My brother, the warrior, died for. . . ?

[Journeyman]

WAR—WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?

My brother, the warrior, died for ... ?

By Paul Vandeventer
(Paul Vandeventer runs a community development organization in Los Angeles and lives in Eagle Rock)

My brother died to buy a bit of time.

There he was, 30 days into his tour, hunkered down on a hot May evening. Reconnaissance reported enemy troops dug in just steps beyond the ridge line, patiently waiting for dark to overrun and kill everyone in my brother's company.

The sun was setting. The order came to charge. My brother flew over the ridge, an anonymous new guy to the men who covered his attack.

Amped, no doubt, on adrenaline, he must have struggled to recall his basic training. M-16 on automatic, he descended into the crossfire of two rattling machine guns. Bullets shredded his body, no part spared. That charge and two others before dawn did what they were meant to do. They showed force. They scattered the enemy into the hills. They bought some time.

The price of that night in Vietnam? Nine dead Marines, one of them my brother. The war in Iraq, with its horrifying body counts and obituaries, has set me to contemplating the bizarre calculus of military life and death.

(snip/more)

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/commentary/la-op-wardeath9oct09,0,293647.story?coll=la-sunday-commentary

[MsConduct]

1. Touching and thoughtful article, thanks. Makes you wonder

(over and over again) how a chicken sh*t/chicken hawk can be so cavalier about sending other people's kids off to war. I'm a proponent of making the world leaders fight amongst themselves on the battle field and leaving their fellow country men out of it.