Tonight, HBO will air a new documentary, Wartorn: 1861-2010, on the history of war's after-effects on American veterans since the Civil War--"post-traumatic stress disored", as it is now known. Yesterday, Democracy Now featured an interview with filmmakers:
A new documentary, Wartorn 1861-2010, airing on HBO on Veterans Day, chronicles the lingering effects of war on military veterans throughout American history, from the Civil War through today's conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. We speak with the filmmakers, Jon Alpert and Matt O'Neill, and with the parents of two soldiers who committed suicide after coming home from Iraq.
Guests:
Jon Alpert, 15-time Emmy winner and co-director of Wartorn 1861-2010. He is also the co-founder of Downtown Community Television.
Matt O'Neill, producer of Wartorn 1861-2010.
Cheryl Softich, her son, Noah Pierce, killed himself in July of 2007 after serving in Iraq.
Chris Scheuerman, his son, Jason Scheuerman, shot himself in 2005 after serving in Iraq.
Today, an issue of Random Lengths comes out dealing with WikiLeaks and its lack of impact on the midterm elections. I mention it because one of the main things WikiLeaks has done, IMHO, is substantiate the Winter Soldier testimony of Iraq and Afghanistan vets, which has also been almost totally ignored by corporate media and the political system. Much of what those vets testified about was related to war crimes, just like the original Winter Soldier hearings. The bottom line truth about war crimes is that--with few exceptions--they are driven from the top down. And the bottom line with PTSD is that its primary cause is that soldiers are human, and have a natural revulsion towards killing another human being. It's shooting people, not being shot at, that's the primary cause of PTSD, because those on the front lines are not war criminals at heart. They are being forced or tricked into carrying out the war crimes of their political and military "leaders." And they are, many of them, the last victims of the crimes they have been manipulated into committing.
Today is Veteran's Day and I salute my family members, friends and colleagues who have served our country. I have always been inspired by them, from my grandfather who fought in the trenches of World War I, to my father who served in the South Pacific in the Navy, to so many people from the Kerry Campaign who served, to my younger veteran friends, Powers, Soltz, Reickhoff, Murphy and many many more.
As our country celebrates this Veterans Day, all of us should reflect on some sobering realities. Over 1.7 million men and women have deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan in the past seven years, nearly half from the National Guard and Reserves. Almost one-half of the members of the National Guard and Reserves return from deployments experiencing some form of post-combat psychological injury. Frontline combat units of the Army and Marine Corps are serving their fourth and fifth tours. Recruitment standards have dropped to the point where less than 83% of Army recruits have high school diplomas.
Dennis Kucinich and Alan Greenspan haven't got a lot in common, but they agree that when it comes to the war in Iraq, "It's the oil, stupid," as Beltway bellower John McLaughlin put it on his show yesterday. McLaughlin aired a clip from the recent Democratic presidential debate in which Kucinich said:
Everyone knows that the war against Iraq was about oil. This administration is trying to gain control of Iraq's oil with the help of Congress...
Then, McLaughlin read a quote from Greenspan:
I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.
Yes, and I am saddened that we're sending Americans off to die so the rest of us can continue to live large.
McLaughlin noted that Iraq has some of the largest oil reserves in the world, an estimated 300 billion barrels, and that if Iraq's parliament passes the oil law drafted by the Bush administration, American companies will control 63 of Iraq's 80 known oil fields for the next thirty years.
On that day let us solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly, on the seas, in the air, and on foreign shores, to preserve our heritage of freedom, and let us reconsecrate ourselves to the task of promoting an enduring peace so that their efforts shall not have been in vain.
Our current administration prefers to promote enduring access to cheap gas and billions of dollars in government contracts to well-connected cronies. And our heritage of freedom's been slaughtered on the altar of 9/11, turning us into a tortured--and torturing-- nation.
In the parting speech of his presidency, Eisenhower warned of "the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power" from the military-industrial complex that's gotten us into our current fossil-fueled fiasco:
Well once again it's 'Veterans Day', I'll borrow a description of another holiday that really has lost it's meaning, Bah - Humbug!!
Lets take a look at how a Country "Supports it's Veterans", a Country of citizens whose greater majority never serve in it's Military, a majority who never do much of anything of service to Country, a majority who don't even bother to Vote, and a majority who readily bitch about paying their contribution to it's Society, not about how that money is spent just that they have to Contribute.
Huge Defense Budgets means a Strong National Defense! At least one political party takes that Mocho stance.
This weekend, we celebrate Veterans Day. It used to be called Armistice Day, celebrating the end of World War I, the "war to end all wars". Funny how these pronouncements can seem so foolish over time.
I have always had somewhat conflicted feelings about Veterans Day. My first Veterans Day back from Vietnam, I was arrested for the first time in my life, for trying to march in the Veterans Day parade under a banner that said Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Perhaps you can see where my ambivalence towards the day derives.
Sunday will be Veterans Day, it once would have been known as Armistice Day and, had he not passed away this year, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. would have been celebrating his 85th birthday.
You don't need to be a Vonnegut connoisseur to know when his birthday was - you just need to have read his novels. He returned again and again to issues of war and peace, the transformative experience he had while serving in the US Armed Forces and being present as a prisoner during the firebombing of Dresden, the dangers of a militarized America, and his own particular relationship to November 11th.
Vonnegut wished it had remained known as Armistice Day, honoring a moment when world leaders agreed to put an end to an global war unprecedent in its scope and devastation -- a war to end all wars.
Of course, history proved the world would not remember the lessons of that Great War...just as Americans would not remember the meaning of Armistice.
Many Americans will have a three-day weekend without any clear way to honor either the Armistice or Veterans. Consider a Vonnegut novel for your free day. (Slaughterhouse-Five, a personal favorite of mine, is not just relevant to the day but a great first Vonnegut read.) Or if you're looking for a shorter selection, either his book of short stories, Welcome to the Monkey House, or his final work, the book-length essay A Man Without a Country, will turn your mind to the need for peace, the nature of sacrifice, the threat of encroaching militarism and a sensibility that believed the way to honor Veterans would be to learn from their experiences to stop the senseless, unceasing march to future wars.
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