Veterans Day is a special time to remember the roll that conscience plays in the mind and hearts of soldiers.  The most important thing that we can do to support our troops is to support them as they struggle to hear the voice of their conscience.

Many people mistakenly believe that conscientious objectors don't support our troops. Nothing could be further from the truth. The conscientious objector is the essential ingredient that keeps our military from becoming nothing but a force of ignorance in the world. The CO asks those tough questions out loud that all soldiers ask in the quiet moments away from the battlefield when they reflect on the horror that they have seen and been a pert of.  

Why are we at war? Who in the USA was threatened? Is this war really about defending our country or about something else?  Should the USA be taking sides in a civil war in Afghanistan? Our troops are told that they shouldn't be asking these questions, and if the questions come up then they should accept without further question the official answers that their commanders give them.  The CO doesn't just take answers from a chain of command and therefore the CO provides the questions and answers that the soldier is not allowed to consider within the chain of command.

But the CO doesn't just stop there. COs ask why do our veterans get such short shrift when they come home? Why does the military spend so much time, energy, and money in boot camp on silencing the individual's conscience and then not spend the same time, energy, and money on helping the soldier regain their conscience atfer discharge?  All the crazy making that comes from indoctrinating our troops to kill without a conscience is ignored as soon as the soldier becomes a veteran and comes home with PTSD, incapacitating depression, or suicidal ideation and feelings.

We are spending nearly 5 Billion dollars a month to fight in Aghanistan by taking the wrong side in their civil war just as we did in Vietnam.  We need to stop the war and spend that money on veterans' medical care and on helping veterans rehabilitate to civilian life.  

One thing to do today to support our veterans is to join with veterans by signing the online petition calling for President Obama not to escalate the war in Aghanistan    Click on this link to watch the video of Veterans speaking up and then sign the petition. 
http://rethinkafghanistan.com/?utm_source=rgemail#petition  And while at the website of Brave New Films, take the opportunity to get more of the facts by watching the six-part documentary "Rethink Afghanistan".

Gregory Wonderwheel