So (Wednesday) was Veterans Day. A day we recognize those who served their country in the Armed Forces. My family was - and is - steeped in veterans who served in several conflicts. But through it all is the story of my brother Ken who served in Vietnam and then came home to a lifetime of horror brought on by that conflict. Much has been said about the unappreciated way a lot of Vietnam vets were treated after the war. Misdirected comments that should have been saved for the politicians who like to play with people's lives in these wars, and not the soldiers who did what they were told.
But be that as it may be, it was what went on over there and back here that destroyed my brother's life. He chose to hide it all with alcohol until it took his life, as sure as those who were killed in combat. We read every day of the soldiers struggling with PTSDs and see pictures of the amputees and hear the statistics of the suicides. The cost in human suffering and money is mind-boggling but yet the beat goes on. The reporters like to ask military people if we should be involved in these uprisings. That's like asking a farmer if we should all quit using meat and dairy products. Fighting is their forte even though they themselves stay out of harm's way.
Dwight Eisenhower said, "Someday the people of the world will want peace so desperately that political leaders will have to get out of the way and let them have it." This said by the man who engineered our victory in the last war we actually won.
Mike Holst
Crosslake
