Sad State of Affairs
This morning I came in to work to see one of my patients at the Dayton VA Medical Center. The main entrance was cordoned off with yellow crime scene tape. After talking with a few people I found out that an American, 28 year old Afghanistan war veteran had taken his life outside the VAMC this morning. I don’t know all of the specifics. I do know that this is extremely sad. This man was troubled and allegedly on a lot of pain medication. Is his being an Afghanistan vet and his suicide causal or correlative? Impossible to know. What I do know is that we are leaving this generation with a disturbing, unhealthy legacy of war and possibly mental illness. A recent USA Today article chronicled the alarmingly high rate of prescription pain medicine use by military personnel.
At what cost do we continue these wars? In 2006 the number of US service member deaths had already exceeded the total number of American deaths on 9-11-2001. I don’t know how many more Americans let alone Iraqi’s, Afghanis or others have died since then, not to mention the innocents killed. For a truly shocking look at some of the innocents killed see this link or this link. Are these innocent lives lost worth the “rooting out” of the “insurgents” “evil doers” ”war criminals” ”enemy combatants” or any other dehumanizing nickname du jour that the orchestrators of war conjure to rally support for a conflict with dubious grounds and ambiguous end goals?
Remember we are spending billions of dollars printed out of thin air (did they raise your taxes to fund these wars?), every year to fund these conflicts which the people did not consent to through the proper channels of representation (Congress never officially declared war). And it is impossible to say whether it has prevented conflict or incited further hatred against the US. Around the time of 9-11 there were a lot of people who felt we needed to understand the Middle East anger against the West. Where are those folks now? Don’t you think the terrorists are just as, if not more angry now? Where are the protesters? Were they only against the war when Bush was in office?
Our current president was praised for having a nuanced view of this complex issue when he received his Nobel “Peace” prize. I guess those are the words used to rationalize unjust murder. You’ve got to sleep at night somehow.
I challenge you to ask yourself whether these are just wars? Ask yourself what toll these conflicts are exacting on this current generation of 18-35 year olds. Ask yourself if the trillions spent, loss of life and limb and innocent “collateral damage” are worth it. Ask yourself if we are becoming more or less human by tacitly consenting to such conflict.
I know what my answer would be.
