Opinion: Supporting the troops, not the fighting
By Kathryn Reed
I don’t understand war.
I don’t understand how killing people, destroying buildings and ruining large swaths of a country do any good. It might prove who has a better military, better equipment and better technology.
I’m not against having a military. I think we need to be prepared to protect what is ours because there will always be those who want to take it from us.
I suppose I am more idealistic than I should be. It’s not that I see things with rose-colored glasses, but I truly don’t see how weapons solve problems – at any level of engagement. I don’t believe violence is an answer to any problem.
Today is Veterans Day, so my thoughts turn to the men and women who have and continue to serve our country in the military.
My nephew is one of them. He is in Special Forces for the Army.
Chris is deployed right now. We don’t know where. My sister and brother-in-law know what continent, but that’s it. And they aren’t telling the rest of the family. Based on what is going on in the world I would venture to guess it’s Africa. And a further guess is ISIS or Ebola are what he and his brethren are dealing with.
He left this summer less than a month after his daughter was born. It’s not like he could tell his boss no or even quit his job without severe consequences. He had no opportunity to take paternity leave. No chance to bond with Annabella. Chris is supposed to be back in March, but the military makes few promises.
When he has been deployed before – in times of war even if Congress never said that’s what was going on – I would send care packages. This time they said don’t send baked goods (which is what I like to send) because it could take a while before the boxes ever reach the guys.
I’m proud of Chris for doing what he is doing even if I don’t really know what he is doing. It is a unique individual who can train for anything, accept orders and go do a job even while disagreeing with the mission. I couldn’t do it. I’m too opinionated and always want to know the “why” behind things.
I support our troops and those who have been in the military. My family has had our share of those who have served. I just can’t support the senseless death and destruction that seems to be what the military is all about.
Thank you, Kae, for a thoughtful and heartfelt piece.
Totally agree with you ;) I believe in the saying “violence begets more violence”, and wonder why leaders continue to engage in it so much, when we could easily scale back to a defense stance.
I feel horrible for those that have been killed and maimed in wars. I don’t know if I’ve witnessed a good justifiable war in my lifetime.
Thank you Kae for your well written article about Veterans Day. I couldn’t agree more!
I hope your nephew is safe and comes home in good shape. I’m flying Old Glory today in honor of Chris and all the veterans everywhere.
Thank you, OLS
Thank you, Kae, for writing in such caring support of your nephew and all other uniformed men and women fighting to keep the values we all hold so dear. What if women were in charge? Would there be so much destruction of property and ugly military tactics in this world? We hope your young man makes it home safety back to his family soon.
Thank you, Kae, for expressing very succintly the dilemma that so many of us feel on Veterans Day…how we can completely disagree with war and still hold our military men and women in our hearts and prayers.
Thank you Kae for the great article. I totally agree with you. It makes no sense for us to send so many souls off to foreign lands to kill and destroy just to prove that we’re stronger, better, meaner, richer or whatever it is that we’re proving. God protect your nephew and all his comrades. And thank you to all those who have gone before him.
To make the entire thing worse,our military activities are “off budget” meaning that there is no real accounting of what taxpayer money is spent and why. The money is “borrowed” in our names and the wars go on. If you follow the money you know that we are protecting oil installations, contracts and pipelines. We haven’t budgeted sufficient funds to care for wounded veterans so, in many ways, we use these brave young people and then betray them horribly. We fight endlessly in Congress about money for education, infrastructure and support for the poor while Boeing, GE, Halliburton and the like run off with the spoils. It is impoverishing our great nation.
I hope your young nephew comes home physically, mentally and emotionally intact and is able to resume a normal and productive life with his family.
Bravo Kae! War is definitely not the answer. When will we ever learn?
yup
of the A bombs until an elderly veteran
who became a minister explained to me
— we were just days away from millions of us dying on USA soil. So, as much of a dove as I am, I have to believe our service men and women keep our world from ever getting to that place again. Thank you veterans and families for keeping our planet nuke free and habitable. In the words of my dad, a WWII vet “If you ever knew what you didn’t know, you’d never say anything about anything.”
