"The Making and Un-making of a Marine"

Sunday, November 12, 2006
The Day after Veterans Day

This Veterans Day  I attended the ceremony at the V.F.W. in New Paltz, and found that nothing had changed since I had returned from Vietnam in 1970.

The folks who attended the ceremony on Saturday were either Vets themselves or people related to Vets. I did not do a survey of the 50 to 60 people that were there. But I can be sure there were not more people than you could count on one hand who came to simply support Vets without having a personal attachment to one of them.

As I spooned from my bowl of chili the WW II Vet sitting next to me remarked, "It's a nice turnout, but with the war in Iraq and Afghanistan going on, I had hoped the place would have been packed."

I replied, "If the American people wanted to do justice to the men and women fighting for their freedom, we'd be over there on the New Paltz college fields with thousands surrounding us."

He nodded, silently.

I came home and looked up some numbers on the Internet, and this is what I found:

The Stars and Stripes reported a troop presence in Afghanistan of 17,900 as of July. The total number of non-mortal casualties in Afghanistan as of November was 5,729. The total number of American soldiers who have died in Operation Enduring Freedom in and around Afghanistan since military operations began in five years ago was 347 as of November 10.

The total current deployment in Iraq as of October was 158,137 regular troops. The total number of non-mortal casualties in the Iraq war was 46,137 as of this month (so far). The total number of fatalities in operation Iraqi Freedom as of November 10 was 2,828.

We just had an election the results of which appeared to turn on bringing the troops home. Moreover, God knows how many times I've heard people say, "I don't support the war, but I support the troops."

It makes me wonder why all the folks who voted on November 7 at the Middle School and High School couldn't have driven all the way to the V.F.W. to support the souls of those who have suffered for them. The total number of Americans who showed up at the V.F.W. to honor our fighting men and women was no more than you might find at the check-out line in Shop Rite.

But, like I said, nothing's changed since the seventies.

 
Larry Winters