. I spent most of my time up there. There was no running water. There was no way to bathe. The guys were up there for a month at a time. They never even got out of their clothes. They fought. The worked. They slept in the same clothes. They never took them off, and at the end of the month, they went back down to the company headquarters, and by then, their clothes were unwearable. They burned them and got a new set. There was no Internet. There was no phone. There was no communication with the outside world up there. There was no cooked food. There was nothing up there that young men typically like: no cars, no girls, no television, nothing except combat. Combat they did learn to like.
Bavim se ratom oko 20 godina, kao što sam rekao, ali najintenzivnije iskustvo borbe sam imao s američkim vojnicima u Avganistanu. Bejah u Africi, srednjem istoku, u Avganistanu tokom devedesetih, ali sam s američkim vojnicima 2007, 2008, bio suočen s veoma žestokom borbom. Bio sam u maloj dolini, zvanoj Korengal, u istočnom Avganistanu. Bila je duga oko 10 km. Bilo nas je 150 u Borbenoj družini u toj dolini i nakratko, dok sam bio tamo, skoro 20 procenata celokupne borbe, u čitavom Avganistanu se dešavalo u tih 10 km. Sto pedeset ljudi je apsorbovalo skoro petinu borbe svih NATO snaga u zemlji, tokom par meseci. Bilo je izuzetno žestoko. Većinu vremena sam provodio na maloj predstraži zvanoj Restrepo. Nazvana je po medicinskom vodniku koji je ubijen, otprilike dva meseca nakon razvrstavanja. Činilo ju je nekoliko baraka od iverice, koje su se jednom stranom naslanjale na greben i vreće s peskom, bunkeri, pozicije za oružje i bilo je tu 20 muškaraca iz drugog voda Borbene družine. Uglavnom sam tamo bio. Nismo imali tekuću vodu. Nismo se kupali. Momci su tamo bili već mesec dana. Nisu se čak ni presvlačili. Borili su se, radili, spavali u istoj odeći. Nisu je svlačili i krajem meseca odlazili su do glavnog štaba, a do tad, odeća im je već bila nenosiva. Spalili bi je i dobili bi novi komplet. Nije bilo interneta, ni telefona. Nismo imali kontakt sa spoljnim svetom. Nije bilo kuvane hrane. Tamo nije bilo ničega što mladi inače vole: ni kola, ni devojaka, ni televizije, ničega osim borbe. Borbe, koju su naučili da vole.
I remember one day, it was a very hot day in the spring, and we hadn't been in a fight in a couple of weeks, maybe. Usually, the outpost was attacked, and we hadn't seen any combat in a couple of weeks, and everyone was just stunned with boredom and heat. And I remember the lieutenant walking past me sort of stripped to the waist. It was incredibly hot. Stripped to the waist, walked past me muttering, "Oh God, please someone attack us today." That's how bored they were. That's war too, is a lieutenant saying, "Please make something happen because we're going crazy."
Sećam se jednog dana, bio je vreo prolećni dan i mi nismo učestvovali u bici par nedelja, možda. Obično su napadali predstražu, a mi nismo uopšte videli borbu par nedelja, i svi smo bili prosto zatečeni dosadom i vrućinom. Sećam se da je poručnik prošao pored mene skoro go do pasa. Bilo je neverovatno toplo. Go do pasa, prošao je pored mene mrmljajući: "Gospode, kad bi nas neko napao danas." Eto koliko im je bilo dosadno. I to je rat, poručnik koji govori: "Molim te neka se nešto desi, inače ćemo izludeti."
