The real face of war is nation's soldiers

Recently, I made a trip to Veterans Hospital in Spokane and what I saw, and heard, changed how I think and feel about some of the political braying I hear on television. I am sick of politicians wrapping themselves in a flag and spewing out sanctimonious verbiage trying to cover up the real face of war. A lapel pin of the American flag seems to have become mandatory for the politicians of today. Freedom is not something you wear, but something you live and protect.

I am fed up with egomaniacal politicians playing a game of, “I’ve got a secret” with the people who put them in office. It is alarming to witness the collective mentally of those  we send to Washington to represent us. Give a fool a title and he /she will immediately think he/she knows more than the “common” person. Thomas Jefferson said, “Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.” Yet there are some that are ready to blindly believe everything they are told. They are like baby birds perched, with mouths agape, ready to ingest everything they are fed.  Albert Einstein saw the danger of this condition when he stated, “Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.”

I deplore some of the things I hear that are designed to sanitize war and make it more romantic and acceptable to us little people. Here are some examples: “WE will stay the course.” I don’t understand this “we” business. This would make more sense if the person saying it was crouched in the desert, rifle in hand, seeing their friends’ fall one by one. It makes little sense when it is spewed from the mouth of anyone whose main concern is getting re-elected. Another one is, “Our brave boys and girls have paid the supreme sacrifice by giving their lives.” I was in combat and I have tried to remember one GI who said to me, “I think I will give my life as a supreme sacrifice.”  All of the guys I remember were more concerned about digging themselves a hole so they, and the man next to him, would have a better chance to get home. These young people did not “Give” their life but rather it has been taken from them.

I am fed up with the Washington glamour parade with generals running around with myriad ribbons and hardware oozing from their uniform. If they could be plugged in, they would look like an advertisement for a Los Vegas strip joint. What has happened to the likes of Patton, Eisenhower, and Marshall who were busy leading instead of participating in a grand show-and-tell. 

It would be a good thing if one could believe anything the politicians say about our men and women who have, and are, serving our country. They capitalize on the grief of mothers and fathers who have lost a loved one by having them appear at political meetings. While in public they ooze with respect and concern but this is not translated in reality.

I took a trip recently and it was there that I saw the real face of war. I saw no flags waving because they were not needed because some of the people there were blind. I heard no band playing rousing marches for there were some that could not hear. I heard no stirring exchange of words for there were some that could not speak. What I did see was a parade of men and women that I respect from the bottom of my heart. Their clothing varied — some wore a patch on their jacket identifying the unit in which they had served. These collective patches represented all branches of the service and all the wars in which they had fought. Some walked with canes, or crutches, and many were in wheelchairs. There were some who needed the arm of a friend or relative to guide them to their destination. There were some who had a bed as their permanent abode for life.

As I walked down the corridors of Veterans Hospital, I saw the face of war in the eyes of everyone I met. Joy and excitement registered in the eyes of some. — Pain and despair in the eyes of others. I saw the real face of war when I looked into the eyes of some, and saw nothing.