"What I hope to accomplish," said John Fortier, a 77 year old Korean War veteran who participates in this vigil and hosts another each week, "Is to have people think about the tragedy of war. Keep it fresh in their minds."
"The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have gone on so long, it's lost its impact. People are bored and go on with their lives. But it's not boring to the people getting killed today and to their families.
"Americans make no sacrifices, hear no explosions, see no blood," John continued. "I want to make them think about it. It destroys people's lives, devastates their homes, their economy, their culture. I want people here to understand the scope of the destruction and the waste.
"Americans don't know enough about it to be upset. In the recent election, there was almost no mention of the wars. Tax breaks for the rich, that was a big deal, still is.
"It's hard for people to understand why I'm out here if they don't feel the frustration that brought me out here. But I feel better for having been here. I think my being here is important"
This dear reader is what brings John out to conduct peace vigils. For me it is slightly different for I've never fought in a war, witnessing first hand the death and destruction, nor smelled the stench of rotting corpses that only hours earlier were men, women and children with lives and hopes for a better future.
But I've listened to mothers who have lost their children in these wars. I've watched as one cried out in pain, tears running down her cheeks, her voice quivering to the point she choked up and couldn't utter another word, sobbing uncontrollably. Her son left a wife and three small children.
I've listened to young U.S. soldiers who have fought in Iraq and/or Afghanistan, some barely out of their teens. I've heard their anger, their frustrations, their fears, their inability to sleep without repetitive nightmares reliving the horrors they've seen and participated in and their difficulty in adjusting back to life in America.
Despite heavy U.S. military censorship, I've seen pictures and films and read the stories about what life is like in Baghdad. Families burying their children or the father that was the patriarch and means of support, or the mother that was the matriarch and the loving glue that held the family together and the children orphaned or injured or traumatized by war. Many of those children are no bigger than my 5 year old grandsons or tiny 2 year old granddaughter.
The Iraq and Afghan economies are devastated. In Baghdad, a first world nation before the U.S. 2003 invasion, people live largely without medical care for most doctors and nurses have fled Iraq and many medicines trade on the black market. Most teachers have also fled so education is in short supply. And many business professionals have fled as well.
Security is largely non-existent, as is electricity which is available only 3 to 4 hours a day. This means there is not enough power to run turbines for clean drinking water or sewage processing, nor enough power for air conditioning when temperatures can exceed 120 degrees, nor enough power for computers, TVs or lighting or for firms to do business, which means unemployment exceeds 50%, twice that of the Great Depression.
It is easy to understand why U.S. politicians during the recent elections and before and since then do not discuss these wars, which are a disgrace and draining America of its remaining financial and moral resources. Yet the news media doesn't question the politicians about these wars nor even give the wars much coverage.
So yes, I can find an hour each Wednesday to conduct a candlelight vigil and appeal to the consciences of others to help stop these wars and to remember all those who have paid a severe price in them. And for those who think I'm "crazy" for doing it, what they actually mean is it is different for most people do nothing and look the other way while these U.S. horror shows in Iraq and Afghanistan continue. That to me is crazy.
Dick
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