Veterans Day

People can do many honorable things in life, but few if any, are more honorable than standing up to serve our country in a time of need. And no sacrifice is greater than a life given up in service to the country. To all the veterans in America, I salute you and thank you for your service.

I remember a VFW Commander speaking at an assembly when I was in high school. The year was 1962- before Vietnam, and a mere nine years after the Korean War. I remember him saying that he wished his organization would wither away and no one would ever again walk into their midst as a veteran of war. I remember it so well because I remember thinking to myself, “We just endured the Cuban Missile Crisis- what he wants will never happen.” The Cold War was raging and we really had no idea if it would heat up or not.

I grew up in the aftermath of WWII and Korea, and war was always talked about. When I was a kid, we played war, and I endured air raid drills where we would crawl under our desk to safety. The worst of all possible wars was thankfully averted, the Cold War melted, and I felt a great sigh of relief. There was a fleeting moment of time between the fall of the Iron Curtain and the Gulf War when I thought that VFW Commander might finally get his wish.

Vietnam was an unforgivable sacrifice of American lives. I was sure we would never make that mistake again. I was wrong. Now several wars later the President is pondering how many troops to send into war—not the wisdom of being there—only how many to send. My advice to him: the outcome will not be affected by how many troops we send into Afghanistan. The only difference between sending 10,000 or 100,000 troops is how many American lives will be lost. We went there seeking revenge for 9/11. Now people want to send more troops because we're taking casualties. Unfortunately, they become our justification to fight on. The longer we stay, the higher the cost becomes.

In the end, Afghanistan will no doubt remain unchanged. The people who are born there will continue to practice their age-old culture of male domination and the poppy industry. No centralized form of government has ever endured. Tribal thugs will continue to dominate the people. Trying to change the culture through war would be like trying to eliminate racism by killing all the racists. Peace won’t happen this way. The country will not be changed for the better. In the end they will hate us, just as they hated the Russians and the British who preceded us.

We seem destined to create new members for the VFW, despite the good Commander’s wish in that high school assembly in 1962.