Every morning I look around the news sites as a ritual along with a cup of coffee, gathering the news of the day. I happened on to the McClatchy site with a photo of an old friend, whom I was happy to see still making his rounds -- Joe Galloway. Many may know of Galloway as an old warhorse correspondent during the Vietnam War, and many wars after. I’m not here to talk about Joe, a Google search will give more information about this man and his love for his Band of Brothers and their love of him!
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I was taken aback by the banter taking place in the comments sections, that gave me pause to write this small piece to comments, and extend to the family here.
It’s amazing that almost 40 years after the end of the Vietnam War, we have this fight over who’s to blame, lefty, righty, Fonda or Johnson, when in fact it was the lie, the Big Lie, just as it was with our invasion in Iraq. This is not to dishonor the men and women who served in either war; rather, it is to say the politics behind both wars have served the population miserably.
I understand vets and families may harbor resentment about these wars and who’s to blame, because they have sacrificed the most. At the same time, these wars have done great damage to the public and have caused a divide the country hasn’t seen since our civil war.
I find it interesting that Galloway, Moore and some of the Band of Brothers have made peace with Vietnam, by traveling back to Vietnam and embracing their old enemy, understanding that they have much more in common than most. Many veterans have returned to Vietnam to help rebuild the country from the damaged we heaped upon them. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund even has an office in Hanoi, helping to rid the country from the horrible effect of unexploded ordnance.
Members of the U.S. military now work along side Vietnamese military, helping to find remains of our MIAs, in an effort to relieve some bit of grief for those families that gave so much. This need to come together after great loss in support of a common purpose speaks to the human search for understanding, just as when the union and confederate soldiers held reunions, they understood they had more in common than most.
By looking at the two great leaders, Ho Chi Minh and Abraham Lincoln, we recognize they had one goal in mind to re-unifying their countries and healing their nations from the long struggle of their time. Ho Chi Minh and Lincoln had much more in common than one would think.
And on Veterans Day we celebrate the veteran, not the war, because Veterans Day is about peace and the end of war, not the continuation of war. I hope one day we can really celebrate peace, but that won’t happen until we bring our combat troops out of harm’s way.
So on this day after Veterans Day, let us not lose sight of those young men, women and families serving today. Let’s bring them home safe and sound, so they, too, will be able to celebrate Veterans Day!