Publication Date: Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Guest Opinion: Ohio's Marines could have been from Palo Alto
Guest Opinion: Ohio's Marines could have been from Palo Alto
(August 24, 2005) by Denny Freidenrich
The recent news from Iraq devastated Ohio. In a matter of hours, 20 Marines from the Brook Park area were killed in two of the deadliest attacks on U.S. troops since the war began.
The news swept me back to my youth in Palo Alto. As a 1966 Cubberley High School grad, it was my generation that fought in Vietnam.
Although I did not serve in the military, a classmate of mine died there.
It hit me the Brook Park marines could as easily have been from Palo Alto -- or Anywhere, USA, for that matter.
The Ohio tragedy that occurred in Iraq finally convinced me it's time to bring our forces home -- without further delay.
Much has been publicly debated about the war in Iraq: how we invaded that nation on high moral ground or a false "weapons of mass destruction" argument; how we liberated the region from a tyrant or made it more unstable; how troops died for a worthy cause or were killed in vain.
But I was deeply impressed by the Ohio schoolteacher's poignant reaction to the 20 deaths from the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment:
"How much more are we expected to give? We are patriotic people. We love our country. But how many lives are enough?"
I can remember hearing these same words being expressed decades ago during the Vietnam War fiasco -- where more than 58,000 young men died before their time. And for what? Today, Americans surf and vacation there.
Bringing our troops home is not about being a Democrat or Republican, a liberal or conservative, disloyal or patriotic, a supporter or opponent of the president's tax cuts, the Central American Free Trade Agreement, Social Security reform or federal funding for stem cell research.
Hasn't Iraq become, plain and simple, the ultimate right-to-life issue?
We have put tens of thousands of young Americans in harm's way -- for what purpose? So Iraqis can write a constitution? Patrol their own streets? Turn the electricity back on or provide clean water?
While each in its own right is a worthwhile goal, not one justifies 20 Brook Park or Palo Alto kids being blown up from a roadside bomb.
Thankfully, I'm not the only one who thinks this way. Paul Hackett, a Marine reservist who served in Iraq, almost beat Jean Schmidt in a very close congressional election east of Cincinnati several weeks ago. My guess is had the devastating news about the Ohio Marines reached voters before the election, Hackett, not Schmidt, would be going to Capitol Hill.
Growing up in Greenmeadow in the 1950s and 1960s, my friends and I had big dreams. None of them included fighting in a jungle war. Four years after graduating from Cubberley High School, I was red-meat material for Vietnam. One of my high school classmates, Gary Silver, was killed in action there.
As I think about my 40th reunion next summer, I wonder how Gary's family took the news of his death or how his life would have turned out had he lived.
Today, my 25-year-old son, Tyler, is a step away from being caught in the cross-hairs of Iraq. My 13-year-old son is fodder for the next misadventure war -- as is, I suppose, my 11-year-old daughter. We must find a different and better way to exist in the world.
I know what it means to commit U.S. forces to war. I've seen young men go all my life. Sadly, so do the 20 Ohio families devastated by the recent turn of events half way around the world. I can't begin to speak for these families but I can imagine their pain.
Much of the language used today is right out of the Vietnam era. Earlier this month, Secretary of State Condolleeza Rice said she thought the Iraqi insurgents had "lost their edge." That same day, the Pentagon announced it was sending more troops to Iraq.
About 35 years ago, Dean Rusk used to say the same thing about Vietnamese "freedom fighters." The next day, President Johnson would send in tens of thousands more troops.
Recently, President Bush said leaving Iraq now would be a mistake. Seems to me LBJ used those exact same words when Geo. W. and I were teenagers.
It's time to bring the troops home from Iraq. There is plenty of work for our young men and women in uniform to do here at home: protecting our Constitution, making our streets safe, keeping the lights on and providing safe drinking water. Brook Park deserves this kind of help, and so does Palo Alto.
The Iraqi people need to figure all this out on their own.
Denny Freidenrich was born and raised in Palo Alto. He now resides in Laguna Beach, California, where he writes comedy and recently completed a screenplay. He can be e-mailed at first.strategies@verizon.net.
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