I believe Kae it is not war you
don’t understand, but human beings
and their complex psychology. You can take the boy or girl out of the war but you can’t take war out of the
human psyche.
Humans are the product of millions of years of “Fight or Flight.” We are stuck with ourselves. So be it.
And for all peace lovers, which I am one, should we have stood by while the Japanese and Nazi war machines slaughtered and raped millions of innocents and were gunning for the USA? Thank goodness Roosevelt saw it happening and prepared us for the fight of our lives.
Thank you Kae for sharing your feelings about our veterans and war in general. I personally have never served in any branch of the military, but have the utmost respect for all the men and women who have served and continue to serve in the military today.
Years ago I asked a friend of mine who served during the Vietnam war, if there was anything special I could do for him on Veterans Day. He said what would be special for him and all veterans was to say “thank you.”
So today (and everyday), everyone please extend a special “thank you” to our veterans.
Kae, I hope and pray that your nephew, along with all the other men and women in the military return home safely to their families and friends.
Well written Kae. I totally agree. I think the best way we can honor our veterans is by ending the wars and bringing them home; home to their families and friends; home to whatever medical and mental health support they might need. The state of VA healhcare in this country is shameful. Once the war is over, and the “us” vs. “them” rhetoric dies down, our veteran brothers and sisters are left in the cold. May Chris be healthy and safe, wherever he is.
Having spent 20 years in the military as well as having a son and daughter who served (whom both no longer are with us)I can tell you no one in the military understands war. What we understand is Duty and Honor to do what is right to ensure our way of life. The Military does not wage war, politicians wage war. We are but a tool of our elected leaders which we embrace to the fullest.
ONLY TWO DEFINING FORCES HAVE EVER OFFERED TO DIE FOR YOU
JESUS CHRIST AND THE AMERICAN SOLDIER
ONE OFFERED TO DIE FOR YOUR FREEDOM
ONE OFFERED TO DIE FOR YOUR SOUL
KNOW THEY ARE NOT FORGOTTEN
It seems part of the answer to your own question is answered by what you wrote.
“I think we need to be prepared to protect what is ours because there will always be those who want to take it from us.”
We met Japan in the Pacific to keep them from running the pacific and possibly the U.S. , and we met the Germans in No Africa and Europe to do likewise for the sake of self preservation and for the preservation of the other allied nations. I would think the Jewish people are quite supportive of Hitler being stopped. For their sake alone I would have willingly fought for them.
Never pretty war, always gruesome, horrible and tragic, but in the course of human history there is always those that would seek to dominate the masses. I for one think it’s wise to attempt to stop them. Having said that I would never blindly chose to fight a war, and some of the wars America has fought I haven’t supported.
Most often, peace only comes after victory. Sadly, war is the natural state of mankind, as is the repression of a downtrodden majority by a rich and powerful minority. Only when our Declaration of Independence and Constitution so clearly laid out the now accepted rights of the individual and the limitations on government did the paradigm change. The Revolutionary War not only brought forth a new nation, but a new way of looking at how nations operated, both in domestic and foreign policy.
Despite progressives’ claim to the countrary, the US tends to fight wars of liberation or national defense, not colonial conquest. When we win, we implement a long range plan to cultivate a stable democratic ally and reduce our forces in such a way so as to insure that the fledgling government can be well established. This model worked well in Europe and South Korea; and it works because we are Americans, we are the “good guys”. But this proven model faces many additional hurdles, and simply may not be applicable, in Islamic countries, which typically have no desire for freedom but prefer to be dominated under a sharia driven theocracy.
Clearly this model was not followed in Iraq as Obama was in such a big hurry to get out he failed to reach a “Status of Forces” agreement with the Maliki regime. When liberals claim the Iraqi government would not grant us favorable conditions for such an agreement, they overlook one very important fact. We won, and peace comes after victory. In this case, as we have witnessed, a residual force left to insure the stability (and imposed upon them if necessary) would have saved a great many lives and precluded the rise of ISIS, which would have been contained to Syria alone, and remained just a problem for Assad to deal with.
