Losing Children to War Machine

Well, here we go again. The drums are rolling and the powers that be are looking for nice young people to slaughter in another stupid war. Last time, I was the age of those who were sacrificed. My peers, my classmates, my friends and my neighbors were shipped off to die, get maimed, go crazy in Vietnam. Now, they are on the streets, on drugs, in mental health treatment. None of those who lived is the same. A generation destroyed by old, rich, white men who sent others--mostly poor and of color--to fight for their profits and territory.

And now they are at it again, only it’s our children they are after. Now my peers and I are the parents of the kids they want to ship out and sacrifice--to protect oil profits. We barely start dealing with the Vietnam experience at a deeper level, and they want more bodies to bag.

Is the Bush Administration preparing for another generation of youth requiring a lifetime of medical and psychiatric treatment? Are they sure there is room on the streets for more vets? Who will take care of the maimed, disabled, terrified, psychologically impaired refugees?

I am the mother of an 18-year-old. And there is no way they are getting him. I didn’t spend all those years guiding him through the growing-up process just to feed him to a war machine.

When I sat up with him when he was sick and talked about all the wonderful opportunities available to him in this life, when we talked about what to be when he grew up, we did not include dying for Exxon, Bush or the CIA.

You out there, you who grew up during Vietnam, whatever your perspective was on that war, do you want your children going through those agonies like we did? Voice your opinion, talk to the kids, call the White House, join the vigils and, if necessary, take to the streets. But don’t let them do it again, not to our kids.

LINDA AGUILAR, Laguna Beach