Cherokee Sage Woman

From a returned Marine:

"In Fallujah, it was like in the Bible,” he began slowly. “When they marked the houses with lamb’s blood, and the Angel of Death flew over and killed the firstborn sons in all the houses that weren’t marked. They marked the houses…and the ones that weren’t marked, they had us go in and open fire and…” He stopped speaking and only made gestures.
“The kids?” asked my co-driver.
“Yes.”
The marine’s words came a little faster now. “If people knew what was really happening over there, they’d rise up and say, ‘bring our kids home NOW!’ If people knew, they wouldn’t stand for it.”

~~~
The VietNam war turned a lot of my generation into depressed, drug-seeking, flashback-maniacal emotional wrecks.
Already, from Iraq, we will be bringing home a group of PTSS suffering men & women, w/ far too little treatment awaiting them at home. Career servicemen will refuse psychological help, because it goes on their permanent record & they'll lose out on promotions.
And some soldiers will never admit that they have a problem w/ aggression & depression.
Bring them home NOW, while most are still viable & salvagable.
Don't repeat the mistakes of VietNam.