To understand that, you have to, for a moment, think about combat not morally -- that's an important job to do — but for a moment, don't think about it morally, think about it neurologically. Let's think about what happens in your brain when you're in combat. First of all, the experience is very bizarre, it's a very bizarre one. It's not what I had expected. Usually, you're not scared. I've been very scared in combat, but most of the time when I was out there, I wasn't scared. I was very scared beforehand and incredibly scared afterwards, and that fear that comes afterwards can last years. I haven't been shot at in six years, and I was woken up very abruptly this morning by a nightmare that I was being strafed by aircraft, six years later. I've never even been strafed by aircraft, and I was having nightmares about it. Time slows down. You get this weird tunnel vision. You notice some details very, very, very accurately and other things drop out. It's almost a slightly altered state of mind. What's happening in your brain is you're getting an enormous amount of adrenaline pumped through your system. Young men will go to great lengths to have that experience. It's wired into us. It's hormonally supported. The mortality rate for young men in society is six times what it is for young women from violence and from accidents, just the stupid stuff that young men do: jumping off of things they shouldn't jump off of, lighting things on fire they shouldn't light on fire, I mean, you know what I'm talking about. They die at six times the rate that young women do. Statistically, you are safer as a teenage boy, you would be safer in the fire department or the police department in most American cities than just walking around the streets of your hometown looking for something to do, statistically.
Kako biste razumeli to, morate, nakratko, da razmišljate o borbi, ne s moralne strane - to je važan posao - no nakratko, ne mislite o tome etički, mislite o tome s neurološke strane. Razmislimo o tome šta se dešava u vašem mozgu kada ste u borbi. Pre svega, samo iskustvo je bizarno, veoma bizarno. Nije ono što sam očekivao. Uglavnom ne osećate strah. Bilo me je veoma strah u toku borbe, ali većinom dok sam bio tamo, nije me bilo strah. Bilo me je veoma strah pre i izuzetno me je bilo strah posle, a taj strah koji dođe posle može da traje godinama. Prošlo je šest godina kako sam pogođen, a jutros me naglo probudila noćna mora da sam mitraljiran iz aviona, šest godina kasnije. Nikada nisam mitraljiran iz aviona, a imao sam noćne more o tome. Vreme uspori. Dobiješ taj čudni tunelski vid. Primećuješ neke detalje veoma, veoma, veoma precizno, a sve ostale stvari nestaju. To skoro da je blago pomerena svest. Ono što se dešava tvom mozgu je da se ogromna količina adrenalina pumpa kroz tvoj sistem. Nema šta mladi neće uraditi da dožive to iskustvo. To je ugrađeno u nas. Potpomognuto je hormonima. Stopa smrtnosti mladića u društvu je šest puta veća od smrtnosti devojaka, kada su u pitanju nasilje i nesreće. Neke od gluposti koje mladići rade: skaču sa stvari s kojih ne bi trebalo da skaču, pale stvari koje ne bi trebalo da pale. Mislim, znate o čemu govorim. Umiru šest puta češće od devojaka. Statistički, sigurniji si kao tinejdžer, bio bi sigurniji u vatrogasnoj jedinici ili policijskoj jedinici, u većini američkih gradova, nego da samo šetaš ulicama svog rodnog grada tražeći zabavu, statistički.
You can imagine how that plays out in combat. At Restrepo, every guy up there was almost killed, including me, including my good friend Tim Hetherington, who was later killed in Libya. There were guys walking around with bullet holes in their uniforms, rounds that had cut through the fabric and didn't touch their bodies.
Možete da zamislite koliko je to korisno u ratu. U Restrepu, svaki čovek je umalo poginuo, uključujući i mene, i mog dobrog prijatelja Tima Heteringtona, koga su kasnije ubili u Libiji. Ljudi su šetali naokolo s rupama od metaka na uniformama, hici su im prosekli tkaninu, ali nisu dotakli njihova tela.
I was leaning against some sandbags one morning, not much going on, sort of spacing out, and some sand was kicked into the side of, sort of hit the side of my face. Something hit the side of my face, and I didn't know what it was. You have to understand about bullets that they go a lot faster than sound, so if someone shoots at you from a few hundred meters, the bullet goes by you, or hits you obviously, half a second or so before the sound catches up to it. So I had some sand sprayed in the side of my face. Half a second later, I heard dut-dut-dut-dut-duh. It was machine gun fire. It was the first round, the first burst of an hour-long firefight. What had happened was the bullet hit, a bullet hit three or four inches from the side of my head. Imagine, just think about it, because I certainly did, think about the angle of deviation that saved my life. At 400 meters, it missed me by three inches. Just think about the math on that. Every guy up there had some experience like that, at least once, if not many times.
