I am old enough to remember the late 70's when the Vietnam Vets came home to little acclaim. After WWI, WWII and the Korean War the troops came home to ticker parades, fanfare, and gracious praise. This time something had changed. It seemed they were almost loathed. They seemed a burden on society. They had witnessed the same horrors of previous wars. Those returning men and women were heros! Why weren't they heralded the same?
Every year on Memorial Day the local Detroit television stations would scroll the names of those who were killed in the line of duty. Those who protected us from terrible wrong had their names drifting across the tv screen. The montage of taps and the scroll went on several minutes out of every fifteen. It lasted the entire day and night. The names went on and on, never repeating. I'd watch this with my Aunt Linda who was a hippie back in the day and knew a few of the local guys that had gone to war and perished. One of them was an ex boyfriend named Ed. I knew Ed. He was kind of a bum and went into the military rather than get a job. He looked a little like Meathead, Rob Reiner when he was young and thin, on All in the Family (a show most my friends weren't allowed to watch- too controversial). We watched all those names go by so we could see his name. She was so sad. She was also extremely angry. I was a very young child that didn't understand why . I also didn't understand why the soldiers came home to such a solemn, unwelcoming home. They saved us! They fought for our freedom! They were HEROS!!! Military was in many parts of our lives. My school had us get dogtags which we all wore around our necks like the troops. People wore camouflage clothing. Rather than a Ken doll for my Barbie, I had a G.I. Joe. He had a Velcro beard and looked really tough. War coverage was the first thing Walter Cronkite talked about every night until Watergate happened. That took over everyone's attention. The war and the soldiers were soon forgotten completely.
SO forgotten that when it was suggested we go to an unfounded war this time I was the only of my friends that had any resistance to the notion. EVERYONE was saying, "We have to take them down now! They are terrorists!" My pleas about the horror of war, killing of innocent and not so innocent people and the fact that Bush SR didn't do it because there was no viable exit plan were mocked. I still remembered just how many names scrolled by in my childhood living room. It seems nobody else of my generation did.
And now. I find myself very alone in America. I still don't believe this war is right. Initially I could support the troops, feeling that they were in the military following orders. Support, but not respect someone who wants to live their life with no right to think on their own, to be handed order after order and just do it without their own will. Dog tags are well named. They are like trained dogs. Now, however, I can't even support troops. The people that are there now are there by choice. How can people not know what a huge mistake this war is? Who named the U.S. "World Police"? There was no imminent danger. No more than there was from Pakistan, India, Korea and many places around the world. Who would CHOOSE to go there???
America can't even pick a side. One year it is support Iran against Iraq. Them vice versa- a few times. What gives with that?
So Veteran's day was Wednesday and I felt alone in a country of 300,000,000. I kept hearing "God Bless the USA" by Lee Greenwood. I hate that song. If there is a God why would it bless the U.S.A. more or less than anywhere else? Most of the true heroes are dead from old age. The Vietnam and Iraq wars were/are pissing contests. No wonder my Aunt was so sad and angered. I feel exactly the same. I can't support unthinking murderers. Rather than saving America and spreading Democracy, which is barely held on to here, much less in a country that doesn't even want it-The country is celebrating robotic, brainwashed killers. Lovely.
I'm so sad for the innocent people involved in this. There is no holiday for those slaughtered by such horrid actions. Will we commemorate them?
