On a muggy Tuesday afternoon, I sat in the living room of a picturesque townhouse that looked like it would be more suited for the set of The Truman Show than the Baltimore suburbs. I came to speak with Kate Norley, a 25-year-old student at George Washington University. Kate is an All-American ensemble of matching twinsets – pale yellow sweater to match her long blond hair, sharp white smile to match her cutting wit. Kate shuffled through a stack of pictures from her time abroad, and smiled when she came to one particularly memorable picture. It is of her and her colleague fishing on the dock of a lake, grinning broadly after they each pulled in a particularly impressive catch. However, Kate wasn’t studying abroad when this picture was taken – she was serving part of a 16-month tour in Iraq from 2003 to 2005. And this wasn’t any ordinary lake – it was one of Saddam Hussein’s lakes at one of his former palaces.
“I never examined [Saddam Hussein] myself, but I was there when others gave him a medical examination.” Kate served as a medic in the U.S. Army, and came across many wounded and ill during her time in Iraq – including even the most notorious of foreign enemies. “It was so surreal seeing Saddam up close like that. You travel through the country and speak to countless Iraqis who tell the most horrific and senseless crimes that were carried out through his regime, and then you see him in person – and he’s just this pitiful old man.”
Although Kate Norley may share some superficial characteristics with me and other young women in America – her experiences are far more unique, and deserve to be shared with the public. It would be an understatement to say that the War in Iraq is a highly contested issue in the media – leaving many young Americans with an overload of information from pundits and political candidates. But perhaps the best way to create an informed opinion on Iraq is to listen to those who have actually lived it.
In this video, I spoke to young veterans from both sides of the intellectual battlefield to present a first-hand account of the War in Iraq. Pete Hegseth of Veterans for Freedom believes we must continue our mission in Iraq until democracy is secure and radical terrorism is eradicated in the area. However, Steve Mortillo of Iraq Veterans Against the War argues that victory will come at too great a cost to American lives and tax dollar – and that he joined the U.S. military to protect our country, not serve as the police force for the world. So who do you agree with? Watch and decide.
"Studying Abroad: Lessons Learned in Iraq" Video