Shyone got me to thinking this morning..........(so blame him for it today...  ) about our Military Personnel..........Some of you know that my son is a Sargeant in the Arrmy and those that are closest to me know that my son and I disagree on the War in Iraq. He will tell you that unless you have been there we wouldn't understand why we are needed there.......but I see things on the other side of the Spectrum.
When my late husband was in the VA nursing home I was a patient advocate there. I talked to the Veterans who came home with injuries that would never heal both mentally and physically. I got to see that first hand with my late husband and I got to hear how a lot of these Veterans felt their Country had abandoned them.
It is true that a lot of our soldiers came home and made a life for themselves.....there are many more that couldn't get on with life when they did return.
Unless you are a parent or spouse of one of those veterans here's some things you may never know ........ You may never know having someone in your life that wakes up everynight from nightmares...........and you can do nothing but hold him until he wakes up enough to realize it was just a nightmare.....you may never know holding him while he cries and feeling powerless because there is nothing you can say or do that is going to help.....you will never know the feeling of waking up to a loaded 45 pistol to your temple and praying he will wake up enough to realize he is no longer in a war..........before he pulls the trigger.........or having to explain to him the next day the guns have to leave the house and why..........his shame for it..........when he isnt at fault..........you will never know the fear as you set by his hospital bed after one more overdose as he thinks that will finally get rid of all the pain that he has had bottled up for years.....that no matter how many drugs they prescribe or counseling he recieves....has helped. You will never know spending years watching someone you love die from shit they used in a war 30 yrs before.........struggling to breath and fighting to stay alive and finally saying enough is enough just let me go..............
You will never know the terror that is felt when your young son calls to tell you he is shipping out to Iraq or the fear that follows when he doesnt call you for days and the news is talking about a soldier that was killed in action with no names being released until the family can be notified.........and he is from your home state.......you will never know the fear of having the phone ring or someone knock on your door.........the relief you will feel when he finally is able to call you........the sorrow you will feel when you find out it was his best friend that was killed........or the guilt that you will feel when you thank God it wasn't your son.
I have never supported this war and never will. I do support our troops...they as all of our Veterans are doing what they were told to do...........I have always felt there was two reasons GW wanted us in Iraq.........to clean up daddys mess and for the oil............I have never thought that we should ever put one of our soldiers life at risk for a country that didn't give a shit for us before why would they now? Iraq is getting to be like vietnam was...........Our soldiers are sent in to fight a war that we are not meant to win.
Charity begins at home...........and I do believe we have enough crap going on in our own Country that needs to be taken care of instead of spending money on a war that is never going to solve any of our problems. We thank our soldiers and veterans for our freedom...........maybe its time to show them how much we love them by saying its time for them to come home.
If i have offended anyone with this blog...it was not my intentions........this is just my opinion.........and I thank each and everyone of our military.....past present and future for giving me the right to express it.
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| Things You May Never Know..........or at least I hope so |
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ThePurpleProphet
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Jun 8 @ 2:00PM
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I disagree on a couple of points but I strongly agree we should be doing something about out situation here.
A pot hole here in Columbus went without repair for 3 weeks. A driver hit the pot hole, broke his tie rod, lost control of the car and hit and killed three children waiting to cross the road. A pot hole, a simple freaking pot hole. A minor pot hole. If we can't repair a pot hole in a timely manner, which by the way I called it in myself twice, what else can't we fix.
My son has a friend, they both just completed 7th grade. My son's friend has 3 f's on his final report card , but they are letting him go to the 8th grade because the parents complained. Something needs fixed here, but will it get fixed, I doubt it.
I go downtown and see 10 beggars. Half of them don't want to work and the other half can't. A problem that needs fixed.
We give drivers license to people that can't even read our language. Problem
I could list a hundred more as I'm sure you can too. So I agree with you Dayna, we have many problems that need fixed and a billion dollars of the money used to fund the war sure could help here domestically.
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Lisa46
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Jun 8 @ 2:02PM
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 Damnit Dayna you made me cry again I agree with all you say here. I've never had to experience the anguish of having someone I love go thru the horrors of war. But again your right bring our men home and lets bring our economy back where we can live again.
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enchanted50
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Jun 8 @ 2:07PM
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In truth, with a planet a monstrous mess of human struggle in all of its forms, from all of its roots, the costs of not being our 'brother's keeper' increases all the time...
A keeper is not one who rushes in with guns blazing to clear up a mess after we couldn't be bothered with 'keeping'. The biblical admonition refers to the whole of our life here. The more we watch out FOR one another, working to make sure the lives of others are whole, secure, free, clothed, fed, housed, employed, etc...the kinds of things found in BOTH the Declaration of Human Rights, AND the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights...the more we watch out FOR one another, the less need we have to shed the blood of lives of any young or old, man or woman, to accomplish certain political ends.
We want cheap gas without knowing how it affects the lives of others. We want cheap steel, aluminum, bananas, strawberries, wheat, corn...we want it all cheap and abundant without knowing the human cost on the other side of the receipt. We only complain about child labor after it is lifted in front of us...but we don't go to look first to see if it is there. We want cheap products from WalMart, without knowing what it does to small communities and small business owners. We want gas guzzlers without wanting to connect them to war. We want lots of diamonds to prove the material size of our attachments, without wanting to know of the severed limbs of women and children of the diamond wars.
