We live in a small world with big problems.
A small world where anyone with right kind of paperwork can travel anywhere in the world.
How do we win a war in a far away land where the rules of war are not the same and the characters we fight view death as victory?
Tonight I watched the Bob Woodruff piece "To Iraq and Back " on ABC.
The piece rattled me.
Within me it exposed some of my casual views on war.
War, we live with it in our media but do we live with it in our minds?
I fall asleep worrying about mostly inconsequential things but the spouses, mothers and fathers worrying for their soldiers...
The Woodruff piece really challenged my thinking.
I have heard people say "It is sad that we are losing soldiers but not that many are dying compared to some of the great battles..."
Casual thinking about war.
I have seen trauma in the back of an ambulance fresh off a scene and trauma on the way to a long term rehab center...
Have I seen war trauma? Do we see much of it except for the finality of death at clips from funerals?
Woodruff's piece highlighted the fact that less soldiers are dying. Death makes the headlines but the thousands of young service men and women suffering from battle injury is exponential and it is far away from American awareness. (From Iraq and Afghanistan numbers: 23,000 non fatal injuries - 200,000 have gone to V.A. for care).
The "Second Fight:" Taking care of our veterans at home.
The decisions that our nation's leaders are tremendous. Is right to send into war and not always provide the resources for recovery?
America has incredible war technology.
America has incredible life saving war medicine.
But what quality of life do some of the survivors have?
Is their pain our pain?
Woodruff's personal story and his investigation into Traumatic Brain Injury and the way vets are treated challenged my perception of the war and socked me in gut... the experiences of the wounded and their family. What a price they pay - how can we help them carry this burden?
- M@rk
- Son of Kurt & Su/// Husband to Marit, most beautiful viking of Norway/// Sister: Bold Teacher Bethany /// Brother: Mechanical Musical Matthew///
1 comment:
Right on. Good questions. Tough answers.
We here a lot about the cost ($) of war. But the real costs cannot by
measured with simply dollar signs and zeros.
It's popular today to say "we support our troops". What does that really mean? Do we really stand behind our words or will they be empty promises? Time will tell.
You said small world, big problems. But to me it's like our soldiers
are in a completely different world. They are nameless, faceless. Perform jobs, duties, tasks, responsibilities we call war. They stay awake all hours of the night on guard in the cold desert so we can sleep sound in our warm beds. They eat meals out of boxes and can's so we can eat at Chili's or McDonalds. They leave their families for months, years, so we can neglect our own each day. They pay the cost for freedom, while we run up the never ceasing debt.
How can we adequately repay them? With monuments, movies, memories?
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