SUPPORT OUR TROOPS
Oh, how non-combatants love to use the term "support our troops" as they act-out their unsupported fantasies about war and its consequences. The reality of war and the actual support of our brave military men and women is something quite different. We should never enter a war unnecessarily, but those presidents and vice presidents who have no battle experience seem to push us in the direction of war.
Ronald Reagan never served yet chose to invade Greneda. George W. Bush never served in battle, yet he CHOSE to invade Iraq. Not only that, but George W. Bush got himself elected by dissing two military heroes, John McCain in the South Carolina primary and elsewhere, and John Kerry in his run for president. And the strongest war hawk in recent years has been Dick Cheney, who got himself several excuses not to be drafted at all. Former General and President Dwight D. Eisenhower, on the other hand, got us out of the Korean War quickly. As shameful as some of these leaders have been, you and I have not given enough attention and support to the veterans when they return from war. Their problems are complex, disabling, and serious. Yet we give them only passing attention.
A study by General S.L.A. Marshall, official U.S. historian of World War II, found that only about 15% to 20% of American riflemen actually fired their rifles at the enemy when ordered to do so. Marshall concluded that "the average and healthy individual ... has such an inner and totally unrealized resistance towards killing a fellow man that he will not of his own volition take life if it is possible to turn away from that responsibility ... At the vital point the soldier becomes a conscientious objector."
The U.S. military acted to try and change this. And the training sessions for rookie troops was altered to set them up to become more likely to follow orders and to kill when confronted by the enemy. During subsequent wars the percentages who actually fired their rifles went up and up. One of the results has also been that this has confused the psyche of these vets when they came home.
This blog space does not allow me to adequately cover this subject here. But let me quote from Ex-Marine Captain Tyler Boudreau who has written an autobiography titled PACKING INFERNO: THE UNMAKING OF A MARINE:
"I was a rifle commander...I didn't have the capacity to believe...not in that role. To believe that there could be psychological injuries sustained from violence we inflicted would be to acknowledge its inherent immorality."
"...desensitization [in one's training] doesn't eliminate morality from the consciousness. It merely postpones cogitation. Sooner or later, when a man's had a chance to think things over, he will find himself standing in judgment before his own conscience...Soldiers desensitize themselves in war...they must in order to survive...They push the humanity out of the enemy and out of themselves...one's humanity can be quite difficult to recover once it's been evicted."
"...every [combat wound] rates a Purple Heart. Yet never once has a veteran been awarded a Purple Heart for combat stress...Only through genuine acknowledgment that combat stress is an injury, not a disorder, can we ever give uninhibited affection to our wounded."
"In 2005, after 12 years of active service in the Marine Corps and with growing reservations about the war, I relinquished command of my rifle company and resigned my commission. It struck me that, in our headlong pursuit to deliver freedom and democracy and to expel an oppressive regime and combat terrorism, we had inadvertently lost sight of the very people we'd been deployed to help."
Please do not tell me that I am supporting surrender or not defending the U.S. That ploy has no place here. I am commenting about the help these men and women require when returning from war. And please, no more non-combatants pounding their chests like they are patriots. That is silly. We owe these men and women our support and admiration. Now and for as long as they need it. Vote to support additional money to support our returning troops and those that have come before them in the horrible mess we call war.
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Information was used here from WORLDWIDEWAMM, October, 2009 issue. www.worldwidewam.org
