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   +5 Kiril Budanov - head of Ukrainian Central Intelligence. His face is the only face you will ever see out of any members of his agency. +5 +5 An all American platoon. +5 A successful mission around Zapariz'e. Men on the floor are Russian POWs. +5 Men and a woman with a dog. All soldiers in a safe house at the front singing the Ukrainian National Anthem.
Not many people have found themselves in a
situation when they had no choice but to fight, and even fewer when they had to
fight in a war. For most civilians, the toll of war is theoretical. Consider the
mental and physical state of a Ukrainian soldier who is in battle mode 24/7. Some
of our readers have experienced the heavy toll of combat themselves, and some
have experienced it second hand through stories told by loved ones who have
fought. But each war is unique, as is each army. Even terrain and climate
impact the toll on a soldier. Being a soldier is a tough job even in
peacetime. But try to imagine the wartime physical, mental, and emotional state
of a man or woman whose sole job is to eliminate other human beings. During
battle, we don't kill, we eliminate. It has been my experience that soldiers
make this important distinction. Is it a euphemism? Perhaps. There is no sense
denying that soldiers are out there to take lives. But that is the nature of
things, and killing is the nature of the job. Try to imagine that your job
includes killing people on a regular basis. Now, a job is a job, right? It comes with
good times and bad, laughter and jokes every now and then, just like in an
ordinary office. It is the same with soldiers, because after all, human
interaction remains a constant. Soldiers are people, with the same human
impulses as civilians reading this article. It is just that some people's job
is to eliminate the enemy. Being a soldier is a job. At times, a soldier may
even know his enemy's face. He knows the enemy's location through intelligence.
Many people think a soldier's job is to take
orders. That's true, but it is not much different from being assigned a project
in the office. The rest is up to you. You are guided by the rules and policies
of your company, and so are soldiers, but their company is their government. So
the next time you sit down to write a report for your boss, consider that this
is exactly how a soldier gets his orders, and while you are typing away, organizing
your data and relaying it as best you can, a soldier is doing the same thing.
He is taking positions, executing targets, and cooperating with his teammates.
Yes, teammates indeed, as the closer you work together, the better the result.
I recently saw amazing, private footage of teamwork between a sniper and a
mortarman in a recording from enemy lines. Believe me when I tell you this is
like watching paired figure skating, when two people work as one. The sniper
shoots first to take out the designated target, almost immediately followed by
the mortar man who renders the enemy position inoperable. The grenades must
make an impact before the enemy has time to react to a dead body in front of
them. The timing is crucial. The video showed this was a totally successful
attack, a murderous successful attack. Herein lies the difference between their jobs
and ours. The success of their job is measured in lives. Their job description
combines the words “death” and “success,” and a job well done can mean the
eradication of an enemy position while tens and even hundreds of people die in a
split second. Your report is a document that aggregates information, and once
completed, your job is done until the next assignment. You can go to a bar for
a beer with your buddy. Soldiers, too, come back to camp smiling over a job
well done. A different job, with a horrifying well done. But, at times like
this, we thank God every minute of every day that there are people who can do
this job. What happens if you mess up on your report?
Well, that could mean trouble. but this trouble is nowhere near the trouble
that besets a soldier when he messes up. When soldiers mess up, they limp back carrying
the wounded on their shoulders, or perhaps they don't come back at all, or
perhaps they come back in body but not in soul. For them, the cost of failure
can be the ultimate sacrifice, whereas you can do a better job on your report
next time. I can't help but wonder which is more
difficult, routinely risking your own life and the life of your team members,
or routinely accumulating a body count for which you are personally responsible.
The soldier who shared the footage with me chose this career. He went to
military academy straight out of high school, graduated with honors and joined
a special tactical force. He fought for eight years prior to the full-fledged
Russian attack on February 24. For him, going to war was not a choice. It was
his responsibility. Some people are responsible for reports and others, for
defending their country. In all the time I lived in the United States, I never
heard the perspective that defending your country actually means eliminating
other people. Even now, after 74 days of war, it is still hard to wrap my mind
around this concept. So how are the soldiers doing after 74 days
of war? From the looks of things, they are okay. I see them when they come back
on rotation. During the most intense phase of the war,
rotation happens about once every four weeks, unless, of course, you are in a
besieged city like Mariupol. Soldiers need time off from the front line. War is
not a fist fight. It is long and strenuous, and they need a break from the
front lines for at least a week every now and then to keep them in shape to
perform their obligations. I wondered how soldiers could just walk away from the
shooting, the attacks, the artillery fire, the positions they protected with their
life. The soldiers I spoke with explained that they believe in the Ukrainian
Armed Forces, they have completed assigned missions, and now is the moment to
take time off. Under old military guidelines soldiers were not allowed to leave
the military base while on rotation during war time. But this rule doesn't
really work, either because soldiers are too busy restoring machinery and
equipment or because as one other soldier told me - “it is such a nice sunny
day, so peaceful, I need to take my motorcycle for a spin.” They are people
just like you and me, but they bear the burden of taking the lives of our enemy
so that we, including me and my family, can bask in that nice sunny day and
perhaps take our motorcycle for a spin. After a week away from the front, they get
another mission, very often in a different location. They go, and they go
eagerly. They go to do their job. There has been much speculation in western
media about whether the allies' military aid and intelligence to Ukraine
intensifies hostilities. They are missing the point. Judging from their
statements, they are politicians who understand war from a distance. But at a
distance you can't see the truth. The truth is that American assistance,
including intelligence, saves the lives of our soldiers, who literally have no
choice but to fight. And in turn, these soldiers protect the lives of almost 40
million civilians who pray to God that the soldiers can continue to perform
their missions.
The soldiers are okay. They are tired - this
is noticeable. Not tired like you and me after our jobs. A soldier goes through
gallons of adrenaline during fighting, and once the rush is over, they crash.
The time off helps them to take a hormonal break and recuperate. It helps them
balance out. It helps them to continue to protect us. Serge A is of Ukrainian descent, grew up in Brooklyn and is volunteering in Ukraine as a legally armed member of a Territorial Defense Group. He was a columnist for the newspaper at Pace University which he attended as an undergrad.
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