In his haste to establish the political claim he “… ended the war in Iraq”, Obama squandered the hard won victory we had achieved with the lives of our brave servicemen and women, and demonstrated once again why he is the most unqualified person to ever hold the Office of the Presidency. Now we find ourselves in the position of having to put more troops back in, under a serious threat from ISIS, to clean up Obama’s utter mis-handling of the Iraq war victory and aftermath, and meanwhile untold thousands of innocents have been slaughtered in the interim. Our military deserves better from the “Commander in Chief”.
The best war is the one never fought because our country and military and technology are the best there is and our enemies fear us. This has to be maintained and the election defeating liberalism is a result of that idea for millions of our people.
The current President and his military shake-up and firings and everything else he has done is disgraceful and gives our enemies the signal the country is weak and they seek to try this country as has not been seen since the 1960’s. Two long years ahead and there is more danger then seen in many decades.
“Two long years ahead and there is more danger then seen in many decades.”
*than
Also, fear mongering, and promoting the false idea that the GOP is the party of national defense.
freedumb fried. bet you ate a lot of those in 2002. never forget (fear mongering chicken hawks and their perversion of nationalism/patriotism).
go fear yourself.
caso, the russians have already stated that there is a new cold war started. And of course there is absolutly no fighting going on in Syria, Iran, and afaganistan. Not fear mongering it is a dangerous world out there. Though stating that there is more danger ahead than we have seen in decades isnt even close to being true, Justice must have forgotten 9 11.
For someone that is, or at least claims to be so intelligent? Take off the rose colored glasses. Did the Greeks choose to fight the Persians? Did the U.S. ask for Pearl Harbor to be bombed? Did we invite the Homicide Bombers to blow up the World Trade Center? I am fortunate, to have not had to fight in a war. My Great Uncle and Grand Father fought in WW 2, My Uncle’s in Korea and Vietnam. I don’t know anyone that wants to go to war. The primary purpose of the Federal Government is to protect its citizens. What will the next threat be, who knows? I want to have and be the greatest military in the world, I want our enemies to fear the thought of challenging America. If challenged I hope we are prepared for the challenge. Our Veterans deserve to be treated better than a rock star or a professional athlete. Unfortunately you mistake fear mongering for being prepared. American exceptionalism is our greatest accomplishment. We are not conquerors but liberators. It’s really too bad your world of lollipops, daisies and unicorns doesn’t exist, in fact I wish it did, but it doesn’t so wake up and quit belittling patriotism and respect those that have died or volunteered to die so that you have the freedom to sit behind your computer and diminish the views of those that you disagree with. Your callous disregard sickens me.
These are comments from liberal fringe loons like the rotten fish and are the same ones who try to keep the border open and think they can fight wars with drones and planes and don’t want troops to fight and try to say there is no danger out there. They ignore ISIS, Russia’s escalation and confrontations and China’s build up and the Iranian nuclear bomb making for starters and can’t see enemies as real or risks or dangers, the reality is they are the danger to this country. They are also just trying to pick themselves off the floor after the election where people voted to end the liberal agenda and stop their hero, the Bumbling Bummer. The one embarrassing himself, and hiding in China, last seen wearing a Star Trek robe and being laughed at like no other. Most wish he would stay there and beg for a position as a Communist.
Kae, great letter!
Nice letter but very idealistic. There are bad players in the world and military action is oftentimes the only way to deal with the situation. Without military action do you think the south would have given up slavery? Conversation and talk in congress would not have done it. Military action to destroy the south was the only way. How about Hitler and WW2? Would Germany have surrendered without military action? What we don’t need is needless military action that wastes lives and resources. But sadly, the military and the use of war has been and will continue to be a necessary part of our foreign policy.
“War is Peace.
Freedom is Slavery.
Ignorance is Strength.”
G. Orwell