Honor veterans but don’t glorify war

Published 4:00 pm Monday, November 10, 2008

Veterans Day takes on an additional meaning in a time of war.

The Iraq War and the U.S. missions in Afghanistan are creating thousands of new veterans, many of whom are maimed, physically and emotionally. After years of White House denial of combat deaths and other physical costs of the Iraq War, there is much more open discussion of this war’s disabled veterans. It is long overdue.

The military itself is far more open to discussion of war’s mental and physical duress than it was during the Vietnam War. Historically, some clinical understanding of the mental toll of warfare began with the Civil War and has advanced with each subsequent war.

Why dwell on war’s victims rather than its heroes? There are at least three reasons.

One of this war’s sad revelations is how badly many of our wounded veterans have been treated by the government they have served. A president who sent young men and women to fight and die in Iraq and Afghanistan has paid scant attention to their needs as disabled veterans. He made it an urgent issue only after The Washington Post published a damning series of articles about care at Walter Reed Hospital.

Secondly, the sad truth is that after the clamor for war dies, returning veterans are often ignored. That is the point of The Best Years of Our Lives, a 1946 movie about an American town after World War II. Vietnam War veterans came home to a nation that didn’t want to acknowledge their service.

Thirdly, the Iraq War and Afghanistan occupation are marked by a civilian population that is almost totally disconnected from those who are making the ultimate sacrifice. Veterans do not exist within a vacuum. They have been sent to combat zones in the name of the American public. It was Herbert Hoover who said, “Older men declare war. But it’s the youth who must fight and die.”

When service personnel sign up and don the uniforms of our armed forces, they essentially give our nation a blank check, payable with everything up to and including their lives. There is simply nothing more precious than that promise and it is a callous political administration that takes that selfless conduct lightly.

On the one hand, the Iraq War has been typified by an attitude different than what occurred with the Vietnam War. While the Iraq War is intensely unpopular, public anger is not aimed at service personnel. At the same time, the right wing which serves the White House has not hesitated to savage soldiers when it suits their needs. We hope that will be a thing of the past when the sun emerges from the clouds over our nation in January.

All branches of our military continue to be badly stretched by the demands of the Iraq War and our service in Afghanistan. Also, National Guard units from many states have been dispatched to serve in combat and in support units, taking them away from their homeland missions and meaning they are not available for immediate responses when natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina strike.

Aristotle wrote, “We make war that we may live in peace.” That approach has long justified too many overseas excursions that have ended in disaster.

The Dutch writer of the northern renaissance, Desiderius Erasmus wrote that, “War is sweet to those who don’t know it.”

Veterans have done America’s hardest work. We owe them our freedoms. This is the day to honor and thank them for their service and sacrifice.