It’s written by
Steve Lopez , the Title above being the column
It starts out thus:
It's Friday morning, and I'm on my way to finally meet an ex-cop and soldier who lets me have it now and then with stinging e-mails.
"I'm Disappointed!" said the subject line of Terry Schauer's latest missive, in which he scolded me for last week's column about my nephew enlisting in the Marines. "I think you took this opportunity to turn your column into an antiwar rant, at your nephew's expense. It is belittling not only to your nephew, but to all who serve."
This is the column that Terry Schauer referanced:
When the reality of Iraq hits home
July 15, 2007
My nephew is in boot camp.
One month into it, I'm still having trouble getting used to the sound of those words.
Today’s column continues:
I'm not the only one he writes to. I once came across a powerful letter to the editor he'd written to the New Yorker. In it, he said he was proud to have served in Vietnam, but he eloquently expressed the complexity of his continued distress over the killing of a young North Vietnamese soldier.
"Killing an adversary removes part of your soul," Schauer wrote. "Your 'kill' turns out to be a young kid much like you — armed, in uniform, sent forth by his country into battle.
"As time passes, feelings of guilt, sorrow, and remorse accompany the odd, displaced feeling that you have become the person you killed," he continued. "You see him in your sons, and wonder if fate will someday take them from you to settle the score."
Ever wonder why most never really talk about their experiances after serving in a Combat Theater, Terry gives you a glimpse into one of the reason’s, and wether you have or have not killed, everyone knows what is going on In Theater, especially those living in the Invaded Countries.
His mother tells Schauer that he never came back from Vietnam.
No one, who goes through these actions of what we do as human beings, is ever what they were before that experince, No One!
Most everyone born, no matter where, are raised to believe in values that shape their being, Wars are the Total Opposite of those learned values, and especially Wars of Choice with No Justifiable Reasons for the Carnage!
"If I woke up tomorrow and was 21, I wouldn't want to join the Army again," he says, telling me that time has only made him more certain the soldier he killed did not deserve to die any more than he did.
Used as pawns of the desires others have, certainly not the wants of the individuals who are used to obtain those others desires, for many who would send others into Invasions never haave experianced the destructive nature they have unleased!
Terry goes on to describe the why of Steve’s nephews want to join and serve and closes with this:
"Write him often, Steve. Tell him you love him. Keep him current on what he likes…. Don't go overboard on telling him you're worried about him. That doesn't help."
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