Returned soldiers around Ft. Benning suffered jaws half blown away, fingers and hands missing from mines; eye-lids, ears and lips melted off by napalm and hundreds of amputees. It sickened me beyond anything I can write about. I suffered depression as to the uselessness of living.
Why so poignant to me?
My college roommate died in Vietnam. The draft grabbed him right out of our room. The U.S. Army trained him and politicians like Johnson and Nixon killed him. The "Silent Majority" said nothing, did nothing and would not raise a finger against the hyper-insanity of Nam.
What did Vietnam accomplish? It made arms manufacturers rich. It filled the pockets of aircraft CEOs. It killed millions. Other than that, it did nothing for world peace or human progress.
Major General Mark Graham, THE COMMANDER, Fort Carson, Colorado
This week, March 9, 2008, in the Denver Post, "The Commander" by Erin Emery – another devastating story spoke in print. In a self-revelation, Major General Mark Graham, Fort Carson, Colorado, revealed that he suffered the loss of his first son as a U.S. Army Infantry Lt., who died in action in Iraq. The General also revealed that another son hanged himself as he trained in ROTC at the University of Kentucky.
War – Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome
We know that "Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome" stems from the horror of war, the futility of war and the total madness of war. Many men and women face neurological thresholds or face overloads that render mental illness from the senselessness of combat – the sheer terror of watching a buddy blown to shreds.
Of all the sickening and wretched horrors Bush and Cheney visit upon America's youth, we will not know how many American boys and girls will commit suicide in the coming decades from their personal nightmares in Iraq. How many bodies disfigured beyond human understanding? How many will live lives self-medicating with alcohol, pills or other drugs? How many will suffer divorces or long term depression via the horrors they witnessed or participated in while soldiers in Iraq? How many thousands will become the new homeless on the streets of America?
Most U S Presidents insist upon Imperialistic Wars, but why?
Bush insists these human calamities vindicate our "War on Terror" weekly while, in truth, he wages a war on humanity. His protégé, Senator John McCain advocates staying in Iraq for 100 years. Obama and Hillary fail to clarify their intentions, thus assuring thousands of added suicides in the years ahead.
In my travels across Europe recently, I met another world traveler who said, "America is the greatest threat to world peace." I would add – our leaders prove the greatest threat to planetary peace!
"Of course the people don't want war…"
Hermann Goering, said,
"Why – of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don't want war neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood.
But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."
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