Growing up as an American, I just had this feeling, as many people do, that what my country was doing was representing goodness. I came to the conclusion that what we were doing at that point was representing what, to me, the United States doesn't represent. During my tour I saw the things that were happening and realized that we were there for an unjust cause, that the reasons for the invasion never happened, were never factual.
I felt very connected to it all at one moment, and it's when I was transferred to a small base just north of the city of Baghdad. I was the communications sergeant, so it was my communications team with an infantry battalion. The battalion would go out and patrol the surrounding areas and bring back detainees. These people would be tied up, hooded, and on the ground of the building in front of the battalion commander's office for a day or longer. The soldiers were required to let them use the washroom. However, they would refuse to untie their hands or take the hood off their heads.
I didn't hang around to see what the result of that was. However, at that moment I felt very connected to those crimes because that commander couldn't do that without my job. If I hadn't supplied the communications, it wouldn't have happened.