I was listening to talk radio the other day, and heard just a piece of a story from a woman who was attending an anti-war protest. She got talked over by the host before she could finish, which is a real shame, because the scene she was describing was quite powerful.

I wish I had a transcript, but…it went something like this: she was at a protest, and an ex-soldier came at one of the protesters and punched him. There was a scuffle, but shortly after that, the soldier broke down in tears, saying, “don’t tell me I killed little girls for no reason.”

I’m…okay I am highly insulated and privileged and I have absolutely no grasp of what it’s like to actually offer my life for the sake of my country. And yet I am literally getting choked up picturing all that. I suppose I don’t really have to understand what it’s like to be a soldier, I can just understand despair. But I’m just typing about it, what’s it like to live it?

Couple that despair with the sort of post-combat treatment we’ve heard that the soldiers are getting—inadequate services, VA runarounds, etc.—and I am sure we’re creating another round of disillusioned, disabled veterans in the mold of the Vietnam vet stereotype.

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