A Soldiers Story

by Susan Ives

I am the daughter of a disabled World War II Veteran. The wife of a
veteran. And a veteran myself. Twelve years ago I was an army
major in Northern Iraq helping to repatriate the Kurds into their
ravished homeland. Those who survived the winter passage across
the mountains to come home lived in tents and cooked meager
rations over open fires. Their water was polluted. In the absence of
civilization, the gentle hills near Zakho were overrun by packs of wild
dogs. We were kept awake at night by small explosions, as the dogs
tripped the mines that salted those hills. Boom. Boom. Boom. A dog
or a child? By day small boys would run up to us in the street and
ask, “Mister, Mister, buy a grenade?”

I was never fired upon in combat. The only people I ever shot were
with a camera. But I saw the ravages of war first hand and it is
something I never want to see again.

We Americans think that was an easy war – easy for us. After all,
there were only – only! - 148 American soldiers, sailors, airmen and
marines killed in battle. Another 145 killed in accidents. Four hundred
and sixty seven wounded in action. All told, less than a thousand.
Pretty good odds for saving the free world. And now we’re ready to
do it again. Piece of cake.

Last week we lost seven astronauts. The president flew to Houston in
Air Force One and sat with the families. I listed to the memorial
service on the radio. We all know their names, we all mourned their
loss.

But who remembers the names of the soldiers, sailors, airmen and
marines lost in the Gulf War? Were their pictures on the front page of
every newspaper in the world? Were their funerals televised? No. But
we remember them.

We remember them because they are our brothers and sisters, our
sons and daughters, our mothers and fathers. He was Johnny who
mowed our lawn when he was a teenager. She was Maria who sat
next to us in algebra class. He was Jose whose daughter was in
daycare with my daughter, and Tim who went to A&M on a full ride
scholarship. They are our friends and neighbors, our nieces and
nephews, our students and our teachers. Yes, we remember them.

And I wonder, how can the politicians in Washington forget? How can
they treat their lives so cheaply? A week or so ago President Bush
declared “The Game is over.” This has never been a game. These
are not toy soldiers, not avatars in a computer simulation, not chips
on a gaming table. The people in the military are flesh and blood, our
husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends, the young people of
this community.

The people know that now is not the time for war. According to a New
York Times poll, 59 percent of Americans said they believed the
president should give the United Nations more time. Sixty-three
percent said Washington should not act without the support of its
allies, and 56 percent said Mr. Bush should wait for United Nations
approval.

There are alternatives to war. We need to pursue every last one of
them before we sacrifice the precious lives of our soldiers, sailors,
airmen and marines.

When I spoke of US casualties I only told you part of the story. It is
true that 760 Americans were killed or wounded in battle. But there
are thousands, HUNDREDS of thousands who were crippled in quite
another way.

In May the Veterans Administration issued a report about Gulf War
casualties. Almost seven hundred thousand people like me served in
the Gulf War. Of those, more than TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND
have filed VA claims for war-related disabilities. The VA has approved
the claims of 159,238 of these veterans, awarding them lifetime
medical care, compensation, and pensions based on the extent of
their medical problems. That is almost 30 percent of those who
served in the Gulf War.

The disability-rate for World War II was 8.6 percent. The rate for the
Korean conflict ran even lower, at 5 percent. The rate for the ten-
year-long Vietnam War, where 58,000 U.S. soldiers died and many
others were injured or developed war-related illnesses, was 9.6
percent. What’s going one here?

The cause of their medical problems is complex. Only a few months
ago, the Pentagon sent out a press release stating 140,000 U.S.
soldiers were exposed to low-levels chemical agents in Iraq during
the Gulf War. There are legitimate concerns about the effects of the
vaccines and pills given to the deployed soldiers. Iraq is littered with
more than 300 tons of radioactive depleted uranium dust and
shrapnel from weapons used by the United States in the 1991 Gulf
War. The toxicity of the burning oil wells is horrendous. Although the
exact cause may not be clear, the results are – more than 150
thousand disabled veterans.

And this is the still poisoned battlefield into which we are sending our
soldiers, the sons and daughters of San Antonio. AND WE DON’T
HAVE TO. There are alternatives to war. This is not a game – at least
not a game I have any intention of playing.

One final irony. ONE DAY of a war with Iraq will cost 1.1 BILLION
dollars. Veterans Administration officials estimate that their agency is
some 1.9 billion dollars short of the money it needs to care for the
nearly 5 million veterans already enrolled in the system. We can
apparently find the money to fight an unnecessary and protracted war
but not to care for the veterans who will be disabled in that war.

When Tom was in Vietnam I was in high school. The anti-war
movement then was often pitted against the soldiers – draftees, many
of them – who fought in that quagmire. Today must be a different
kind of anti-war movement, one that supports and values the lives of
the soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines who are being asked to
sacrifice their lives, their health, their youth on an unneeded and
unwanted war. My brothers and sisters in the armed services I salute
you, but with every ounce of breath in my body I will do whatever it
takes to stop this war.