Naslanjao sam se jednog jutra na neke vreće s peskom, skoro da se ništa nije dešavalo, gotovo da sam odlutao, i pesak je pogođen sa strane, nekako me pogodilo u profil. Nešto me je pogodilo u lice, a ja nisam znao šta. Morate da razumete da meci putuju mnogo brže nego zvuk, zato ako neko puca u vas s udaljenosti od nekoliko stotina metara, metak će proći pored vas, ili će vas pogoditi, očigledno, otprilike pola sekunda pre nego što čujete zvuk. Dakle, pesak mi je prsnuo u lice. Pola sekunda kasnije čuo sam ta-ta-ta-ta. Pucano je iz mitraljeza. Bila je to prva runda, prvi nalet borbe, koja je trajala sat vremena. Ono što se desilo je da je metak pogodio, metak je pogodio 7 - 10 cm od moje glave. Zamislite, samo razmislite o tome, ja svakako jesam, o uglu odstupanja koji mi je spasio život. S udaljenosti od 400 metara, promašio me za 8 cm. Razmislite o toj matematici. Svaki čovek tamo imao je slično iskustvo bar jednom, ako ne i više puta.
The boys are up there for a year. They got back. Some of them got out of the Army and had tremendous psychological problems when they got home. Some of them stayed in the Army and were more or less okay, psychologically. I was particularly close to a guy named Brendan O'Byrne. I'm still very good friends with him. He came back to the States. He got out of the Army. I had a dinner party one night. I invited him, and he started talking with a woman, one of my friends, and she knew how bad it had been out there, and she said, "Brendan, is there anything at all that you miss about being out in Afghanistan, about the war?" And he thought about it quite a long time, and finally he said, "Ma'am, I miss almost all of it." And he's one of the most traumatized people I've seen from that war. "Ma'am, I miss almost all of it."
Momci su tamo po godinu dana. Vrate se. Neki napuste vojsku i imaju užasne psihičke probleme kada se vrate kući. Neki ostanu u vojsci i više-manje su dobro, psihički. Bio sam naročito blizak s momkom koji se zove Brendan O'Birn. Još uvek smo dobri prijatelji. Vratio se u SAD. Napustio je vojsku. Napravio sam zabavu jedne noći. Pozvao sam ga i on je započeo razgovor s jednom ženom, mojom prijateljicom, ona je znala koliko je loše bilo tamo, pa je upitala: "Brendane, postoji li išta što ti nedostaje iz Avganistana, iz rata?" On je razmišljao poprilično dugo i konačno rekao: "Gospođo, skoro da mi sve nedostaje." A on je jedan od najistraumiranijih ljudi koje sam sreo iz tog rata. "Gospođo, skoro da mi sve nedostaje."
What is he talking about? He's not a psychopath. He doesn't miss killing people. He's not crazy. He doesn't miss getting shot at and seeing his friends get killed. What is it that he misses? We have to answer that. If we're going to stop war, we have to answer that question.
O čemu on to priča? On nije psihopata. Ne nedostaje mu ubijanje ljudi. Nije lud. Ne nedostaje mu ranjavanje i da gleda kako ginu njegovi drugovi. Šta mu tačno nedostaje? Moramo da odgovorimo na to. Ukoliko želimo da rat prestane, moramo da odgovorimo na to pitanje.
I think what he missed is brotherhood. He missed, in some ways, the opposite of killing. What he missed was connection to the other men he was with. Now, brotherhood is different from friendship. Friendship happens in society, obviously. The more you like someone, the more you'd be willing to do for them. Brotherhood has nothing to do with how you feel about the other person. It's a mutual agreement in a group that you will put the welfare of the group, you will put the safety of everyone in the group above your own. In effect, you're saying, "I love these other people more than I love myself."
Mislim da mu je nedostajalo bratstvo. Nedostajalo mu je, na neki način, sve osim ubijanja. Nedostajala mu je povezanost s muškarcima s kojima je bio. Sad, bratstvo nije isto što i prijateljstvo. Prijateljstva se dešavaju u društvu, očigledno. Što vam se više neko sviđa, to ste spremniji da mu pomažete. Bratstvo nema veze s tim šta osećate prema drugoj osobi. To je međusobni dogovor unutar grupe da ćete staviti dobrobit grupe, da ćete staviti sigurnost svakoga iz grupe ispred sebe. U suštini govoriš: "Volim ove ljude više od sebe."
