In response to my second cousin's appeal to end the two decade long war in Afghanistan and to retroactively compensate veterans for the their service, I offered this accompanying observation...
The concept of endless war for endless peace first coined by the great Gore Vidal was always intended as a diversionary battle cry to enable those in the vast military-industrial complex (not my characterization but rather that of General Dwight D Eisenhower) to reap the monetary benefits of international conflict while subjecting yet another generation of young Americans to the horrors of war. It is always the old men in soft chairs who send the young and upright into the caldron so that another round of callus profit taking might be secured and the barbaric institution of war be perpetuated.
Among the first victims of war are those who are sent to participate in it. Every effort to support these individuals who continue to suffer the horrible effects of combat long after the event has passed should be embraced as a bottomline responsibility of those whose goal is to provide care, compassion, and healing to the wounded; or as Dylan would say: 'to each and every underdog soldier in the night'. And, together with poet, we might collectively 'gaze upon the chimes of freedom flashing'.
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