Talk of Waco

By waconative

June 28, 2009 5:56 PM | Link to this | Report comment abuse

Recalling the public life of Audie Murphy, I see many similarities with the movie “Sergeant York”. Sad to say Audie’s life was not like a typical movie script. He didn’t live happily ever after. The similarities in Audie and Alvin York was they did what was expected of them and far beyond their duty, but with not so pleasant after effects. It’s good that “battle fatigue” is now sometimes viewed as PTSD and those who need the after-care can get it. Just not often enough. Thank you John Young for the reminder that the “hell of war” doesn’t end with coming home from the battlefield.

By BDDH

June 28, 2009 10:28 PM | Link to this | Report comment abuse

I join Waconative in thanking you, John Young, for a very timely op ed. I feel that we are glorifying war too much. Yes, we need to remember and to honor our fallen soldiers, but we need to temper our patriotism with knowledge. Knowledge of what war does to our young and that it should be an action of last resort.

My heart aches for the young men and women who come back with such a burden that we who never go to war cannot imagine. Our memorials need to cease to be glorifying. They need to be somber remembrances with less flag waving and marching music.

By YoungWatch

June 29, 2009 5:00 PM | Link to this | Report comment abuse

Very nice column, John, and I know it was well-intentioned although it reminded me of the stark contrast in the treatment afforded our deceased and returning war veterans and their stories from WW II and Korea, and of those returning from Vietnam and the Middle East wars.

There has to be a happy medium between the outright glorification of war and adulation of warriors and heroism, and the total condemnation of any/all war and vilification of all warriors and heroism.

Totally ignoring the warriors and their heroism, except in a very generic and lukewarm manner—ie “We support the troops (but not their commander)”, yada, yada, yada—as with those from the more recent Middle East wars, is not a happy medium IMHO.

Very few individual warriors from the Middle East wars have been singled out with special media attention for their heroism and meritorious combat achievements, and no movies have been made honoring them and their heroism.

To the contrary, most of the singling-out with media attention and movies has been of the negative kind, the negative stories, the real or invented atrocities, the wounded, the amputees, reflecting the overall negative attitude and the anti-war ideology of the entertainment-media complex.

Undoubtedly, genuine battle fatigue/PTSD is all it’s cracked up to be as a detrimental and disabling aspect of the lives of returning war veterans and their families. I don’t know this personally but rather vicariously after processing and evaluating the VA claims of such men, and women, for almost 30 years.

But let’s not pretend that this problem was first invented or classified during WW II, only to be worsened by the horror of modern warfare. I dare say that ancient warriors, including the professional soldiers of the Roman Legions and other early civilizations, had it just as bad, or worse. The Roman soldiers got to retire after only 25 years of loyal service, some if not much of it undoubtedly involving hand-to-hand combat.

I’m appealing for a little perspective here, John. Any thoughts you want to share in rebuttal?

By HardCore American

June 30, 2009 9:57 PM | Link to this | Report comment abuse

Youngwatch,I like what you had to say. I believe the media spends too much time showing negative of our solders instead of writing of their heroics. You are right, very rarely, is anything written or shown on the TV about the accomplishments of the American Soldier. The reason could be is that the media still wants to call it Bush’s war instead of what it really is - a war to keep our country safe from terrorism. So, yes, we should honor the American Soldiers.