American
















Jeff Koopersmith

About Soldiering
It IS possible to support our troops -- and oppose war. And here's what YOU can do today.
By Jeff Koopersmith

March 14, 2003 -- WASHINGTON (apj.us) -- Lest anyone believe that I don't champion our men and women in uniform -- in Iraq or anywhere -- then read what follows and think again.

A soul is neither braver nor more overflowing with absolute selflessness and altruism than a soldier battling for his countrymen.

Period.

Those of you who have read my columns these past fifteen years know that I opposed the wholesale slaughter of 58,000 American boys in Vietnam. There are few who now disagree that our actions in Vietnam were at the least ill-advised, and at most reckless.

That was then. This is now.

I never demonstrated against the Vietnam War until the day members of the National Guard shot down and killed four American college students at Kent State University. One of those murdered was a schoolmate, Jeff Miller, whom I knew when I was barely able to look over my mother's kitchen counter in Long Island, New York.

I suppose that crime -- a bloody, needless crime -- provoked me to stalk the halls of my California university that day, helping to shut down the college as I was crying through tears of frustration because those kids in Ohio, like me, weren't demonstrating against their peers lying wounded or dead in Southeast Asia. They were demonstrating against the government that kidnapped most of them, many against their will, and fed them to a tropical slaughterhouse to fight and die for not much.

I have always esteemed our men and women in uniform. My father Ted, during the entirety of World War II, was a paratrooping medic -- a most dangerous job -- in the 82nd Airborne Division. He lost his leg as a result. He spent the best years of his youth gulping gun smoke in Europe and North Africa -- as did his brothers.

My arguments and those of others opposing the Instant Iraq War have nothing to do with going up against our men and women in uniform.

Nothing. Not one thing.

They have everything to do with prosecuting a President who so easily sends young men and women to die when it is probable there are other, safer, and far saner solutions to the Iraqi situation.

But this column is a plea to all of you, and especially to those of you who are actors and musicians, writers and conductors, academicians and priests.

It is my entreaty to please find a military base or camp -- and go there to say good-bye or hello to the men and women about to lay their lives down at the request of their commander-in-chief.

I may not respect George W. Bush, but if he makes the terrible decision to put our military into action, then it is so vitally important to support our troops. I can't underscore that significance adequately.

I watched C-SPAN Sunday morning. They covered a unit live on base preparing to be shipped off to Kuwait to prepare for war. Those kids had spent almost the entire previous day getting ready for the upcoming 26-hour flight to the battleground. They endured countless humiliations with pride.

They suffered vaccination after vaccination. They wrote their last wills and testaments. They phoned home. They shared a single bathroom, ate dried food and sat in hangars for hour upon hour... waiting, waiting. That was, I expect, the easy part.

I must admit that tears, formed 38 years ago during the sixties, rematerialized on my cheeks Sunday -- tears recalling the good-byes I made then to friends and acquaintances who were never to see their homecoming. Often these farewells were on the telephone -- but always they were always an appalling recognition of the anticipated horror.

Every man and woman I watched this past Sunday seemed unafraid and bold. Yet every now and then, I could see their terror rise and I wanted to reach through the screen and pat them each on the back, give them a bear hug, and tell them how proud I was of them, and how much I was looking forward to their return home.

One of them said he felt badly because he thought that the movie stars and music idols he admired were critical of him and didn't support him in this, the hour of his ordeal.

Now, I know that this is simply not true. Yet it is important that not only luminaries come out to wish our fighters well but that we all do.

We all must do this. We need to make clear to Americans on our battlefields that we are with them -- one hundred percent -- even though we may be striving to bring to a close to this war before it begins.

I just wanted to ask you all to find a way to say good-bye -- even if you have to walk down to your nearest military base.

And write -- as often as you can, to your sons, daughters, brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, friends, husbands, lovers and work mates who are in the desert waiting and ready to kill or be killed for their country -- for us.

Just see to it.

Here are some ways to support our troops:

The Defense Department has asked that non-family members not flood the military mail system with letters, cards, and gifts. Security concerns and transportation constraints have forced the Department of Defense to decide not to accept items be mailed to "Any Service member" According to the advisory, "Some people have tried to avoid this prohibition by sending large numbers of packages to an individual service member's address, which however well intentioned, clogs the mail and causes unnecessary delays."

 


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