Where is your CVC code?
As a U.S. Marine veteran who was deployed to Iraq in 2003, I can’t even begin to describe the disgust I felt while watching the GOP debate on Tuesday night. Presidential candidate after presidential candidate attempted to one-up each other by highlighting how tough they would be as future commanders in chief. Each solution they presented demonstrated what little regard they had for the loss of life, and how quick they would be to resort to acts most often referred to as war crimes.
The debate reached its height of callousness when Ben Carson, once a pediatric neurosurgeon of some repute, was asked if he was “OK with the deaths of thousands of innocent children and civilians.” He responded with “You got it.” The irony of a person who formerly devoted his career to saving children’s lives and is now so willing to commit to actions that would result in the deaths of thousands of children in order to showcase his mettle is hard to ignore.
Let me make something clear: no one on that stage has experienced war. None of those candidates have to relive the memories and traumas of participating in war. And not one shares the intimate loss and grief endured by the death of hundreds of thousands of civilians and service members. And yet, carpet bombing, targeting of civilians, opposing democratic movements, and murdering families as retaliation were all openly suggested as potential strategies in the never-ending wars that began with the Bush administration and have continued throughout Obama’s presidency.
Serving in the invasion and occupation of Iraq has made me question the motivations of any elected leader that casually mentions war as a quick and easy option. My time in Iraq was anything but easy. During the dozens of resupply missions my unit was tasked with, we were exposed to the devastation that the invasion had left inside of Iraq. Trucks, cars, tanks, countless buildings scarred with battle damage.
On each successive resupply run, we watched as the faces of children on the side of the roads changed from open and curious to eventually withdrawn and fearful. I saw children that were so happy and so filled with life, and we were the ones taking that away from them. You won’t hear this from any of the candidates promoting more war. You won’t hear about the impact war has had on the people actually living in Iraq, Syria or Afghanistan.
It is also telling what else was not discussed during the debate. While the candidates all seemed perfectly willing to sacrifice yet another generation to pointless wars all in a shameless attempt to increase their place in the polls, they failed to mention the cost of such belligerence. The term “PTSD” wasn’t uttered once during the debate, nor was “Traumatic Brain Injury,” or “Suicide.” The word veteran? Mentioned only once. The reality is that the impact of the war stays with me, and with countless veterans who are returning home traumatized, with as many as 22 veterans a day resorting to suicide as a solution.
Watching the GOP debate on Tuesday gave me an opportunity to reflect on what I took part in and the journey I’ve traveled to come to a place of dedicating my life to make things right. I wish our country would learn some of the lessons that I did instead of perpetuating the same mistakes repeatedly. The sideshow that many of us watched on Tuesday night was only the most recent egregious example of how irresponsible the national dialogue around our foreign policy has become. We, as people responsible for electing the next commander in chief, need to take a good hard look at who we are bringing into office because, let’s be honest: this isn’t a problem confined to only the Republican Party. This is a bipartisan failure. We need to ask ourselves if the candidate that we choose to elect is going to offer us more of the same or break us out of this deadly cycle.
Thank you for making a sober commentary where few dare to tread.
Our recent past is littered with wars that require young men and women to bleed into the sand, while those who profit most pontificate.
Make your voice heard. Run for office, speak to what real Patriotism means;
challenging those that threaten our core values.
It’s upsetting to me to be older than most of the Vets who are coming home with the same haunted look in my Grandfather’s eyes.
Hoorah, brave Marine.
IF anyone really honored the vets the politicians would be in jail by now
Do I need to remind you that Bernie is a draft dodger of the Vietnam era. Hillary lied to defend Bill who also dodged the draft because of his friendship with Sen Fullbright, a racist Senator of that era. Girls of Hillary’s era often carried signs saying “Girls say yes to boys who say no”. This is the Democrats choice. None of them have served this country in uniform. Is it any wonder nothing has been solved in decades with these folks in the lead?
