"The Making and Un-making of a Marine"

Letter to the Editor

New Paltz Times   Thursday, March 1, 2007

Larry Winters
14 Millrock Road, New Paltz, NY 12561
845-255-4513
Winters.lawrence@gmail.com

Author of: The Making and Un-making of a Marine due out March 2007

What do we care about these days?  The amount of snow to shovel off the sidewalks?  Where we will go out to dinner next weekend?  Who we are not getting along with at work?  How much it will cost at the supermarket when we go shopping?  Do we want pepperoni or mushrooms on our pizza or the fact that the death count in Iraq is at 3,131 on February 18, 2007 and the causality list at 32,544, the US mill for making soldiers is in full swing?  What is the fate of these men and women after they finished serving our country?  There have been 250,000 troops deployed in Iraq since the beginning of the war, making the number of veterans walking our streets ever increasing.  How are we treating these veterans?  What price will society pay if we can not integrate these men and women back into our culture? How do we un-train them to kill? What do we owe them for their sacrifices?  Theses questions seem to go unanswered by those in leadership.  Veterans Hospitals are being closed while more soldiers are being sent to Iraq.  The number of tours of duty for these men and women is unprecedented in American history.  The depth of physical, psychic and spiritual pain we are asking these troops to carry is unimaginable.  We have historically paid for this kind of indifference, if we look at what happened after the Vietnam War it is blatantly evident, why can't we see it?  Have we asked these questions to ourselves or are we waiting for the government or our next door neighbor, or the local clergy, to lead the way?  Maybe it time to look inside our own souls for answers.

We will not escape the social consequence or the expense of turning our backs on this problem.  We, the American public, will be paying in many ways for years to come.  Over 100,000 Viet Nam vets committed suicide since the War.  The ranks of the homeless are heavily numbered with Viet Nam vets.  Addiction has been rampant in the veteran population.  Domestic violence and crime will run unbridled if we do not learn from the past.  When will we learn that there are no free lunches and that we can not fill our cars with blood free money?