They took an oath, to protect and serve this country with integrity and honor, with the hopes that the world itself would be a better place due to their sacrifice. However, how could they fight for peace in the world if their own country is going through turmoil? Why should they continue to risk their lives against other enemies, when their country is fighting itself? Nowadays it seems as though our brothers, sisters, daughters and sons, would be better off in the hands of the military, instead of in the neighborhoods of their own hometown.

The recent Black Lives Matter movements, police brutality occurrences and the killing of police officers, has angered and shocked our soldiers overseas. Many of whom have been up close and personal with the enemy itself. Yet here in America, the enemy does not hide behind masks and the innocent, it hides behind a badge. Due to the murders of Philandro Castille and Alton Sterling, and the deaths of five Dallas police officers, some of our soldiers in arms had some extremely moving comments about these tragedies.

A soldier, who joined the Army to get away from the violence in his own neighborhood, is scared and angered. He knows, as a black man, he could have easily been Castille or Sterling. However, a former soldier from the Army takes a different point of view. From his experiences, he understands that there is bad in every organization. “Not every cop wants to save people, not every soldier wants to fight for freedom." He strongly believes that it is in the human DNA for us to be apart of conflict. "As long as we as humans all have opposing religions, opinions and beliefs, there will always be conflict."

A soldier from the Air Force, simply says “I don’t like this. What’s the point of ‘world peace’ if we can’t even have peace in our own world?” This all goes to show that these intolerable acts of brutality and injustice have stricken a nasty cord in all of our hearts. Not just the deaths of Castille or Sterling, but for those five Dallas police officers, who were doing their job to protect and serve.

Due to the fact that soldiers in the military do not share the same freedom of speech rights as civilians, it was decided to not put their names, for their own safety. However, please believe that these testimonies are true in every way possible. It is not just the Black Lives Matter activists that are offended, but also the people who protect us from enemies that are not in front of us, but just beyond our borders. When soldiers come home, it should be back to a country of peace. They should not leave one war, just to be thrown into another.