Commentary: For what did they die?

[katty]

more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/galloway/story/55633.html

Commentary: For what did they die?

More columns by Joseph L. Galloway

By Joseph L. Galloway | McClatchy Newspapers
It is autumn, and the air is crisp and cool at night at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

It gets very quiet at The Wall around midnight. The tourists have gone home, and are all tucked into bed.

A homeless Vietnam veteran patrols the black granite panels. He tells us that he has cancer and is having a hard time getting any benefits from the Veterans Administration. He lives in a mission that houses those who have nowhere else to go, but the doors don’t open until 11 p.m.

[panader0]

1. "they did not die in vain."

You hear that one all the time. My heart goes out to the soldiers, active and retired, and their families, and to those who lost a loved one in one of our wars. What did they die for? The hubris of our leaders, to stem the "domino theory", for big oil and Halliburton. It's disgusting that our honorable and brave soldiers must do the bidding of fools.

[katty]

3. yes, indeed, this has always been the way-leaders, corportists

idealogues, send youth to die - for country and protection of the innocent? -- certainly not in this case (and other wars). If a person 'believed' that this invasion...war....was for a worthy cause then perhaps the pain is lessened-that is a very personal matter.

[Selatius]

4. Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler had some choice words on war.

"War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes."

-- Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler, USMC

[katty]

6. yes, precisely

[valerief]

2. They died to make rich people richer. All wars do that.

It's heartbreaking how many people become throw-away people.

[katty]

5. indeed, a horrific, vile waste of human life & devastation

[Orsino]

7. A lot of them did die in vain--if we don't learn from their deaths.

Most of them tried to do it well, those that had a choice. Many of them died to save the people around them.

Far, far too many died to enrich a few corrupt old men.