"I can't pick out the benefits of the wars," said a 53 year old woman who with her husband, often joins the vigil. "It's all collateral damage including to our underclass who fight and die in these wars."
"We should re institute the draft," she continued. Then most Americans would care."
"I really like what you're doing," said a 35 ish man as he walked up. "It's a shame we are losing so many of our men there. I don't know if we belong there or not but we should do what our leaders tell us."
"We should challenge our leaders," I replied, "if we don't agree with these wars."
"You're right," he answered. "Those parts of the world have been at war forever and we're not going to change it. But how can we leave?"
"By declaring cease fires in both places and negotiating settlements with the warring parties. We then pack up and leave. That's the way most wars end, and it would be better for us to do it sooner than later."
That comment startled him, and with a puzzled look on his face, he left to catch up with his wife, who had been waiting for him. "It's that simple," I called out to him with a smile.
John Fortier, a Korean War veteran who often joins this vigil and conducts one each Friday evening at a nearby Pacific Coast Highway street corner, listened to this discussion.
"What arrogance!," he remarked a moment later. "Cultures that have been around for thousands of years and now we're going to tell them how to do it. Meanwhile, we kill thousands of non-military, non-threatening men, women and children."
Just then the voice of a 60 ish man from a speeding gray sedan called out, "No more wars over heroin!" John shook his head and said, "Who knows whether its over heroin, oil or Toll House cookies.
"There is no strategy," John added. "We fight and capture an area and then we move on and we leave it to the enemy to come back and punish anyone who helped us. It makes it foolish to help us.
"We don't have enough soldiers," I replied, not meaning to support these wars. "It would take hundreds of thousands of soldiers, as a U.S. General had said at the outset of the Iraq War. He estimated a half million soldiers for Iraq alone. That's what it would take to be able to capture an area and hold it by leaving some soldiers behind, while sending others forward."
John said that George Bush didn't know what he was doing, and neither did then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld who was making the decisions. Then John added in frustration, as his voice rose, "We keep on re-upping our troops. Some are on their 4th and 5th deployments."
Meanwhile in Iraq, on Monday 12 Iraqis were killed and 37 were severely injured, and on Tuesday 8 Iraqis were killed and 31 were severely injured, mostly from bombings. On Wednesday, the Iraq government closed the Baghdad international airport, and one other airport, fearing another 9/11 type attack, presumably on Baghdad or another Iraq city.
But thousands of miles away, as the peaceful vigil came to a close, a 42 year old man with his 3 year old son joined us. He and his family used to attend and as he warmly greeted us, and his adorable tiny boy looked up and licked his red lollipop, it was a lovely way to conclude the last few minutes of the vigil, in the company of friends.
Dick
1 comment:
As a result of our conversation about 'the Korean conflict' during your vigil, Dick, I came home and did some research. According to the Department of Defense, there were 33,742 battle dead as a result of the 37 months of 'conflict'. At that rate, had there not been an armistice, there would have been, during the intervening 681 months, 641,098 additional battle dead. That makes the armistice seem like a damn good idea, whatever it takes to arrange it/them. As with little kids, let's have a TIME OUT !
Post a Comment