Veterans aren't disposable

 I feel like we have always known that we depend on the warriors in our society to protect us, to do the things necessary so that we can live out our lives in relative normalcy.  But I think we have started to treat soldiers as disposable commodity, something we can use and just toss away and get new ones, and the fact that these are people is just tragic.

We like to think we are civilized people, and yet we focus so much of our power on having the best military force...instead of turning our attention toward actually building a world where people can work together, for the good of all, and creating the structure to support that vision.  

The 'life cycle' if you will of a soldier starts with finding a young person at the peak of their physical shape.  We then train them to be skilled at the things we need them to do.  That becomes a slope, as they become more qualified, they also age and become less physically viable.  This often pushes them towards more strategic or advisory capacities, and we bring in new, young people to take their places.

And while we can debate all day whether this is a necessary cycle (or how much we should be scaling this cycle up or down), when a soldier becomes unable to fight, we do not treat them with the respect that they deserve.

Too often, our wounded soldiers don't get the care they need, and instead they are lost in the system.  The transition from active duty to civilian life can be rough, and we don't offer the services to help them make this transition well.  Both on the physical side and the mental/emotional side, we just stop giving them priority when they are out of active service.

This is one place where I feel very strongly.  I have military on both sides of my family, and my husband's family...and my son.  I grew up with a lot of pride for the soldiers in my family, and I know how lucky I am that the people I care about came home.  I also know not everyone is that lucky.

And it breaks my heart to think of soldiers coming home and being forgotten.  Not just by the government, and society, but also by families.  This is something that needs to be worked on from all sides.  We need more support for our returning soldiers, and that includes family counseling, to help family members understand and cope with any changes that their loved ones might have gone through.

We should know better.  We shouldn't be thinking of soldiers as assets and veterans as something to be tossed aside when their 'usefulness' has diminished.  If we, as a society, are allowing people to devolve because we don't see how they can be used...we need to seriously rethink our definition of civilized.  Because we are all human beings and we deserve to be able to live, to have a roof over our head and food in our bellies and to be treated as a person.  If we can't agree on that basic fact, then how are we better than animals (many of whom care for the whole community...)

We have systems in place to protect and provide for our politicians, and yet our soldiers give up so much more (and yes, even those who don't see combat have to sacrifice more of their life than a politician does...for MUCH less reward).  And we are told that there are resources for our soldiers, but obviously something is broken in the system.

We need to return to basic human decency.  We need to start treating people like people, not like cogs in a machine, assets to be used or resources to be spent.  We need to care for our vulnerable.  And we need to look out for our soldiers, the way that they looked out for us.  How can we expect anyone to step up and make those sacrifices knowing we will abandon them when their usefulness has run dry.