Dear Editor:
About the article in April 10 Reporter about local towns paying tribute (belatedly) to Vietnam veterans. As a veteran myself (of an earlier war, just as stupid and futile and unnecessary as the Vietnam debacle), I object to the increasing use of the word “warrior” to describe the cannon fodder our rulers use to kill those foreigners who resist being invaded. Warrior? What, have we become Sparta now, instead of Athens? When I was in the army we were soldiers. Soldiers, not warriors.
I also object to a statement made by Susan Colacurcio, commissioner from West New York, that some of these men paid the “ultimate sacrifice” so that “we have our freedom.”This has become a cliche dinned into our heads every day to justify our endless wars all over the world, that these trillion-dollar wars are “protecting our freedom.”
They are doing no such thing. In every war our country has started since 1812, Americans have lost freedom. Those who benefit from war are bankers, the military-industrial-complex, and the Spymasters who can now listen to our phone calls and read our emails. This—not freedom—is what endless war has brought us
T. Weed