How Many More Will It Take?
How many more will have to die?
 

January 12 2005
Counterbias.com
by Jack Dalton
 

Andreas Raya, a Marine that had been to Iraq once and was scheduled to go back a second time, committed suicide by forcing the police to shoot him in front of a convenience store in Ceres, California.

According to his family, he was "different" when he returned from Iraq. He had changed. This is something that those of us that have seen war up close and personal know about. Seeing humanity at its worst does things to you, and it does not always go away.

Sgt. Kevin Benderman refused re-deployment to Iraq. Twenty-two others in Kevin's unit have also refused to deploy by either going AWOL, or, as with two, attempting suicide. After recovering from the suicide attempt, "one of the two packed up his entire family and went AWOL" – this information was sent to me by Kevin's wife, Monica, earlier today.

Report after report says that PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) is affecting one in 5 serving in Iraq – and that is expected to go as high as one in 3. (These numbers come from the Veterans Administration, not exactly a bastion of liberalism.)

How many more will commit suicide before this madness unleashed by the Bush administration ends? How many more will force someone else to kill them as did Andreas Raya? How many more will come back and kill their families as what happened at Ft. Brag?

How many more will find themselves in the untenable position as does Sgt. Kevin Benderman, his wife Monica, and the other 22 people in his unit, D Co., 3rd Forward Support Battalion, 2-7 Infantry, 3rd Infantry Division, that also refuse to go?

How many more young men like Stu, who did 15 months in Iraq, will come home and, within hours, drive their car head-first into a tree?

How many more above the 5,500 that have already fled, will also feel compelled to flee the country rather than go to Iraq – to kill or be killed in a war that was of choice, not necessity – a war which was started behind lies, misinformation, disinformation and deception – how many more? A war which the Bush administration had planned even before 9/11 – which was "used" to "sell" what had already been planned by the Bush administration and the Project for a New American Century.

What is it going to take to wake this nation from its world of illusions and tackle head-on what is being done to this nation, it's citizens, and the people of Iraq due to what the Bush Brigade has unleashed upon the world?

Why does "support the troops", as articulated by the cheerleaders of this war of choice, only apply while they are in Iraq? – then it stops when those troops come home mental basket-cases, in some cases killing themselves.

While the Tsunami disaster is horrible to say the least, there is another disaster taking place in Iraq. People are dying in wholesale numbers there, mostly children, and now, like what happened when so many came back from Vietnam, even more will die when they come back home – by their own hands.

There is a solution: Bring Them Home Now! If you really want to support the troops, that is the way to do it – just bring them home. We do not need nor do we want any more incidents like with Andreas Raya, dead by their own hands as a result of the horrors of war.

Bring them home we must!

War is the cowards' response to the perils of peace, and it is they, the cowards, who always send others to fight, kill and be killed in the wars they start.

As a veteran, and as an American citizen, I fully support those who refuse to deploy to this Bush-led war in Iraq. I remember years ago when so many Vietnam veterans returned only to kill themselves – we must not let that happen again.


Jack Dalton is a disabled Vietnam veteran and co-editor of the Project for the Old American Century.

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