At Least Compassion

As I present my book at book signings and on the internet,Skin in the Game:Journey of a Mother and her Marine Son, I receive many stories from people. I want to share these stories.I recognize a lack of or appearance of a lack of compassion or concern for our military and their families.I don't think people lack concern. I think they just don't know because no one tells them. You don't find these stories on the evening news or popular magazines. These are personal stories that effect a small per cent of the American population. There is no glamour about war. More than anything people are confused by it. Yet, the larger population really want to support the troops. If they know the story they will respond. I believe this. I believe Americans are compassionate people. So, I share a few stories that have come to me hoping as people read them they will truly show support and compassion for our troops and re-consider war and work harder at peaceful solutions and bring our troops home.

"Ms. Logue, I am the wife of a Marine Officer who is currently deployed. When we married, this "war" was brought into the front lines of my life. Beforehand, I must sadly admit that I, like too many of my young American peers, felt somewhat removed. Now, I sit there and watch the news reports and just, well, cry." (K.D.)

"I am a mother of a 21 year old that is new to the Army. He just graduated from AIT...Now he is being sent to fight a war that will not be won. I am greatly concerned for his safety due to lack of training. I spent last weekend with a lot of the soldiers from his unit and they all fall under the same category as my son. There is not a wonder why there has been so many deaths in Iraq due to this lack of adequate training. I have spent 21 years of my life loving and living every moment for him and that could likely be riped away from me due to our government. I have tried to contact the Army voicing my concerns, trying to find a support group with no response. I need help and looking everywhere to find it and documenting every step of the way." (P.K.)

"I'm so angry still because there seems to be a lack of so much in our country. I watch my son deteriorate before me. Yes, he is working. Yes, he is going to school. Yes, he is doing his best. but the reality is, the horror deep within him spews out in the form of hate and anger and he doesn't see it." (D.)

And the saddest of all is the number of military-related suicides. In USA Today, July 16th is an article titled, "Army reports record number of suicides for June." The article states,"Soldiers killed themselves at the rate of one per day in June making it the worst month on record for Army suicides, the service said Thursday." Part of the difficulty in getting soldiers and Marines to seek help is the stigma in our culture about psychological illness. But it can't be denied that the stress of combat on soldiers serving over and over in repeated deployments contributes to PTSD and suicide. "Seven soldiers killed themselves while in combat in Iraq or Afghanistan in June, according to the statistics. Of the total suicides, 22 soldiers had been in combat, including 10 who had deployed two to four times. The hypothesis is the same that many have heard me say before: continued stress on the force, said Army Col. Christopher Phillbrick, director of the Army Suicide Prevention Task Force. He pointed out that the Army has been fighting for nine years in Iraq and Afghanistan."

"The mounting stress on an Army facing renewed deployments and combat in Afghanistan is also a factor, Rudd said. 'That's not a challenge they (Army leaders) control. It's a challenge that the president and Congress control,' he said." (USA Today David Rudd, dean of the College of Social and Behaviorial Science at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.)

Who does the President and Congress serve? Ultimately, we the American people send our young to war. We the American people can change that.

If we truly support the troops how do we show that? Just because they volunteer to serve doesn't mean they lose their human rights. They don't volunteer to serve to then commit suicide. It is that we have asked too much of them. This is not right nor just nor human. If we intend to continue warring we must have another method of supplying our Military. To ask a few who serve voluntarily to repeat over and over the ugliest of all human activity is cruel and unjust and inhumane.

Where is our compassion?