I believe there is a difference between those who avoided the draft because they did not support the Viet Nam war and those such as Mitt Romney who had 5 deferments but claimed while campaigning he “longed to be fighting in Viet Nam”, or Trump who claims he served in the military because he went to a military school. If you support military action, you and or your children should be willing to put on the uniform.
USMC 69-75
I wholeheartedly agree that none of the candidates have war experiences! I also agree that they haven’t shed blood theirs ore anyone else unless you want to count serving as Secretary of State and its ensuing bickering by the GOP. My family has served this country for 6 generations in all the branches except the Air. Force and the Coast Guard!! My son ended that generational run with the end of his service in the Navy!! In my respect for their sacrifices as well as my own. I’m speaking up for the Democratic Candidates for all offices as they are reaching for our votes!!! I also speak out at the public statements that are made every moment on social media that are racist, sexist, violence aimed at this country, and well over the line of threats and provocative of insurrection and treason, some by elected representatives of the people‼️ I’ve had doubts about the direction of our policies but to openly foment treason and insurrection in the active military is reprehensible and disastrous to our form of freedom and democracy‼️ I challenge the powers that be to read the public posts on our “social” media!!! I do not suggest censorship in any way, what I do say is if you say something be prepared to pay the costs to print it‼️ Thank you and God bless these United States‼️???
Larry Smyth, the GOP candidates, unlike their Democratic counterparts, deserve the characterization of “chickenhawk” not solely by virtue of their non-participation in war or the military, but by the additional fact that they are bellowing for “boots on the ground” and “carpet bombing”. To the panderer’s first suggestion, I say, ” (L)ace up your own boots first, boys.” As to the second, I remind them that they are suggesting a war crime and that countries that claim to be “exceptional” do not adopt war crimes as national policy. Before you start, I am both a liberal and a Vietnam veteran who has worn his “boots on the ground”.
Amen, brother! Isn’t it ironic that the party that’s so gung-ho for war and bombing Daesh into oblivion is the very party that has shown that they really don’t care about soldiers after they get home from war.
This is a good article except you didnt give credit to one Republican on that stage. Senator Rand Paul has called out the other candidates especially Chris Christie. He called him out especially in the last debate when Christie went so far as to say he would start a war with Russia. So dont write that “…all seemed perfectly willing to sacrifice…”.
Most do not all.
Have you watched any of the GOP debates in their entirety? If so you should be praising Paul.
Thank you for your service but more so for seeing the truth and telling it so boldly! We need to hear you.
Thank you for telling the truth about this war and the ugliness of it not to mention all the enemies around the world we’ve made because of it. Very brave, much needed.
As a member of the Vietnam Vets Against the War, I commend fellow Vet Ramon Mejia for his courage and for exposing the true impacts of war. A part of me is thankful for his honesty while yet another part of me hopes and prays that people read and understand his comments.
Thank you for addressing this issue so eloquently – and for choosing avenues to act on your knowledge whereby you can educate and change consciousness.
These men profit from war and never experience a loss. My time as a veteran did not contribute to who I am as a man. I was an individual before and still after.
Ramon, you are saying what many of us Viet Nam veterans have been saying since our time in our pointless war that killed almost 55K Americans and untold hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese that were continuing their fight for independence that began in 1921. No one won anything in Viet Nam either and we were brushed under the rug and ignored by all, especially the VA. I am convinced that no one should lead this country unless they have fought in a war. Truman was the last real President with the fortitude to take unpopular stands concerning war and our involvement in it. He, unlike General MacArthur, abhored war, but had seen it from the trenches of WW I, while “Dugout Doug” led the Rainbow Division from the rear in the same conflict. We have slid a long way from the moral high ground we forced upon the world at the Nuremberg War Crimes trials. Would that we could return to that standard of behavior ourselves. Keep on plugging away, your voice needs to be heard. They ignore me and my comrades because all Viet Nam vets are deemed insane: we were drafted, or would have been if we had not already been in the service, so we had no right to complain about being sent to war to die. We were considered traitors to protest being used as cannon fodder to fund the Military-Industrial complex: we were supposed to be happy to die for Korporate Amerika. So, when it gets lonesome out there trying to get people to listen to reason and wonder why you might sound like a Pacifist, only veterans understand the reason to think first before going to war. I have not got much more time to protest the behavior of my government when it comes to unnecessary wars, so here’s my baton in the relay race for peace. Good luck, you will need it. Jay
All active servicemen, and all Veterans Voices Need To Be Heard.
