Column: Every day, soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are witnessing practices that are an affront to both their individual consciences and the conventions of international law. Returning home from war, most soldiers keep these experiences to themselves. On the few occasions that they do discuss the war, veterans tend to sanitize and gloss over their war stories with the popular narrative of liberation.

The recruiters office may have been picked as a focal point for the protests because of its proximity to campus, but recruiters are not creating the policies and should not be the target of derision for serving their country and following the orders handed down to them by the people we are ultimately responsible for electing and putting in charge of military.

We have brutalized their nation for nothing, and yes, we have had our pain, but how long will we continue to use 9/11 as an excuse for our actions? Why must we continue to inflict wounds while ours are still healing?

It was September 2005. As most Harvard University students donned sweatshirts and hurried to their first classes of the year, Tayla C. Havice ‘10 was searching female Iraqis for weapons at a military checkpoint on the outskirts of Fallujah clad in full desert camouflage (flack jacket and two firearms included).

Last week was the first class that the Iraqis started asking questions — about topics like frostbite in animals and building reptile houses. “It’s so basic compared to what we do, but it’s real,” the N.C. State professor said. “Those are the real kinds of issues they’re faced with.”

For those of us with friends or family deployed to Iraq, many for the second or third time, 4,003 is exactly 4,003 too many. Especially when compared to the 160,000 troops who are over there. Since the 2,600 Oklahoma National Guard troops were mobilized this past year, many families in the state are feeling the strain of the war.