Stop the Stop-Loss Draft

Submitted by Audrey deCoursey on March 29, 2008 - 4:38am.

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My cousin just got back from a tour in Baghdad. His mother, a firm opponent of the war, wrote a letter to the Des Moines Register.

As we conclude our 5th year of occupying Iraq I can personally report that even though our youngest son survived 15 months of combat duty in Baghdad, and although we are extremely grateful he arrived home literally in one piece, the inner struggles of a warrior continue.

Having a son serving in the infantry assigned to a combat unit was pure hell. The emotional toll on our entire family was devastating. I can't even begin to find the words to describe the spiritual sacrifice our son made. A question he now asks: "How can I ever go to Heaven with so much blood on my hands?" We have discussed with him that God loves each of us unconditionally and forgives all trespasses. Despite all of this, our family is extremely fortunate. Our son came home to us alive and healthy.

………………

The difference with the Iraq war compared to others in our nation's history, is that too few members of today's society pay the personal price of waging war. There is a huge lack of public awareness of the sacrifices that our military is expected to endure. Too many see our men and women going off to war as a sense of adventure and glory. Too many are unaware of how ill equipped our soldiers are, physically and emotionally. They not only lack physical armor to protect their bodies but the emotional cost to their souls is poorly addressed and difficult to repair.

How a young soldier can repeatedly mop up the blood and scrub off the bone and tissue fragments of his friends who die beside him in a battle not once but countless times through their tour of duty and not be deeply affected by this darkness, remains to be seen. Soldiers are trained to kill the perceived enemy but never are they prepared for the devastation of civilian causalities.

I haven't seen my cousin for years now. Watching the new movie Stop-Loss enabled me to envision a small part of his experience, and illustrate my aunt's words. Her words summarize the moral sentiment conveyed by the movie.

One movie cannot convey the full experience of the travesty of this Iraq war. But this one does tell an important part of the story. Conscious, conscientious citizens ought to seek out such movies and read letters like my aunt's and talk to the veterans in their communities, and even then they will only understand this war in part. Attempting to make sense of the absurdity of violence is always a losing battle.

Here's a real stop-lossed couple talking about the experience. Take Action Here.

Take Action Here.

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