Great insight and adept writing. Bravo Ramon Mejia. I don’t get why Larry Smith brings the Democratic Party into the discussion. They weren’t mentioned at all in the article, except maybe in passing by inference when Mejia writes terror and war is a bipartisan problem. I doubt Mejia thinks that President Clinton, who presided over 2/3 of the 12 sanctions regime on Iraq that killed as many as 1.5 million and also had his air force bomb Iraq every other day on average, never mind bombing Yugoslavia, is any solution. His wife is unquestionably the bigger warmonger in that as a woman of unhinged ambition, she’s got to appear tough. Why then does Smith bring them into the conversation as if they belong? As to the comments of Thomas Frazier, God’s only excuse is She doesn’t exist. Anybody who is blind to see that “serving” in the military is really “serving” arms manufacturers and multinational corporations is delusional. If Truman was such a pacifist Jay Brown, why did he drop two nukes on Japan as the first shots in the Cold War and to demonstrate to Russia what it was up against? Gore Vidal called Truman’s promulgating of loyalty oaths “pure fascism.” He blamed Truman for initiating the permanent war-time economy, a kind of military-industrial Keynesianism. Otherwise, very touching sentiment Jay.
12-year sanctions regime. Let’s remember too while we’re at it, that Clinton’s Secretary of State Madeline Albright, another woman who had to appear tougher than men, called the deaths of tens and hundreds of thousands of children in Iraq due to the sanctions as “worth it.” The way the political game works is the Republican propose some policy so outrageous as to have no chance with the voting majority, say NAFTA or tax cuts for the rich, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, passes for white collar criminals like the gangsters on Wall Street or environmentally destructive policies, and the Democrats dispose. Passing environmentally- and socially suicidal laws takes Democratic muscle.
God bless Ramon Meijia and his descendants! I am a Vietnam veteran and can attest to how the war remains a significant part of my life. I hit rock-bottom with the fall of the South n ’75, and could have been a statistic. I came so close to suicide that it scared the bejesus out of me; and I never considered the act again. I was privileged to go back to ‘Nam twice: in 1989 and 20013; and the resulting healing was fantastic!
Thank you, sir, Ramon, and God bless you all for speaking out against such leaders/ presidential candidates. I, too, am outraged at our society’s love affair with the culture of death, hate, and weapons. I do not comprehend how so many citizens are cheering them on and supporting them financially. We have become our own enemies!
I think anyone that wants to be our president or even run for president should have served in one of the branches of our armed forces. I think that should be a requirement. If one wants to be commander in chief, one should know all about what he is ordering our enlistees to do.
Member Veterans For Peace and Military Families Speak Out. I support the only candidate for peace, Bernie Sanders
Nobody wins a win. Ever. As an Army nurse in Vietnam, I learned that very quickly. The repercussions of war live on for years to come for those who served. For those who stayed home and made money off the blood of others (like Cheney), there will always be wars because they are so profitable.
I believe that all who call themselves citizens of the USA need “to have some skin in the game of war.” Then they wouldn’t be apt to send other people’s children if they were sending their own too. Perhaps everyone needs to serve their country in some capacity, whether it be in the military or in a project in the states- no deferments. It certainly would level the playing field for everyone!
I don’t believe in war. It never solves anything. As the old saying goes, I’d rather wage peace.
Janette Rankin put it in slightly fewer words than you Mary Beth: “You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.” I would however quibble with your suggestion of universal service to what amounts to the state as resembling too much the Zionist project.