A Veterans Day Unlike Any Other
“I think now, looking back, we did not fight the enemy; we fought ourselves. The enemy was in us.” — CHRIS TAYLOR IN “PLATOON”
The U.S. is locked in an intractable war in Iraq that never should have been fought. It is led by a government that embraces torture, spits on the very freedoms that its armed forces are fighting to protect, and uses these men and women as political pawns. Americans are deeply disillusioned. Our world standing is at low ebb. If anything, the homeland may be even more vulnerable to a terrorist attack than it was before 9/11.
I note that:
* Times of war always put strains on the systems that are supposed to assure that veterans get the physical and mental health care and other support they need. But these are not typical times and those systems are underfunded, overworked and near collapse because of hubris and neglect.
* One of every four of the homeless people in our midst is a veteran, including a shocking number of women. How could we have let this happen?
* When veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan tell their stories to their children, will they be able to do so with the same pride as World War II veterans? If not, why not?
* Vietnam veterans still haven’t gotten their tickertape parade.
A perverse consequence of this malaise is that it is easy to forget that the veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the wars of the past, deserve to be honored more than ever.
And so on this, Veterans Day 2007, please pause to do so.
I had the privilege of covering a good many big stories during a long newspaper career. The visit of a diminutive woman by the name of Phan Ti Kim Phuc — better known as “The Girl in the Photograph” — to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., on Veterans Day 1996 would seem to pale in comparison to the Clinton impeachment circus or O.J. Simpson trials, to name two of the biggies, but it is one that I cherish.
Please click here to read more at Kiko’s House.
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Shaun:
Your post honors the troops, but dishonors the war they fought. That’s a fine balance, is it not?
From what I can see from listening to the Democratic candidates for President, they no longer mention Iraq. They want to speak only of Iran. Why is that? Senator Joe Lieberman answered this question in a little reported speech:
Even as evidence has mounted that General Petraeus’ new counterinsurgency strategy is succeeding, Democrats have remained emotionally invested in a narrative of defeat and retreat in Iraq, reluctant to acknowledge the progress we are now achieving. . . .
I believe the Dems would be in a stronger position if they were to acknowledge the progress on the ground in Iraq. Then, they can take the language of pre-emption and show how they would pre-empt an unnecessary war in Iran. Bush’s rhetoric could be turned back on him, if they have the savvy to do so.
There’s not problem acknowledging progress, but you must point out the fact that it’s simply not sustainable and has done nothing to affect the reconcilliation it was designed to allow for.
And can we also acknowledge that while there has been progress 2007 is still the bloodiest year of the war for both the US and Iraqis?
In the end, we have an unsustainable surge that has reduced violence to the level of 2006 and a government no more interested in reconcilliation than Musharef is interested in eliminating the Taliban.
No one is standing in front of “mission accomplished” banners. Newsweek attributes progress to both the surge and to Al Sadr telling his Mahdi army to disengage. True, U.S. troops will cycle home in a few months, and then we’ll see if the Iraqi forces can take up the slack. The question is whether the Iraqis themselves are tired enough of the bloodshed to speak to each other with something other than bombs.
This is a four month trend toward less violence. Surely, that’s reason for at least guarded optimism. I suppose that’s too much to ask, though, during an election season.
In the end will this be seen as a bigger Fiasco than Vietnam?
I suppose that’s too much to ask, though, during an election season.
With the internet there is no such thing as NON election season.
As a veteran of Vietnam I have many good and decent stories to tell. Helping hands extended. People who loved us and worked hard to help us. Moments where I talked to mothers and fathers and sons and daughters who hoped for something better then dirt farming.
People who had hopes and dreams like I had hopes and dreams but because of where they were born they were relegated to having their lives dictated to them because it was thought they could not decide for themselves.
I see so many parallels with Iraq. Now those same people are standing up and saying Iraqis cant think for themselves. They cant make peace so they should have a dictator running their lives and destroying their chance at freedom. Because they cant make freedom work they do not deserve freedom.
In Vietnam the forces opposed to democracy was Communism. They murdered, beheaded, tortured and did all manner of vile things to the people to dissuade them from any attempts at even daring to hope for freedom.
In Iraq the Enemies of Freedom are the insurgent Jihadists/Caliphatists who will murder, behead, torture and do all manner of vile things to the people to dissuade them from any attempts at even daring to hope for freedom.
Yes the parallels with Vietnam are mindboggling and once again the forces are United working feverishly to insure the US fails once again. Not only fails herself but fails Iraq. Failure is the hope and prayer of The democrats and the antiwar.
It is what they work night and day fervishly to see happen. Why? Who knows. But because people die trying to earn freedom as many if not more will die living in Tyranny.
Which is the better way to die? Trying to earn freedom or attempting to hide from Tyranny?
On this Veteran’s Day, here’s a must-read:
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=12233
Special thanks to my nephew, Chris, who today is fighting with the U.S. Army in Baghdad. Come home safe.
I hnor the veterans.
I spent the day talking to some at the local hospital.
i would not fight a war to make them feel better about the outcome, however.
Soliers do a an honorable job for the sake of the nation. The nation does not fight a war to privide job opportunities for soldiers.
Let’s just keep our priorites straight.
Doma you completely misunderstand.
I do not advocate fighting a war to make the soldiers feel better about themselves.
I advocate the successful conclusion to this war to keep the Iraq women and children safe from the butchers hands. We OWE it to them. WE OWE them a chance. Because a nation held in bondage its entire life does not know how to embrace freedom does not mean they are not entitled to some leeway.
The antiwar wants to cut and run and return these people to the hands of butchers because they are clueless to grasp what we take for granted.