Let’s support our troops while we work to bring them home now.
I wrote most of this post on Memorial Day but didn’t have a chance to complete and post it until today.
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On Memorial Day, which falls on the last Monday of May, our nation honors the men and women who died in military service to our nation.
There are a lot of them to honor. Below are our ten most lethal wars ranked by total deaths of American soldiers from Wikipedia:
1. American Civil War (1861–1865): 625,000 deaths
2. World War II (1941–1945): 405,399 deaths
3. World War I (1917–1918): 116,516 deaths
4. Vietnam War (1964–1973): 58,151 deaths
5. Korean War (1950–1953): 36,516 deaths
6. Revolutionary War (1775–1783): 25,000 deaths
7. War of 1812 (1812–1815): 20,000 deaths
8. Mexican-American War (1846–1848): 13,283 deaths
9. Philippine War (1899–1902): 4,196 deaths
10. Iraq War (2003–present) 4,079 deaths
These, of course, are the numbers of members of our armed forces who died. And while these are truly significant, we might want to consider the total number of deaths in the wars in which our nation has enaged. For example, the total estimated human loss of life for World War II was 72 million people. The estimated total number of deaths in the Vietnam War total is more than three million. And in Iraq some estimate that more than one million Iraqi civilians have died thus far.
On this day of remembrance songs are sung, speeches are made, graves are decorated, lost loved ones are honored, sacrifices during time of war recalled.
But as columnist Mark Shields points out in a March 21 appearance on The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, our military personnel and their families have borne the entire brunt of the current war:
[W]e went to war against a country that had never attacked us, that never threatened us, on the bogus claim that that country had weapons of mass destruction which were a threat to us.
And it was not a moral war, and it was not a just war. It was a war in which the United States sullied, stained and repealed one of the great American values, that is that, in wartime, war demands equality of sacrifice.
All the sacrifice in this war has been borne by the one percent of Americans who are in uniform and their families. The rest of us have been quietly by, especially those of us who opposed the war, and been moral defectors.
We haven’t protested the fact that this is a war that our children and grandchildren will pay for. We haven’t even—we’ve blithely accepted tax cuts, and no draft, and no burden, paid no price, bore no burden, and accepted leadership that demanded nothing of us, and we’ve demanded nothing of them.
So how do we shoulder our share the sacrifice during war time, during this war? First and foremost, we immediately tell our elected officials to stop sending the men and women of our armed forces to fight in unnecessary and futile (not to mention illegal and immoral) conflicts and demand that they bring those who are in harm’s way home right now.
By no standard was the Iraq War necessary; the theoretical reasons to participate in this ill-advised and reckless military adventure were concocted in the dark, paranoid imaginations of deeply flawed men like George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, ballyhooed by print and television pundits and marketed to us like laundry detergent or the latest cure for a limp penis.
Regardless, however, we’re not off the hook. We, the people of this nation, have a responsibility for what has happened, for what is still happening. We have elected politicians who have voted to create the most massive war machine ever known on earth. We have elected and re-elected a president who thinks the best way to honor the troops is to give up golf. We have become consumers—of stuff, of TV, of antidepressants, of the mainstream media’s bullshit—rather than engaged citizens who will take action to stop the slaughter.
So what can we do around this Memorial Day to make a difference, to help bring our nation to its senses?
We can work to elect leaders who pledge to defend our country and who will engage the other nations of the world as partners, rather than endeavoring to bully other peoples into submission. We can let our elected representatives know that we will no longer tolerate the huge sums of money being spent on armaments while so little is spent on education, health care, healing the environment, rebuilding our infrastructure, etc. We can consider becoming a war tax resister.
One very important thing: Instead of spending your tax rebate on a vacation or wide-screen television set, how about using it to support those who have been making all the sacrifices in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and who have been getting short shrift on their return—the men and women of our armed forces and their families.
While our troops are overseas, their families need our support. When they return to the U.S., they may need it even more. Let’s stand together to show our gratitude, and let them know that we stand with them.
Click on the links below to find out more about worthy organizations that provide services for our troops and their families.
America Supports You — Lists numerous ways to offer support to troops (includes financial assistance, care packages, family member support, scholarships, support for wounded)
AnySoldier — Gives you contact info for deployed troops along with their specific requests for care packages
Forgotten Soldiers Outreach — Allows you to write to soldiers or send them care packages
National Veterans Foundation — Donate to help those who have served our country and their families.
SoldiersAngels — Offers a variety of ways to support soldiers during and after deployment
Swords to Plowshares — Donate to help heal the wounds and to restore dignity, hope and self-sufficiency to all veterans in need
Wounded Warrior Project — Donate to help meet the needs of wounded soldiers
Thursday, May 29th, 2008No Comments »
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