A Vietnam Vet Speaks Out on Today's Iraq Deaths
This was too good to leave in the comments, so I'm making it a post of it's own. From Terry Kindlon:
As a Vietnam Veteran and former Marine Sergeant, and as the father of a Marine Captain (JAG Officer), I must admit that I felt like somebody kicked me in the stomach today when I heard about the CH53 going down with 30 Marines and one sailor aboard.
My company in Vietnam, Echo Company, 2d Battalion, Third Marines, lost 22 KIA in a horrific ambush on one day in December of 1968, and I still think about that every day, even though it's been almost 40 years.
Although Vietnam was a harsh, hot, insane war that killed 58,000 of my colleagues, wounded a few hundred thousand more and left untold numbers psychologically scarred, all for no good reason, it is beginning to seem that our misguided adventure in Iraq, for the soldiers and Marines serving there,is every bit as physically dangerous and probably a lot more emotionally destructive than the War in Vietnam (I'll take the boonies over urban combat any day).
As a criminal defense lawyer I spent a great deal of time, especially in the 1970's and 1980's, working with Vietnam veterans who were suffering through the horrors of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I used to think that we'd learned our lesson and that we'd avoid pointless wars in the future. Guess I was wrong. The Iraq War has already guaranteed another generation of equally troubled vets who will be needing all the psychological and legal help they can get in a few years.
I can't help thinking that if one of the people running the war from a nice, comfy office in Washington had ever spent the night in a foxhole, listening to all those funny noises out there in the dark, or if one of them had ever heard the terrible silence between the time an enemy mortar round leaves the tube and when it lands nearby, or if any one of them had ever held the hand and tried to dry the tears of a dying Marine, we never would have gone into the madness of Iraq in he first place.
Nonetheless, today's horrible loss of life must force us to honestly confront the utter futility of our clueless efforts in Iraq and to bring home our soldiers, sailors, airmen/women and Marines before we do any more damage to them, to our armed forces, to the people of Iraq or to our standing in the world community. Say a prayer for all of them and for all of us, too. Semper fidelis. Terry Kindlon
Thank you Terry, that was beautifully expressed and written.
Update: In November, Terry wrote in about Fallujah, another must read.
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