What do you think of when you see military coffins draped in American flags coming back from some God forsaken country? As for me I think of the ultimate sacrifice made by that soldier, I think of the loved ones that will never have that soldier again to hug and hold. I get angry at the constant state of war that our government has put us in, where soldiers must pay the price in blood to accomplish the goals of the greedy and the power mad. Now contrast that with what you think when you see a soldier with an artificial limb. In this case, for me, I see a profile in bravery. I see an ongoing inspiring story. I am full of joy that this soldier triumphed over death. The positives of seeing, face to face, this miracle of a soldier overshadows the fact that he has been maimed for likely no good reason by a no good government. The faceless casket conveys waste and total loss, while the sight of the amputee conveys triumph over death.
I think that today the anti war movement suffers, as people move toward the idealization of the soldier in his struggle and move away from the truth, that the wars we are waging are colossal wastes to everyone but the military industrial complex. I think that the advances in battlefield medicine and protective technology have dulled us to the cost of war. We celebrate the medical miracles that come home with no arms or legs while the fewer caskets slip by unnoticed.
Do you think that there would be larger a hue and cry, against war, if over 19,000 young men and women would have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan instead of a little over 5,000? Over 19,000 is the number of dead we would have had if the ratio of dead to wounded were the same today as it was in World war II. Don’t let the encouraging profile, of the local soldier who cheats death, distract you from the fact that he was cheated and exploited. All those who come back maimed did so to serve the purposes of those who use the US as the policeman of the world to accomplish their various plans for power and money.
