The first thing I really want to do is talk about how terrible this war was, but I won’t. Instead I am going to talk about cost.

Let’s be honest, all veterans felt this loss, and quite a good many have and will be taking this personally. How could you not? If you were deployed even once, then you know that war costs more than money, it costs the lives of the enemy and the innocent.

When the US started getting involved with terrorist cells in the middle east, they encountered a new defensive technique, never before had our enemy so openly used innocent people as a human shield! It is an inhumane and dishonorable tactic, and you best believe that it is for the same reason that these terrorist cells would base their operations in a heavily civilian populated area. The US’s response to the introduction of this tactic was to train the military to shoot the civilian, in a non-vital location, to hit the terrorist. This is the same solution used in bombing runs when a terrorist cell has established itself in a populated area, we err on the side of caution, but there is always collateral damage.

Now, at the end of a 20 year war, we are not only walking away defeated, but also donating our guns and equipment to the enemy. Whether or not you were boots-on-the-ground in Afghanistan, and whether or not you agree with this decision, I believe the loss of this war hurt all veterans, especially those who have seen the price being paid first hand.

Where does that leave us though? For some this is very enraging, for others it’s very depressing. This has caused many veterans with PTSD to backslide dramatically. What do you do if the only consolation you have found for what you’ve seen and done is the fact that it was all for the “greater good”, yet the “greater good” was never achieved?

Firstly, we need to remember that our hope is not in this world. A fundamental apologetic argument is that if everything in this world is dependent on something else to bring it into existence (i.e. all babies come from a mother, all fruits grow from plants, our planet was formed by floating space dust, etc…), then there has to be something independent that was the origin for all things dependent. This holds the same premise as the “cause and effect” argument, if all of the universe is the effect of a big bang, what caused the bang? 

My favorite argument is a little more philosophical, it’s simply that if there was even the possibility of an all powerful entity, it could simply create itself due to its omnipotence. No matter how you want to look at it, it does no good to place your faith in something so flawed as the world around us. You will get let down every single time. So look up, find faith in something greater than the world around you (my guy Jesus comes very highly recommended). Everyone places their faith in something, in fact, recent anthropological discoveries show that we, as humans, are actually hardwired with the need to have faith in something greater than ourselves. So evaluate where you are putting your faith, and understand that your mental state is going to be directly reflective of what you believe in.

The internet is currently flooded with posts from veterans asking what is the best way to rejoin the fight, to help out in Afghanistan. This is the first multi-generational war for the US. meaning this is the first war we have fought where fathers and sons have both been stationed at the same forward operating base (FOB) or to the same unit, sometimes with overlapping tours. What this means is that the veteran population is more connected to this war than any other and entire families of veterans are devastated due to this loss. But we need to remember that we have done our time, and there is nothing we can do to change what has already happened. Instead we need to be focusing on our duty as veterans, like taking care of each other.

No one knows what it’s like to serve unless they did, meaning the only people who can truly understand and help veterans are other veterans. Everyone knows who the Masons are, most people have heard of the Moose Lodge or the Red Hat Society, but best I can tell, none of them have an indoctrination process like the military. No one, in any of these societies, has to rely on other members to stay alive, yet they are all focused on taking care of each other. Of course, veterans have the option to join an American Veterans Post (AMVET) or to join the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), but it’s not these organizations that connect us. Our connection goes back to a mutual understanding of what that dotted line meant, and why we signed it.

As veterans, we don’t need to be a part of any secondary fraternity to cement the bonds between us. As veterans, we need to take it upon ourselves to reach out to our brothers and sisters in arms, and make sure they are okay. Since 9/11, a little over 7,000 US military personnel have died in combat. Since 9/11, over 30,000 veterans have committed suicide. 22 veterans commit suicide a day (Military Veterans Project), making suicide 4 times deadlier to veterans than anything we faced in war (Myers). Reach out to old battle buddies and shipmates, see how they are doing, make sure they get the help they need. It’s terrible when we lose a friend to an enemy’s bullet, it’s a travesty when it’s their own bullet.

Now that we have protected our country, it’s time to protect ourselves. There will always be new recruits, and there will always be a threat to our nation. Leave the fighting to our replacements, we have done enough. Our duty now is to take care of each other, so that we can take care of the next generation of veterans.

I want to close with a story from an Afghanistan vet. He had parked at a grocery store and was getting out of his car when he noticed a man standing behind his car waiting for him. A little apprehensive, he asked the man if there was anything he could do for him. The man replied “I see you were in Afghanistan, I was in Vietnam. Keep your chin up kid, one day it’ll get better”.

As heartbreaking as that is, this is what we need to be for each other. So evaluate what you are putting your faith in, and get yourself straight. Remember that there is nothing we can do to change the past, and this isn’t our fight anymore. Now, our fight is for each other. 

References

Military Veterans Project. “Why?” Military Veteran Project, http://www.militaryveteranproject.org/why.html. 

Myers, Meghann. “Four Times as Many Troops and Vets Have Died by Suicide as in COMBAT, Study Finds.” Military Times, Military Times, 21 June 2021, www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2021/06/21/four-times-as-many-troops-and-vets-have-died-by-suicide-as-in-combat-study-finds/. 

Myers, Meghann. “Four Times as Many Troops and Vets Have Died by Suicide as in COMBAT, Study Finds.” Military Times, Military Times, 21 June 2021, www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2021/06/21/four-times-as-many-troops-and-vets-have-died-by-suicide-as-in-combat-study-finds/.