My grandfather was a soldier in the Italian army in WWI. My father served under General George Patton in WWII. My uncle was in the navy at the same time. A close friend was a Green Beret paratrooper in Korea. During the conflict in Vietnam, my fiancé, Kevin, was a forward observer and when in the field, Kevin’s life expectancy was fifteen minutes. My brother, Edward, was an officer in a medical unit.

Ed was stationed in a hospital in Germany, but he didn’t get off easy. He was assigned to a burn unit where he witnessed the horrible disfigurement and suffering of young men every day. Both Kevin and Ed accepted their fate when they were drafted, went without complaint, and served admirably even though they were anti-war. I, too, was against the war then, and now, and I also supported the troops then as I do now. But my definition of “support” is different from that of many of my fellow citizens. To support means to help, not destroy. To support the troops cannot mean that they be fed endlessly to an unjust, unprovoked, and un-winnable war; it should mean that they be provided with medical and financial assistance, if and when they return home.

Along with the wounds from artillery and shrapnel, many of the soldiers in the two World Wars were injured by mustard gas and other chemical weapons. Others suffered from “shell shock”, and were ridiculed by their superiors instead of helped. Many of the soldiers in Korea and Vietnam experienced the same harsh reality as their predecessors.

When the troops returned from Vietnam, the reception they received from some Americans was despicable, and so was the way they were treated by the government and military they served under. Hundreds of them presented with mysterious symptoms, ranging from chronic skin problems to severe headaches to trouble breathing to unusual forms of cancer.
 

The veterans soon realized that their physical troubles were related somehow to the war. Of course they expected, and deserved, help. Instead, they were told that the symptoms were imaginary, and had nothing to do with their time in Vietnam. So, in addition to being physically ill, they were in effect told that they were mentally ill, too. Having fought one grueling conflict, they were now forced to fight another. And, again, the battle went on for years, with many casualties, before the truth was revealed that the soldiers’ exposure to Agent Orange, a chemical agent designed to destroy jungle vegetation, was the cause of their ailments.

The same scenario was played out during the first gulf war when soldiers came down with a variety of unexplained illnesses. In 1994, four years after the conflict, Gulf War Syndrome was officially acknowledged. Today, military men and women are facing daily conflict in Iraq, and are exposed to myriad dangers, including deadly chemicals like depleted uranium. Many will be left with serious physical injuries, major depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Will they have to fight for years to get the help they need and deserve?

According to a report in the New York Times (April 18, 2008), surveys conducted by the RAND Corporation and the Defense Department revealed that one in five service members, and veterans who have returned from Iraq or Afghanistan, report symptoms of post-traumatic stress syndrome or major depression. Of those, only 53 percent have sought treatment, and half of them “have got minimally adequate treatment” according to RAND. Those who did not report their symptoms were afraid that their medical records would endanger their employment opportunities, a very real fear in these hard financial times, because the possible ruination of their health is not the only way our current fighting forces will be paying for the war in Iraq. They will be burdened by the monetary cost, too. The original estimated price tag of the war was 60 billion dollars. That was bad enough, but it has skyrocketed, and to date is 341.4 million dollars a day (National Priorities Project). This yoke will be strapped to the backs of middle class and lower income people, while the wealthy benefit from the Bush Administration’s tax cuts. The majority of men and women in today’s military hail from humble beginnings. After paying with their bodies and minds, they will pay with their hard-earned money, and so will their children and grandchildren. Isn’t that the opposite of support?

The G.I. Bill helped WWII-era veterans to get a good education and/or job training. The current Montgomery G.I. Bill is inadequate for today’s turbulent times. Fortunately, Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) believes in the true meaning of support. On his first day in office, he introduced the “Post 9-11 Veterans Education Assistance Act of 2007” which, according to Senator Webb, is critical to achieving fairness to our men and women in uniform and strengthening the nation’s economic foundation (http://webb.senate/gov/newsroom).

The nation’s economic foundation is now straddling a widening fault line. Largely due to the outrageous war-debt, our country is in the pockets and at the mercy of other countries, including China – a totalitarian government that Mr. Bush kowtows to even though Beijing’s human rights record is at least as grim as that of Saddam’s regime.

Recently, two-thirds of the American people have come to realize that the war in Iraq is wrong. Some say that it was merely a mistake; others know that it was a criminal act resulting in enormous loss of life and potential financial disaster. That leaves two-thirds who still believe the invasion of a sovereign country, one that made no aggressive move toward us, was the right thing to do; that we must “support the troops” in the widely accepted meaning of the phrase. In other words, just shout hurrah as they march into the proverbial valley of death. If we do not, we are not patriots.

I wonder what category Kevin and Ed fall under. Are they patriots or not? One fought in the jungles, the other fought against pain and death. Are they, and the other veterans who oppose the war, unpatriotic? Or will they be patriots only if they drive SUV’s with “Support Our Troops” decals and tattered American flags jutting out, flapping in the wind?

Image: NFP Files

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