My name is [name deleted]. 38 years ago our country sent its soldiers to the Republic of Vietnam for the expressed purpose of controlling Communist aggression and protecting the young Democracy of South Vietnam.
I was 20 years old and was so patriotic that my perspiration was red, white and blue. In the community where I grew up, most of the adult men - and all who would aspire to public office - were veterans. My father was stationed on the US Arizona prior to his discharge in the summer of 1941. He re-enlisted after war broke out and was at war when I was born.
It seemed only natural that I, a very young and naïve but fiercely patriotic man, would volunteer for the military, and I did. I enlisted in the Army in 1965, was the outstanding graduate of my basic training class, volunteered for both the Infantry and for Airborne training and found myself in Vietnam, as an infantryman, by early 1966. By mid-tour I was sent back to the States to attend Officer Candidate School, where I was, again, an Outstanding Graduate and soon found myself back in Vietnam as an Infantry Platoon Leader.
My son was born during that tour, when I was at war, making it two generations.
Coming of age at that very time were four other men: Larry Craig, Mike Crapo, Mike Simpson and Butch Otter [Senators and Reps. from Idaho]. They saw their duty somewhat differently than I saw mine, and they responded to their country's needs with different choices and different actions.
I mention this, not to question their patriotism, not to judge their decisions and not to place my actions as superior to theirs. I mention this only to highlight that during the 1960s I learned some things they simply did not learn. I learned what war really is. And I want to share a bit of that today, so their thinking and the decisions they make about the war we are moving toward with Iraq will be informed by what I now know.
War is full of physical deprivation. The soldier or marine at war will be more physically miserable than you can imagine - worse than any hunting trip gone bad or any training they may have done for war. Look at any pictures of soldiers at war and you will see how miserable they are. So, the first lesson of war is that you can be thirstier, hungrier and more bone tired than you could ever imagine.
War is full of the violation of values the individual holds dear. This may be news to some of you, but there can be no war without war crimes. In war, all the young man has learned about protecting women and children and the aged and infirm, will be violated. Every combat soldier knows this - he has heard about instances, he has witnessed instances or he has participated in incidences of violence against weak and vulnerable people. The assumption that, like in the movies, a combat soldier is able of turning his anger on and off at the appropriate time, is sorely flawed. The violation of core, learned values is as much a part of war as the cold, the mud, the sand and the heat.
In war, the soldier will suffer great loss. Sooner of later, if he is not gravely wounded or killed himself, the combat soldier will hold in his arms a man he loves in a place where he has never loved another. And he will hold that friend in his arms as his hopes, dreams, ambitions and life flow out of him with his blood. The loss of the life of someone the soldier cares deeply about is a predictable part of war.
So the soldier suffers physical deprivation, the violation of values and ideals and the loss of close and intimate friends. The feelings that grow in the soul of a soldier, from these experiences combine agony and rage. The result is a stone - a stone of grief - large for some and smaller for others, but a stone of grief that each and every combat soldier carries in the center of his being for the rest of his life.
Butch Otter, Mike Simpson, Mike Crapo and Larry Craig, I want you to understand what that grief feels like, but for a person like me, mere words are incapable of describing that pain.
But I have an idea of how you might grow in understanding the pain of war in the soul of the warrior. Not far from where you each work is the Vietnam Memorial. I suggest you sit beside it early some morning, before first light, or late at night when it is dark. The combat veteran will not be at the Wall with his family or his friends - he will come alone. He will be the man who walks slowly down the ramp, with his eyes on the ground. If you could see his face you would note that the tears have already begun. When he reaches the center of the Wall, he will stop and his shoulders will shake as sobbing takes over his body. He may fall on his knees in front of the names of his fallen brothers and strike the sidewalk with his fists.
If - Larry Craig, Butch Otter, Mike Simpson and Mike Crapo - that old soldier could see you there and if he could know your position of leadership and the war you are preparing to unleash, a war plan that now divides our country and our world, he would turn toward you with a very simple message:
Don't do it!
Please don't do it!
Oh, God, don't let this happen again!
In Vietnam, armed combat was full of heroism. By heroism, I mean when a person overrides his instincts for personal safety and acts, instead, to protect a comrade or to defeat his adversary. Heroism came in 2 sizes, small heroism and big heroism. Small heroism included looking over the front of your weapon and pulling the trigger, heroic because lifting your head up when being shot at is contrary to every instinct telling you to keep your head down; pulling the trigger because, somewhere in his consciousness the soldier knows that his adversary is just like him - with a family, with friends and with a life. Big heroism included putting yourself in a much more dangerous position, moving over the ground under fire, again, to protect a comrade or to win a fight.
Larry Craig, Butch Otter, Mike Simpson and Mike Crapo - you decided, long ago, when you were boys, not to put yourself in a position that called for this kind of heroism. Again, I am not critical of your personal decisions. But I am asking for some personal heroism now.
All of your political instincts call for you to be supportive of this war the Bush administration seems determined to initiate. He is your president, your party leader and he manages the distribution of power and influence in Congress. Moreover, this war is supported by many of the people and groups you look to for political support. Acting contrary to their preferences could put your position, your reputation and your career at risk.
But it is heroism I am asking for: Little heroism, such as speaking in small meetings and caucuses for peaceful solutions to this conflict; Sharing your wishes for restraint with others in your party, your staff and your state. Big heroism, though less likely, would be wonderful: speaking against the war on the floor of congress or in a letter to the President.
Larry Craig, Mike Crapo, Mike Simpson and Butch Otter, our country asks soldiers for heroism with regularity - in my lifetime and before. We have consistently delivered in that request. Today I am asking you to pay the combat veteran back with some heroism of your own. Please, put down the drums of war and join us in working for peace.
