| | Going to Afghanistan - why do I do it The Frontline Club
01/31/2008
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Why do I do it?
As the information to the right says, my name is Lars and I’m a soldier in the Danish Army. In a short space of time I’ll deploy to Helmand and serve with ISAF, where I hopefully will be able to make a positive contribution towards a better life for the Afghan people. This contribution will be but a drop in the ocean and you might ask, why do you do it? Does it matter? And yes I think it does, it has to. Secondly I’m a soldier and this is my job. Had I had a dislike for weapons and command language I would have chosen to be a librarian or something else that doesn’t carry such a potential for violence.
Though this might be taken as provocative, I think soldiers are motivated to go to war for some of the same reasons as people of the press (and other trades usually found in a conflict zone). You go to war just because it’s there, we want to see it with our own eyes, each man has his own angle, this is what we train for, be it press, military, etc. And for some there is a wish to make a difference, to help other people.
Deciding to go to Afghanistan isn’t an easy task, you have to engage with what feels like a million issues. You have to explain your family and friends that you are going, why you choose to do so, handle their concerns for your security and a myriad of other concerns.
The fact that death and injury is a potential outcome, either for yourself or your workmates, makes you ponder over what it really is that you are venturing into. Besides going over practical soldiering skills, a lot of emphasis is put on cultural briefings, how to handle the indiginous population, how to handle the environment in Afghanistan. On top of all this you have to go through a medical certification, receive an arm full of shots from the doctor, have your respiratory and circulatory system checked and your teeth are also checked. All this is to ensure that the soldier doesn’t break down in theatre, due to something that could have been fixed before deployment. Despite the nature of our trade, the green machine is responsible for our health :-)
On the more sombre side, you also have to look at what should be done in case you die. We are encouraged to write a will and jot down notes on how we wish to have our funeral carried out. You might ask what that is like? And yes, it feels immensely morbid to go throught those details, however, this is not something that one’s relatives should have to handle should the worst happen, this stuff needs to be sorted before deployment.
I look forward to the deployment and the challenges it offers, getting stuck in with the complex situation is exciting in it’s own way, wether you are a soldier, journalist, aid-worker or governmental employee working in a foreign land, we are sometimes driven by the same motivations despite the difference in nature of our respective trades. Maybe our paths’ will cross each other.
Lars is a member of Frontline Club and also a member of the Danish Armed Forces. In his spare time he works as a freelance photographer. His experiences will be posted on this blog.
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