IS IT A QUESTION OF SERVICE?

(Kent Ninomiya, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

(U.S. Selective Services, Rand Corporation)

(Leo J. Daugherty, John W. Chambers)

(George Q. Flynn, Frazer Chronicle)

 

I have wrestled with whether I should address this issue or not, I’m sure, by my writings people understand squarely where I stand with regards to wars, conflicts and clandestine operations all in the cause of freedom, people’s rights, and privacies. Clearly we are the good guys, we have liberated, opposed dictatorships, genocides, and pretty much been a light in the darkness of human suffering.

 

However that said…..I wonder, really wonder about our reasoning for some of the invasions, some of the assassinations, the deposed, the collateral damage, and our thoroughly righteous attitude regarding some of our foreign escapades.

 

Of course hitting closer to home is the returning service-men or the coffins that are draped in the American flag, accompanied by military escorts to a cemetery. That’s what really pulls at my heart strings; it seems to me, almost incomprehensible for parents, brothers, sisters, and friends to accept the death of a loved one.

 

Worse to my way of thinking is the return home of a soldier that is less of a person than when he decided to serve his country. They say that war is hell and I believe it, but not getting the treatment that would be necessary for the returning G.I. to assimilate back into society is really a cardinal sin.

 

Of course I understand that without exception, a returning service man or women who has partook in active combat will have left a part of themselves on the field of battle, and therefore will never be quite the same as before they left.

 

The proposition of making war is an expensive operation with all sorts of tentacles attached to the body of the war making machine. Sadly in many instances the military attachés that are responsible for ensuring that all of the help that is needed and necessary for returning service men and women is woefully lacking.

 

I do however wonder at some returning military, and their family members, and their desire to symbolize either their service or a family’s desire to eulogize a lost family member through signs, medals, speeches, or programs.

 

DEATH IS PERSONAL

I remember my mother (rest her soul,) talking about the private things in her life, at the time of her death back in 2000 at the age of 88, she wondered at the parade atmosphere that some returning military seemed to want upon their return, or worse, when a death occurred, the outreaching by the survivors for recognition.

 

My mother always thought death was a very personal thing, not a thing for outsiders, and defiantly not an issue to be eulogized. Unknown to her at the time was the fact that the military needed the publicity for their efforts to build up their chargers.

 

 

I remember a bumper sticker from years ago, its message was simple, There’s something about a man in uniform. And it’s true, really a person in a uniform actually speaks volumes about that person, it tells you without hesitation what that person does to earn a living. Whether it be a landscape company, or garbage truck driver, a city worker, a cop, fireman…..or a soldier.

 

I can think of no other uniform that evokes more memories, or the current stance and job, or the future of our country. I was having breakfast in Bismarck, South Dakota back in 2007, and kept hearing jets taking off, and inquired about the constant activity. The waitress said it was the sound of freedom coming from Ellsworth Air Force Base.

 

Even without a hitch, my retort was…..”sounds like a whole bunch of jet fuel to me,” guess what, from that point on, the service that I received was substandard. Evidently the lady didn’t quite understand that the jets, the military, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were all contributing to her take-home pay. At 4:30 A.M. there were military personnel eating and drinking coffee in almost every booth and table.

 

My point is simple, we all need to get on the same page…..war is terrible, war is heart rending, it never solves anything, and will continue as long as we allow it. How long do you think wars would be waged if the army’s of the world had to use sticks and stones, I’m thinking not very long.

 

No, my friends, death is tragic, death is heart rending, death takes away from the living, and death…..over the past 12 years, in the aftermath of September 11, 2001 has become more and more unnecessary, and is now being marked with the asterisk denoting a study in stupidity. The war in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq, and the military confrontations in the other hot spots of the world today, are futile.

 

Exactly what are we accomplishing in the Middle East, a gigantic footprint for the futures of oil, an effort to democracies, to free people that are under the yoke of totalitarianism? How’s it working so far…..I’d say not very well, unless you count as a success, in Iraq, the fact that 50 people die every day for a stifling religious Civil War. And Afghanistan, is that a success, or Vietnam, a real poster child of success for truth, justice, and the American way! How about giving me a break…..PLEASE! 

 

I’M TALKING ABOUT WISCONSIN’S STAFF SGT. JOPEK

Retired Staff Sgt. Brian Jopek sadly lost his son, Ryan, in 2006 near Tikrit, Iraq on August 2^nd 2006, and the elder Jopek of course will never be the same, nor will his wife, or the entire Jopek family. The war…..a stupid, silly war of almost convenience for the George W. Bush White House, and his oil henchmen took something a hell-of-a lot more precious than a barrel of oil…..a son.

 

I don’t know Brian Jopek, and although the loss of his son is tragic, my heart doesn’t go out to him or his family, he volunteered, Ryan Jopek knew what might happen, his youth simply kicked in with the “I’m invincible”, and anyways…..”I’m bullet proof”. It’s a major reason why military recruiters seek out impressionable young men to provide the service that seems to be so necessary for our type of democracy.

 

If they haven’t yet, there soon will be a street, or a park, or an intersection named after Ryan Jopek, and he does deserve that…..but my heart-felt gratitude for his service, it ain’t gonna happen. I do not and never have felt a sense of thankfulness for soldiers, firemen, cops, or garbage collectors or street sweepers. Their jobs, in many cases are what they wanted to do to earn a living, or they were filling in some space in their lives, and were simply waiting for the next opportunity.

 

Sure there can be a tradition with regards to a career, and that’s neat…..to kind of carry on…..as it were, but at least for me, tradition stops way short of getting shot at for some other fat cats war. Call me a coward, a scaredy-cat, whatever you like, but I simply refuse to pick up a gun and shoot at some imaginary enemy that my government dictates is an enemy! 

 

I tip my hat to the service men and women of my country, but please don’t try and justify yourself to me, I totally understand that we, as a nation, need to have a standing army…..I guess you could call it, (military) the nature of the beast.

 

THE LAST MISSION

In the death of Ryan Jopek, there is a sub-story (isn’t there usually), it was about young Jopek volunteering to go on one last mission. Insensibility and Jopek’s bullet proof attitude intact, joining a gun truck, the squad took off a day before the young man’s 27 birthday.

 

Ryan Jopek would never return to his base, he would never return to his North Central Wisconsin home, and would never live to see the beginning of his 27^th year on God’s green earth. An improvised explosion

took the life of the former Merrill high schooler.

 

Ryan Jopek’s final mission to my way of thinking isn’t over, no, it’s just beginning, or so it should be, the senior Jopek maybe need to establish a memorial named after his son denouncing war, and instead attacking, (verbally) those people responsible for the travesty that Iraq was, and that Afghanistan is.

 

Oh sure, I know too many, an effort such as what I’m talking about wouldn’t be very popular…..but who in life said that everything needs to be popular…..I’m thinking nobody. As unpopular as a Ryan Jopek for peace movement might be, let me pose a few questions to you:

 

1. What has been accomplished by the Iraq War?

2. What has been accomplished by the Afghan war?

3. And why do the military talking heads talk about the security of the United States when what they say can’t be proven?

 

Answer these three questions honestly…..and then you tell me why anybody should grieve for a lost son, daughter, brother, sister, father, mother, or friend. We need collectively to reassess not only our military and their escapades, but our entire foreign policies, and those people that make up this block of our government.

 

Gold stars, I’m sorry, but I feel like an olive branch would be more helpful and appropriate for what has been, and is going on in the world today…..under the guise of freedom, and democracy. I do hope that this is taken in the spirit that it was written, to spread actual freedom, not war.

 

HAVE A GOOD DAY!