Testimony
Blork blorked an interesting essay on the "shock and awe" war strategy.
The other day, I ran into a combat-wounded veteran who fought in the Vietnam war.
"Back broken in 7 places and shrapnel wounds to left side, left arm and leg," he said. "A part of my life that haunts me to this day. It is amazing what governments can get foolhardy young men to do when they believe that they are saving lives. No veteran of any war would want anyone to genuinely know or experience those feelings - you can see the extremes of humanity from the darkest evil to the most heroic most caring acts. What is the eye opener is when you discover you are capable of both and have been on either side of that spectrum where others only imagine they might be able to go."
Fearing that any comment I could have made would be stupid, shallow or trivial, perhaps all three, I asked, "Why wouldn't you want anyone genuinely to know?"
And he replied, "Because you do not need to go through that or to experience it - no one should ever have to. There is no way to verbalize it and the elements in a way that can be felt, smelled, heard, tasted, seen and internalized except to have been there. That is why the combat wounded veterans from all the wars can so well understand each other. You know it is the politicians who send the young off to war and almost always they have never experienced it."
He's now advocating for adequate care and treatment of veterans and learning to ski in a sit-ski.
I'll be off at the march for peace tomorrow - I'll see you there too?
Posted by sniffles at February 14, 2003 11:49 PM