An unfinished conversation

One thing about Veterans' Day events is that one's brothers and sisters come out of their silence and make some connection.

At the North Shore Community College Vet's breakfast today, for example, I learnt that Wayne Burton, president of the college , served in the Brown water navy at the same time as Sen. John Kerry; indeed close enough to see Kerry earn his Bronze Star. This piece of the Vietnam-era navy interests me greatly. Had I been slightly more competent as a radioman in service school, I would have gone to the brown water, along with the bulk of my graduating class. That was somewhat later in the war, when brown water sailors had a much-improved chance of survival. However, I was a bumbling radioman, and so was relegated to being part of the task of chasing Soviet submarines around the North Atlantic and Mediterranean. Just what that says about naval priorities I leave to the imagination.

Interesting as that was, the college president's remarks cut short a conversation at my table that looked like it was going someplace interesting. A young female student-veteran next to me had just commented to a female faculty member-veteran that it was still hard to get across to students that it was possible to support the needs of people in the military and still oppose these wars. the faculty member sighed and said that she thought we might have succeeded in making that point by now. Unfortunately, the speeches started then and we lost the thought.

I can't help but flinch whenever I hear any argument that blames those who have been cozened into fighting anyone's war, having heard all too much of it between 30 and 40 years ago. Whenever I hear the assertion, I immediately recall Donovan's Universal Soldier. I wonder how many people who went out of their way then, and go out of their way now, to disparage soldiers, sailors and Marines, and not the politicians, would think to do so had Donovan not provided the tinder and match for the behaviour.

It is impossible not to go on and recall Henry Adams' remark that Robert E. Lee should have been hanged. If one substitutes Donovan for Lee when reading the comment, the parallel becomes clearer:

It was all the worse that he was a good man, had a good character, and acted conscientiously. It’s always the good men who do the most harm.

Donovan's little ditty has been doing harm in that way for over 40 years, will probably go on doing harm for 40 years more, and neither it nor its pious adherents will do one damned thing to end war where it must be ended: with the politicians and demagogues. All they will do is add to the confusion, pain and hurt of people more directly harmed by war.