Monday, October 22, 2007
SO LONG, 45TH
Quoted in the Enid News-Eagle account of the send-off ceremonies at Noble Center, one mother spoke for many of us when she said: “I have mixed feelings about this war. I would rather be welcoming them home from war, rather than sending them off.”
That whole solemn occasion was disturbing to some of us. We have such strong conflicts. These are our young men and women we are sending into an enduring nightmare of danger. We care about them and their welfare. We support them, but many of us oppose the war they are being sent to fight.
We know the casualty counts – approaching 3,900 killed and at last estimate 82,000 maimed or wounded. New stats show that post-war, psycho-neural damage haunts 59,000 Iraq veterans with post-trauma stress syndrome, and a total of 100,000 have need of psychological care.
This war has already had a terrible cost in human sacrifice. We decry this.
Two-thirds of Americans think that there is and/or was something badly wrong about the Iraq War. Only one-third of all Americans (but two-thirds of republicans) support the decision to go to war in Iraq and stay the course. Those opposed to this war are often trashed as unpatriotic.
As we approach the 2008 election primaries, all leading republican candidates support a continuation of the war in Iraq. Two of the three leading democratic candidates want a phased withdrawal of “combat” forces, while one advocates redeployment immediately without residual. Oklahoma’s congressional delegation supports the war.
Just as we were saying farewell to 2,400 young people in military uniforms, the Enid News reveals that another large group from the Enid area will be deployed to Iraq. This issue will hit home to many more of us before the 2008 elections.
We’d like to bring them all home to their families intact physically and mentally – if not right now, then in 2009. Oklahomans should think before they vote.
Dr. Edwin E. Vineyard, AKA The Militant Moderate
That whole solemn occasion was disturbing to some of us. We have such strong conflicts. These are our young men and women we are sending into an enduring nightmare of danger. We care about them and their welfare. We support them, but many of us oppose the war they are being sent to fight.
We know the casualty counts – approaching 3,900 killed and at last estimate 82,000 maimed or wounded. New stats show that post-war, psycho-neural damage haunts 59,000 Iraq veterans with post-trauma stress syndrome, and a total of 100,000 have need of psychological care.
This war has already had a terrible cost in human sacrifice. We decry this.
Two-thirds of Americans think that there is and/or was something badly wrong about the Iraq War. Only one-third of all Americans (but two-thirds of republicans) support the decision to go to war in Iraq and stay the course. Those opposed to this war are often trashed as unpatriotic.
As we approach the 2008 election primaries, all leading republican candidates support a continuation of the war in Iraq. Two of the three leading democratic candidates want a phased withdrawal of “combat” forces, while one advocates redeployment immediately without residual. Oklahoma’s congressional delegation supports the war.
Just as we were saying farewell to 2,400 young people in military uniforms, the Enid News reveals that another large group from the Enid area will be deployed to Iraq. This issue will hit home to many more of us before the 2008 elections.
We’d like to bring them all home to their families intact physically and mentally – if not right now, then in 2009. Oklahomans should think before they vote.
Dr. Edwin E. Vineyard, AKA The Militant Moderate
