I have been torn about the issues surround the War in Iraq, about what is right and what we, as a country, should be doing. I’ve thought at times that we shouldn’t send more troops over. But then I’ve wondered does that leave the current troops over there more susceptible to attacks, etc. And if we start withdrawing, will the remaining troops become easier targets? I don’t have the answers, but I know war is not the answer.
Obviously I’ve never been to war, but my dad served in ‘nam. He only spoke of it ONCE in my lifetime. It was that traumatic. He came back very damaged. While he may have come back with ten fingers, ten toes, two arms, legs, eyes, etc. he didn’t come back the whole person he left as. His wounds were not visible by the untrained eye. He was injured emotionally, mentally and spiritually. He was never the same man – still a good man, still semi-functional, but never the same. In that one day that he shared his experience, it changed my life. I understood why he was who he was and why he NEVER spoke of it before and since. I’d hate for anyone to have to experience what he did, their families and future families. It affects so many more people than just the ones over there.
I never got to know the man my father was before the war. I’ve heard so many great stories of the young man my dad was. I’m a lot like him and never would have known if not for my family sharing stories of my dad before he went to Vietnam. In a way, a war that I wasn’t around for, don’t know much about and never came close to experiencing changed my life. In a way it cheated me out of a father. In a way it took my father from me far too early in his life, in my life. My children will never know their grandfather. A war took him away, two generations before their time. War is never the answer. War is the problem.
This isn’t a political issue for me. It’s about our troops. It’s about our mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, friends and family.