Brendan was a team leader in command of three men, and the worst day in Afghanistan — He was almost killed so many times. It didn't bother him. The worst thing that happened to him in Afghanistan was one of his men was hit in the head with a bullet in the helmet, knocked him over. They thought he was dead. It was in the middle of a huge firefight. No one could deal with it, and a minute later, Kyle Steiner sat back up from the dead, as it were, because he'd come back to consciousness. The bullet had just knocked him out. It glanced off the helmet. He remembers people saying, as he was sort of half-conscious, he remembers people saying, "Steiner's been hit in the head. Steiner's dead." And he was thinking, "I'm not dead." And he sat up. And Brendan realized after that that he could not protect his men, and that was the only time he cried in Afghanistan, was realizing that. That's brotherhood.
Brendan je bio vođa tima, zadužen za tri čoveka, i njegov najgori dan u Avganistanu - umalo je poginuo toliko puta, nije mu to smetalo - najgore što mu se desilo u Avganistanu je kada je metak pogodio jednog od njegovih ljudi u glavu, u šlem i prevrnuo ga. Mislili su da je mrtav. Bilo je to usred ogromne bitke. Niko nije mogao da mu pomogne i minut kasnije, Kajl Stajner se podigao, kako se činilo iz mrtvih, jer mu se povratila svest. Metak ga je samo oborio. Odbio se o šlem. Seća se ljudi kako viču, pošto je bio polusvestan, seća se ljudi kako viču: "Stajner je pogođen u glavu, mrtav je." A on je mislio: "Nisam mrtav." I seo je. A Brendan je nakon toga shvatio da ne može da zaštiti svoje ljude. To je bio jedini put da je zaplakao u Avganistanu, kada je shvatio to. To je bratstvo.
This wasn't invented recently. Many of you have probably read "The Iliad." Achilles surely would have risked his life or given his life to save his friend Patroclus. In World War II, there were many stories of soldiers who were wounded, were brought to a rear base hospital, who went AWOL, crawled out of windows, slipped out doors, went AWOL, wounded, to make their way back to the front lines to rejoin their brothers out there. So you think about Brendan, you think about all these soldiers having an experience like that, a bond like that, in a small group, where they loved 20 other people in some ways more than they loved themselves, you think about how good that would feel, imagine it, and they are blessed with that experience for a year, and then they come home, and they are just back in society like the rest of us are, not knowing who they can count on, not knowing who loves them, who they can love, not knowing exactly what anyone they know would do for them if it came down to it. That is terrifying. Compared to that, war, psychologically, in some ways, is easy, compared to that kind of alienation. That's why they miss it, and that's what we have to understand and in some ways fix in our society.
To nije skorašnji izum. Većina vas je verovatno čitala "Ilijadu". Ahil bi svakako rizikovao svoj život ili bi dao svoj život da spase svog prijatelja Patrokla. Ima mnogo priča iz Drugog svetskog rata o vojnicima koji su ranjeni, doneseni u pozadinske bazne bolnice, uzeli su odsustvo, ispuzali su kroz prozore, iskrali se na vrata, uzeli nedozvoljeno odsustvo i bili ranjeni, probijajući se u prve redove kako bi se ponovo pridružili braći. Mislite na Brendana, mislite na sve te vojnike sa sličnim iskustvom, sa sličnom vezom, unutar male grupe, gde su voleli 20 drugih ljudi, na neki način, više nego što vole sebe, zamislite kako je to dobar osećaj, zamislite to i bili su blagosloveni tim iskustvom godinu dana, a onda su se vratili kući, prosto su se ponovo zatekli u društvu, kao i svi mi, gde ne znaju na koga mogu da se oslone, ne znaju ko ih voli, koga oni smeju da vole, ne znaju tačno šta bi bilo ko učinio za njih ako dođe stani-pani. To je zastrašujuće. U poređenju s tim, rat je psihički, na neki način lakši od takve otuđenosti. Zato im nedostaje i to je ono što moramo da razumemo i da nekako popravimo u našem društvu.
Thank you very much.
Mnogo vam hvala.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)