Eva Golinger: Did people in your class [at Evergreen University] know you were in the military? What did they say to you?

Josh Simpson: Yes, but people knew I was opposed to the war.

Benji Lewis: The "support the troops" campaign has altered everyone's perception.

Simpson: I'm actually opposed to that campaign. People should have been more confrontational with the troops.

Golinger: Like in Vietnam.

Lewis: The "support the troops" campaign was engineered to allow for indirect acceptance of the war.

Simpson: People are scared to criticize the troops, it's considered the most blasphemous thing in the world. At the same time, if you are never criticized then you will never know that what you are doing is wrong.

Lewis: You can't criticize the troops. It's a poverty draft, these kids just do it because they have no other way out of poverty.

Simpson: But you have to criticize them, because they will say they are just following orders, but that's bullshit, the Nazis were just following orders too. The military is fascist, it's basically blind, unquestioning obedience. Then they try to tell you that the blind obedience is some form of courage and bravery. It's much easier to go with the current than against it. While I was at Evergreen [University] I was learning something different than what I was told in the military. I got to the point where morally I couldn't just be opposed to the war, I also couldn't even participate in the military or train other soldiers to go kill people in a racist war.

The above (emphasis added) is an excerpt from Venezuelan-American lawyer and journalist Eva Golinger's September interview (which I've just unearthed) of two Iraq war veterans (see PROFILES below for short bios of all three), which provides further insight into how U.S. troops conduct themselves in Iraq and Afghanistan. All of us who pay for these wars must confront this knowledge, especially those Americans and others who support or do not sufficiently oppose President Obama's Iraq and Afghanistan wars. . . .

There's more...