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For Iraqi Vet on Campus, View of World Shaped by War's Experience
Story and Photo by Ryan Jackson
On a warm September morning, Michael Hamilton sat drinking coffee in the Quad next to the grapevine trellis. Current events were on his mind, but not the most obvious one -- that the day was the seventh anniversary of 9/11. Hamilton isn't like most of the students who roam about Mars Hill; he does not quite look like or act like most college freshmen. He is not fresh out of high school; he is fresh out of war.
While many Mars Hill freshmen still have memories of senior prom and are reminiscing about high school, Hamilton is fresh from his service in Iraq and rehabilitation from war-related injury. He was working on re-enlisting when 9/11 occurred. He then participated in the first major surge into Iraq after 9/11.
On campus, Hamilton’s attention is drawn from his breakfast of cigarettes and coffee to express his views on the last seven years and all that has come of the attacks.
“Bull****,” responds Hamilton, no stranger to controversial ideas and strong language. Classmates know Hamilton is quite outspoken. Hamilton began explaining his response, which can be described as against the war.
Hamilton left the states in 2002 as part of operation Spear Head. He describes his time overseas as tough but nowhere near as hard as coming home.
While some might expect a war veteran to be bothered by anti-war protestors and political radicals, Hamilton said that the sheer lack of them fired him up.
“Why aren’t people in the streets protesting and demanding change?” he asked.
He questioned whether people have been paying attention for the past seven years, namely to the deterioration of civil liberties.
“It wasn’t going to war that hurt, it was coming home and seeing what Americans were doing with the ‘freedoms’ I was being told I was defending,” he said.
Like Ben Franklin, Hamilton said he thinks that if a man would sacrifice liberty for security, he deserves neither. This, according to Hamilton, is exactly what Americans have been doing. Warrantless wiretaps and postponing Habeas Corpus sound like a sci-fi novel, but it has become a reality in this post-9/11 America, he lamented.
Hamilton said that now he can’t watch the news, and in fact, got rid of his TV because he didn’t want to watch the American media.
Americans have retired their sense of freedom from tyrants who do as they please with fear, he said.
Hamilton said that if anything should have come of the past seven years, it should have been Americans' rage at President Bush, who he feels shoulders the responsibility for the attacks, the war and the economic woes.
Hamilton quoted Andrew Jackson: “If the house has become corrupt, it is up to the people to clean it out, and replace everyone in it."
“Stand up and think for yourselves," Hamilton said. "Stop letting bad men take what is rightfully yours, and you will be the ones fighting for freedom by not letting corruption control you."
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