The biblical admonition to be your brother's keeper is not simply some religious soft-hearted charity admonition. It is the strongest security mechanism in the world, that to insure the other is okay, is to make obsolete the need for the wall of separation in which the men and women of a nation patrol the top of the wall to protect the 'haves' from the have-nots.
That is what 'being there' cannot make any more evident than being anywhere else, because once one is there, one sees how being involved in other's lives can be a most powerful phenomenon. And if old men and their lies didn't take us there for their desired theft, which of our loved ones would ever see the face of the 'brother' who has had so few 'keepers'? So it seems like being there is important...and it is...but long before bullets had to be used to show so many dead and wounded how important it is for us to be...our brother's keeper.
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CAPTNORM
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Jun 8 @ 2:49PM
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Seeing things on the other side of the spectrum is right. When we climb into our cars every day we take a certain amount of risk of dying yet most of us do not think about it even though an average of 40,000 people die in car accidents every YEAR compared to the 4,000 that have died in FIVE years in Iraq. Every life is valuable so that comparison may seem unfair. But that is why we have a VOLUNTEER military and police forces. A percentage of individuals join the military to secure money for college. Most join the military and the country's police forces because they are the type of individuals particularly suited to that type of work. They enjoy the work they do and accept the risks. Most police officers love their work and that is why they chose that profession that involves all kinds of risks. At any one time we have about 166,000 troops in Iraq. That means over time that more than a million soldiers have served in Iraq and 4,000 have died, some from mundane things like accidents and car wrecks. Some have served two or three tours in Iraq because they wanted to. By now, anyone who joined the military before Iraq has had enough to to get out through not reenlisting. Those who enjoy this type of work are perhaps the ones who enjoyed playing cowboys or war when they were kids. They go for being the one to return fire when many others would prefer to watch it on TV. Thank goodness we have that type of person to fill the military with volunteers. Many do not understand this and want to save these individuals. If you were a truck driver would you want someone to tell you you cannot drive truck because some people die driving truck? You can argue whether the war was justified, and with no weapons of destruction found due to poor intelligence agencies it was not, but you cannot argue the courage dedication and pride of our troops as they go about their chosen profession. This IS the other side of the spectrum.
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alybai42
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Jun 8 @ 2:50PM
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I have a friend that was in the Army for 26 years. He has told me horror stories of being in Iraq..The nightmares after he came back..And still has them. The pain he is in because he was injured over there. The trips to the VA (same one your husband was at)...It gave me a different outlook on our troops over there.
I went to a viewing of a young man that was killed over in Iraq..I knew his family well. It was held at the local high school..It was heart breaking.
All I could picture in my head was the day that the Marine's showed up at this family's home to let them know their son was killed over there. His best friend's crying at his funeral. The flowers that went on forever on the stage at the high school..It is something I will never forget.
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Wordsofwit
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Jun 8 @ 2:53PM
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My major point on all of this remains the culture of the people in the lands where we send our troops. Whether we pull out today or in 100 years, once we do, they will commence to killing themselves all over again. That is their history and there is a reason that many of these countries never embraced democracy. Remember the old refrain from the Who? "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."
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Ewe_Wish
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Jun 8 @ 3:02PM
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but you cannot argue the courage dedication and pride of our troops as they go about their chosen profession. And I never would argue the courage and dedication of our troops...........My god i am proud that my son loves our Country so much he is willing to put his life on the line for it.........I am proud of my late husband who on his dd-214 has 4 Valor devices........plus all of his commendations and medals...........I couldnt be any prouder of all of our troops for serving..............but in the same respect I would still be proud of them all for doing that even if we were not at war. What i am not proud of is that we are fighting a war that we should have stayed out of...........and it doesnt mean that just because we have ONLY had 4000 killed in action..........it means we shouldnt have had even ONE killed there..............and you can compare it to car accidents and whatever but thats kinda like comparing apples to oranges.........both are fruit but we make choices to drive cars and whether it is a voluntary army or not........those 4000 did not choose to go over there and die............JMO
WOW-- I said that exact same thing in a private email not more than 5 minutes ago............
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Ewe_Wish
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Jun 8 @ 3:20PM
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Aly--I understand exactly what you are saying..........it makes life a lot more precious doesnt it...............When i buried Gary at Arlington i looked around there that day and thought to myself..........so many lives lost..........some voluntarily as they enlisted and some drafted...........but what I thought most was What love there is here..........Love for our Country.............
my blog was never to put down the courage or dedication of our troops.........as soemone said War is hell...............but I guess in my heart I found find acceptance to these losts easier if we were fighting for something that was right and would keep us safe and make our lives better...........because lets face it Iraq would not be here for us if it came right down to it.............but we will spend billions of dollars.......which doesnt even come close to the lost lives in value.............that in the end will be for nothing.
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ynot7769
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Jun 8 @ 5:30PM
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for all they do and endure there and when they return............lets face it.....most of us LOVE our country BUT i fear our government  
good blog.....kudos for you 
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Irridum
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Jun 9 @ 12:49AM
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An excellent post Ms. Dayna
Every night I pray that our service men & women going through this political generated insanity they named a war & dropped our forces into will end so that those solders will be spared the very nightmares you told of.
Every night I pray that tonight will finally be a night without reliving hell and every morning I wake up wondering if Hell is half as bad as the nightmares. I hope your son and the others there will be spared the dreams & fears.
May God bless and protect your son & his comrades and may he bring them home safe & whole.
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wtxman
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Jun 9 @ 7:43AM
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I also will support our Military Personnel,but not this war, howevr I can understand your sons perspective. Great blog!
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