Spring Break
Fallen soldiers deserve praise, not exploitation
Letter to the Editor
Issue date: 3/25/05 Section: Commentary
I have long been a military man. I grew up in a military household and at a very young age, when other kids were deciding that they wanted to be doctors or teachers, I decided that the armed forces would best benefit from my talents. The events of Sept. 11 consolidated that decision for me, and gave me passion for what I had chosen. West Point was my first choice coming out of high school, but, being declined last year, I enlisted the National Guard, came to study at UConn and have been accepted to attend the Military Academy for next year. I hope it is not difficult for you, the reader, to trust a man who is ready to fight with all his strength and even kill or be killed for a cause he may not have any say in, and moreover, is willing to convince those under his authority to do the same. The opinions expressed herein are based mainly on personal experience, and I hope you'll allow yourself to take my word for it.
As I was walking home to my room in East campus Sunday evening, I noticed Tent City in, more or less, my front yard. I saw their "Peace in Iraq" banner and their postings recounting the deaths of so many soldiers. I honestly did not know what to make of it. A number of things came to mind. Were all these reports of American deaths a memorial to the fallen or were they more akin to psychological warfare pamphlets distributed over enemy territory? The very centerpiece of their presence, the words "Peace in Iraq" were ambiguous. What were they saying? Was it a statement of encouragement like "Support Our Troops," or something more like "Withdraw Our Troops Now!" Their very being was indefinite.
Reading Geoff Traugh's article in Monday's Daily Campus, however, shined a light on the shadowy nature of the message they advertised. Traugh condemned the war in Iraq, while demanding the university take such actions as abandoning funding from contracted defense corporations, preventing military recruiting on campus of any kind and officially denouncing the war. This represents a disappointment with the nature of what his group, "Strike One," was trying to communicate. They have used the "innumerable" names of the deceased to promote their blatantly political cause. It was not a memorial, as I had hoped. As a pedestrian walks across the campus, he will encounter dozens of these obituaries. He or she may read the first one, or the second, or the third and truly take them to heart, but soon, they will be overwhelmed by the frequency of their occurrence. The individual lives lost will fade into a vast, impersonal, multitude.
As I was walking home to my room in East campus Sunday evening, I noticed Tent City in, more or less, my front yard. I saw their "Peace in Iraq" banner and their postings recounting the deaths of so many soldiers. I honestly did not know what to make of it. A number of things came to mind. Were all these reports of American deaths a memorial to the fallen or were they more akin to psychological warfare pamphlets distributed over enemy territory? The very centerpiece of their presence, the words "Peace in Iraq" were ambiguous. What were they saying? Was it a statement of encouragement like "Support Our Troops," or something more like "Withdraw Our Troops Now!" Their very being was indefinite.
Reading Geoff Traugh's article in Monday's Daily Campus, however, shined a light on the shadowy nature of the message they advertised. Traugh condemned the war in Iraq, while demanding the university take such actions as abandoning funding from contracted defense corporations, preventing military recruiting on campus of any kind and officially denouncing the war. This represents a disappointment with the nature of what his group, "Strike One," was trying to communicate. They have used the "innumerable" names of the deceased to promote their blatantly political cause. It was not a memorial, as I had hoped. As a pedestrian walks across the campus, he will encounter dozens of these obituaries. He or she may read the first one, or the second, or the third and truly take them to heart, but soon, they will be overwhelmed by the frequency of their occurrence. The individual lives lost will fade into a vast, impersonal, multitude.