Web Letters: On Veterans Day, Don't Forget About the War

Those arrogant nincompoops in the White House didn't learn the most important lesson Vietnam should have taught us--you don't fight a war without the support of the American people. Bush didn't get it. Instead, he told the American people to go shopping. This is basically what Lyndon Johnson did when he got us in the Vietnam War. Both he and his secretary of state Robert McNamara thought they could conduct a war under the radar of the American people.

Bush was a terrible war-fighting president. Obama would have a hard time being worse.

Matthew Bright

Livingston, MT

I was reminded by your article and Shad's comments regarding the returning troops standing "alone" in a crowed airport. I remember those moments. Years later I would share in a PTSD group my abilities to isolate like a gold-medal-winning runner.

It was the group, the veterans themselves who listened to me, who were patient with me and who were fired up when US Senator Akaka of Hawaii discovered the "misplaced" VA treatment numbers of eighteen suicides per day!

US Senator Akaka and the leadership committee of the Senate, including Senator Obama, went to work.

There is hope on the horizon for mental health issues facing the veterans. The "invisible wounds," stated Senator Akaka last week in Hawaii in a speech to veterans, must be atop priority.

Shad and groups like NVF never left the veternan behind. We must stay on top of legislators as a community, we must defend these returning troops and their families with as much experience as we can muster!

Your story on this day is a great start for the up and coming administration. I hope Shad Meshad will continue to draw us closer to the heart of the issues on the wounds we all must face.

To be successful we must not isolate or ever let any troop be "left alone" in a crowed airport

Aloha to all.

jim white
veteran advocate

Honolulu, HI

I was watching BBC news this morning, and it is still Armistice Day in Europe. All of the BBC presenters have been wearing artificial poppies on their lapels for several days. The big story today was the various ceremonies around the world remembering the dead from the First World War. School children from Great Britain routinely visit the battlefields and the graves in France to remember the soldiers that died in that conflict. One British veteran cried remembering a fellow soldier who had died in his arms ninety years ago. I think such school visits to American battlefields and cemeteries should be encouraged, so that children learn the human cost of war. We need to talk to our living veterans, not only to support them but also to learn from their experiences, the cost of war. It might help future generations think several times before going to war.

Pervis James Casey

Riverside, CA