In Memoriam for All Who Have Fallen ─ Army Ranger Sgt. First Class Lance Vogeler ─ Killed on His Twelfth Deployment

©2010 Peter Free

 

23 October 2010

 

Statistics and that last deadly bullet, bomb, or trauma

 

The comparatively few who comprise our nation’s military solely carry the burden of deadly American foreign policy.

 

Serial combat tours statistically guarantee that these troops will suffer grossly disproportionate harms ─ while the rest of the nation sits comfortably home, mostly oblivious to the warriors’ razor-edged realities.

 

Sergeant First Class Lance Vogeler was killed on his twelfth deployment.  Four in Iraq and an incredible eight in Afghanistan.  He was 29.  Two kids and a third on the way.

 

Bob Herbert summed it up

 

The idea that the United States is at war and hardly any of its citizens are paying attention to the terrible burden being shouldered by its men and women in uniform is beyond appalling.

 

Twelve tours may be unusual, but multiple tours — three, four, five — are absolutely normal. We don’t have enough volunteers to fight these endless wars.

 

© 2010 Bob Herbert, The Way We Treat Our Troops, New York Times (22 October 2010)

 

The only solution

 

The draft would bring national brain and conscience with it.

 

It would relieve us of the moral burden of sacrificing braver, more honorable others in place of ourselves.