IS A SINGLE AMERICAN LIFE WORTH IT?

Ruth, I love to hear from you. In fact, I read an article today that
reminded me lots of you. It was about Peg Mullen whose son was killed
by friendly fire in Vietnam. In fact, she died this year and the NY
Times profiled her along with many others who died last year. I found
it really a little strange those they did profile. And, here is
something equally as interesting: the first time I ever heard about
her, I was a student at the Command and General Staff College at Fort
Leavenworth, Kansas. I was hiding out in the library and picked up
the NY Times Magazine and read this story about her. Her son was
killed in Vietnam and she had been turned into a peace activist. She
wrote letters to politicians, the president who was Nixon--at that
time, there were only 5000 or so Americans dead. Four years later, it
was like 50,000.

Part of her belief or somebody's was that the government started
classifying many deaths as friendly fire as they did not have to be in
the total of all killed. I did not know this. She actually took her
son's last calculated paycheck, bought an ad in the paper and used the
background in the paper as all the soldiers killed in Vietnam from
Iowa with a white cross representing each soldier.

It was sad to read of her death and her grief. One thing resonated
with me especially. She lamented the fact that she didn't do more to
keep her son from going to Vietnam. What are your thoughts on this?


I am not sure war is worth even one life when you have to live with the pain of losing a loved one. That pain does not get any easier as time goes by, when they talk about "time heals all wounds" it is not true...at least not in this case. The parents of all those men are at the age where they are all passing away now and I hope they can find some peace where ever the next deminsion is. My heart aches for those who had to live with their loved ones as MIA. Could there be anything worse in not knowing or the dying of hope as you sit around and wait for years and years. I still believe those who are so call "running" this governent should have to have their children be number one to draft into war and then lets see how willing they are to get into wars we have no right being in. Iraq is another joke. They have been fighting for 100s of years and we are suppose to go over there and settle their problems with our soldiers. It reminds me of this friend I have and she was tellling me how her son was going to join the Army and I told her she should talk him out of it. She told me that the Army promised her he would not go to Iraq. I told her don't trust your government. And guess where he was sent.....Iraq. And she worried endlessly for a whole year and told me how awful it was. I just don't understand how anyone can kill our presidents but we cant find one guy named Bin Laden. Couples can make it into the White House through security and we still cant find Bin Laden. Our so called "security" at the airport still lets a bomber get through. We have a president that is half white and half black and yet we say he is a black president. He gets a Noble Peace Prize for doing his job when that little old lady who saved so many children and had both legs and arms broken because of that doesnt get one. The pilot who brought the plane down safely and landed in the river was not a hero at that point, he was a very kind person who had been a hero to everyone all his life but it took something like landing in the river to show all what a kind person he is.....he is a person of my country not my government, you can tell he has always been a kind person.
Gee.....I guess I have done a lot of venting in my last two emails...LOL I am not bitter as my emails sound just expressing how I feel sometimes.
Ruth


On Mon, Jan 11, 2010 at 11:23 PM, wrote:

Ruth, see you got the article. Interesting inasmuch as I wondered if your own view has changed. As we look back on Vietnam in terms of history, was it worth one soldier's life? I don't think so. It is a dilemma as soldiers (and I see this with the guys in Iraq and Afghanistan), have to believe what they are doing is right and worthwhile. We can't fault them for that but we have to fault our leaders for putting them in harm's way.

www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/magazine/27mullen-t.htm